Yesterday the copies of Juan Carlos' first book arrived in the mail. While it's not a book that will top (or even make the bottom) of the bestseller lists, it is still quite an accomplishment for him and one that I think he is still a bit surprised about. As someone who has lived with JC while the manuscript was being written and who watched him go through the editing process, I find it incredible that anyone has the patience to write books, let alone try to make a living doing it. It is grueling, painstaking work. And the editing! Oh, my friends, the EDITING. So here it is:
I have mentioned before how extremely lucky I was to marry JC, for just about every reason imaginable. But one thing I have always admired and envied is his motivation to work and to set aside what he wants in order to do what needs to be done. I don't think I have ever had to ask him to do anything, he just gets things done. There are only two people that I have seen work like JC works, and one of them is his mother. So I guess he comes by it naturally. At times I can get in a mood and complain about how much work I have, but then I just look at Juan Carlos and it makes me shut up immediately.
Juan Carlos is in Spain right now doing a presentation for a university that has an exchange program with Stonehill, and when he arrived they surprised him with a newspaper interview. He was pretty nervous but it turned out to be a good experience for him.
This has been such a trial for him and such a ghastly amount of work, but something that has helped him grow and develop as a scholar and a writer. I am not going to say I am in any hurry for him to start another book, but I appreciate what an accomplishment this is for him. And I am very proud to be his wife.
It was my singular opportunity to travel with a group of Model United Nations students to a conference this weekend. It has turned out to be a fun and enlightening experience! We had a bit of a complication because the state of Rhode Island has decided that any child that wants an H1N1 vaccine has to get it through the school and only on the day that the state decrees for the distribution of the vaccine. You don't show up that day, you don't get it. Our day was the day after we were to have left for the conference. So of course half the team had to stay, get their shots, and join us halfway through the conference. It has been a great exercise in resiliency. We had a few frustrated moments with the kids who arrived late and didn't know what was going on once they got to their committe sessions, but most everyone has caught up now and is having a good time. We did get to take a tour of a nearby university yesterday, which was very nice. Can you tell where we are from this picture?
It has been fun to watch the kids as they reenact the International Criminal Tribunal in Rwanda, discuss and propose resolutions to world issues, and deal with legal issues involved in international dispute. They even have sessions where they wake them up at 1 in the morning and they have to go deal with crisis situations, like wars breaking out or political assassinations and their aftermath. I have never been remotely interested in politics, domestic or otherwise, but I have to admit that it's great to see that there are young people around who are. And now I know why when kids get back from the Model UN trips they are always totally dead in class. Well, we are going home tomorrow and at least there are only two days before Thanksgiving break.
Most of my friends know I am not a very emotional person. I always say I got it all out in my teenage years and early twenties. It's not to say that I don't have emotions--I just don't like it when they take control. Mostly I keep them on the back burner. However, every few years those pesky feelings do come out and force me to acknowledge them. I am having one of those times right now. One of the things that has always affected me emotionally and also helped me to deal with emotion has been music, and in particular, participating in music making. Maybe it is the control you have to have to create something beautiful with your voice or with an instrument, but it has always been an emotional outlet for me and something I have loved for as long as I can remember. The holiday season is coming up and I am getting ready for the holiday concerts that I will be doing with the Boston Pops. I think it will be good to get into the spirit of the season; however, most of my holiday performances in the past have been more religiously focused. I think this one will be less so, although I plan to enjoy it regardless. I have also been spending a lot of time at the piano lately going through many of my favorites, and it is wonderful to get in touch with them again, like spending time with old friends.
I have been listening to some pieces lately that have really touched me emotionally over the years and are very healing music. The first is O Magnum Mysterium, a Christmas piece by Morten Lauridsen that I sang in college. No matter how terrible I feel, this piece always makes me feel better, and usually more peaceful. This version is the Brussels Chamber Choir and they do a lovely job for such a small group.
Latin text
O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
jacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.
English translation
O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!
The second is called The blue bird, by Mary E. Coleridge and C.V. Stanford. The choir at my school is learning this one right now and we always hear them practicing during my Spanish 3 class. It is particularly nice to listen to while taking a quiz! This version is the Boys Air Choir. This song is gorgeous and boys' voices just add another dimension of ethereality. The words are not life-changing or sentimental, but the combination of voice and words is very calming.
"The blue bird"
Mary Coleridge (1861-1907)
The lake lay blue below the hill,
O'er it, as I looked, there flew
Across the waters, cold and still,
A bird whose wings were palest blue.
The sky above was blue at last,
The sky beneath me blue in blue,
A moment, ere the bird had passed,
It caught his image as he flew.
Be aware that neither of these pieces are going to motivate you to get up and go run a marathon or change the world, but they may bring you a sense of peace and tranquility for a few minutes, as they do me. And these days I really need it.
Today in one of my classes the kids had an assignment to speak for two minutes in Spanish about one of their most memorable days, without using any notes or prompts. Their grammar and pronunciation is graded as well as the content and the development of their topic. Usually this assignment causes quite a bit of consternation and nerves, and today was no exception. However, this year I have a group of kids who, for the most part, really like to talk and share. They are all good friends with each other and feel little to no hesitation talking about themselves and their lives. I am really enjoying them and we have had some amazing talks about everything from swine flu to whether it is possible to love someone too much, or even debating immigration policy in the United States. I look forward to that class every day.
Anyway, back to the assignment. When you teach school you do get to know the kids pretty well, but you do only have them for 50 minutes a day, and there is a lot that goes on in their lives that you are not a part of (and that is generally a good thing!) So today I learned some things about my students that really expanded my vision of who they are as people, and not just as students.
1. One student talked about going to the baseball game where the Boston Red Sox finally won the World Series after 86 years. He talked about sitting and cheering with his dad and how everyone went out into the streets afterwards and were hugging and kissing each other. We asked if he kissed anyone and he laughed and said "posiblemente".
2. Another student talked about visiting Israel and climbing the plateau to visit Masada. She talked about how much it meant to her to be in Israel and to explore her Jewish heritage. She mentioned how difficult the climb was and what a spectacular view it was from the top and how it was an experience that would affect her whole life.
3. One girl shared her experience of writing and directing a Christmas Eve play for her church and how it was so hard for her because she is not a playwright or a director and how she did not have a lot of support. She wanted to do something nice for the children of the congregation and so she took the initiative to write and put on this play, which was very well received and will be repeated this year.
4. Another of my students is a very gifted musician and he talked about giving his first full piano concert at the Blithewold mansion in Bristol. He talked about how nervous he was and shared the worst thing that happened that night--a piano duet in which his partner turned two pages of the score at once and so they had a little bit of a crash and burn. It was such a success, however, that he has done repeat concerts every subsequent year.
5. A girl talked about a time when she was younger when she and her mother and three brothers left Rhode Island to go on vacation to Florida. She knew something was off about it and sure enough they stayed in Florida for two years. She talked about living in a one-bedroom apartment with her three brothers and mom because living in Rhode Island was too expensive. She talked about how she did not feel the economic difference and never thought twice about wearing the same clothes over and over again. The climate in Florida was not good for her health, though, and eventually things improved enough so that they could rejoin her dad in Rhode Island. I think this was something that a lot of people didn't know about her.
These are just a few of the experiences I heard about today. Now, I can complain a lot about teaching and sometimes I think I chose a very difficult career path. And some days I feel like I should have gone into a field of work that doesn't take over your life so totally. But on days like today I look at who these young people are and who they are becoming and I am, frankly, enchanted.
I wrote about 9th graders last year at around this time and how awesome I think they are. I have two classes with a lot of 9th graders again this year and I started off the new year thinking that maybe it was just a nice group of kids that I had last year and not so much the age.
Well folks, it is confirmed, I just love 13 and 14 year olds, which is weird because my mother swears 13 is the year she wanted to slit her wrists with all of us when we were growing up. It must also be said it was not the best year to live through, however, I remember being a much bigger brat at 15.
Anyway, the first day in class we go over tips for doing well in class, and number one is always "Lose your fear!" The biggest challenge for a language teacher is to actually get the students to speak voluntarily. The first few days are awkward and I swear they all think I'm a lunatic with all the playacting I do in the first few days, but after a couple of weeks everyone gets into the swing of things. After all, if the teacher is acting like an idiot, then it must be ok, right?
Going back to 13....do you remember being 13? How awkward, how uncertain, how hyper-conscious you were about what everybody thought about you? I do. Think back...if a teacher had told you "Lose your fear!", you probably would have thought, "this teacher is obviously psychotic"; at least, I know I would have, just before collapsing into a pile of tormented social anxiety on the floor.
Anyway, my 9th graders last year did a great job losing their fear, which is why I loved them so much. I am happy to say that this year's 9th graders have embraced the motto as well! They speak in Spanish to me all the time and when there is a massive breakdown in language (and there are a lot) they don't let it get to them. Sometimes it sounds like gibberish, sometimes they get halfway through and get stuck and have to finish in English. But they are not afraid. They stick with it, they have fun with it. They TRY. And they laugh when they make mistakes and then they try again.
So, as a teacher who finished the last school year at the beginning of June I should be feeling totally rested and rejuvenated and ready to go for a new school year, right?
Since I have had 10 weeks of no teaching, I should be excited and anticipating the new year with alacrity, yes?
I wish.
Today as I was wildly putting together AP binders and student-parent contracts and syllabi I wondered where on earth my summer went. It was supposed to be the first summer I didn't do any major travel, so it was going to be nice and relaxing. At least that was the plan.
June 9th-June16th: I went to Cincinnati, OH and graded about 800 AP Spanish tests. Ok, maybe not 800, but it felt like that many, at least. Eight hours a day of grading for 7 straight days. Now and then some very funny stuff, but mostly listening to bad Spanish and rethinking my career choice!
June 17th-30th: I found out that a colleague and I received a grant from the Rhode Island teacher's association to create a teaching unit. So we started creating forms, setting up interviews, begging for equipment and mapping out the plan project.
July 7th-14th: Lovely trip to North Carolina to visit friends and see if it is really as wonderful as I remember. It is.
July 15th-21st: Non-stop filming for teaching unit project.
July 22-August 4th: Visit from my mother and four sisters from out west. We had a great time and gallivanted all over New England. Made the vow that I will never drive through Boston again.
August 5th-14th: Catch up interviews and review of footage for project. Realization that our primary interview footage is totally unusable and that we need a new video camera to redo some of the interviews.
August 19th-23rd: My first performance at Tanglewood. I went to rehearsal Thursday and drove back 2.5 hours to meet Juan Carlos, who had been in Spain for the previous month. Spent Friday the 21st together, then I drove back 2.5 hours again to Tanglewood for the orchestra rehearsal and performance on Sunday.
August 25th: Went back to school for pre-year meetings.
So it turned out not to be the summer I had envisioned, and I face the school year a little less rested than I had hoped. Since I am trying to focus on the positive, though, I just look forward to next summer and tell myself it's not as far away as I think.
May is an unbelievably crazy month for both JC and me. Final classes, final exams and final grades all make an appearance and all the extracurricular stuff is going on so we never know who is actually going to be in class from day to day. Add on top of that test makeups and extra help and by the end of the day we have no recollection of any of our actions. At home we are trying to write said exams and reevaluate lesson plans to fit the smaller amount of time that we now have in class due to all the craziness. JC is editing his book manuscript as well, and our church callings take up a large amount of time, so we are pretty much spoken for from 6am to 10pm every day. Our house looks like a bomb hit it and last night I found myself washing dishes at 11pm because we had run out of silverware. Don't even get me started as to why we needed silverware at 11pm. We look at each other sometimes and ask each other did we really choose to do this as a career? If so we were stark raving mad.
What does my dog have to do with all of this? Well, she is around all day, wondering why she is not getting the walks that she usually does and why we are not giving her the attention that we usually do. I have a great dog. A really great dog. The other day a Verizon repairman stood on our doorstep with the door open to the street for an hour (while we were simultaneously trying to listen to him, eat dinner, feed the dog and get ready to go to a church activity) and she just sat there, cool as you please, for the whole hour, not even thinking about jumping on him or running out the door. My dog also sleeps most of the time (awesome) and never chews on ANYTHING except her chew toys. She never gets up on furniture unless invited, even when we are not around. She stays in her bed in the morning until we are good and ready to get up and take her out (it must be said we are almost always ready before she is). She is always eager to meet another person or dog, and generally is happy all the time. So you can see why we might feel like she deserves a lot more time and attention than we are able to give her in May and selective other times during the year.
We have tried really hard to do everything dog-related ourselves in order to save money and not turn into those crazy dog people that treat their dogs like people, but we finally gave in and took Luna to a doggie day care this week, because she does have needs that we were obviously not taking care of.
The day care is in Attleboro, MA, where we lived for a year. We were not too happy in Attleboro when we lived there, but then we moved to Pawtucket and now we WISH we could move back to Attleboro. It is a little out of the way for us, but well worth it. The staff is wonderful and they even carry the hard-to-find dog food that we give Luna. That alone is worth the price. They have an indoor and an outdoor play area and a large dog and small dog enclosure. And the best thing of all is that they have a streaming webcam so you can check on your dog any time. (Maybe I should say the worst thing, because who would want to do work when they can watch a room full of dogs playing?)
Yesterday was Luna's first day and when she came home she lay down and conked out for the rest of the day. Astonishing! Once I finished my 11pm dishwashing she finally looked at me like, "What are we doing still up? It's bedtime!" So I finally feel like even though we had a crazy busy day, so did she, and hers was considerably more fun than mine!!!
My dad always gave me a hard time about watching musicals. He actually secretly likes some of them too, but I guess he thought it was his responsibility to let me know that people don't really go around bursting into song. What? They don't?! Why ever not? I always laughed it off and continued watching and loving musicals. Well, I guess there are some people like me in the world after all, and they are trying to fix the problem. Believe me, if the world were like this, I would already be in heaven.
I was feeling sad after the LDS General Conference a couple of weeks ago, because the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is doing such great things and I wish I could still be with them sometimes. Also, one of my friends from BYU Concert Choir was just appointed to be the assistant director, so he is leaving Boston and going back to Utah and I have been feeling a little bit jealous. I don't like having bad feelings but I did get into a bit of a bad mood over all of this. Juan Carlos said exactly what I needed to hear: music should make me happy and not miserable. He was right and I decided that I really needed to start singing again and do it here and not live in the past. Unfortunately all the choirs around here want you to pay to sing with them. I am also prideful enough that I don't want to sing in a crappy choir. (I know, it's a bit snobby!)
Anyway, I decided to try out for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, which is the chorus that sings with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops. It was a crazy drive into Boston, but JC kept his cool and we got there in time. As I was listening to the other auditionees I was wondering what I had gotten myself into, because it was obvious these were serious singers. All I had to do was sing the song I had prepared--which is easy compared to the Motab audition! But it has been three years since I did any real singing so I still had plenty of nerves, and those of you who know me know my nerves are of gargantuan proportions when I am singing solo. I chose a Brahms for my audition and I felt like it went well, although I am not sure how good my German is! Afterwards John Oliver (the conductor) started asking me questions about the song and he said he had played it before and how it was one of his favorites of Brahms. I hoped that was a good sign. But still, it's the Boston Symphony! So I didn't really expect to get in.
Well, yesterday I found out that I DID!!!! It's a little unbelieveable at this point but I am sure the rehearsal schedule will bring me back to reality soon. The summer season was just published and looks wonderful. I seriously can't believe it. I am excited to get back to singing. And while it's no Motab, I think it will be a close second!
Believe it or not, I really am still trying to work on my nothing wall. Unfortunately it takes a lot of time to try and find the right thing, so it is still moving very slowly. My friends know how indecisive I am, so I think this is why Lara took matters into her own hands and just sent me what I needed, at least for one part of my living room. I am so grateful to have such an inspired and thoughtful friend:
Aren't they awesome? I was so thrilled to get these miniature opera posters in the mail--all I had to do was frame them! I would never have found anything as perfect--I can't even find sheet music in this area so I wouldn't have even dreamed something like this was possible. Anyway, Lara wins a prize even though this was not for the nothing wall. Lara--watch your inbox for your fabulous prize....
Now I bet you are all REALLY hoping I pick your idea for the Nothing Wall!!!
Okay, so almost TWO years after we moved in, we are finally getting around to decorating our house. We got all the painting done at Christmas and a few other things going in the last month or two:
Pardon the pile of trash on the table!
Sue, there is a special something for you in these two!!!!
Anyway, here is the problem. I have no idea what to put on walls in the first place, so I copied things from other people's houses that I like and so far, so good. But I have one big, empty wall and no idea what to do with it. More sconces? Pictures? Paintings? Leave it empty? Hang a plant? Something more creative? This is where I am a total incompetent. I just don't know. And if I don't do something, it will be Christmastime again before I make a decision. (And don't think I don't know how much like my Mom that makes me!)
So, to the point!!! I am in need of decorative genius and I am calling on all of my friends and acquaintances for assistance. What do YOU think I should do with my Nothing Wall? Post an idea in the comment section below before next Wednesday (3/4) and if I use your suggestion you will win a prize!!!!! And I promise it will be better than the ¡Fantástico! pencils I give my students. I can't wait to hear your ideas.
Tonight we were watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog show while we were grading papers. We were watching the hound group and one of these came up to be judged:
I was so surprised because I know my blog is pretty boring most of the time--I don't have cute kids or interesting hobbies that I write about. So I feel very proud, especially since Lara is the blog meister. Anyway, with this award I have to talk about 5 things that I love and tag 5 other blogs that I love. So here goes:
1. Middle school literature. I love love love it. Maybe it's the freshness and open possibilities, but I just can't get enough.
2. Science fiction/Fantasy movies or books. Again, can't get enough. Maybe I have problems with reality.
3. My 13 nieces and nephews. I continually harrass my brothers and sisters for photos.
4. Fleece. I am really and truly obsessed.
5. My job, where I get to act like a total idiot every day and get paid for it. (Except for when grades are due, and then I hate it passionately)
I am bequeathing this award to the following blogs:
1. Daily Symphony by Erin Leithead. I met Erin in North Carolina and she was such a good friend to me. She moved back to Utah and I was very bummed. It turned out great for her, but not so great for me! Erin has so many interesting things that she posts about, from life with her two adorable little girls to programs that she finds online or recipes that she recommends. I love her blog and I wish she didn't live in SEATTLE. (Honestly, can you GET farther away from Rhode Island?)
2. Gorgeous Georges by Susanna George. Sue does the best in my family at posting pictures of the kids. She also has like 1 million friends so the comment section on her blog is always packed with fun responses. I check every day to see how my little niece and nephews are doing.
3. Gobblin Market by Emma Forsyth. I am giving Emma this award as an encouragement because she has been EXTREMELY lax about posting in the last year and I am in revolt. I loved reading about the books she is reading and the scrum-diddly-umptious recipes that she would prepare, describe and demonstrate oh-so-mouthwateringly! Not to mention that she now has a Berner to take pictures of. Get posting already!
4. Witness to Insanity by Stephanie Birkinshaw. Stephanie was one of my companions on my mission in France who literally saved my sanity. She has three adorable boys and I love reading about her adjustment to life with her baby-boy twins Alex and Brady.
5. Give me a few words for a woman to sing by Rachel Porcaro. I don't think I have ever met anyone more real than Rachel. We lived close when we were in North Carolina at graduate school but those darn jobs took us to different states. I miss her and love keeping up by reading her blog.
Next week I will teach my first French class in 9 years. I am TERRIFIED! It has been so long and in that time I have taught only Spanish. JC and I only use French to tell secrets and since we don´t have that many we don´t use French much! I am so used to using Spanish in the everyday that I am a little concerned about getting up in front of a class and trying to run it in a different language. It is very embarrassing to be speaking one language and blurt out something in another. (Yes, I know from experience) Or worse, teach a grammatical principle that applies to the wrong language!
I usually don't make resolutions so this is kind of new for me. I have been thinking a bit about how my life is as opposed to how I want it to be. And I think that is how I have decided what I want to focus on this year. I feel like we just keep working and working and waiting and waiting for our actual life to start, and not focusing on the important things. Let's face it, JC is 41 and I am 34 and as my mother says, we are no spring chickens. When is this "real life" going to start? My mom had 6 kids by the time she was my age and most of my sisters have three or more. That hasn't been how things worked out for JC and me and admittedly we are so busy that perhaps that's how things are supposed to be right now.
Anyway, JC was talking to the dog today, telling her what a good life she had because she doesn't do anything except eat, beg for food and sleep. And I realized that while I have a need to do more than those three things, there were a few things I could learn from my dog's approach to life. So here goes.
1. I will be happy with my life the way it is and not concentrate on all the things that it is not. I know Luna does not sit around thinking, "I wish I had a better life" or "I wish we lived in a bigger house". She is delighted to eat, drink, run, greet, sit and sleep, or watch TV. Whatever people are doing, that's what she wants to do. (although I do suspect she wishes passionately for something to fall on the ground while I am cooking)
2. I will stop worrying about what will or will not happen and live in the moment. Luna doesn't worry about whether she will be fed every day. She is very happy to be fed, but if she misses a meal she doesn't crash down into despair. She moves on and starts scavenging off the floor or out in the park. Disgusting but practical.
3. I will pay more attention to JC. Luna has her eyes on JC every moment. (Mostly because he feeds her contraband but also because he is the center of the universe for her) We are both very independent people , but JC is always taking care of everyone else and I need to be better at taking care of him, especially now that his book is being published and he will be working on his manuscript in addition to his regular teaching. I have seen him make himself sick from exhaustion and I do not want that to happen to him. I had a very bad year last year and JC got me through it. Now it is my turn to get him through a tough year. I never forget how seriously lucky I got when I married him.
So there it is. This life is what I have and it is enough and I am grateful. I guess dogs do have a few things to teach their owners.
The last couple of weeks before school gets out were unusually horrific this year. The time seemed to be flying and yet dragging at the same time. I love my students but I am able to love them better after a little break. Anyway, the first week and a half was taken up by some projects we have been doing around the house.
Here are the before pictures:
Boring, I know. But hey, I can blame it on my staid Mormon upbringing and the fact that my mother never let us paint her house anything but white. However, she did not count on my bold, creative, temperamental and hot-blooded Spaniard husband! Also remember that I am NOT decoratively gifted. I finally just had to stand aside while JC created his vision. Be forewarned: he definitely did not choose white.
And here are the after pictures:
It turned much more, um, bright than I had anticipated and though I didn't love it at first, JC did, so I was happy. I have to admit though, that it is nice to come in out of the cold and the grey that is New England in winter and feel like I am in the south of Spain, so it is growing on me. We did two upstairs rooms as well, but we haven't finished putting those rooms to rights as of yet.
I also have to say that the favorite Christmas gift that we bought this year was.....(drum roll)
A vaccuum cleaner.
It sounds like a very unromantic gift, but after spending the last 18 months scraping dog hair off of the carpets by hand, we both went into ecstasies when we turned on the new vaccuum cleaner and it actually picked up all the dog hair stuck on the carpet. We couldn't be happier, and neither could our backs.
Christmas has always been a favorite time of year for me, not least because of the Christmas break that teachers get. The holiday season has always meant great music, beautiful winter weather, and time with friends and family. Since Christmastime is such a favorite, it is hard for me to understand how Scrooge-ified I have become over the last few years. Maybe it is because I am married to JC and Christmas is not the big she-bang in Spain that it is here. Perhaps it is because that during four of the last five years, we have traveled for Christmas and didn't feel like putting up decorations. Maybe it is because the opportunities for singing at Christmastime are virtually non-existent here, and I am just not getting into the spirit. Or it could be any combination of graduate work, thesis and dissertation-writing, or the fact that we don't have small children around to inspire us. Anyway, We haven't put up a Christmas tree in 5 years, at least. So this year we decided we were going to haul out the tree (fake on top of everything else) and all our old decorations and see what we could do to help ourselves get back on track. I can think of a lot of things that I could have done with the time that it took to move furniture around, put up the tree, find the decorations and get them onto the tree, but we did enjoy talking about the things that we did during Christmases past.
Juan Carlos and I made these the first Christmas we were married. We were living with my parents for a couple of months before they left for Guatemala and we were going to be staying in the house while they were gone. I actually have a picture of us putting the potpourri into the glass balls, but no scanner, so no luck! In my scrapbook I have the picture and pieces of wrapping paper from that first Christmas together, when we wrote each other love notes all over our gifts to each other.
I made these our first Christmas in North Carolina. I am not sure whether we went to Utah to visit that year, but I remember that we were trying to save money so we didn't go too all out for this one. We sat at the kitchen table and JC told me what to put with which flower, (JC is much more artistic than I am and if we disagree on aesthetics, we always go with his decision, since if I decorate it without question always ends up uglier.) and helped me tie them all together.
This year, instead of making ornaments (which, let's face it, we have not a lot of time or talent for), we decided to add to our Christmas village. One thing we have learned living here is that we will probably always need to live near the ocean. So we added a lighthouse this year and a pet store (for obvious reasons but also because it is cute).
Anyway, our tree is a big mess of ornaments but as we said to each other today, at least we have one this year. And we had a great time remembering.
I confess to being an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy. I love it. I am enthralled by it. I am envious of people who can even conceive of alternate worlds, languages or realities, let alone being able to write an understandable and entertaining novel about them. Don't get me wrong, I love the other stuff too, but I have had a passionate relationship with fantasy since I was small. I think the first example I remember was The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm, edited by Lore Segal and illustrated by the wonderful Maurice Sendak. My mother bought me this book when I was 8 or 9 after realizing that if she wanted me out from underfoot, books were the way to go. Anyone who has read the real version of Grimm's fairy tales knows that in addition to being wildly entertaining, they can be very dark, as well. I remember being completely fascinated with Godfather Death, which is perhaps a bit morbid for a 9 year old.
A few other favorites from elementary school and junior high are The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley. McKinley had such an impact on me that to this day I instantly buy anything she writes. She is a wonderful writer for girls of all ages, and she even worked her magic on a boy I once dated and whom I harrassed into reading one of her books.
I remember well two novels by William Sleator that I read while on forced house arrest while living very much against my will in Guatemala. Since it was dangerous for young, American girls to be out on the streets by themselves and since my parents could not afford private school, we were home-schooled for six months and loathed every minute of it. Books became my number one escape. Anyway, I was fifteen at the time and the Sleator books were actually for my little brother, who was 9. I enjoyed them very much anyway, and I still have copies on my own bookshelves. Interstellar Pig is about a boy who gets drawn into an exciting board game with some local tourists involving interstellar wars and conquest (think Risk in space with lots of creatures) and how he reacts when the interstellar wars turn out to be real and Earth is the next planet to be conquered. Singularity is about a teen-aged boy who is resentful of his twin brother who is both popular and condescending. He finds a space warp where time in the warp is faster than in the regular world. He gets the idea to spend a night in the time warp (one year in warp time) so that he will be older than and therefore less a victim of his self-centered brother. Very appropriate literature for an angry 15-year old who hated being stuck with her family 24/7.
In high school a boyfriend of mine introduced me to the Robotech books and also David Eddings. Again, fantasy and sci-fi with very little reality involved and perfect for escaping teenaged angst. I first read Ender's Game in high school, as well, which opened the door to many more Orson Scott Card novels. Though I love Card's books and look forward to when they come out, the bonus has been his weekly column, Uncle Orson Reviews Everything. He really does review everything, and almost all of it is very entertaining reading, but what I love is that he reviews all sorts of books. I really don't know where he finds the time to read as much as he does, and I don't always agree with his reviews, but his fantasy and scifi recommendations are always excellent. Which leads me to my favorite of the moment, the Inda series by Sherwood Smith. Smith writes mostly literature for young adults but this series is intended for adult readers. The series follows Inda, the second son of a military regional leader who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time and as a result is exiled from his home and academy training and ends up at sea on a trading ship. If you are looking for light reading this is not the series for you, and Smith's Inda world is built entirely on a military society, so if you don't like to read about war and intrigue, then you should pass this one by. However, Smith's characters have great depth and even within a story built around war the focus is on human nature and human relationships and all the complexity involved. I keep thinking about that world even though I finished the latest installment, King's Shield, weeks ago. That is the sign of great writing.
So, until I find new favorites, these are the books that I must now find space for on my bookshelves, so that I can pull them off and dive in whenever I want.
There is a lot that I avoid doing on a periodic basis. I avoid doing dishes, grading papers, going shopping, folding laundry....need I go on? Well, lately I have found a way to avoid doing all of these things at the same time.
This is a livecam that I check in on at LEAST five times a day and through which I am endlessly entertained. If it does not work in Internet Explorer, try Firefox. Yes, it's worth it.
Today my AP class went to the RISD museum which is about a half a mile from the Wheeler School in Providence, RI. One of my friends does tours in Spanish for the museum so the class was able to have a tour and discuss Spanish and Latinamerican art in Spanish!
It was a wonderful visit. The students really enjoyed going through all the different periods and learning the history behind some of the art works. The favorite of the day, however, is an exhibit that is on right now by Dale Chihuly, a glass artist who actually attended RISD in the 1960's and began their famous glass program.
For those of you who think you have never seen or heard of Chihuly, I bet you have! He did several glass structures for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Remember?
Anyway, here is a picture of my students in front of their favorite piece. It made them feel very dramatic. I am afraid the lighting is not very good, but you can get the idea.
This weekend we are off on another adventure as we visit La Arepa, a Venezuelan restaurant that specializes in arepas, which are a kind of corn cake that you split open and stuff with meat, cheese, vegetables, or whatever else you want.
