Every Earth

Cyn Kitchen is a finalist in a writing contest!

I've been reading Cyn's blog for over two years. I twice nominated her posts for The Perfect Post award. There is a visceral element to her writing. Whether she is telling the story of her stint as a coffee shop owner or a mother's night out with the MAPS (Mothers Against Preschoolers) or about the impact of a life, she writes with such oomph that I can almost hear that exhalation of breath that comes with a strong effort. Laughing or crying, I am always moved.

Her story that made the finals in the storySouth Million Writers Award is called "Every Earth is Fit for Burial." I encourage you to read the story of her story at her blog, The Cynical Kitchen... and then go vote for her story!

Sleeping with Bread... and Academia

I had a big plan last November that I would work with a Herculean effort and graduate this month. Well, in early March I spent a few days in New York with some friends. When I came home, instead of feeling refreshed and ready for a big push, I cried. I was just too tired, too overwhelmed, too everything. I knew that if I didn't make the decision to postpone the project, the decision would be made for me.

So, I am in my last week of this semester and things are looking good:

I finished up all the requirements for my internship. I spent the semester interning in a preparation-for-college-reading class. It was fun, enlightening, and it provided an opportunity for me to learn so much about what it takes to teach college reading.

I got caught up on my papers and other requirements for my remediation of reading difficulties class. I've been tutoring two developmental readers. Developmental reader is college lingo for students reading below a college level. They are also sometimes referred to as at-risk or underprepared students. I've spent hours with two wonderful students and I hope that my working with them has better prepared them to succeed in college.

My computer ate a paper a few weeks ago. The computer ATE my paper. I know, I know, these 'incidents' are usually the result of user error. However, the date on the document that was supposed to be my paper, and instead was just the references, read TWO DAYS before the date I last worked on it. How did that happen? ANYWAY... I finally rewrote the paper. My professor is very particular about some things--like not using the word 'amount' unless you are referring to a number of something and making sure there is a comma after the first author in an APA reference list. However, she is very relaxed with due dates. And I've needed to take advantage of that.

BUT, I am in the last week of my semester and there are still some mountains to climb.

Paul had to leave on a business trip yesterday. Yes, THAT yesterday--Mother's Day. He's out of town until Saturday. Nice.

I have the BIGGEST paper of the semester and the possibly the most difficult paper I've had to write to date DUE THIS WEEK. Oy. Give me strength. I have to synthesize the research on nine studies. Ugh. It is HARD. I keep looking at this stack of studies and then getting on the computer to Twitter and play POP Answers on Facebook. I DID type up the reference list and cover page. (Don't laugh. I know how completely ridiculous that is!)

I know I can do this paper. I just can't do it QUICKLY. Each article has to be read and fully comprehended, as my professor would say. I have to suss out the pertinent details about the research questions, method, and findings. Then. THEN!!! Then, I have to lovingly shape all this information into a coherent synthesis. This takes time, people.

Ugh... again.

There are a few minor assignments, two more tutoring sessions, finalize a tutoring log, yada, yada, yada. All easily doable--and then one final. It won't be easy because I will be expected to actually understand EVERYTHING about qualitative and quantitative studies, how to create them, what threatens their validity, etc.

And then THE ANGELS WILL SING. I will be finished for the semester. I am SO looking forward to this:








Oh, and I don't want to forget these guys. I want to spend time with these guys:



Don't forget to check out what others are sharing over at the Sleeping with Bread blog.

Because I am completely unoriginal…

I hopped in on the meme Beck and Subspace Beacon just did.

 

But then, because my computer wacked out when I was trying to register my MS Word 2007 to post to my blog, I lost the entire post.

 

Well, not really the entire post. MS Word 2007 DID autosave and so I give you what is left of my post because I am supposed to be at church in 28 minutes and I haven't even had a shower yet and if I don't post this now I'll probably never post it (BREATHE). Oh heck, I'll shower later, here's the entire list.

Eight Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. The end of my school semester.
   
2. The end of the kids' school year.
   
3. Reading a book for fun.
   
4. Going away later today to a hotel so that I can get some homework done.
   
5. Seeing X-Men Origins: Wolverine (I don't care if the reviews were lukewarm.)
   
6. The end of my school semester.
   
7. The end of my school semester. (Definitely worth three things worth of looking forward tos.)
   

Eight Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Tutored a middle school student
   
2. Rewatched parts of Quantum of Solace (to catch parts of the story I missed. Pinky swear!)
   
3. Went to this restaurant…
   
4. To listen to my friends perform songs for their CD release party
   
5. NOT laundry
   
6. NOT clean house
   
7. Wasted time on the internet
   
8. Listen to a bevy of 25 to 35 year olds bemoan "how old they are getting" and laughed, with bitter irony, at the thought. Ha! Just wait until they are in their mid-40s!\
   

 

Eight Things I Wish I Could Do:

 

1. Juggle
   
2. Play an instrument
   
3. Speak a foreign language
   
4. Read all the books in the world that I think I should read
   
5. Do a cartwheel
   
6. Have a dog (except that I learned yesterday there is a faction of the animal rights movement that thinks that no sentient being should be "owned" and if they ever convince enough people to their way of thinking I'll never be able to enslave a dog again!)
   
7. Live in a fictional small town where everyone knows my name and there is one central gathering spot but I still would have access to all the movie theaters, bookstores, etc. that I wanted without having to drive for three hours.
   
8. Go to Ireland.
   

 

Eight Shows I Watch:

1. Bones
   
2. House
   
3. Lost
   
4. Masterpiece Theatre Classic
   
5. The Bonnie Hunt Show
   
6. Castle (It better not be getting canceled so soon!)
   
7. Malcolm in the Middle reruns
   
8. Top Gear (What can I say, funny guys with British accents! Who cares about the cars!)
   

I tag:

Long lost blogger: Chickenone

Major book blogger: TerriB

Um, that's it, I guess. Unless you just want to do this. Then go ahead, please.

Until tomorrow, when I do some bread baking.

Two Days Late...

...with a post about Marley on her 9th birthday. But that's okay, she was 10 days late being born--that was much worse than being late with a birthday post. Don't you think?

I don't write posts about the kids on their birthdays every year. One kid would plan my demise if I waxed poetic about him. The other doesn't really care or think about it but I am just not quite articulate enough to do this type of post justice.

Still, I've been looking at her lately and seeing that "O-my-she-grew-up-overnight" change that happens periodically. And I feel guilty. The last two years I've been sucked into the vortex of school, laptop addiction, and general life challenges. I guess you could say I've been a disengaged parent. So she's growing up, finishing third grade and sometimes I wish I could turn back the clock and have a do-over. Because I have no actual expectation that will happen, I am hanging on for the next few weeks so I can finish this semester and then compensate inappropriately with manicures and movies and painting ceramics at ridiculous prices.

Marley is a kid who has challenged me from the beginning. She wouldn't sleep when I wanted her to. She wouldn't stop pouring things from one container into another. She wouldn't stop drawing on any surface she could find. She is always VERY, VERY LOUD and she doesn't sit still.

We are completely different. COMPLETELY. My other kid, the one I'm not allowed to talk about, is a lot like me. I get him.

I am a worrier, full of anxieties about the future that I try to keep hidden.
Marley lives in the present. It is all about the NOW for her.

I am always looking for the deeper meaning and often unsettled.
Marley stops at the pretty, shiny surface of things and is satisfied.

I am uncoordinated and content to laze my days away on the couch.
Marley is impressively coordinated and wants to go, go, go. Cartwheels, splits, jumps, skipping, running, flipping around the bars. Nonstop action.

I love to read.
Marley? Not so much. There are BETTER things to do with her time.

I don't go for the obviously girly stuff.
Marley is pink and purple, 24/7.

I'm sure I'm not not the first parent who wondered what the Lord was thinking by giving her a child so opposite in temperament. But I might guess he gave me my opposite so that the two of us wouldn't drown in instropectiveness and a lack of sunlight. Who knows... regardless, I look at her and I just can't stand it... I love my little blonde dynamo.



Here's a post I wrote a while back with pics of me and Marley.

And now for something completely different...

On Twitter this week, the subject of the Bronte sisters came up. I love Jane Eyre by Charlotte but was never a big fan of Wuthering Heights by Emily. I have a sort of fascination with the book. It is well-written and when you think the author, her age, etc., it is really fascinating. However, I don't think it translates well to film--not if you tell the whole story. I think I grew up with the Laurence Olivier version. After reading the book, I realized that movie left out A LOT of the story, i.e., the really disturbing parts.

Still, there is one version of Wuthering Heights that remains near and dear to my heart. A retelling that became a classic in its own right.



(The good bit starts about a minute in to the clip.)

Still, it isn't my favorite retelling of all time. No, that is Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas' epic version of Shakespeare's Hamlet:

Sleeping with Bread: Stale and Moldy

It has been a long time since I wrote a Sleeping with Bread post. Officially, I was observing Lent by forgoing blogging, Facebook and Twitter.

But there was more to it than that. Right now, I am having a difficult time finding the consolation in my life. My options in a SWB post, then, are to dwell on the difficult and overwhelming and fake the consolation, forgo the consolation altogether (completely NOT the point) or just not write. So, for the most part, not writing has been my approach.

I want to be clear that I do KNOW that I have consolations in my life. Absolutely, I do KNOW it. It is just that I am not feelin' it right now.

I had lunch with a good friend last week and we talked about--you guessed it--Life, the Universe and Everything. This friend has had a completely different life than I have. Different issues. Different choices. However... we have that camaraderie that comes from going through some pretty big stuff. We recognize the crazy thinking that we tend to do when we are stressed. It was good to talk to her and have her affirm that my circumstances are such that my state of mind is very understandable... and it is temporary. It will pass.

And so, here I sit... in my room... in the dark because of migraines... and I chose to go ahead and write about my stale, moldy bread... and even though I just got finished telling you that I am not feelin' any consolation in my life right now...

I just told you about one, didn't I? I had lunch with a friend who can empathize with me and help me see more clearly.

And I am grateful for that friend... and for my family that is healthy... and that school is almost over for the semester... and that I can joke around on Twitter and Facebook... and that I can DM certain friends and tweet privately what I won't tweet publicly... and I had a yummy chicken w/vegetables and brown rice dinner... and I have a new heat pack... and Marley had a great 9th birthday party at her gymnastics center...

and...

and...

and...

the list could go on and on.

That is the great thing about taking the time to write a Sleeping with Bread post. It helps. It really does.

You can check out what others have to share over at the Sleeping with Bread blog.


And just for kicks, here is a picture of Marley's birthday cake:



If you click on the picture, you can appreciate all the detail on the doggy.

A little gibberish...

Well, my most respected fellow blogger, Mel, left me a hint that it was time to get back to blogging. Lent was over a week ago.

I have no eloquent first-post-after-Lent prepared. It's late on Sunday evening. Little Dorrit is on the telly. Mr. Dorrit just told Amy that she couldn't go back to England with him because she wasn't yet presentable. I want to smack that man upside of his head! Poor Amy.

There were so many moments during Lent that I had things I wanted to blog about but now I don't remember them. Of course.

Except for the bit about chimpanzees.

(This may get a little too gruesome for some...)

I've developed something of a thing about chimpanzees. After that woman was attacked in Connecticut, I watched an interview with a couple who had suffered a similar attack in California a few years previous. The man lost the use of his hands and now wears a prosthetic nose. I later read that the woman in Connecticut had lost her hands and that her face was, um, completely disfigured.

So, I put one case together with another case and figured that this is what chimpanzees do when they attack. They destroy your face and hands. I don't even want to look at a chimpanzee now. What a horrible thing to happen to someone.

Anyway...

Life has been busy, busy, busy. I wish that I had pressed myself to focus more on the spiritual during Lent. I guess it was still something that I stuck to my decision not to blog or use Facebook or Twitter. I think I still missed out, though.

I've been interning at the local community college and really enjoying it. I've learned quite a bit, about teaching and being in a professional work environment. I hope to do some more work there next semester.

(Oh gosh. Little Dorrit is killing me. Mr. Dorrit is completely loony about any connections to his past. He doesn't know what to do with himself. Poor John Chivery is still sick with love for Amy. Oh, I hope this all has a happy ending.)

Well, I needed to get something down. Sorry it was so random and bizarre. Tomorrow I hope for a proper Sleeping with Bread post.