Issa Kalil:  

Life In 2008 I will have been married now 26 years to Oralia (Farias) with 4 children; two girls and two boys. Daughters are Vivian - 23 and Gabriela (Gabby) - 17; sons are Joshua (Josh) - 20 and Nicholas (Nick) - 13. Vivian is a graduate of University of North Texas; Josh is a junior at Auburn University; Gabby is a senior in high school and Nick is an 8th grader in middle school. Since graduation from college (Auburn) in 1980, I have been living in the Houston, Texas area (suburbs). For the last 17 years we have lived in Sugar Land (southwest of Houston). Our family has been active in our local church since 1986. All four of the kids have accepted Christ as their personal savior and been baptized at our local church. Josh is in the College of Business at Auburn studying Aviation Management (Professional Flight path) in search of a career flying airplanes. Besides the school work, he keeps himself busy with intramural (co-ed) soccer, the Campus Crusade for Christ and his college group at his Church. Vivian graduated from UNT on 10 May 2008 with her BS degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies. To add to the excitement, Vivian married Mr. Bryan Knox on 24 May 2008 and will be living in the Dallas area. I guess that means one less dependent on my 1040 form. Gabby is our socialite with activities planned weekly. Fortunately for us, she has her driver's license and is able to get to where she needs to be on her own. She'll be busy with the high school dance team in her senior year. Looks like mom and dad will be making a few road trips to watch her perform and compete. Keeps us busy and 'young'. Nick loves baseball and would like to be out of school (says it's too boring - for a middle-schooler) and start his career. My wife, Oralia, keeps busy with her car-pooling duties, school volunteering, women's bible study and home decorating. Additionally, she works outside the home four days a week ... hard to catch each other 'still' some times. Since the beginning of 2003, I made a significant change in my work life and started working from home. After 22 years in the corporate environment (Exxon and Halliburton), I partnered with four fellow colleagues and became a minority owner of a consulting firm catering to the upstream oil industry as an oil/gas well design expert. Consequently, there have been some shake-ups at the home front for Oralia and the kids. I have gone from a sometimes at home dad to an almost always-at-home dad. The transition has been interesting. My parenting techniques have been put to the test often these last five plus years (hard to make-up for the absentee status that the eldest experienced for nearly 17 years of her life). Although my parents and siblings live out-of-state (California), we fortunately have Oralia's parents and sisters here in the Houston area to provide our family with some support system. It's nice to have 'family' to lean on during times of testing and stress. That's about all for now. I'll have to update in the future. School These many years later, several teachers' names stand out in my memory ... they are Mrs. Smith; Mrs. Yeaton; Mrs. Tringas; Sra. Caballaro; Mr. Voit; Mr. Cotton; Mr. Wadsworth; and Coach Hendersen. A special memory comes to mind with each of these teachers. I recall Mrs. Yeaton's enfactuation with Teddy Roosevelt and John Maynard Keynes. There was Mrs. Tringas' effort to ensure that we would never succomb to the evils of Cuban communism (now was that socialism, communism, totalitarianism ... I have a hard time with all the 'isms'). I'm sure my buddies Mike Liddle and John Jarvis will never let me forget how I so 'happily' volunteered the information that I had allowed people (not to be named) to cheat off me on a quiz which Mrs. Smith queried me about ... alls well that ends well. I recall tutoring these 'people' and having them outscore me on a subsequent test! Then there was the often repeated phrase ... "Issa sientese and quedate callado por favor" in Sra. Caballaro's class (translated to Issa please sit down and keep quiet). In Mr. Voit's class, I recall my first experiment with 'barium sulfate' deposition and the wonders of the 'mystery' of chemistry as he proceeded to lecture on the 'hunt' for a viable theory was liken to an investigator's search for what might have caused destruction to a lodge (apparently the evidence pointed to a loose moose) ... then there was the sadness of losing a classmate that junior year who took chemistry a little too far with manufacturing of a home-made pipe explosive ... we lost Gary Self that year in a tragic accident. In Mr. Cotton's class I did my very best to become completely conversant in the plant and animal kingdoms with their phyla, genera and species. It was pretty tough learning all the biological data and trying to relate these to some 'macro evolution'. I swore I would excel in the subject even though I detested the theory of evolution and simply know in my heart that all things living and inanimate were simply created fully-developed. Seems that I recall Mr. Cotton accepting my position as long as I scored well on the tests. Then there was the wonderful Mr. Wadsworth for Trigonometry and Math Analysis. I just loved sitting in his class. He was so patient with all his students and seemed as concerned if not more so with developing our maturity as with instructing us in mathematical concepts. My very first recollection of Gulf Breeze High School was as a transfer to Florida from Missouri as a freshman in 1971. I had just completed the eighth grade in a St. Louis Jr. High and was going to enter the ninth grade in that Jr. High as the 'big fish in the pond' (Senior High began in the 10th grade). Instead, we moved to Gulf Breeze (dad worked for Monsanto in St. Louis and transferred to the Pensacola plant) and now 9th graders were simply graduates of the Middle School and the 'minnows in the ocean of High School'. So, nobody knew me or my elder sister as we entered High School that year. After 'home room', I remember walking over to the recently completed gym area and approaching a couple of male coaches near the entrances to the Boys and Girls locker rooms. I asked this rather tall and lanky coach if he could please direct me to Coach "what's her name" (can't remember the name of our women's coach after all these years -- Endland?). After about a minute of laughter shared by these two coaches, I asked what the fuss was all about as I would be late reporting to my PE class. They pointed out the error in that the administration thought 'Issa' was a female and had assigned me to the girls' gym. I told Coach Hendersen that was OK and that I looked forward to the showers. The laughter stopped and I was led to my locker room by the less than impressed Coach. Seems my humor never improved much after that. College I spent my first two years of college at Pensacola Jr. College (PJC as it was affectionately referred to). During my Freshman year, together with my parents and elder sister, I became a naturalized citizen of the US. In the summer following my Freshman year, my parents up and moved away to sunny California. I remained in Florida as a co-renter with my sister, Alicia, in her apartment with her roomma...Expand for more