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

 

Boys, eggs and Easter

Just thought I’d post a couple of shots of Jack’s foray into egg art. We decided to write names on our eggs this year, to take to M&L’s place for dinner this afternoon, where each person attending will get one (er… that is, assuming Mom didn’t forget anyone!). Jack had definite ideas about which color Crayon to use for the writing (happily seen to by Mom) as well as the specific color dye to use for each person. Result? Masterpieces, naturally.

It was a lot of fun. In lieu of making it to Easter Vigil this year (not something I can do on the years I have Jack with me – a 2 1/2 hr. long Mass that starts at his bedtime wouldn’t quite work!), I did this. Fun with cooking and coloring and messes with my son; I can’t imagine God wouldn’t approve.

Still, my mind now also turns to those whose Easter meal will consist of whatever they can find from generous yet chronically-lacking shelters, or what they can scrape together from passing motorists. Rather like this coming Thanksgiving, when I won’t have Jack with me, I’m thinking that next Easter I will find a homeless organization – perhaps Compass Center, as they serve homeless vets at a house near mine – to work with for the day.

Happy Easter, everybody. For last year’s Easter postings, both on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, I offered up selections from both Verdi’s Messa da Requiem (my favorite) and excerpts from “Greatest Story…”. I was in a bit more serious headspace at that point; admittedly, I’m a fairly serious-minded person a lot of the time, but with both a sardonic and a goofy sense of humor (a nice combo! Keeps me balanced, in any case). But this year I’m gonna go a little lighter, with a couple of excerpts from another fave, “Godspell.”

I’m thanking God for my many blessings this year, not the least of which is the person captured in these photos. Truth be told, he’s the most of which.

Love you, Pud!

 

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]

 

Condolences

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted, I know. Mostly that’s due to the business (or rather, the ‘busy-ness’) of my life these days. It’s nearing the end of the quarter and life gets a little knarly right around these times.

But I was all set to put together a posting when other, exponentially more important information came to my attention. My sister-in-law, Lolly, lost her father unexpectedly to a heart aneurysm late yesterday. It’s news like that that brings the whole “Life is relative” right back into sharp focus.

Having lost a parent to a long, progressive illness such as early-onset Alzheimer’s, I know first-hand the pain that that kind of “long goodbye” entails. It’s horrible to watch someone you love suffer and linger through that. But it is also true that those of us who are left behind – or who are going to be left – are given the time and the opportunity to say goodbye, to make our peace, and for that, I am grateful. Others are not given such opportunities.

One thing I do know is that, whenever this kind of news hits, whether it’s ostensibly expected or completely out of the blue, it rarely hits in the way one suspects it will.

So my thoughts and prayers are simply with Lolly and her family tonight.

Rest in peace, Mr. Bates. You are very much loved; of that I am certain.

 

43 days…

… until Opening Day.

Of baseball season, that is, for all you non-baseball people.

But for all the baseball nuts out there, among whom I proudly count myself – a dubious distinction, I suppose – I want to offer up just a hint at the promise of Spring.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’m a fan of the 90s TV show “Northern Exposure.” It seemed to hit the nail on the proverbial head about certain things – issues of the day, human emotion, relationships between men and women, and just plain relationships. But “NX” also discussed ideas, both Big and small. And the show’s loquacious DJ, “Chris in the Morning” Stevens, provided some of NX’s best musings (or ramblings) on those ideas. He expounded on the Big and the small, from Descartes’ “thinking is being” (cogito ergo sum) to Jack London’s dogs, to Jung’s collective unconscious. Ideas were real to Chris, which is one of the reasons I liked the character so well.

But he was also one of the aforementioned baseball lunatics. In one episode, while attempting to complete his Master’s in comparative literature – his thesis being, “Casey at the Bat: An anti-filiopietistic metaphor for America’s role in post-Cold War geopolitics” (say that 10x fast) – Chris is stymied by the two professors who were dispatched to the tiny town of Cicely to hear him defend his thesis. Seems they’re at loggerheads as to the pre-modern vs. post-modern approach to interpreting literature, let alone as to what the hell Casey has to do with any of it. Chris comes up with a solution.

This is one of my favorite scenes. It always reminds me that the beauty of baseball – or any beloved sport, for that matter – lies in what is felt, and not in what is thunk, or over-thunk, as the case may be.

This is for Mark H., and any other lunatics out there. The 30-below and frozen tundra won’t stick around forever; it’s just around the corner, baby.

Northern Exposure: The Graduate — Casey at the Bat

 

Apathy

Uplifting way to begin a posting, isn’t it. Please, let me explain.

The apathy I’m referring to isn’t my own. It’s that of so many people at my university. In speaking with a dear friend from UWB tonight, I learned that only three people in one of her larger classes – including her much-involved self, of course – caucused for our state this past Saturday. I’m sure we’ve all been reading about the overflow at caucuses and of this year’s “record turnouts” for this rather Byzantine system. But despite what Newsweek and other mainstream media may be reporting, the record turnouts of young voters – that prized 18-24 year old demographic – well… I’m not seeing it reflected in my supposedly “involved” university student body. And at my friend’s job, a sizable (and famous) jazz club here in Seattle, she was one of only two members of the staff who caucused. More’s the pity.

I caucused. I only had the time, due to son-watching responsibilities, to simply sign in and cast my vote for whom I want to see as the nominee. I did it because it’s my right. I did it because it’s my duty to do it, as a citizen of a free country. I did it because it is the one, the only equalizer between me and Bill Gates; my vote actually does count just as much as his. So even though I couldn’t stay (I dearly wish I could have), at least I did that much. But then, once I was talking to my friend tonight and I thought about it, I realized that most of the people in that room were my age, or older.

WTF?!

Do we really not have enough engaging issues? Are there too few issues of import for the latest Me generation? Were not enough refreshments served (truth be told, I didn’t see any – horrors!)? Were iPods banned? The latest Big Thing didn’t headline your caucus site and invite you backstage? Just what is wrong, children??

This is one of the most critical elections of recent decades. Passions are, and should be, running high about what is at stake. And while I’m not a True Believing democrat, it is also true that I couldn’t vote for a republican for high office.

There. I’ve said it. I couldn’t possibly vote for a republican today, not that I ever have. Although I do have respect for some moderate republicans – they do still exist, don’t they? – there’s just no way I could vote for one for president, not what with the controlling interests of the Republican party being what they are today. But I feel passionately about everyone of voting age simply getting out and voting, PERIOD. Vote for someone. Vote because it’s your right, because it’s even your duty (is that really such a dirty word?). Exercise those rights you have for which so many have died.

Sorry… but I’m really rather disgusted by the apathy shown by my fellow classmates.

Here, I’ll make it easy for you, okay? I’ll even put those candidates who remain standing in a somewhat egalitarian, alphabetical order:

• HillaryClinton.com
• Mike Huckabee for President
• John McCain 2008
• Barack Obama ‘08

In the immortal words of my illustrious ancestor, John Adams:

“Now vote, damn you.”

(This message was approved by Tracy Early – one rather disgusted citizen.)

 

Friends

I’ve been blessed to have the friends I have. I should say, I am blessed. And I’ve been thinking a lot about a number of them these past couple of weeks. There seems to be A LOT going on with the people I know and love this winter.

I don’t want to betray anyone’s privacy, so I think I’ll just list a few initials here. If you see one that catches your eye and you think, “Hey – that could be ME!”, realize that you’re probably right. All of my friends have been there when I’ve needed them, whether I’ve been down or have been having a rather good day. I want all of them to know that I couldn’t make it through this life without them.

So, this is for all my wonderful, amazing, bizarre (hey, admit it now…) and stick-to-it-till-the-end friends:

S … J … D … S … E … M … L … P … S … L … you know who you are.

I love you all.