Who Am I?

I realized that since starting my blog, I have yet to describe myself. I am a twenty-five year old married man that is working toward fulfilling two dreams in my life. I went to Simpson University for the sole purpose of becoming a high school history teacher. After graduation and a year and a half of credentialing, I am a certified teacher. But I am still waiting to fulfill that dream because I have yet to attain a full time teaching position. Currently, I am a substitute teacher in the local area, and a pretty busy one at that. I sub every day and primarily at my alma mater where I coach football. Some days it is no better than babysitting over 150 students. Other days, teachers actually let me teach and I get to interact with students and assure myself that this is what I want to do. The difficult part of teaching in this area is that there are a lot of teacher candidates but not as many jobs. Eventually I will get a job, either here in the Redding area, or elsewhere in California. My other dream is to coach football at the collegiate level. Every year I give myself new goals to challenge myself and never stop learning this profession and skill. Lately, I am working closely with our varsity staff during playoffs and have been able to have a positive impact in meetings. It is fun to be able to participate at an intellectual level with them. One day, I will be able to fulfill both of these dreams, but for now I blog about the future. Soon I will be able to blog about my new job and coaching position.

On Our Way!

My alma mater finished their second straight undefeated season and now we are in the midst of playoffs. We play our rival, Enterprise this Friday. If we win out, this will be the closest any area team has gotten to be considered for state bowl selection. We also have the highest ranking of any area school in the state and are on the verge of winning our first CIF section title.

I get the opportunity to work with the varsity now that my season is finished. My team finished 8-2. Our defense gave up an average of 5.3 points per game, forced 21 turnovers, and scored three touchdowns this year. By far, this was the best defensive performance in my time as a defensive coach. I had a lot of fun and I look forward to getting back to it as soon as possible.

Football and Falafels!

Just when I thought my football season was over, I was offered Cal football tickets for last weekends game vs. Washington State. Now I am not a Cal fan, but being the football fan that I am, I couldn't pass it up. I went with fellow coach, Jeff Bucks and his daughter to Berkeley for the night game. It was cold that night and the game was boring. The most fun we had was listening to the fans and laughing at some of the things they were saying. I am so glad that I don't usually sit in the stands at football games. Cal won, but they played so bad. We actually left during the 4th quarter and went to get some dinner. And wouldn't you know it, they started scoring when we left.

We spent the night at Jeff's friends house in Milpitas. I am so glad that Jeff doesn't snore. The next morning, Jeff introduced me to falafels. Falafel in arabic means pepper. It is basically a middle eastern version of a taco, but with no meat. These fried garbanzo bean things constitute the main part of this pita taco. It also has lettuce, tomatoes, spices, and hummis.
That is the extent of my knowledge of falafels. If you want to know more, go to http://www.mideastfood.com/. So we went to this hole in the wall place that apparently everyone around knows about. If you are ever in the bay area, you have to try the Falafel Drive In. Jeff grew up in the bay area and went to this place often. He ordered us all falafels and watched me cautiously take a bite. I was told I would be unsure for a while, but in three weeks I would want another one. I'm still undecided about whether I like falafels or not, we'll see.