chitown2beantown

Dreams of things that are yet to be...

So after a weekend of denial that I'm back in graduate school, spent making homemade spring rolls two ways for dinner Friday night, then roasted red pepper and spinach pasta with homemade foccacia bread for dinner Saturday...

...when Sunday afternoon rolled around, I finally had to crack the books (or rather log onto the campus article retrieval system as books are passe apparently). As I hopelessly plowed through or skimmed 10 academic articles, I began to see my crafting and cooking and outdoor life slip away.

So of course I stopped reading for about 20 minutes and made a little something. A small notebook to keep a running wish list of projects. I made the book to help me realize how many projects I have in the works, as even I can't keep track of them. It's genetic. My mom and grandma have the same, shall we say, creative process (i.e. zealously gathering materials for future projects). I'm glad they blazed the trail for me, because guilt just doesn't belong in the realm of hobbies.

So even if these projects never get done, maybe the notebook will just keep me sane, to remind me that there is and will be again, life outside of article reading. A place to dream up other things I could be doing, before moving on to the business at hand.

After making a little place to keep track of my daydreams, I was feeling a little more accepting of my new role as a student. A professor who studies immigrant youth reminded us today that we're just going through a period of acculturation. Gotta appreciate academic jargon for its ability to make things sound so very important.

In the same class, another professor was going over the course content for each week and said casually, "Next week we'll be meeting together with the other students because Piven will be here." No first name needed. It was the first time in my two weeks of graduate school that my jaw almost hit the table. I felt like, "Oh yeah, this is definitely why I'm doing this and why it's okay I'm here at this school in Boston, even though I still wish I was in Michigan at another school (and I should be way over it by now)."

So later I told Matt what my professor oh so casually said, like it was just an everyday visit from an everyday person. He replied, "Who? Piven? As in Jeremy Piven, star Entourage and of one of my favorite college movies, PCU?"

"[Big laugh] No, sweetie. Piven, as in Frances Fox Piven, whose work provided half the background material for my master's thesis." Not just on what she wrote about, but what she actually did.

Every field has their rock stars. She's one of them for my field. I'm pleased that a celebrity visitor is going to smooth my transition into graduate school. Who doesn't want to meet a celebrity, even of the academic sort?

And for those of you not in the know, even scrapbooking has major celebrities. And yes, they're referred to as "scrapbooking celebrities". Cathy Zielske, one of the scrapbooker bloggers I read, had a Q&A a few months ago on her blog. One woman asked, "Do people 'recognize' you on the street? I know if I saw you I'd probably stutter and say some stupid things then scream like a 12 year old little girl when you were out of earshot while jumping up and down," to which she replied, "Rarely do I ever get recognized. I’m not that famous, people."

spring green

Today, I finished up my last real day of teaching. Final exam #1 down. Final exam #2 is Friday, but it's a take-home that can be turned in by email so I'm not expecting to see my students again. It was actually tough saying goodbye the last few days, since I decided not to go back in the fall. You really do start to make a connection. But, I need to concentrate on school and myself a little more. Nevertheless, the weather's beautiful and it feels soooo good that spring is here. So, I'll get over it.

I'm enjoying my last afternoon "off" (I've been taking one afternoon off a week to grade papers) because next week I go back to full time at my regular job. After getting home, I played around a little with the camera. I'm all about spring green today. Wearing it, and soaking up all the new leaves.

 

And since I put embarrassing pictures of Matt on here from time to time, here's an embarrassing one of me. On the left, a self-portrait the morning I started teaching. Scared to death. Hate that picture, but it does tell a story. And then, today. Much more relaxed.

   

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the past 8 months and what has transpired. So, here are a few things I've learned about myself from my first year of teaching:

1. I actually can get up early and get to work at 8am. I just don't like to.
2. I connect a little better with young women. I mean, I was okay with the guys, but they weren't going out of their way to chat with me after class. Maybe that's just guys though. I did have one male student last semester who told me that he liked the final exam. Who does that?
3. I actually kind of know what I'm doing, even though I was flying by the seat of my pants the whole time.
4. Apparently the one "social problem" (I taught Social Problems) that gets me really fired up is global warming. In particular, the American auto industry's lack of foresight on fuel efficiency and emissions standards. I do my best to stay relatively neutral so that students are comfortable expressing their opinions, but the week we talked about the environment there was one class where I was up on a soap box for a couple minutes. Just a couple though. The rest of the day I was lecturing in my head, "Wake up people! The glaciers are melting! Take steps! Do what you can!" If you haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth, do me a favor and see it. Even if it means rolling your eyes at Al Gore. See, I'm up on a soap box again!
5. And lastly, people actually do learn something in college. My upper class students were, by and large, much better writers than most of the freshman. When I started teaching upperclassmen, I really wondered if their papers were taken off the internet because they were so good. Still, sadly, no one knows the difference between affect and effect. I can't grade papers without fixing people's poor grammar and spelling. I have a streak of perfectionism after all.

So there you go. Lessons learned, for now.

The functions of family

Last week the topic of the week in one of my classes was Family, particularly, problems in the family. It was actually a little hard to talk about problems in the family coming right back from my brother's wedding, as everything went so wonderfully. So, instead of starting out with the bad stuff, I talked about the functions of family within society, and I showed this picture. It's one of my favorites from the wedding.

That's my dad and my grandma. Friday afternoon we took a drive up to Mount Bonnell in Austin and walked up a short, but steep and uneven trail to see views of the Colorado River. My grandma turned 80 years old this past month. Her mind is still incredibly sharp, but she is having some stiffness in her joints that is making it a little harder to get around. She was an avid walker, regularly harping on everyone within earshot about how "you need to exercise". Let's just say my grandma is not one to bite her tongue. If there's a bit of advice she feels the need to expound, or a random, sometimes graphic observation or memory, you'll hear it. Usually in the middle of a conversation on a completely different topic.

Tomorrow, my other grandma also turns 80. She was also an avid walker, averaging 3 miles a day in her prime retirement years. On the surface, this grandma is much more reserved and is more concerned with imposing on others, although occasionally she lets a biting comment slip out.

I grew up thinking my grandma's personalities and histories were diametrically opposed. On the surface, they don't have much in common. Growing up, whenever my grandmas saw each other, they mostly just observed each other. Politely, but with some reservations. Most of this boiled down to the fact that one grandma was an outspoken Catholic and a recovered alcoholic. The other was a reserved Protestant teetotaler. For religious women of their generation, this was a big gulf to overcome.

One of the reasons I love photography and scrapbooking is because it gives me a chance to reflect on my life and my family. I like getting all my thoughts and observations down on paper in a creative way. I did a layout a year ago where I talked about my grandmas and how they represent two sides of me. It was inspired by a picture of my grandmas side by side, one in spandex shorts and a tank top and the other in long pants and a turtlenecked sweatshirt. Guess which was which! They always seemed so different to me when I was growing up, but as I've thought about it, they have more in common than I realized. They are both religious and hardworking. They walked for exercise and read avidly. Both took one big trip abroad in retirement (Jerusalem and the UK). They were big into dieting later in life. Both outlived husbands who died of cancer. Both are fairly reserved with their emotions, but clearly loved their children and grandchildren.

I'm so much like both of them. I'm a walker/hiker, an observer, a bit of a critic (a quiet, polite critic though). I am overly concerned with imposing on others, am half teetotaler/half social drinker, a person of faith (however undisciplined right now). But mostly I'm a person who loves my family, however complicated we are at times.

I showed that picture to my class because I believe that the role of family in society, and in our lives, is to care for one another. Families bind us together. That binding together is usually fraught with difficulties and problems, and these problems can become lifelong struggles. But in most cases, the struggle is still worth the trouble because, like it or not, we're all creations of our families. It's like we carry our family members around with us everywhere we go, whether we like it or not. Being away from my family and my extended family more than I've wanted the last few years has made that even more apparent.

One of the most cherished lessons my parents passed down to me is the example they set by caring for their own parents later in life. My in-laws set the same example. I hope I am as lucky to have children who watch after me through the years. My grandma who turns 80 tomorrow has Alzheimer's, and very likely, she won't know she is turning 80 or remember later in the day that my mom visited. But my mom will still celebrate with her. And my other grandma...it wasn't easy to take an 80 year old woman all the way from Michigan to Texas for her grandson's wedding. But my parents did just that and took her out shopping a couple times to get her all new clothes and shoes for the event. For one who doesn't reveal her emotions much, this was a very meaningful experience for my self-proclaimed "unsentimental" grandmother. She told me and my husband that she cried during the ceremony. Amazing. And amazing that I have these two unique women in my life, who are such a part of me, and that they both turned 80 so close to one another. It is a blessing to be able to care for and celebrate with your family.

Jonesing for a break

Okay, I lied. New camera=better crafting pictures. After reading half of the article from the book "White Collar Sweatshop" I assigned to my Social Problems students for next week, I decided to force myself to take the evening off today. I've been taking one day a week off from my day job, so I can get stuff done for my early morning job. But it's also just a day to spend a few hours not working. After getting tests, surveys, and consent forms off to the copy center for Friday's classes, I called it a day.

I remembered I said I'd cast on for the Hourglass Sweater by the end of the month, and today is February 28th, so I spent an hour or two swatching and casting on. Yeah, I've got a hat to finish for a friend, but I decided to at least start a new project. Starting is my favorite part. So much potential.

I also banged out a 2-page scrapbook layout in like 45 minutes. Sometimes they turn out better when you go fast. I tend to stick to straight lines but I went crazy this time and arranged the pictures all crooked. Craziness, I know. They called for it. I like this "all black and white except one color photo" idea. Not sure where I picked that trick up from.

This is the second layout I've done from my Austin pictures. I can't wait to go again. I'm jonesing for the whole thing--wedding, seeing Tim & Liz and my family, warm weather, change of scenery. All wrapped up with two weeks of spring break. It's a beautiful thing.

I'm still shaking my head about that elk running towards us while we were on the golf cart down on the ranch. I was facing backwards staring the giant-racked thing down. Obviously, what was running through my mind was, "Holy crap, there is an elk charging towards me." Super laid back Tim and Liz were like, "It's fine, it's fine. It thinks we're going to feed it."

"And what happens when it realizes there isn't any food?"

Elk (even fenced in)=wild animal not to be toyed with. At least as far as I'm concerned.

10 (er, 9) random things

1) Matt's in California for 8 days. This is one of the longest trips of the year for him. Hopefully the longest one this year. The good news is that, being the 3rd year of this whole traveling arrangement, I'm much better at getting through these extended trips. Actually I'm much much better because Monday I used my first day anxiousness to do three loads of laundry, put away the clean laundry Matt did before leaving, clean the bathroom top to bottom, and do a bunch of other random clean up the apartment type things. So not me.

2) One of those random things I did was preparing for our move this spring by going through my bookshelf and putting 9 books up for sale on Amazon. It was so easy. And two of them sold within 24 hours. I couldn't believe it. $11 in my pocket. Not much but better than no money and two books I'll never read again. (Strike that, reverse it...I sold another one. Now I've got $46 in my pocket!)

3) Did you know there's a place called Bonny Doon, California? One of my books is headed there.

4) You know how Amazon recommends books to you based on what you buy? One of my suggestions today was "The 60's Communes: Hippies and Beyond". Thought you'd find that hilarious too.

5) Today was the first day of my classes and I realized that I actually missed it. And getting up at 6:30 wasn't so awful. What is happening to me?

6) I started my inequality class by asking some of the students to describe the show My Super Sweet Sixteen. If you haven't seen it, it's on MTV and it's shocking. So the students described how the rich girls are super spoiled and get whatever they want for this giant party, on top of getting one or even two cars for their birthday. Then I passed out lyrics and had them watch the old school video for The Message by Grand Master Flash, one of the early rap anthems. They listed things the song identified as "constraining" a person living in urban poverty (neighborhood conditions, a "bum education", racial profiling, etc.). Then we talked about how pop culture regularly puts a lens on wealth and poverty and we're fascinated by it, yet inequality is not something most of us are comfortable talking about in everyday conversation. So...that's what I do MWF between 8:00-10:00am until May 9th. And you get a mini-sociology lesson for free.

7) It's finally cold outside here, and I'm actually glad. This lack of winter until late January was freaking me out. And I want to try out the snowshoes I bought with my birthday money, so it better freaking snow soon (but not on a day when Matt's traveling).

8) We often forget we live by the ocean, and then we see a story like this on the news...Eight dolphins beached themselves right here at the beach in Quincy, and six of them died. So sad. They say it's becoming more common on the Cape, but nothing they've seen in Quincy before.

9)  On my commute home, I noticed that the salt marshes south of Dorchester were frozen over. I've never noticed that in winters past, but it was quite beautiful.

I was going to write about ten things, but I'm out of ideas...And I think that's enough anyway.

Switching Gears

I start teaching again this week on Wednesday. Two classes--Social Problems and Social Inequality. Both with a reputation for being depressing to students. I hope that's not the case. I've been trying to balance spending the precious little freedom I have left with making sure I've very prepared to juggle two sets of students, two syllabi, two sets of readings and papers to grade. And of course, I found myself scrapbooking more than reading. But alas, my week of scrapbooking has ended. Ah, procrastination. Catches up with your eventually. But it can sometimes lead to levels of productivity in other areas of your life, so it isn't all bad.

We bought a new printer/scanner last week which is partly what was driving my scrapbooking frenzy. It's so much fun to scan pages and post them online for others to comment on...Check out 2 peas, a scrapbooking site with endless streams of scrapbooking pages to view and leave comments about. And I guess it's a good way for sentimental types like me to reflect on life, especially when you're waiting waiting waiting to make decisions about the future.

I'm in limbo for the next few months as I wait to hear back from graduate schools. After that we can finally start making our plans about this summer. I only applied to schools with dismally low acceptance rates so it's a weird position to be in, not knowing what will happen. My boss told me this week, in regards to applying for federal grants, that competitive people aren't daunted by 1 in 10 acceptance rates. Hmmm... guess I'm not that competitive.

But I'm reassured that if I don't get in, which is likely, that I can spend my time doing more creative things. Being reimmersed in sociology this past few months, I realized that I do really like it, but it has a way of nudging out all those other things I like in life, like say, hobbies. I'm at an age now where there I feel like there is more than one possible path in life, and that is a good thing. It's not something that freaks me out anymore. So I say, bring it on, whatever the future holds.

Praise the Lord

Welcome to the world Elora!

This morning niece number three made her entrance and we're so excited to meet her very shortly when we make our way to Chicagoland for Christmas next week!

Matt and I ran out of creativity on a pre-birth nickname for this one, so we just settled on BD3. Baby DeeWaard the III. Big sisters Abby and Kady got the nickname honors this time with Rapunzel and Tinkerbell, respectively. But, I guess those weren't nicknames. I'm pretty sure Abby thought Rapunzel was a viable option. We just had a conversation over the phone last week, while uncle Matt was visiting, and she was making up joke names for me instead of doing her homework. If I heard her correctly, between her giggles at her cleverness, Tinkerbell Homework was one she thought sounded pretty silly. Elora is much prettier!

In much less exciting news, five minutes ago I finished one of my graduate school applications. THE application. It took me like 8 years of mulling this one over, but I finally did it. It's done! And it was oh so tedious, having to mail four documents to the department and submit other documents online. Actually getting in to the program will be both a blessing and curse, so for right now, the important thing is just to celebrate the accomplishment of....

Yeah for 12-12-2006.

And with that, good night! I'm exhausted!

mini-vacation

We were lucky over Labor Day to get one beautiful day out and about. Matt was sick on Saturday, and the weather outside was miserably dull and rainy. But, Monday turned out to be lovely and we went down to Martha's Vineyard ("The Vineyah-rd") to ride bikes [link to photo album]. It turns out to be quite a large island; I'd guess maybe 4 Mackinaw Island's put together (just a guess). We definitely couldn't cover it all in one afternoon. But, we did bike to the three bigger towns on the island, including Vineyard Haven where we picked up the bikes, then Oak Bluffs, and then Edgartown.

Oak Bluffs has lots of Victorian architecture. The guidebook I had described it as "precious", which I didn't quite understand until we got there. Matt and I thought it was New England's answer to Candy Land. Brightly painted houses (many painted pink) dripping with frilly detailing. They are actually called gingerbread cottages.

There is a large complex called the "Campmeeting Association", which was developed as a summer retreat during the Methodist revival in the 1800's. There were tons of these little Victorian cottages arranged around a common area that had an open air chapel. It was actually really lovely, if a little "precious". We thought it was very much an Anglo-themed utopia, with the Victorian architecture and the Methodist influence. At the same time, Oak Bluffs has a long history as a vacation destination for some African-Americans. I'm not a huge history buff, but this was really one of the most interesting historical places I've been to in New England.

Edgartown was much stuffier, with it's colonial architecture and larger houses. We zipped around on our bikes then took the bus halfway back to Vineyard Haven, before peddling back to catch the ferry. And hey Mom, I took a picture of the Black Dog Tavern for you, although we didn't go in. We'll save that for a day when we get to go there with you! We also didn't make it to the Aquinnah Cliffs, an area still managed by the Wampanoag Tribe (who of course taught those ignorant pilgrims to grow corn and all that important stuff). There is also a sheep farm out that way, where they make yarn. I so wanted to go there, but we didn't make it. : ( Hopefully we'll make our way back there at some point!

In other news, teaching has started, and it's really time consuming. The first day went fairly well. I still need to work on finding my "college instructor" voice, but it'll come. But it's kind of fun to be back on a campus, although trippy that I can now park in faculty/staff parking without getting a ticket. I feel like a poser. haha. But, I just need to put one foot in front of the other. That's all I can do!

So.Tired.

Matt says this is what he feels like all the time...traveling all the time. I haven’t felt this tired for this many days in a row EVER. And I’ve only been on the road for two weeks. And I got a couple days at home in between, albeit very rushed.

I just got back from 4 days of sociology conferences in Montreal. A couple days at the Society for the Study of Social Problems (small-ish meeting geared towards new and more bohemian-type sociologists) and a couple days at American Sociological Association (what I’m now referring to as the big leagues of sociology). This was my first time attending both conferences and they were, all at once, interesting, boring, engaging, and esoteric. Sociologists are an interesting breed. Like it or not, I’m one of them. It’s scary to be with a huge group of people who behave similarly to you, in ways that you like but which become annoying when everyone around you is doing the same thing.

For instance, early Saturday morning I went on a bus tour around the city that explored grassroots organizations. Mainly we looked at neighborhoods and talked about Canada’s social housing. It was really interesting, although I was super tired and a little cranky. People were posing all sorts of sociology questions, like “If this city has great public transportation, why aren’t there more people walking around on a lovely Saturday morning?” And “It seems like the graffiti is more politically-oriented then gang related. I wonder why?” And “What is the federal, provincial, and municipal funding mix for public housing in Canada?” Questions, questions, questions.

After being on the bus for a couple hours, we had a break at this lovely outdoor/indoor market where there was tons of local fresh produce. The sellers had REAL strawberries. Not the huge grocery store California strawberries that are kind of tasteless, but little ripe ones that you would actually pick out of your garden at home. I really miss picking berries out of a home garden, so I bought some. I got back on the bus and ate a few. I was quite satisfied with myself. Then, a sociologist, whom I’m sure is lovely and brilliant, sat in front of me and started talking about how she studies food consumption. She said that there are increasing numbers of urban markets like this one that are overpriced and don’t serve the needs of the poor who reside in the inner city. Okay, true enough. It was something I would normally blather on about too. But at the moment, it was a total buzz-kill. Sometimes it’s just nice to eat strawberries and not worry about their social implications. That’s the lesson I’m taking away from my weekend.

Attending these conferences marks the beginning of my return to academic sociology. I’ve had a two-year break, being just a working stiff applied sociologist. Now, I have to get back into all that book learning stuff in order to teach my intro class this fall. I am excited. Despite my slight overload on all things sociological at the moment, I think it’ll be great. I got *free* instructor copies in the mail. It’s the greatest thing ever. I’m such a nerd.

I can’t wait to read them.

In the spirit of not over-analyzing things, I’m just going to link you to our pictures of Montreal without elaborate explanations.

I will tell you though, that in addition to lots of poutine on menus at "restos", Montreal also has a thing called "Michigan fries" or "Michigan poutine", which is french fries lathered in meat sauce (yeah, spaghetti meat sauce). You can also get a hot dog Michigan style. We didn't dare.

I’ll just end by saying that Montreal is a really cool city. It really is a bit of Europe, just an hour over the US border. Slower pace, longer meals. It's a good place to hang out. It takes a lot of walking, and a bit of patience to overcome the culture shock of being in Canada, yet not being able to communicate with people right away if you don't speak French. But when people said "Bonjour" and we just said "hi" in return, they quickly switched to English. It seems like a pretty friendly testing ground for travel abroad, if you ever have the chance to go.

P.S. My husband is amazing. After flying into Boston at 8am on Friday, he drove up to Montreal, hung out mostly by himself all weekend while I attended the conference, and drove me 5 ½ hours home late last night when I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. This afternoon, he flew off again to Virginia for a couple days. I don’t know how you do it, but you’re the best! I love sharing this crazy thing called life with you.

wish me luck

I picked Matt up this morning at 7:00am from the airport, so we're spending a much deserved day at home. Not to jinx anything, but I have exciting meeting this week which led me to spend part of the afternoon yesterday at the Boston College library reviewing intro to sociology textbooks. There are endless college libraries I could use in Boston, but Boston College has a gorgeous campus with beautiful gothic buildings so it's becoming a favorite place to visit. After doing my research, I took a long walk around the campus which was lovely and lush on a warm drizzly day. I'm continuing to work on an intro to sociology syllabus which I didn't have the opportunity to use last semester. We'll see if my luck changes this week.

Matt was up in New Brunswick again for a few days. Above is a view from his hotel room in Fredricton. I wasn't too keen on going back again after our December trip, but this photo made a revisit more enticing. He tried using this photo stitching software our visitor from Hong Kong gave him to put together a panorama. It didn't quite work, but somehow I like the results regardless.