One day left before NANO!

November 02, 2013

Wow!  Looking at my post below a year ago, I realize what an aazng adventure I pushed myself into with participating into Nano.  And here we are 2013 and recreating the details I have lost, seems daunting but I think 2013 is going to be a turning year for me, one of accomplishment, completion and yes, momentum…:)

I loved the James Patterson motivator to write for 2013 and look forward to reading many more!  I hope you consider this opportunity, to be involved or to support the Nano Program.  Between my blog and Nano, I have much to do to update, so here we go 2013!

Last year’s blog – 

On that note, a message from author, Lois Lowry:

Hello, young writers!

It’s daunting to sit down and begin a novel.

Daunting? Is that the right word? There might be better ones.OverwhelmingTerrifying?

No, I think daunting is good. I’ll leave it.

I went through that small process to show you what I do during the writing of each and every paragraph of a novel. I question the words. Not the ands or the thensBut adjectives? I often question each one. And verbs! Verbs are the most… well, daunting.

(Question? Maybe it should be second-guess?)

It makes it pretty challenging (or exhausting, or time-consuming, or maybe just plain hard) to write a novel.

But fun, too. There is no better feeling than realizing you got the words just right.

I always begin with a character: a character to whom I introduce the reader, so that the reader will enter the novel feeling as if he or she already has a friend… or at least someone to care about.

But very quickly I let the reader know that they have to worry a bit about this new friend, because something is slightly [amissaskewout-of-whack?] and the book character is going to have to find a way to set things right.

That starts the plot going.

I’m not going to tell you how I write a plot because everyone does it differently, and your own way is best for you.

But I will say something about the ending of a novel. First, your main character will still be there at the ending. He (or she) will have changed, though. (In some extraordinary cases, the protagonist will be, um, sorry: dead. I’ve done that now and then in a novel—my book Messenger, for one.)

But most often the protagonist will be alive, and—this is important—will have matured in some way. Grown wiser. Braver. Stronger. Kinder. That is because throughout the plot, the protagonist has made choices (sometimes very hard ones) and he or she has learned and grown from each choice.

(So has the writer, incidentally).

I find that very often, at the ending of a novel, the writer (me, or you) will use a verb like realized, orunderstood, or knew, or found. It’s the job of the protagonist to accomplish all of those things.

And it’s the job of the writer to show the reader how it happened, by choosing just the right words.

Have fun,

Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry is the author of Number the Stars and The Giver (both Newbery Medal winners), among 30 other books for children and young adults. She lives in Cambridge, MA in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Alfie and a funny little cat named Lulu.

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Nanoooooo…..Say yes to Nanoooooo :)

Nano (WHAT IS NANO?  Why awesome question, Educators, and anyone, check below for info! :

NaNoWriMoIntro

starts November 1st!  WOW!  Here is some info from our newest English instructor:

Hello Everyone,

All the Freshman will be doing the National Novel Writing Month Young Writer’s Program (NaNoWriMo YWP) in their English I courses (Dixie, Clark, Carlstrom), November 1st-30th.

We have created a virtual classroom for all of us, and all are aiming for 15,000 words in 30 days = 500 words a day, with a few scaffolded variations in word count goals both above and below the 15k baseline.  Ben and I are both writing, and I believe Lauren and Harry are going for the 50k gold too (50k in 30 days is the regular nanowrimo.orggoal.)  Style and Content are completely open for all.

We would all be grateful for supporting the students through this in any manner that presents itself, and would like to let all of you know that some students may be bringing more devices to school in order to word process.  Ideas and encouragement are always welcome, especially as the month pushes onward.

If you would like to join the forum, follow along, and/or write (you don’t have to write), you can create a profile and find us at the following information:
Site: ywp.nanowrimo.org -> http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/what-is-nanowrimo
Classroom: ASF Writing Metropolis -> Search directory, Mexico, Other, and the Frosh are at ASF Writing Metropolis
My Username: ShayVC (buddy me)

 If freshman are seeking guidance or time for writing through November, this is hopefully the reason.

Thank you all, and please holler at me if you have any questions or concerns.

Regards,– 

Shay V. Carlstrom, M.A.
English Education
American School Foundation

I am attaching below the pdf for the Nano packet and a survival kit!  The more people we get involved in the process, the easier Nano is!  🙂  I am excited!

Nano High School workbook

NaNoBook Survival

P.S.  I also have kits for Middle and Elementary School if interested!  Oh heck it is below, lol.

Nano Middle School Workbook

Elementary_School_Workbook_Customizable_V2

 

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“To be or not to be?”…laughing in the Zocolo?

A night beneath the starry landscape, and yes, I had to pinch myself, I was in the Zocolo watching Hamlet from the touring group from La Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, my first play in Mexico.  The energy, laughter, and whole set, from the stage to whole set only added to the energy that seeped from this play.

Hamlet Preview 1

Hamlet Preview 2

Hamlet Preview 3

The mimicking of the Globe theatre was PERFECT, from the groundlings to way up top, this play exceed expectations in so many ways – being there with friends further intensified the feel of being relocated into something unusual and exciting.  Often splitting the stage in half, actors brilliantly utilized the full space on stage allotted for a maximum effect.

Add this to the past events of the lst two weeks, winning Twin Week, moustaching the day in the size of Texas, “Bearing” the outfit, spooning out the ice cream, the blog for the last two weeks, has been, WOW – it will be worth the blog, so stay tuned this week, tomorrow will be a blog to catch up on all!  🙂

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Overwhelming a times…but a growing process

Digital IS – AWESOME SITE!  🙂

I know waaay behind on restaurants and updating you on the last week (WHEW)  I will PROMISE 🙂 (beauty of a blog!)  However, remember, important things – today is Moustache Day for Spirit Week – don’t forget your hair….(little things matter!)

Managing Technology – Yes, an assignment to create a manual section on Managing Technology for School Media Centers, due SUNDAY (Yes this is Monday!) – consumed me as I poured over the documents, beginnings, and stoppings of my writing, stops starts, confusing moments – dah dah dahhhhh – Overwhelmed.
It does get overwhelming, think of the view behind the circulation desk when you hold yourself accountable – this is not teaching anymore kiddos, this is a new realm of what can be discouraging in the research process, yet a growing and developing process.
What seems to be an endless vastness of information that can suck you dry, can also be refreshed with a new look on life.  When I entered into Digital Is, I knew about it, I heard about it heck, I visited it and almost everyone I know  in NCTE and the technology realm knows Digital Is, yet I still did not have a profile – yet LinkedIn, P2PU and others were within my practice and knowledge.  I realized the most obvious sites and aides can be unused  due to the outlandish number of resources out there and available.   However, being able to move past the idea that just using technology to use it or make one look one savvy, the same ideas apply when I am faced with this overwhelming amount of info, wanting to use it for quality and not quantity.
Yes, I might lose points on my assignment due SUNDAY (I know), but in retrospect, having a clearer mind and scope of what I wanted to do to make this easier for the next person is a feeling I can take beyond the points assigned for this project. If we can instill the same feeling of moving past points, bells and whistles, and simply grades to students, then my role as a Media Specialist/Librarian is right on track with what the 21st Century Standards require of us.  Grades have always been the carrot to lead many to the water of technology, yet, times are a changing, and the universities and institutions of higher study do not care so much of the .5’s and .0’s of a letter grade as much as wondering – ‘Can you survive and sort through the mass amounts of information to be productive and to the point?”  Ah, and there amid the many journals, articles, and podcasts, lies the answer – those few resources that you need to focus on, and use when the time allows and fits – will take you to the end goal of finding the right answers, with the right tool for the moment.
Once students feel from their instructor that devices are just that, not the end all that will solve the problem, but the tool to a variety of options, then learning amid a jungle of options begins to occur.  I think there is hope for me yet.

Thanks Digital is!

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Open Mic Night at Condesa material….

“Version of…I don’t know and things I get frustrated at but…glad for afterwards…”

What version of old will I be?

Old – before my time old – inside and out?

Old but “cool” old- air in the hair (yes HAIR),

cool convertible old but fun?

“Critical of”old in attitude and young in vigor…

…yet the same myself —

I want to be old and bring class to the classification

letting the young in – forever.

Waking up – refreshed, oblivious to obstructions –

ready to RUN – walk – do anything

anywhere

to the days of S L I D I N G into bed – A Narnia from

obstacles and tasks of the day –

yet these are the days that allow me to relish zooming days

– zooming past obstacles and tasks, and things, things to cover

even the calmest day provides a rollercoaster of unexpecteds –

allows me no room for boring – plenty of room for frustration and untilled

possibilities – this makes the day even brighter, even more possible.

I wonder at old age – those that have fallen into my daily life along the way –

Walking some days and the reality of their presence almost bursts my emotions into

tears without warning – Why so strong out of where? all of a sudden?

I find there are volumes, yes, versions of me I still have to discover

I still don’t know, can’t explain, but I cling to memories that fill me up like a

64 oz bottle of JOLT- faces- laughs – experiences – moments –

“Give unto others as you’d have done to yourself…”

I’m happy for the saddest moments and sad for the happiest moments to end-

what kind of version of old will I yet be?

“Untitled”

The crinkle of leaves parachuting to the secluded street corner

frisbees sharing secrets along the way

feathers brushing against a canvas of wind

roots shoveling the ground like a machine

clouds pushing the sky back

ink sliding down to make a point

s stare screaming in a fearful moment

fireflies sliding against the darkened night

whiskers pointing to the unreachable object

water struggling with the moment of solitude

smiles slashing, crashing the silence

tears shattering the memory

silence dividing a life

thoughts – worth more than

a thousands words

and a picture.

Wow – now 12:25 and what an OPEN MIC NIGHT!  WOW!  Meeting Peter from Australia, seeing Obi reading sophisticated prose, Mr Hamilton, Ms Gallie, and Mr Brake participating in Mr Hamilton’s PLAY script! – Jack, Louis, and also friends leaving Mexico, friends returning to Mexico, people prompted to come up and read based on the energy and excitement of others, VFW Mic Night was AWESOME – and we hung out to hear the music afterwards with the band that came in – W O  W! – I knew there was a reason I came here…

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“I skate towards where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” Gretzksy

I have to say, every three days I am inspired, I mean, INSPIRED.  Of all the greatest gifts I can be given, is there one that is more invaluable, priceless, or more exciting?  Say what you will, but the best gift that I ever received from my father and my mother has been that of CREATIVITY.  I am able to just think of ideas, and then I am surrounded by so many great people, I say, “Why not?” and these ideas, these projects, these “What if’s” come to a reality.  It is a true compliment when people say to me, “I don’t know how you do it!” and I smile but in one second I realize, (and hope they do too) this is not a compliment I can accept.  This is a compliment that the students and colleagues that jump at the risk of doing something that has never been done before, doing it, standing back, smiling, aware that they were a part of something that had never been done before, maybe something similar, but never the same. This is what makes life exciting, different, challenging, and just a new day, every day. A few example are necessary I am thinking?

1- Taking on and embarking on recapturing the essence of 911 interviews and photos that have been taken, and utilized, since over 5 years ago to present day, we will be putting together the actions of students that started this project in Delaware, specifically Seaford High School, Delaware, now involving Mexico City, and other students further out than us in a cooperative package available for the public, this is exciting…

2- It has been a YEAR – let me say again, a YEAR of working through technology and teaching/educational modules through NCTE’s 21st Century Pathways – and I turned my last analysis of projects, podcasts, resources in this morning.  A YEAR.  Leslie Froeschl, who was my constant mentor and fix it up-er the whole time in this process, became a part of me during this last year of training, eduction, and technology ideas every single month.  Re energizing was easy, ideas came easier, as we both worked together and I came away with a storing house of projects to enhance my projects, but also the projects and goals to come.  A MAJOR accomplishment as my focus now turns to attending NCTE and presenting in November, becoming an Apple Distinguished Educator, participating in the Flat Classroom Certification, as well as ultimately graduating with my second Master’s from Mansfield next year, (AMAZING professors such as Jane Fenn and Jean Tuzinski currently!) that are on the cutting edge of technology, literacy and eduction) in The School Library and Information Technologies Program – and then yes, working on my Marine Biology Degree to ultimately have me retirement be something magical.

Every time I log onto my Apple, I see the video in commemoration of Steve Jobs.   I am amazed at what he did and what ideas he just said, it will be reality.  His Wayne Gretzsky quote is amazing. Yet, I have to say.  How lucky I am to not have to have a company to be the cause or motivation the crazy and wild ideas we come with when I am among students, and I am more proud that we can promote these ideas, projects, as individuals and make them become a reality – and yes Steve Jobs is just one sort of motivation.  But in life, as anything, there are distractions, alternatives, always possibilities that can lead you off track here, there… but the truest motivation still that keeps me on track, the one legacy I hope I would leave behind, is to take on things other people thought not possible, and somehow, pull it off.  I have been able to do whatever comes in my strange little head of mine, the ideas just out there, thanks to the amazing students that have said, “What the heck!” and thrown caution to the wind and dared to take to take a risk.  I can get certified for everything in the world that is offered, but ultimately, the best training I have received has been the time I have sat down with students and simply said, “What if that is possible, what do others think and if they think it is not possible, how can we do exactly THAT?”

Wayne Gretzsky was one of many that said it in a nutshell.  I just hope I get to crack that nutshell open and see what is inside, and make it grow into something amazing with the awesome people that surround me.

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Sherman Alexie, We are Young, and some fruit smashin’

So, making a marathon-run for the time I haven’t been updating my blog (wait until you see the restaurants list this week!) – I love this video by the way – HYSTERICAL – it reminds me of well, someone smashing Watermelons, like, GALLAGHER!  🙂  (yes, see? Random? – Tonight, We Are Young,) There is something about smashing fruit, in front of people…

Okay serious now…seriously!…(I DO LOVE SLEDGE – O – MATIC!)

… back to Sherman Alexie….DJ Hamilton was kind enough to send me this article, on Sherman Alexie’s newest interview.

And I was hooked…it was not for the reason that I tried to get a book of his poetry for a teacher as ASF, or watched Smoke Signals, but it was that fateful night in Slippery Rock, when upon referring to Sherman Alexie in my newly created thesis, “Opening the Window of Time”, I was lucky enough to meet Sherman Alexie who sat beside me at dinner at Slippery Rock University – this was an amazing night.  Thanks to Dr. Permenter, Alexie came to Slippery Rock, I gave him the rough transcripts of my thesis at that time, and to this date, I remember two main things…

1- Asking Mr. Alexie what would be a common way that could get everyone to share beliefs together and in my naive believe multiculturalism was about everyone agreeing, he answered, “There is no way!” – he was right.  I have learned that one of the greatest things is the differences that separate us, yet that very thing should be the aspect that connects us!

2- I asked Mr. Alexie where in the WORLD he received the inspiration for one of the greatest pieces he wrote, and his explanation was hysterical yet showed me how talented he is!  (You will have to ask him the meaning if you’re curious! )

I look back and hope to send the finalized version of my overall piece to Mr. Alexie, with an amazing memory of how he inspired be back then to

“…keep moving, keep walking in step with your skeletons. They ain’t ever going to leave you, so you don’t have to worry about that. Your past ain’t going to fall too far behind and your future won’t get too far ahead. Sometimes, though, your skeletons will talk to you, tell you to sit down, take a rest, breathe a little. Maybe they’ll make you promises, tell you all the things you want to hear.”

Thanks for the recollection Mr. Hamilton.

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Randomness…

I am random.  VERY random.  Take this song, I came across by accident very random, but I love it now. Random.  I love randomness, but yet I have only now figured out, while some of my friends know this better about me, I think of things sometimes an hour, a day or even a month later put of the blue and recall it from a conversation I had about that long ago…same thing happened tonight.  In the middle of my graduate school work and bam!  an email I received from my principal about how she submitted her “This I Believe Essay ” for her class and I knew,  right there,  right then, what I wanted to right.  Not fighting the urge, I immediately ripped off what I wanted to say as mine – so well here it is….

This I believe Oct 2

oh there is so much more to write about!  Did I mention Sherman Alexie?  Hmmm, next post….:)

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Swedish Mafia House, 1:16, 104, and Fabian…

Okay QUIZ kids, what do the three have in common?  Seriously, you don’t even have a clue?  Come on…..:)

Sheesh –  let me explain…: ) Walking Kinah to Park Rio De Janeiro (I love that this is 2 block from my house) I causally saw a glow-in-the-dark frisbee being thrown across the Michaelangelo’s fountain of David, and I thought, I want one of those…as we made our way back across the plaza, one of the participants approached me and said something like “Swedish Mafia” and I was like…haven’t seen them (I was laughing) but in reality, was he was telling me was, had I heard the BAND named Swedish Mafia?!  lol, and I said no, but he instantly pointed to Kinah and said she is in that video, her replica!  No kidding, I came home, and as Fabian told me, at exactly 1:16 in the video called  Save the World, there is Kinah’s TWIN !  I knew you wouldn’t believe me, so here is the screenshot…:)

See?

 

 

 

Anyways, if you listen to the words, it fits, WHo is going to SAVE the world?  Suburban, urban Kinah had been everywhere and yet, who would imagine that such a gentle, thoughtful, and forgiving animal would be loose in the streets?  The video does a god job of getting this across to the viewers too, too many people out there that need a helping hand and if we all pitch in, the world would be a much better place.  Good band, good message, great tune…Oh the 104?  Yes, that is where Fabian lives as he told me and urged me , “Please have puppies, PLEASE!, I want one of these dogs! – so I still refrain from fixing Kinah with the possibility of another one as generous as her existing in the future…?…maybe…and I found out that behind the Sixties bar/restaurant on Insurgentes, the frisbee, I am so getting one, DEFINITELY!  🙂  Interesting night…:)

 

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Four things…or more?

Okay, yes, I have been less than lackluster in being punctual with the updates, especially the updates on the of restaurants, but they are forthcoming, but when?  Well…Okay enough about procrastination – four things that are amazing before you move to be wowed by the next posts…:)

One – Open Mic Night was AWESOME for 2012 with bands, poetry, the whole gamut, I cannot say it enough – the talent that was shared among a whole great would have amazed many – and it is a shame there weren’t more BUT – October 24th will be your chance to see an even larger planned event – I am just amazed every night over the talent of students around us, that amaze me every day in and out of the classroom!  Oh, and there is something about a band in the library – AWESOME….:)  Thanks Miguel for the shots!

ImageImageImage

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2-   There is no greater satisfaction than being able to share people’s moments, and this one one of them, above, Open Mic Night, and the night before, Open Mic Night at the VFW thanks to Jack Little, a GIANT in open Mic Night in Condesa – his 22nd issue of his magazine is out – check it out here at:

www.theofipress.webs.com  (Our Own ASF D.J.Hamilton is in there!)

but that wasn’t the news, a fellow poet and scholar, Osseily Hanna,who is on a sojourn to Yale – you wouldn’t believe it but it involves Edward W. Said’s widow – CRAZY!  , then to TURKEY – he was preparing to leave this week, the week of the Open Mic Night, and I did acquire his mattress, so maybe his writing genes will soak through to me? (doubtful) – but his leaving was sad, yet inspiring based on what he is headed to do.  He had read an a piece translated alongside Mr. Hamilton on a previous night and it was AWESOME – on this night I was contemplating reading something.  But I literally had NOTHING written, and I had 20 minutes…so I wrote a piece in 20 minutes, and guess what I called it?  – okay, yes, 20 Minutes.  🙂  I was impressed that others liked it and I read it the next night – if you feel it is good at all give me a shout of why, but remember, the students around me inspired it! – (Both Delaware, and before, and now in Mexico!)

20 Minutes or THINGS People say”

 Apprehension, tension, the heart in pumping,

Sweaty palms, furled brow, this is my first time at….

Being an impression in front of others, pushing mothers

Fathers to trust me to guide their child towards a direction I feel,

I Feel…who am I to take their child and mold them a certain way,

Who are their parents to send them on their way without breakfast

Lunch dinner, who is the winner here in a world where I teach children how

To pass a test of their confidence, judged by the state, on those who do not

Represent the immediate state of affairs of the government, is this a teacher?

Mr Brake – Yes? – Fast fast , you talk to fast, you might be from Pennsylvaina and all that mumbo jumbo but this is Delaware, no, not De a Where, Delaware, the lower slower get it, SLOWER – SLOWER Mr B – 6 years already?  Teaching in mix

Of life, get out and do things rather than hang onto the skins of book – Hey – would help me coach, illustrate, design, lead, volunteer in your spare time?

Teaching educating, is there a difference, I form my own space, place to call what I do educating, staying behind after the grind of teachers running for the door, this new vocation, I call education, not teaching, education it calls for dinner for the twins, breakfast for Trista, confidante, inspirer, ride home ride back to the periods where I teach to the test, the test the test, when are you going to get higher scores on the test?

Tell me, what does The test do for them, for me, does it put food on their plates on your plates as a school, looking cool as trying to be one of the best in a lower slower state where the vice president migrates from that is Delaware,  Del a Where….

Do we go from here, twelve years, and I still get chills, up my spine, sweats in my hand – my pulse quickens, wanting to impress as if it was my first time, in front of

People that is right, not student as they became the young woman to attend the Naval academy,  dancing to the stars, take her father’s place in infamy, they were educated, not taught, they felt the feeling I feel, the test is not for me, what about life, trust, mistakes, learning, education, where does that fit into the PSAT, the applications you want to be the determination of who this young man woman is…

Thirteen years leaving behind my family of students to preserve my sanity at the same time of being an educator – no not teacher – educator – to show the importance of a life truly lived as if it is your last – chance to show everyone you

Have a spark they can’t influence, test, score, you wanted more you whi I like to call

MY STUDENT like a proud parent who can give you breakfast, lunch and dinner in the form of promises, hope and motivation that will guide you when you feel alone with – criticism, failure, they leave and represent me all over –

You do too much – you need to say no – do I?  Can you make create this scenario, will you support my voice, my choice to ask you to help me but I need to say no

 Listen – this is me – spreading me into others and having them shine being proud of being who they are and not afraid to impress another

 To many years I watched before, as you ran out the door, at the last bell, satisfied you gave the well answers to your students and rushing back to your homes, never leaving room for the home you could among people that admired you –

Wished to – just ask for  five minutes to get some help – some advice, guidance – this is the meaning of a teacher, or an educator –

Mexico – thirteen years have gone by and family in the form of students and educators that want something more – to give art back to those that create art in their everyday students – proud to be the father of so many youth with sometimes proof they are a star – among the many that stray afar and wonder – what do I matter – Do I? mean something to happen that will change my life, end my strife, end my hunger, provide the thunder of who I am as an individual yet also someone that wants to care to talk to me

It races by but here I am – thirteen years surrounded by youth who do not feel it is uncool to have me in their presence, yet – how do I explain the sweaty palms, the furrowed brow, catching breath – they – will move on and not out of sight but into my memory taking me with them on one wild ride that became my life, their life, making strides past “You do too much” Say No once in awhile”-

Stop – Slow down – realize these nervous palpitations are a result of letting them go – on as these amazing young leaders found something inside of them they knew was there – but did not how to let out as those that ran out the door – shouted back, Say No – Pull back – do less…”

So that was actually 2 things so let’s move to 4 – 🙂 –

Sick – I hate being sick – we did pizza sales this past Saturday success for Repentino! – but not for my stomach – flashback – last year – rafting, overboard, felt like I swallowed half the river , bed _SICK like never before – this time, a year later, since Saturday – feeling like a sword is coming through my stomach, Montezuma’s revenge all through my body – aching, sweaty, nauseous, but not QUITE as bad as last year – amazing I am still alive? – no that is not the amazing part, lol…Kinah patiently waiting ALL day and night for me, as if she knew I was sick, and when I finally managed to CRAWL out the door to walk her, she let it go but had waited all that time until I could go – yes, she is the wonder stray of the year…:) and now tomorrow is Wednesday I head back, a few pounds lighter, but grateful for these four things that carry so many smaller gifts inside them…

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