and the fun begins...

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabirgde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a tatol mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Fabian received that in an email forward yesterday, and we all oohed and ahhed over it.

He's been receiving a lot of mail lately, including two anonymous love letters from 8th graders who can't stand that he is no longer teaching them, but is with 5th and 6th graders now. The second one was especially bad, calling a good-looking teacher our age... well, a bad word, and saying, "so don't like her, like me."

We've been making fun of him a lot. He's been taking it gracefully.

On the next subject, this week is Banned Books Week. Everyone go to the American Librarians Association webpage, ala.org, and check out the list of banned and challenged books. Then go to the library and read one.

At Elizabeth's prodding, I checked out Captain Underpants' First Adventure (or something like that). Even though it is written for boys much younger than myself, I laughed good and hard, an wished it had been in my school library when I had been on the brink of puberty.

I've been telling all the teens at Holy Cross about Banned Books Week, encouraging them to go read books they're not supposed to. I talk about censorship and keeping your mind open. They look at me like I'm weird.

But a lot of them smile and wave and know my name now. Classes officially started on Monday, but we're not registering people for another coulple of weeks. For now, it's all word of mouth. So no one has showed up yet. I sat in the reception area and the computer lab and talked with every high school kid that came through. They all nodded. Most of them had been planning on going to the classes, but didn't have a date and time set in their heads, so they didn't show up anywhere. So, Friday at 6:00, I should have a small crowd in my drawing class. It will be awesome.

Tomorrow, before RCIA, there is going to be a rally downtown for immigrants' rights. We're all going. There are buses leaving from Holy Cross to take anyone who wants to go, for free. But then Michael informed us of a small snag. At 8th Day, they got word that a "right wing" group was going to be protesting. Michael was thinking, okay, the Young Republicans... but then they found out it was going to be some white supremicist group. So it is sure to be a fun morning...

Off the subject completely, I ran the 5K last week, in support of people with HIV/AIDS. When we set out, my goal was to run more than half of it. But I just kept on. My time wasn't great, but so what. I doubled my goal. Way to have low expectations, Kati! Yay me!

I started a new "Lent" last Friday as well. No hooved animals for awhile. This Lent lasts until I complete my training for Project Hope, at some point in the forseeable, and yet cloudy future.

Michael and I are starting to learn Esperanto. It's a language designed just over 100 years ago to be learned by everyone on earth (except for some people in still "backward" nations) (no, our book really did say that) as a second language, so that everyone can talk to everyone else. It's really interesting, and really simple, and you're supposed to be able to learn it fluently in six months. We'll see how that goes.

Which leads me to the question we've all been waiting for...

^Ce la viro staras apud la grandaj bonaj pomoj?

Is the man standing near the big, good apples?