Chris O’Riley – Black Star

I absolutely love the hustle and the bustle of Los Angeles. And although the decision to become a teacher came relatively late (approximately halfway through my senior year of college), I can say that the idea of living in a major metropolitan area was one dream that I’d had for far longer.

Yet, despite my continuing love affair with the city Woody Allen once described as a place “where the only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light”, I find that I do need respite from time to time, a quick “coming up for air” in the madness that is teaching at Johnnie Cochran Jr. Middle School.

Luckily, this happened to be the weekend that the young adult group (yes, I suppose I’m still considered young adult…though for how much longer, who knows?) from my church, Bel Air Presbyterian, made its annual retreat to Forest Home in the Ojai Valley. Carpetball, hiking, human foosball, great food, campfire, S’mores, ultimate Frisbee, unsanctioned games of ping pong pelt, and getting to know many folks at my church quite a bit better made the weekend absolutely wonderful.

The best part was that my fears of not being able to work on Saturday on stuff for the upcoming school week (a practice that I’ve been at since school began in September) were quite unfounded in that I easily was able to finish all my “stuff” on Sunday afternoon. Yay!

How about you all? Where do you escape to? Where do you retreat to? Where/how do you revive?

Johnny Cash – Were You There?

Sometimes you’ve just got to hear it from the man in black.