Tag. I'm It.

Tag. I'm It.

I have been tagged by my blogger buddy, MK, who writes Posts From the Edge. The deal is I am to write 5 things you don't know about me, and then tag 5 more people.

Here are the things you don't know about me:

1. When I was a child, I was an only for awhile, so I had an imaginary friend called "Sister America". We don't hang out much anymore, though.

2.When I was in high school I worked for a non-profit organization called "The Great Lakes Beach Sweep" (just a few hours a week coordinating the event which cleaned up the Beaches of the Great Lakes) and was a 'beach master' of Brighton Beach.

3. I have a pillow that I have had since I was a kid that I call "the hugging pillow." I hug it while I sleep.

4. I had horrible, horrible buck teeth when I was a child.

5. In college I was an RA for now semi-famous football players: Ron Dane and Michael Bennett. I had to go ask them to stop punching holes in the wall in their apartment. I am not kidding.

So I am tagging those who I think will participate: MoldyBlueCheese, Scratching Post, 28th Ave, and TheyStoleMyBike (even though I think she is possibly now writing another, secret blog?):)

Get Out Now

Student projects will be the death of me some day. Last year it was the toxic project that was turned in with blood all over it. The year before that was the photo essay with a student of mine semi-naked in the picture. I should have known better this year.

The current project I am grading is an oral history-the students had to interview an immigrant and compare their story to the turn of the century when immigration to the U.S. was at its height. Oh, yeah, the 1900's must have been when the train ran between Italy and the United States...because my student explains in her paper that, "from Italy, she took the train to New York." It all makes so much sense now...



This is when the large, red light bulb begins flashing and there is the siren sound in my head. The loudspeaker begins to repeat at high volume: "Get out now, leave while you still can. We repeat, get out know, leave with your sanity...."

ALL the lights are on, but...

Is any body out there? Is any body home?

Does any body else think about/worry about our world? I have to admit, I do. A lot. And not just politically, although, that is also a nail biter for me.

I don't talk about it much, but I am always thinking about the physical part of the earth I enjoy so much.

Every time I hear of some funky weather phenomenon, of some chemical accident, of some area being cleared of large trees for more ridiculously large homes, of some wasteful industry practice, I cringe. Information like that presented on the Gore movie makes me upset almost to the point of tears. I am not kidding. I feel physically upset by it.

It is so frustrating to feel like I care, and many times, don't feel like I can do much to make an impact. Yeah, we use a more efficient thermostat in our house, we recycle, we wash and reuse Ziploc bags, we use earth friendly dish detergent, we use heat conserving blinds, we (or husband at least) uses the compact fluorescent light bulbs, and of course we drive our little Honda Civics around.

But what are we really doing? We are still driving, we are still buying stuff, we are still cutting down trees. I still use a ton of electricity while typing on my nice little computer. I still make a lot of trash. I still buy things from Target and other big box stores at times. I still use a lot of water while reveling in the warmth of the shower in the morning. I still will use horrible chemicals if I have to, to get stains out, etc. Ironically, it is the Christmas season that reminds me of a lot of this waste. All the packaging- why do we need all of that plastic? Where does it all go?

A long-time friend of mine, M.K., posted about this today and I was relieved to find someone else thinking about it. I felt the same way when friend S.H. challenged us to an energy challenge recently. I think one of the hardest things about this crisis, is feeling like many people aren't even aware of it, and no one is doing anything about it.

It feels like the elephant in the room that is going to kill us, because people can't seem to get around to focusing on how they are feeding that elephant. Meanwhile it is getting bigger and bigger...

I have to remind myself that really maybe there are just a lot of people out there like me. Really caring about the beautiful spaces they enjoy and live for, but not really knowing how to change this society of ours.

The point is, we really need to start talking. We need to start solving some of these problems, because really it is up to us. No one else is going to drive up in a sparkling brand new SUV and save us from the hard work of it all.

Private vs. Public?

What did your education cost you? After grants and parent aid, what did you pay for college? Has that investment come back to you in income? This article from the New York Times is all about the cost of private colleges compared to that of states universities. Does the benefit of a private college really out weigh the cost?

Either way, as the issue of access to colleges and universities across the country begins to be a major concern, it will be interesting to see how things change around higher education in the United States.

When it rains, it pours.

I have a little bit of hidden talent when it comes to home improvement. I like it and I am not afraid to get a little dirty doing it. My specialties are in the area of fine tuning grout, spackling, and caulking. Husband has also been bringing out some impressive talents, like you can see with the bathroom pictures. He is kind of jack of all trades, with the internet to guide him.


Before And After



Nice, now that it is done, but...


But enough, already! Really, during finals week? I have decided that forced home "improvement' does not carry the same appeal. Bathroom leaks, furnace break down, and garage door collapse. Can we be done now?

All I want for Christmas is no more repair bills!

The Weekend Report

It is Sunday morning with a day of work ahead of me. Ugh. A lot of work is for final exams which are this week, so that is a good feeling. Plus, it isn't so bad doing work at the end of a good weekend. It was a good weekend. I met and talked with former Vice President Walter Mondale on Friday night with husband. That was very interesting, sometimes you forget very famous people are very, very nice people, too. Friday night also included eating Lefse, which is something I haven't done in a long time. Good wine, too.

Yesterday, we got all of our Christmas cards sent off! Yippee! They had been sitting on my desk for the last week, mocking me every day, "you STILL haven't started..." I even went straight to the post office and sent them off yesterday morning. We also bought our Christmas tree at our little local coffee shop, where they deliver for free if you live in the neighborhood. That is good news for Honda Civic owners, although bad news for anyone who wants the tree before 4 hours later. Last year it was faster, but the tree is still nice, even though I have second thoughts about chopping down a good tree just to have one in my house for a month...I am excited about decorating it.

Yesterday also included a walk around our neighborhood lake when the sun was setting. Fun, especially because I found a new house project in the neighborhood to watch the progress of. A house two blocks away has just had the whole top floor wiped off and they are putting an addition on. This spring/summer/fall my obsession was centered around watching a brand new house go up a few blocks north of here. This was on our running route and I loved watching the changes. This one will be fun, although I am not currently running past it. I will try and take a picture to post.

Last night we went out with friends for dinner at a local restaurant that has pretty good food. We were having a great time, until we returned home to find our furnace was not blowing hot air. It just wasn't working- five degrees in the house lower that what it was set at. But that's 'cool', because what is $500 dollars? There is definitely not anything else I wanted to do with that sum. We also found a leak from our bathroom to our basement last night. All around good times. Anyways, the furnace will be fixed tomorrow, it was a warm weekend relatively speaking, and we ended up having a fabulous time last night making cookies to keep the kitchen warm, drinking warm drinks, and hanging out under blankets. Plus, this morning it was only down to 60 degrees in our house. Not bad for a broken furnace.

Finally, Leo and Nora have finally begun to bury the hatchet. Nora is doing her best to keep it alive and well, but things are slowly changing. They are beginning to spend more and more time in the same room, even successfully BOTH sleeping with us upstairs both nights this weekend. It is nice to see Leo not even hiss when she walks right by him. Hopefully that keeps up, because everyone needs snuggle buddies.

Okay, enough procrastination. Grad school work, here I come!

Elevator Maintenance

I realized today that I think of people's emotional capabilities in terms of elevators. Some you only ever get to the second floor with, no matter how long you know them or how you operate your own elevator, you end up with the realization that is where things stop. You get off the elevator, wishing you had taken the stairs.

I'll be honest, an elevator that goes up too fast makes me feel queasy. But an elevator that just stops, or worse, one that returns to the first floor constantly is tedious and really, really boring. A nice, natural rise to the upper floors is what I like. (I also like elevators where I can see out- you can see how far you've come and how great the view is as you go up.)

Amen to those people out there who are real, whose elevators give you access to the "good" floors in good time. Your elevators make life worth riding up and down.

A good time last night and this afternoon; a tremendous relief from the 'box'. Dynamic people are so great to know. Kind, funny, flexible, and just down right interesting individuals bring out the best in all of us. They revel in the less-than-perfect and the more-than-enough of life. They don't compare themselves to others, they don't judge, they don't label. They are just out there living their lives, doing the best they can without worrying about perfection, because they know the secret: you only live it once. Your elevator works better the more you use it.

Grandpa

A friend's Grandfather died today. A man I never met, but through my friend, knew he must have been an amazing person that without, the world is a little less of a beautiful place. It is so hard to let go of that person who is your history and who for so long was your future. My heart goes out to one of the most caring people I know, it is so sad to know that he experiencing such a deep personal loss.

My Grandpa died unexpectedly the weekend before I started my first teaching job. He had been my absolute favorite, favorite. I had also always been his. Every summer he had watched me trap bugs, look for bunny holes, hide in the "woods" behind the house, and then at night, after being forced to take a bath I would watch the Cubs play on TV with he and my Grandma. As I got older, every August I would make the trip down to trim his front yard bushes and work in his garden. He called me his "favorite little boy", because he said he often didn't really know if I was a girl with how "tough" I was.

I took the second day of school off to go to the funeral and wrote the following in my head on the drive down, which was then read the next day at the funeral. I was nervous about writing something like this, but I am so glad I did because to this day it is a lasting glimpse of how I remembered him and what his loss felt like at the moment it hit me.

There'’s a saying that goes, “when an old person dies, a library is lost.” Grandpa was
always a source of much information and advice to those around him. As we grew we began
to see the true value of what he had to offer.

As young children, we saw Grandpa as someone you didn'’t dare cross. Although he never
punished us, his gruffness seemed to promise a much worse fate. Grandpa was a man who
listened religiously to the stock quotes on the radio, who played eighteen holes of golf,
and who rode his stationary bike for miles.

As we grew up, Grandpa became less mysterious and much more real to us. He began to
express his love for the family that surrounded him. He was the man who sat outside at
dusk, who walked around the yard and watered his flowers, and who made neat inventions in
the backyard. Grandpa seemed to have an infinite amount of knowledge about many
different things. We began to understand what a unique and interesting person we had for
a grandfather.

As we got older, Grandpa offered stories of his life and we began to see him as someone
who was once young himself. Sitting at the kitchen table, watching him play cards or
just talking to him, was no longer a chore, but a special time. He wasn’'t moving so fast
anymore, but he still always had his two cents to contribute to just about any
conversation. He knew and could tell you exactly what he thought was right and wrong.

As life began to speed up even more for us, a chance to sit at the kitchen table became
even more valuable. Even though Grandpa still made his daily trip to the Post Office, it
became harder for him to make it to the bank or the coffee shop. Although he was a man
of the twenty-first century, now playing solitaire on the computer and checking his
email, he was taking life more slowly. Now when we left there were always hugs and
kisses- a side we hadn'’t seen as kids. He also began to offer more jokes and the much
appreciated “"beer money"”.

Most recently, Grandpa had become someone with a lively engine but a broken down body-
he was a young man in an old man'’s shell. He was never one to be too sentimental and
believed that when you were done, you were done. He had seen many seasons pass from the
kitchen window at 915 Brinton Avenue and was ready to move on to where no one could take
away his damn driver’s license. Grandpa left us with many reminders. One of the most
important being: to enjoy your life and to accept when you’'ve played your last card .

Actions from the Heart

"Keep in mind the true meaning of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good."
-Ann Landers

"People love others not for who they are but for how they make us feel."
-Irwin Fedeman

"At the hour of death, when we come face to face with God, we are going to be judged on love- not how much we have done, but how much love we have put into our actions."
-Mother Theresa

Great Stories

"The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably... They are as familliar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't. In the way that you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won't. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, and who doesn't. And yet you want to know again."

-Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things