Annnnnnnd… DONE!

Finis. Done. Another quarter – CHECK!

Assuming I’ve passed all my courses (yes, I’ll pass), I’ll be a senior. Yeah, I know – woo-hoo. Still, it’s a good feeling. Then three quarters to go and one huge personal goal will have been achieved – an even better feeling.

I’ve got an end-of-quarter get-together with a couple of friends this evening (a now regular thing) and a graduation party tomorrow night, at which Jack will no doubt be one of the hits of the party, since he’ll be going with me. It should be fun, and I’m looking forward to both.

Jack had his own end of the school year picnic today with his class. Despite the grey weather, they had lots of fun. Jack made a couple of new friends from preschool classes other than his own.

The photo is of Jack and his friends, Nicholas (in a giant Jack hug) and JJ (probably Jack’s best bud at school).

Have a great weekend, everybody. I’ll have Jack-Jack on Saturday and then he goes to his dad’s for Father’s Day.

Note to e-mail writers out there: Replies are on this weekend’s to-do list!

 

Mom and Finals

Mostly this is a posting to say that I’ve been thinking a lot of my mom, as she passed away 2 years ago today. So it’s been a particularly reflective day, even amongst all the end-of-quarter hubbub.

Having been an undergrad and grad student and then professor, I know Mom understood this time in a student’s life rhythms as well as anyone.

Mark and I went to place beautiful red roses near her urn today. It was really nice, actually, to have the chance to just sit and breathe, and reflect on her for a while, despite all the deadlines.

I love you, Mom. I miss you. But I’m listening to Nat King Cole as I write this, and thinking of the myriad ways in which I will always remember you, as mother, teacher, student, life-long learner, fisherwoman, outdoorswoman, Catholic, Christian, patriot, fellow history buff and classic movie lover, friend.

(And hopefully, I’ll be able to report to you a decent quarter’s grades in a couple of weeks! LOL… I’m sure you’d love that.)

And here, for all of you, is one of my mom’s favorite “sit and relax” pieces of music, from Ennio Morricone’s beautiful score to The Mission (1986).

 

Attack of the Killer Bubbles

In the midst of mid- to end-of-quarter insanity, I took time out today to enjoy, truly enjoy, the fierce energy that is a 4-year-old. Two of them, actually, as Jack and I spent time with his friend, Jessy, while her parents were off doing grown-up stuff. Tons o’ Fun ensued, and it was a wonderful day, as the photo will hopefully attest, of Darth Jack taking aim at the bubble horde with his trusty Batman lightsaber.

Wanted to let y’all know I’m alive, kicking, going a little nuts with 17 credits (did I expect anything else?), but it’s a good nuts. My classes are pretty good, for the most part, and I’m feeling a little more energized than I was at the beginning of the quarter, when I felt something more along the lines of, WhatthehellamIdoingtheseinaneassignmentsfor, whenallIreallywanttodoisgetthehelloutthereandfuckingworkforveterans?! But everything in its own time – I know that. I just had to get over the hump, I guess.

The presentation on TBI and PTSD gave me an assist with that in a BIG way, actually. I am so glad I was able to attend. I learned as much, and more, than I was hoping. As much as anything, that one day helped re-focus and remind me of just what I’m really doing in school, and what I’m finishing the degree for.

The early morning drive up to Leavenworth was beautiful, as well, and it gave me some Me time. Well, Me and John Denver, that is (gotta have his tunes when driving into the mountains. Some things will never change!). My current banner photo is one I took from the deck of the hotel where the conference was being held. It was a gorgeous Spring day and the mountains were covered in snow. The Hills were definitely ALIVE that day.

And… HAPPY MOM’S DAY TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL MAMAs OUT THERE! Take a break for just a little while from your motherly duties, cares, and stresses. C’mon… you know you deserve it.

Jack and I are going to sample what the opening Sunday of this season’s farmer’s market at Third Place Books has to offer. It being Mother’s Day and the first day of the season, it should be kinda fun for the two of us (barring a downpour). I’m making a concerted effort to buy more locally-grown produce, and would like for Jack to one day understand why (guess the Tree Class made a dent, eh Steph?). If you haven’t yet, check out the book I recommended from last quarter, Deep Economy by Bill McKibben. If you haven’t really thunk about all this stuff before, this book will get your mind going and your ass moving – hopefully with a smaller ass(foot)print to show for it.

 

Ode to the Mosquito

In my travels around the Net I do come across some strange things. Tonight, while doing research for my cultural psychology term project on women in the military (of all things), I discovered that today, April 25th, is “World Malaria Day.”

Who knew?

I dunno. Just had to post that. There’s a rather extensive Web site devoted to just this cause. Go get ‘em, guys.

Beyond that, lessee… I’m deep into work for all of my courses, and while very busy, I’m enjoying the work. Yesterday I got to lead my small group discussion in my Politics of Sex Ed class on the textbook chapters covering ‘Body Image’ and ‘Solo Sex/Masturbation/Fantasy.’ (it’s amazing just how much a group of women, who barely know each other, can share in an hour). That was pretty interesting, actually. Ah, well… at least now, I get to sit back and watch the rest of my group take their turns. It’s been a good class. We’re going to be putting on a Sex Fair on campus toward the end of May, and I’m in the group organizing speakers and info (for a booth) related to sex ed and WA state policy, while others will handle the “Masturbation Station,” the Goodies Table, sex talk, blah blah blah… all sorts of fun stuff. But my prof thought I’d be great in this group and could lead it – yeah… thanks, Kari! Others get to write surveys on sexual health, and I get to research state policy. But as Mom used to say, “Go with your strengths.”

One thing’s for sure: this ain’t your mama’s college experience no more. Sex Fairs and Dildos and ClapTalk, OH MY!

Also, this coming Thursday, I’ll be attending the day’s events at the annual conference for the Washington Association on Postsecondary Education and Disability (WAPED – say that 10x fast…) up in Leavenworth, WA. The reason? An entire day’s panel discussions devoted to TBI and PTSD as it relates to veterans enrolling in or returning to college: “The Returning Disabled Veteran: TBI and PTSD Across Contexts,” with a special presentation from a clinical neuropsychologist in the field of veterans’ care. I was fortunate enough to be invited by our Veterans Coordinator (also the association’s president) at UWB (and, to be fair, to have Jack’s dad agree to pick him up from daycare that afternoon).

I cannot WAIT. I know that that probably sounds like a dull-as-dirt day for most of y’all, but for me, it’ll be right up my particular alley. I’ve truly found my calling. I can just devour this stuff and find it fascinating and infuriating, all at the same time. But also, motivating. Nothing else has ever motivated me so much; that much goes without saying. Traumatic stress and combat-related PTSD care are just part of it, though, albeit a large part. But there’s also a part of me that wishes I could find a job, even just for a while, in the field of veterans advocacy and policy – the reasons I began thinking about wanting to do this work in the first place. Well… who knows, right? The critical part of it is that I find a way to serve the veteran community with the skills I have, as somewhat dorky as that may sound. But that’s the way I look at it. As ever, each to their own… and I finally found “my own.”

In any case, I’m sure I’ll learn an incredible amount from the day’s presentations, beyond what I can in the books and journal articles I read (yeah, I’m a really fun date, LOL).

I’m still putting together the blog devoted to veterans care, BTW. But I do work on it, bit by bit. I’m looking forward to getting it up, and to having a place dedicated solely to just that information.

I hope everyone is well. I’m heading to bed after hours’ worth of research.

And remember to do your part: Stamp out any mosquitoes you might find today!

 

Back to it

Well, another break has come and gone. Despite feeling not-so-good for a few days, overall, the time off was welcome. I feel as if I got a real break.

Jack and I played a lot – even in the snow! (it snowed here a few days ago) – and I made headway on some house projects, which feels good. But all-in-all it was just a nice rest and some extra fun time with Jack-Jack. He’s with his dad for the next few days, since it’s his spring break this week. I miss him, as I always do when he’s gone for extra time. But come Wednesday, we’ll get an uninterrupted week together, which will be great. Weather permitting, I’m planning on heading up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival with him next weekend, possibly with Mark and Lolly in tow, as well. It’ll be beautiful, with lots of photo op’s!

As for me, tomorrow it’s back to the books. I’m always rather jazzed at the beginning of a quarter. New subjects, new profs (this quarter it’ll be all new profs for me), new classmates, at least for the most part. I’ll be taking two of my classes with a good friend, though, which is also a plus.

I hope everyone has a good week. And if it’s your (or your kids’) spring break, enjoy!

Recommended book from last quarter:

I’ve been meaning to put this up: Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, by Bill McKibben. We read this for my Ethics & Environment course (or, as Steph called it, the “tree class”). It examines what McKibben believes should be, or must be done in order to stave off both economic and ecological crises, if not outright collapse. He calls for communities to buy more locally, to live more simply – his chapters concerning the rise of China as an economic force make that point well – and to reconsider our (Americans’) penchant for being what he’s termed, “hyper-individualists.” It’s an easy, quick read and chock full of information, with a complete and referenced index. I highly recommend checking it out.

 

Grades are in

.

I apologize for the immodesty, I really do. But my college work being such a big part of my life right now, I’m gonna take my little victories where and when I can.

Cumulative GPA for the quarter? 3.75 Woo-hoo! I’m not sure whether I’m happier about the 4.0 in Ethics & the Env, or just being able to say ’sayonara’ to my Approaches to Social Research class/drama/fiasco/b.s. That became a lulu for a whole bunch of people by the last half of the term. Getting the good grade I did was just the icing on the cake, really; simply surviving the class intact was an accomplishment in and of itself, or at least it feels that way right now.

I’m sure I’ll be saying that again once I (fingers crossed) pass Statistics, which in addition to the Social Research course is one I have to take in order to graduate with my concentration in Community Psych. May God have mercy on me that quarter. I know of students who were taking it for the third time this past quarter, it’s that brutal. I’m thinking that my 20-year-old niece, who’s a sophomore at Central WA Univ. and a math whiz, will hopefully be able to help me muddle through, LOL. Either that, or my engineer dad back in Kansas will be receiving a bunch of panic-stricken phone calls.

So now it’s on to: The Politics of Sex Education (Human Rights minor-applicable); Cultural Psychology (applied to my Community Psych concentration); and, possibly still Disability and Human Rights (HR broad context class and a course I simply want to take, considering the field I’m going into), as well as a 2-credit class I’m still trying to get the add code for. That would be a cool and useful course, actually, as it’s an Academic Research and Writing Seminar that would take one of the research projects or papers from a concurrent class and help me delve deeper into the topic and expand on it. It’s a course offered by the director of the Writing Center at UWB, and would be useful for me in terms of helping me hone my academic writing skills in anticipation of grad school.

So that’s it from this neck of the woods. I’m getting over having a bug for the past couple of days – just felt like I’d been hit by a truck and that my sinuses were ready to explode and with little to no appetite for Easter goodies – but I’ve felt better this morning than I have since Saturday. Jack and I had a wonderful Easter at Mark & Lolly’s, a really nice time. He was able to search for his basket there since Auntie Lolly told him that the Bunny, knowing that Jack was to be arriving at their place, brought it by for him before quickly skedaddling on his appointed rounds (much nicer than having to search for it in the rain and mud in our yard, LOL). It was a lovely day, despite the first half’s rain.

Have a great week, everybody. I have six more days of break before Spring Qtr. starts. Now that I can finally put this past quarter to rest once and for all, I’m gonna go and do a little reeeeeeeeeeee-laxing.

Mood Meter

 

Fresh air… just in time for Holy Week

I’m done! I’m done, I’m done, I’m done. Aaaaaahhhhhh… the sweet smell of finishing a quarter. Ain’t nothin’ like it. As much as I love school, and y’all know that I do, there really is a nice feeling of satisfaction (and decompression) that accompanies the end of term.

Two weeks to play with Jack. Two weeks to enjoy the buds of Spring with him at our nearby parks. Two weeks to … clean my house, do some house projects – fun with attorneys! <sigh> – catch up on neglected friendships via phone and e-mail, prepare for three new (and demanding) classes…

Maybe I shoulda stuck with, “Two weeks to play with Jack.”

One thing I do know is that it’s Holy Week. I will have a lot to pray about and contemplate over the coming week – or weeks, as the case may be – so I will be hunkering down, for the most part, and spending some “quality time” with my son, while I can.

But this is also supposed to be a week devoted to such things as penitence, forgiveness, fasting, sacrifice and above all, love.

I’m working on it.

For the week

 

Two days to go

Yep, it’s that time of the quarter. Again.

Two days! To be exact, it’s two days, one group presentation, one critical analysis paper, and one hard-ass Final to go. The other quarter-long group project for my other class was submitted today – always a nice feeling to have gotten something out of the way.

Just wanted to check in and say I’m still alive out here. It’s been a bit of a stressful end of the quarter, as usual, but it’s not too bad, compared to my last two, anyway. I’ll make it through.

Then it’s on to my good friend Paris’ house on Wednesday evening for some relaxing girl time – wine and gabbing and movies for us. We may even do it in our pj’s. I can’t wait, it’ll be great.

Hope everyone is well. I’ll post a few new things over break, to include some veteran info. on assorted topics.

Spring break, here I come! (alas, there’ll be no trips to Ft. Lauderdale, but no school deadlines, either!)

Here’s just a funny song I love to relieve life’s tensions. It probably won’t make much sense to those under a certain age (if indeed there are any of you reading this blog), but while I’ve been doing research for our upcoming group presentation on the Hanford Site – the single most toxic site in the Western hemisphere! What a claim to fame… – I’ll admit to having this run through my head once or twice. Okay, so I can have a very droll sense of humor.

 

More ’sustainability’

Okay, ’tis time for a little lesson. I haven’t posted one of these for a while (my other post re: sustainability, from April ‘07, can be found here).

But the lesson won’t come from me (is that applause I hear?). It will come in the form of a short (five page) essay, written by David Orr of Oberlin College, given during a lecture series at the University of Vermont in 2003. In this essay, “Four Challenges of Sustainability“, Professor Orr argues that we — the developed world, the Mass Consumers of the Universe — need to start shifting our paradigms just a wee bit if we want all of this hype about sustainable practices to have much effect. What do we mean by ’sustainability’? What does that mean TO us? Should we believe that it’s only referring to mass recycling, or composting, or whatever else the politicians (and ecological economists – yes, these people really do exist) would have us believe? It’s more than that, and it’s going to take some getting used to.

I am writing a 3-page reflection paper on this essay, and it’s not proving difficult, because I found myself loving what Orr has to say; it is short, sweet, and to-the-point. It also has a hint of “Let’s grow up now, children, and stop whining about crap” tone to it, which is something that I think many of us in the developed world really do need to hear sometimes.

So I thought I’d put it up here, for others to read. It’s a short, easy read, and worth it. This is the type of thing that college students are digesting by the truckload these days. It occurred to me that perhaps other, non-college students might find it interesting, informative, and thought-provoking as well.

Bonus for extra credit: This is something that is making the rounds of classes at UWB; a little travelogue, as it were, of our consumable “stuff.” Most definitely this is worth the 20-minute viewing time (this one simply links to another Web site): “The Story of Stuff,” with Annie Leonard.

And that’s about it for now. I hope everyone had a good weekend and is well-rested for another slog through the work (or work/school) week. Two weeks and counting until the end of the quarter… (and I was able to register for the three classes I want for Spring qtr. – whew!)

Four Challenges of Sustainability, by David W. Orr (2003) [.pdf file]

 

Politics, politics, politics… and veterans

It’s difficult, if not impossible, for me to distinguish between the two things these days – that is, politics and veterans’ care. I haven’t made up my mind about whom I will support for president, despite the hard push around me for Obama. I like the guy, and have been blown away by some of his past speeches, beginning with the one he gave at the Democratic convention. BUT… yeah. Not sure about the foreign policy experience issue. We need someone who can jump right into that without any transition time or period of getting his (or her) feet wet. Although I was told yesterday by a friend that Condoleeza Rice has been contacting Obama every day recently re: the situation in Kenya.

Okay, an aside: Can you believe what’s going on there?! ACK! One of my group members from my Team Building class is from Kenya, and he and I had some pretty interesting and emotionally charged conversations about it. I hope that peace is brought quickly to what has been one of the more stable governments in Africa. I have always wanted to, and still intend to, travel to Kenya and Tanzania one day. I want to go there more than any other place on earth.

In any case… I’m still trying to decide about Obama, and have resisted jumping on that particular bandwagon. In the end, I’ll most likely hop on. But I’m not a Hillary-hater, I’m really not. I actually admire the woman for a number of reasons, despite some fairly shady deals in her past and what-have-you. I’m not sure I believe in anyone being at that level of national politics in this day and age and not having so much ambition that they don’t have something shady from their past. But I’m also not sure just how much I can actually believe in a national candidate anymore, as cynical as that may sound, and it does sound cynical, which isn’t entirely like me. I got excited over Clinton, and volunteered for his campaign here in Seattle. But now… I just feel myself thinking, “Yeah, okay. How ’bout you just shut up, and prove to me that you’re ‘all about CHANGE’ or whatever.”

Still, we have to elect somebody. But Hillary is, er… how shall I say this? UNELECTABLE. Just WHAT is the DNC thinking?!?! I want to support a woman. I want to one day witness a woman being sworn in as president, and expect that during my lifetime, I will (hell, if Ireland did it, why can’t the U.S.?). I just want to see the right woman, at the right time.

Should be a dynamic election year, though. That much is certain. Next Tuesday’s (“Super Tuesday”’s) results will most likely determine a lot.

Nowadays, I begin with what presidential candidates’ policies are toward veterans’ care – including, it should be assumed, their plans for improving all of that – and go from there. I care about other issues as well, of course – health care (or a lack thereof, especially considering the fact that I’m one of the multitudes without it), care for senior citizens (another thing our society is going to have to seriously wake up to), homelessness, the right for a woman to control her own reproduction, educational opportunity, women’s rights in general and fairness in policy toward working families, to name but a few issues of import to me. Not entirely surprising for a moderate-to-progressive woman, really.

But I’m also interested in not dumping NASA and the overall plan to go to Mars (although a few less boneheaded moves on their part might be a step in the right direction for attracting the public’s goodwill), security issues – REAL security issues – finding peace, somehow, in the Middle East and not screwing up Iraq even more than we had between 2003-2005 – but not scaddadling out of there in a mad rush quite yet, either. For the most part, I find myself swimming alone on that issue as far as my personal circle goes, but c’est la vie; I have my own ideas and convictions, and am finally learning to stand up for them, come what may. I don’t want to see a permanent presence for us in Iraq. It’s their country, and ultimately, it will flourish or fail based on the determination of Iraqis. A political solution will decide their fate – not the strength of the U.S. military, no matter how many strides have actually been made during the past 8 or 9 months (and there have been strides). But I also don’t believe that pulling our troops out of there right this very second is the right move, either.

In any case, I’m keeping track of today’s Florida returns just a bit, and as always, trying to stay abreast of what’s going on with veterans. Seems that 19 of them lost their lives due to inadequate care at a VA in Illinois. The story, from the LincolnCourier, is here.

I’ll admit that there are moments when I wonder just why it is I’m spending part of my days doing assignments such as, “Take a walk without a destination in mind; now, write a 2-page reflection paper on it” while veterans are in desperate need of improved care and the VA is – or rather, should be – gearing up for the largest influx of veterans in need of serious care since the Vietnam era. Even if I would be just a tiny cog in a mammoth machine, which I know I would be, at least I’d be doing what I could do. <sigh>…

I know, I know… back to work. The quarter’s in full swing now, and things are heating up – aside, that is, from the NW weather! Jack and I enjoyed a Snow Day together yesterday, which was a lot of fun. I finished my Team Building course last Saturday, and that ended up being pretty interesting too, and worthwhile, I believe. So now I’m just down to my two classes.

Happy week, everybody. Stay warm out there.