States I've Been to

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Kodiak Michael Souto Dec. 13, 1993 - May 15, 2008

In February of 1994, when I was in 7th grade, my family and I drove out to a house in Mesa, AZ to pick out a new dog. My mom, dad, brother and I took a look at the adorable Husky puppies, and one in particular stood out. He had brown eyes, instead of blue, and a beautiful black and white face. When my mom held him like a baby, he didn't mind at all. We took him home in a box, but in his future puppy days he would crawl behind my mom's head and lay across her shoulders whenever she drove.

We named him Kodiak after the Kodiak bears of Alaska- a state that seems much better suited as home to Siberian Huskies than the desert of Arizona. But, Kodi was at home with us. He was a sweet puppy but very strong. We put a dog door in our back door, but he quickly broke through the plastic piece that was supposed to "close" the door. For those times when we wanted him to stay in the backyard, we tried piling bricks in front of the dog door, but he got through those at well. The only thing that worked was pulling the washing machine in front of the door to block him.

Sometimes, we took Kodi up north where he loved playing in the snow. We took him on road trips and camping trips; he was truly part of the family. One time, we had to leave him in the car when we went in to my uncle's house, and he was so upset at being left alone that he chewed up the dashboard. He was always happiest when he was with the "pack."

After more than 14 years together, we had to put Kodi to sleep. It was probably one of the most difficult experiences of my life. I was grateful that my mom was able to wait until I came back to Arizona so that I could say good-bye.

I love you, Kodi, and I'll miss you.

bruised sole

Everyone knows your foot can get hurt. You stub your toe, drop something heavy on it, etc. But, what I never realized is that it is possible to bruise your sole. My soles can handle miles of running, walking all over the city, or dancing in heels, so what could hurt them? Apparently, falling up the subway stairs does the trick.

When I realized the train I was going to take to work today wasn't running, I headed for the stairs to get to another train. That's when I fell- up the stairs. Fortunately no one was around, but I scraped up my hand and bruised the sole of my foot. I'm still not sure how it happened.

So, my first time falling on subway stairs was this morning. My second time falling on subway stairs was also this morning. Coming home from work (short training shift), I was carrying boxes for moving and thinking about how I fell earlier and how much my foot hurt when I fell going up the stairs again! There was one other person there that time, so I was considerably more embarrassed. I hope this ends my career of subway stair falling.

Baby Got Books

Whenever I go back to teaching, I'd like to try to find a way to use this video. Maybe have the students make their own "cover" videos. :-)

Hugs and tipping

A friend told me today that a person should hug at least 8 times a day. That seemed like a lot to me- a person living in New York in a long distance relationship. I doubt I get that many hugs in a month. I checked it out online and found an organization that advocates:

4 Hugs for Survival
8 Hugs for Maintenance
12 Hugs for Growth

So, I think I'm going to start hugging my friends more. I hugged my roommate tonight, and I took her a bit by surprise. It may have been the first time we ever hugged. I guess I need to work on my hugging etiquette. There's a guideline on the website for that too :-) Maybe if we all start hugging more, the world will be a better place. Like this:



My other realization today was in regards to paying for meals in groups. A frequent frustration is that people put in their cash often feeling like they're contributing more than they should and yet the group still ends up short of what they need. In general, this problem can arise from bad math, forgetting to include something you ordered (like a drink), rounding down, or just simply not realizing how much to account for tax and tip. What people need to realize is that if they simply add 30% to the price of their meal, it should sufficiently cover their portion of tax and tip. For example, if you order a $2.00 soda and a $10.00 entree (it was probably $9.65, but you should always round up), then your total is $12.00. To find 30%, simply move the decimal to the left one place ($1.20) and multiply by 3. Here, this gives you $3.60. Add that to the original $12.00 to get $15.60. If you have exact change, great! If not, always round up, never down in groups, and leave $16.00. If the group ends up with too much in the end, maybe you'll get a buck back, or maybe you'll make the server's day. And serving groups is never easy, so leaving a nice tip makes their job a little better.

Happy hugging and happy tipping!

Apartment Hunting

Finding a place to live in New York City is no easy task. I have to move out of the dorms by May 16th, so the girls I plan to live with (Celia and Laura) and I started searching Craigslist and others about six weeks ago. We viewed nine apartments over the course of three weeks and almost signed on two of them. Unfortunately, we kept running into the same problem: financing. Most NY apts. require that your annual salary is 40x the monthly rent to qualify, and the average rent per person is $1000. Since Celia and I don't have jobs yet, we depend on student loans but those don't count as income for these housing companies. We could get a guarantor (aka mom or dad) to sign with us, but guarantors are required to make 80x the rent. Ouch! After much frustrating searching and viewing tiny expensive apartments in run down buildings, I found a listing on the NYU off-campus housing network for a house in Brooklyn for six people. I called for fun and found out I was the first person to call about the listing in three weeks. That night, I went with several friends to see the place. It was awesome!

The house has six bedrooms, two kitchens, two living rooms, two bathrooms, a basement, and a backyard :-) It's owned by a couple who live in Long Island and their son and his friends live there now (NYU undergrads). The house was redecorated in the 70's so it has all kinds of crazy paint work and lighting.





One of the kitchens has a red light that runs above the cupboards! We fell in love with it, applied and were approved. Yay! Because the house is owned by this friendly couple instead of a big New York real estate company, the paperwork was much easier. Also, since it's so big, Celia, Laura and I asked some friends to fill in the extra bedrooms. Three of our friends from the publishing program (Dustin, Mark and Sharn) decided to move in with us. They're taking the first floor, and we're taking the second floor.




The living room upstairs has this funky mirror wall. We're excited about embracing the 70's theme and making the house as fabulous looking as we can.





I felt so frustrated after our first attempts at getting a place. I tried to remember that God would provide something for me, and that He had something planned. It was difficult having to pass up on the first apartments we thought were so great, but waiting and trusting God proved to be a greater blessing in the end, as it always does. I'm so excited about this great house, and the fun neighborhood it's in, and the great deal that it is, and the friends I'll get to live with. And, did I mention the backyard!! Truly, this is an awesome blessing and answer to prayer.

best cat jump ever

I love animals. But when my teacher showed us this video in class tonight, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. The cat's okay.