Two Lessons I've Learned in the Past Week

1. The United States Post Office apparently exists only to sell stamps, making it on par with a grocery store, minus all the great food: Well I ordered this totally awesome present from Shutterfly.com for my little friend Elias down in Atlanta. But that was back on November 1st and it still hadn't come yet. So I, being the brilliant young mind that I am, decide to go to the post office to have them track it. Seeing as how I had the delivery confirmation number and all, I didn't think this would be a problem. When I asked the lady to track it she typed the number in and said, "Oh." Curious about what that could mean? I was too. She explained, "Oh. Well it says 'Information not available.' So we don't know where it is." I asked if there was a number we could call and she said, "Oh yes, but they don't answer the phone." I said, "What do you MEAN they don't answer the phone?" She said, "They just don't." So after going back and forth, trying to figure out what happened to this package, she said, "Look, ma'am, we're the United States Post Office and that's not what we do here. We don't track packages. We just sell stamps." I just stared at her for several seconds, wondering if she was thinking about what she just said. Finally I said, "So you're like a grocery store? But without all the food." With no answer to that, I just left. Since then, miraculously I have received the package finally.

2. Products that a store is named for can very well be unavailable for purchase during normal business hours: I needed to refill a prescription and I noticed the time was about an hour until closing for CVS Pharmacy down the street. I said to myself, "Perfect, I can get there with plenty of time before they close." I like to call this My First Uneducated Thought. I drove to CVS, complete with my Spanish textbook with which to study while waiting for my prescription to be ready. Thinking that there would be a prescription to wait for is known as My Second Uneducated Thought. So I enter the store and walk to the back and THEN notice that the pharmacy is closed. I blink several times thinking maybe I'm just imagining the barred screens pulled down above the counter. Fortunately the loyal, hard-working fellow who was given the title of Store Manager happened to be at the front of the store. I asked him why the pharmacy was closed. He said, "Because it closes at 6." I said, "But isn't the store open until 9?" He nodded, giving an affirmative answer to my question. So I immediately followed up with, "And isn't the store called CVS Pharmacy, as in PHARMACY, as in the ENTIRE STORE WAS NAMED AFTER THE PHARMACY?" He nodded. "And don't you think that if a store had the title of PHARMACY, then the pharmacy should be open if the store is open?" He stared at me, not knowing whether it was safer to nod or shake his head no. So I ended with, "If a store was called CVS Sporting Goods but the whole sports section was closed for three hours while the toilet paper section was still open, would that make any sense to you?" Apparently those must have been My Third and Fourth Uneducated Thoughts, as there was no answer to either of those questions. So then I left.

longest time between posts

I think this has been the longest time ever that I've gone since writing a new post for my blog...unless you count the 27 years before I started writing a blog. Life has been SO busy. Here's a rather long update:

1. Thanksgiving with my family was awesome! I have so many pictures, memories, and stories from this weekend! Of course my mom, Mike, and Kathryn were there, but also Grandma Pickwoad, my brother Ryan, and my friend Peter. Mike has been renovating the barn to get it ready for the horses for the winter. Kathryn was helping him all last week. Peter and I played soccer. We ate dinner and then played several rounds of dominoes, our latest after-dinner tradition.

2. On Friday, I was at Toys R Us right at 5:00 AM, the perfect time to shop with 8 million other half-awake, pajama-clad, impatient American shoppers. I was there for a specific reason. Of course so was everyone else. There were so many people in that store, it HAD to be a fire hazard. You couldn't even move without touching somebody. No way could you push a cart through there. But there were also like 10 BIG toys I was buying and there was no way to carry them all, so I made a genius plan. I kept my cart in a concealed location and then maneuvered my way back and forth through the store, climbing over toys, under other people, squeezing through the lines for the cash registers that snaked ALL the way to the back of the store, across the back of the store, and ended back at the front doors. INSANITY. But I bought 10 BIG toy presents for kids, all for at least half-price or more. Was it worth it? Yes, all because of what I like to call Genius Plan #1. When I had everything I wanted, I realized I was starving and thirsty and I predicted impending boredom as I stood in a line longer than the one to ride Dumbo at Disney World. Thus I brought on board Genius Plan #2. So I left my cart in its concealed location and ran to my car to grab some poptarts, a bottle of water, and my iPod. Then I stood in line, eating breakfast and watching a movie on my iPod. It was the most delicious, relaxing line-waiting experience I've ever had!

3. I had lunch with my mom, sister, and Grandma Pickwoad at Ragazzi's. Then that evening, Mike was really excited to go to this first-ever concert at the John Paul Jones Arena. The two marching bands from UVA and VA Tech were holding a fund-raising concert together! We all decided to go with him and the concert was almost sold out!

It was a great weekend, but I've learned many lessons in the past week so I'm going to write those on my next post.

It's almost Thanksgiving!!!

I'm so excited!!! It's almost Thanksgiving! I get to go see Chaos, my favorite dog, and stay with him for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! I think I'm going to bring my ridiculously handsome Calabaza cat with me because Chaos might like somebody to chase and maybe Calabaza would like a big friend to run away from. hahahahaha!

Oh yeah and I went to Hallmark today to get a Thanksgiving card in Spanish (which they did NOT have, let me just point out, AND they didn't even have a blank Thanksgiving card...I thought this was Hallmark, the place that has a card for EVERYTHING?!!!), but anyway guess what they DID have! MUCHOS MOOSES! They had big mooses and small mooses, moose ornaments, and mooses with light-up noses (okay I think technically those ones were reindeer...but at Christmas time, anything with antlers is considered to be a moose by me). And there was a delightful moose named Rodney the Reindeer and he was special cuz if you buy 3 cards he was like half off or something so of COURSE I had to buy 3 cards. There were a couple mooses I didn't get cuz there was no special for them (so sad), but I got 2 big mooses and 3 little mooses. The big moose I didn't get had a delightful holiday scarf on his neck and I took him up to the cashier lady and asked if he had a special price and she said, "No he's just a regular moose." And I said, "JUST a regular mooose??? He has a Christmas scarf! He's not a regular moose!" And she said, "Yes he is. There's no special for him." And I said, "But he's for Christmas. And he's so nice-looking. Look at his scarf. That's a Christmas scarf." And she said, "No." So I didn't get him. But you should see those other mooses! They are so happy now and they met my Calabaza cat and he likes them too, although he's a little intimidated by the moose that lights up his nose and sings "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". They are all some nice-looking mooses! I feel bad for the Christmas moose (or as SOME people call him, the regular moose) that I couldn't get. All his friends got to come but not him.

Well...I hope all of you guys have a great Thanksgiving! Maybe you'll see a moose out in wherever it is you're going for Thanksgiving, except I don't think mooses live in Pennsylvania and North Carolina and Florida and Maryland and Texas and Georgia and Virginia but that's okay cuz maybe you'll see a deer and you can just pretend it's a moose. Oh yeah and I'm going to be sure to give that good little Chaos boy lots of delicious turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie so he can have a proper feast!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

Balls of Cotton

Well I'm back home now but we got to do the coolest thing on the last day in Georgia. We were on the way to the airport and we passed a cotton field with the cotton fluff balls popping out of the little seed pods! I had never actually seen the cotton plant before, especially not with the cotton actually coming out, so we careened off the road and into the cotton field.

It was the coolest thing ever to see the cotton actually coming out of the seed pods! I guess I didn't realize it would actually look like little cottonballs coming out of the pods. It was so soft and fluffy! Now I'm completely confused because I don't understand why a plant would make these cottonballs. What survival value does a fluff ball have for the plant? And then I was told something else really cool...do you know what they do with the cotton after they pick it? They shape it into big cubes of cotton - like hay bales, only cotton bales. It's totally cool!

So that was my Georgia cotton education for the week. Tiny little fluffballs as far as you can see. I want to grow some cotton at my house now! I wonder if it can be grown in Virginia!

National Leadership Honor Society!

Guess what my sister did! She was inducted into the National Leadership Honor Society on Sunday! According to President Eisenhower, this is one of the most prestigious honors in a collegiate career. My mom and I flew down this weekend to see her induction! So yesterday we started the day off going to her church. She goes to First Baptist Church and they have a great band! We sang Glorious One and All Because of Jesus by Steve Fee!

After church we went to Kathryn's induction! Her mentor, Dr. McMillan came too. Here's a picture of my sister, my mom, and Dr. M. with Kathryn's certificate. We were all so proud of her!

Then as she was mingling, I got bored with idle small talk so I started looking for cool things to take a pictures. This was a neat looking staircase I found.

In the afternoon, Kathryn taught Mom how to knit. Kathryn knits scarfs but she didn't know how to end the scarfs until yesterday. She finally figured out how to do it so she ended like 3 scarfs yesterday and started a new one. So now I'm surrounded by these crazy knitting people.

Oh and just for the record, scarfs sounds way better than scarves.

The Tice girls at the beach

Guess where I am!!! Georgia! I flew down with my mom on Friday after school to visit my sister. Yesterday we went to the beach at Tybee Island and it was a perfect day at the beach! It was so beautiful and there were a bunch of dolphins swimming really close to the shore! We climbed on the rocks and took lots of pictures! The temperature was nice and warm and the sky was so clear and blue!

We went to the marina too to see the boats. There were lots of pelicans perched everywhere. Kathryn took a picture of me waving to a nice-looking pelican. Afterwards we went to River Street, where I bought another chocolate-covered apple, and then to Olive Garden for dinner. Here are some pictures of me and Kathryn together and the bottom one is of me doing a flying side kick!

3rd grade to college in one day

Hahahaha so tonight we had a fun time in my spanish class. It all started after soccer practice, when I went to take one of the kids home like I always do. Except when we got to his house, nobody was home. So we went to his uncle's house. Nobody. Grandparents and other aunts and uncles' house. Nobody. I said, "Dude, are you sure there's not some party tonight that you forgot about? How could your parents, brother, sister, 2 grandparents, 4 uncles, and 2 aunts ALL be missing?" He just shrugged and said, "I don't know where they are." And of course the ONLY phone number we had for his entire extended family was not being answered. So I had my spanish class and I told him, "Well, buddy, I guess you're going to have to come with me to spanish class. Here's the good news: you know spanish!"

When we got there, he said, "Wow, I can't believe I went from 3rd grade to college in one day!" He helped me complete my work too by answering my questions when I had was like, "Pssst, hey Brian, what's the past tense of 'ofrece'?" And he laughed at all my teacher's jokes. He thought my teacher was hilarious. About halfway through the class he started raising his hand to answer questions and by the end he had his hand up for every one. I couldn't believe an 8-year-old kid, surrounded by college students in a college class, felt brave enough to raise his hand to answer questions! Of course, duh, he knows spanish, but still.

After class, on the way home, I asked him if he thought 3rd grade was any different from college. He said, "Nah, it's pretty much the same." I was like yep, no matter what grade you're in, it's worksheets, raise your hand, answer questions, take tests, teacher tells you you're wrong, and you do more worksheets.

Who knew you could go straight to college from 3rd grade.

An Offering of Friendship

What a wonderful four-day weekend! I wish every weekend had four days! My weekend was totally full! On Saturday I ended up going to a Mexican wedding for most of the afternoon. Then I went over to a friend's house with Miguel, this really cool kid from my school who just moved here from Mexico. On Sunday, Miguel came with me to church and he ended up spending the rest of the day with me until 9:30. We went to the skatepark, built Legos, played soccer, ate lunch at Qdoba, and just had a great time! Today Miguel and I went to watch our friend Greg play soccer. His team won the state championship! Then we went to the skatepark again and had dinner at Cici's Pizza! I've been playing all weekend with my delightful kitty, Calabaza, too!

Miguel is truly an extraordinary kid. He's very smart, for one thing, but he's absolutely one of the nicest kids I know. His family moved here a couple of months ago and they left Mexico with almost nothing. Miguel had to leave almost everything behind. I've been slowly trying to give him things that I don't need anymore or things that I can find at yard sales, like puzzles and Lego blocks and stuff. The thing that makes him different from most other kids is that he totally wants to reciprocate this spirit of giving. He doesn't want to just take stuff that I give him. Every time I see him, he has a present for me. He has so very little, yet he's willing to give away anything that he has.


It reminds me of the story in the bible about the woman who put only two small coins in the treasury at the temple (Luke 21:1-4). Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."


This kid who has so little, leaving everything behind, moving to a place where he can't understand a single word of the language, and yet, who can't stop smiling...this kid gives away everything he has. Miguel loves my cat Calabaza. He's always finding things to give my little orange kitty. I took these pictures of Cala today so I could give them to Miguel tomorrow at school. I am so thankful that God has sent me this beautiful picture of humility through this child, a boy for whom material possessions mean everything and nothing at the same time. And I am so grateful that God lets me help Miguel and other kids like him.

the fifth graders got me!

There's this other second grade teacher named Mr. Rough and he has a farm so he brought eggs in for his class so they could see the eggs hatch! So now he has all these baby chicks and theyr'e so cute! In case you're wondering why I have white stripes in my hair and a variety of nail polish colors on my fingernails, the fifth graders got me. They had a "math store" where they sell services and you can buy them with "math money". They sell things like desk cleaning, playing on the computer for 5 minutes, a massage, playing card games, etc. There's also usually a booth for hair spray and fingernail painting. Anyway they invited me to the store and I had a most delightful time! I bought a smoothie, hired 4 kids to come clean my desks and chalkboard, played a variety of card games, got a massage, and got my hair and nails done! It was quite entertaining. You should really try to come to the next math store!

Happy November!

Today was a long day. We had parent conferences and I didn't get home until 8. The one good thing about parent conferences is that we have an AWESOME PTO that orders dinner for all of us teachers every conference night. Tonight we had food from Mel's Diner - delicious chicken, possibly the best macaroni and cheese I've ever eaten, green beans, rolls, etc. And you can eat as much as you want! It's so good!

And last night of course was Halloween and I bought a bunch of candy to pass out to kids on my street but by the time I had to leave for my Spanish class, not a single kid had come to my door. I was so sad. So I just left a bucket of candy on my sidewalk for the kids. It wasn't the same though.

I took my new cat Calabaza to the vet today for a check up. It was cool because I took him to Dr. Doss who was my family's vet for all of our pets when I was growing up. Dr. Doss was like, "I remember you when you were just this little!" It was cool seeing him again and for the first time with a pet of my own. Calabaza is one healthy cat!

Oh yeah and one of my firebelly newts died. I'm so sad for him. I don't think my newts are happy at all. They won't eat anything. If they don't eat again tomorrow, I'm going to take them to the pet store to see if the people there know why they're sad. Everything should be right for the newts, so I don't know why they're not happy. I feel so bad for them. I wanted them for so long and they're not even happy. :( My kids were so upset about Flame dying and we didn't want to just dispose of him. We're currently studying ancient Egypt so the kids asked if Flame could be a pharaoh. What did they mean by that? They wanted to mummify our dead newt. So of course I said, "YEAH! LET'S DO IT!" Okay a bit morbid. Depressing. Possibly creepy. Butttt...it would kind of prolong Flame's "life" by allowing us to interact with him just a little longer. So he's currently bathing in a mixture similar to the Egyptian's natron salt, drying out. In a couple weeks, we'll wrap him in linen cloths and the kids are going to make him a sarcophagus and a pyramid for a burial tomb. Then we're going to have a ceremony and we're going to dress like Egyptians and lead a burial procession through the school in honor of Pharaoh Flame. And THEN we'll bury him. The kids are very excited about turning him into a mummy. I'm not sure what I think of it.

But I do know for sure that I'm tired. Goodnight.