Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Summer Packets

I went to school today to complete the summer homework and information packets. Kristen and I worked together to get this last piece of the year done. I am now completely finished with this year! Rose joined me yesterday at school. You can see the mess that is my desk behind her.
On the way home, I walked through Fresh Pond and saw the land restoration project on the north side that I had not seen before. It was absolutely lovely. Lots of meadow flowers and cattails. I have no idea why I like cattails so much, but I do. Also some lovely blue-purple flowers. Corn flowers?

Monday, June 29, 2009

Memories of Bryn Mawr

How do you grow a pineapple in Boston?
On my walk yesterday, I passed by the garden at Radcliffe College that has always reminded me of a special place I used to spend many hours at Bryn Mawr College. The Taft Garden is located behind the building in which I spent quite a few hours freshman year. I took an archaeology course and found some wonderful egg-shaped, sleep-inducing chairs in a reading library where I spent many hours "studying." The garden was one of the most peaceful spots on campus and the reflecting pool was especially nice in hot weather. One time a fellow student and I decided to skip class, The History of Democratic Authority, and discuss the reading on our own in this lovely spot. It was too nice a spring day to stay indoors and plow through Marx and Hegel, so instead we did so in the shade of flowering trees and serenaded by the splash of the fountain. Upon returning to Haverford, we found out that class had been cancelled.

I have heard that some Mawrters used the pool after hours for more natural interactions with the environment. At Haverford we used the locked, fenced faculty pool for illicit swimming.

The one in Radcliffe was just remodeled and looks beautiful. It is surrounded by beds of irises which are in the last stages of blooming. A lovely, stone-filled fountain graces one end, and trees and benches line the sides. It is right next to a busy road, so some noise comes in, but it is a nice spot nonetheless.
I photomerged four images to create this shot. Probably should have take pictures of the corners to really make a good merge.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Worthy of Fail Blog

I was looking at our Netflix account to see if my student had returned the movie I used in class when she was absent. Odd Girl Out is a very powerful movie about peer pressure, cliques, cyber bullying and much more, and it doesn't glamorize it as many recent movies have. Anyway, it was not returned. While skimming the suggestions, I just couldn't help copying this one for your pleasure in the sense of the absurd:

Because you enjoyed:
Grave of the Fireflies

I really don't get the connection between the two of them.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

About to turn the calendar

Well, the big wave has passed leaving bizarre assemblages such as boats parked on top of houses. Perhaps not a tsunami, but my life for the last few months has been a force of nature, nonetheless. I have written end-of-year progress reports, gone through a job search process ending up remaining where I am and happy about that, taken my sixth graders to New York City, and fought a pretty persistent illness all the while. I am sure there are other things in there that escape memory right now, but it has been full--full enough to force me to take a break from blogging. I am back, hopefully to the daily level if not weekly.

Here are a few videos and images from the interregnum (yes, there was no king in my head during this time)

Rose has learned how to manage food not already cut up into bite sized pieces. It helps that all four of her front teeth are there. She is currently working on independence in holding her own drinking bottle. In this video, Rose chomps on asparagus, one of her favorite foods right now.


This spring has been glorious. It is amazing how people in Boston ritually complain about there being no or a very short spring. While much of it is obscured by the cold and rainy weather that follows the interminable, and this year snow-filled, winter, spring arrives with the gradual swelling of the tree buds. It is about this time that I really begin to get excited, and the process of life erupting from that moment took months and only just ended with the heat of summer. Flowers are still blooming, and nature is happening. Spring, this year, was glorious. Roses, in particular, had a great season.

The previous owners did very little to maintain the outside property. I have yet to tackle it this spring, see above reasoning, and the result is a wild mixture of intentional and wild plants. A few stray tulips and other flowers mix in with a dense spread of wildflowers along the driveway before it is taken over by the spectacular rose bushes that I spent quite a bit of time last year taming. I especially love the blue-eyed grass.Before we left for our week vacation, the roses were just about ready to bloom. Sprays of buds promised a richness resulting from the pruning I gave them last year.
Rose decided to change up her very convenient sleeping pattern. Formerly 6 to 6 was almost a guarantee except when she was ill. However, a few nights of screaming from 6 to 9 or waking up to screams in the middle of the night convinced us that things, indeed, fall apart, and we have only just begun to see if the center has returned let alone whether or not it can hold.
In the midst of all of this, we took off for Atlantic City. We left the day after professional days were finished at both of our schools and drove to stay at Reena's dad's place by the sea. This is a 180 degree photo stitch of the view from the boardwalk nearby. Click on it for a larger version.We had fun being in and outside. Rose seemed to have the same amount of amusement from this mechanical toy in a country store located in the midst of a casino complex. It was fun to poke around Atlantic City.

We then arrived in Philly to stay with Reena's dad and visit friends and family. Reena's blog will probably highlight visits with Michael and Wendy, her grandparents, and her cousin. This trip, we made sure to create time for visits with Emily & Eliza and the Speer/Zisook household. Rose took quite easily to Emily which was wonderful. Rose has developed a case of not wanting to be held by strangers (again).Eliza showed Rose how to make sounds with a beer bottle, and she cooked us one of her wonderful meals. We had mushroom soup with yummy bread. Their new house is wonderful and smack in the middle of the neighborhood in which I lived after college. I love the atmosphere there.Rose played with Leo at Jim and Helene's house where we got another amazing meal of quiche and fixings! yummy.During dinner, Rose loved to hold hands with Leo, but he got a bit tired of it by the time I got my camera out.When we arrived home, we saw that the roses in the driveway had burst into bloom. Now, I have started my summer list, made a dent on cleaning up my office, and started to wrap my head around priorities. One of those is to stretch daily and get back in shape a bit. I sign off now to see if I can still touch my toes before I go to bed.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

And back to the cradle

This summer, I am visiting St. Louis for the first time in two years. Back to the cradle indeed. Home will always at least a little mean St. Louis and especially University City. I had hoped to get some All Star tickets, but they were bought up by professional ticket sellers who are reselling them at $370 minimum for standing room only tickets. A little steep for our budget. It is too bad, and I am sure there are many fans who would love to go but can't afford these crazy prices. I do have tix for some games the next weekend. That should be fun.

It will also be great to see friends and family and the places that carry a bit of my soul.

back in the cradle

Yup, the receiver has been replaced, the beeping is over. The one job outside my school that caught my interest called today and told me that I was out of the running. Not the most fun call to get, but now I have direction for next year.

I don't yet have full perspective on what I got out of this process to end up where I was, but I am sure I ended up here with more than I started. Appreciation for what I have, humility, more reasons to be tired. I dunno.

I am back in the cradle.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Busy signal

One of those soon-to-be anachronisms: the busy signal. I remember when someone would accidentally knock a receiver off the hook or just not put it on squarely in the cradle. That loud, penetrating noise would fill the house and people would shout to get it turned off. It was obnoxiously loud in a time and place when such beeps were not yet part of our everyday life. I also remember the ritual for cutting ourselves off from the outside world. When we wanted no disturbance, and I really can't remember why that might have been, the receiver was taken off the hook and put under a pillow until the busy signal ceased.

There might even be people reading this blog who have never encountered the busy signal. I don't even think cell phones can produce such a loud and invasive sound, but possibly that is my memory when electronic noises did not intrude as they do today. I write this post in front of my computer as it whirs and the voice of my baby carries to me over the wireless connection of the monitor. At least there are many birds outside adding to my soundscape.

Today, however, there seemed to be a busy signal running through my brain. I am waiting to hear from the jobs for which I have interviewed. Do they want me? That vulnerable thought has pulsed through my brain stealing my focus and completely distracting me from work that I need to do when Rose is down for naps and now for a night of sleep. Well, she is not down yet, but she is in her crib happily ehhing and burbling away. She'll nod off soon.

Do they want me?

So I'll eat some junk food, watch some movie, and eventually try to take notes on student work.

Do they want me?

I am not good at this part of the process. I'll try to find some mental and emotional pillow to stuff over me while the busy signal continues.