Summer: Missing Time

I’m not sure where the days have gone. Last week, it was my birthday and I was celebrating and having a grand time, then it was the weekend and now it’s Thursday and I’m nearly done teaching summer school.

I spent time yesterday trying to figure out just where my afternoons have gone in the last week and a half, and I’ve got nothin’. I know that yesterday became cleaning day, and the day before that I had a golf lesson and a dentist appointment. I think I spent a good deal of Monday afternoon grading papers.

The two full weeks of this course have flown by (the class itself began on Friday, 6/15, and ends Tuesday, 7/3). I didn’t expect that, but I’m glad of it. I’ve so enjoyed getting to know these students and hope I’ll have some of them again in the future – the sophomores look like they’ll be having a class with me at some point this year, but I don’t teach freshmen in general right now (outside of Ethics). We’ve talked about a lot of serious subjects, some fascinating subjects, and had a lot of fun. I hope they’ll look back on this as a not-too-bad way to spend part of their summer.

But I’m still not sure where my time has gone. That’s okay, I think. I originally thought I’d spend a good deal of time last week and this week prepping AP US History for the fall, but I’ve mellowed on it and come to the conclusion that keeping it in the back of my mind for now is okay. After all, I’m off to an AP institute in a week and a half anyway, so I’ll have time to be more active and focus on the topic then.

So far, I’ve been obsessed with the reading.

That was the original pile (minus the 15 – no, now 17 – Nook books I have to read). I also added in a few things after creating that stack. I don’t have an updated photo for you, but I can tell you that I’ve now read probably half of those. And I wasn’t quite sure why I was so obsessed with the reading, but I think I figured out why:

Last fall, I fell in love with reading again and made good use of the school library as my own personal reading playground. I’d walk in, find something, take it, and read it. I had a perpetual pile of books by my bedside, which meant I never quite got around to the huge piles of books I owned and PLANNED to read but hadn’t gotten to yet.

Summer became my solution: I resolved to finally read all those books I had lying around and to cut myself off from the library for the time being (we’ll ignore the fact that there are at least 6 books in the pile that ARE from the library). And now, I guess I’m on a mission.

I guess if I’m missing time, I should go look for it between the pages of some of those recently-finished titles.

Summer, Day 11: Burnt out ends

I’ve always loved my birthday. It just hasn’t always loved me. As a kid, I read this book over and over again. I’m still not convinced there’s such a thing as too many birthdays, despite what Raggedy Ann and Andy tried to tell me. Maybe it’s related to coming from a big family: when there are lots of people vying for parental attention, birthdays are pretty much the best day ever: you get presents, your choice of food, and cake/brownies/cookies/something chocolate.

Today was the last day of 32, and I’m insanely excited to usher in 33 when I wake tomorrow. And to be honest, it’s been a few years since I was this excited about celebrating.

For 32, The Spouse ditched me to play golf for work on the other side of the state, but the day turned out nicely: dinner with the Queen of Cool, the a viewing of super 8.

For 31, I was at West Point, and that was a fabulous day: dinner with 20 of my newest and closest friends, followed by plenty of amaretto sours in the lounge.

I was a mess with 30, not because it was 30 but because a friend scheduled another friend’s baby shower for the same day. It was only a year since I’d lost the baby and I was still a wreck. That loss weighed heavy on me that year as my birthday approached, but I wanted desperately to make it better. The scheduling fiasco upset me so much – I couldn’t handle the thought of attending a shower, and figured no one would want to go to a shower AND a party, not to mention that the combination of two such events with all that baggage just seemed like a recipe for weirdness. So I purposefully scheduled a research trip for that time and tried to find ways to celebrate on my own out of town.

The year I turned 29 was the year we lost the baby. I don’t yet know how to articulate the connection between my growing older and losing a baby halfway through a pregnancy, but it’s been a difficult area for me. And The Spouse and I have had a history of birthday fiascos at times, so I made sure to be away from home that year, on research. I just felt like I needed breathing space, so I created it with two weeks of east coast research and time alone.

But this year, I like to think things are different. Time helps. Being out of grad school and feeling secure in my career helps. Things are just…in balance somehow, and that’s good.

So tomorrow, I celebrate 33 years in style, rocking it in a new red dress, sharing treats with my students, taking myself out for fun, and meeting The Spouse for dinner. Throw in a few random adventures as they come my way, and I think it’ll be an awesome way to turn the page.

Summer, Day 10: Obsession

Every year, mom asks what I want for my birthday (coming later this week), and every year, I tend to say “I don’t know…money? bookstore gift card?”. This year, though, I knew just what I needed: Doctor Who schwag!

So when she texted me to ask, I told her I wanted a TARDIS cookie jar for my home office and a sonic screwdriver. I promised to send her links, since I knew she’d have no idea where to find these things. In the process, I found something else I couldn’t live without:

Not only something for a major Doctor Who fan, but so totally appropriate for a fan who IS a doctor and who keeps a copy of “Keep Calm and Carry On” hanging in the classroom.

The package arrived yesterday, and I figured out pretty quickly that Mom had gone to the right place, both because the box came from ThinkGeek and because the moment I picked up the box I heard the swoosh, swoosh sound of the TARDIS cookie jar.

The mug, of course, is already here on my desk at school.

The Spouse, by the way, swears that I’ll love my birthday gift from him. Obviously, he’s fanagled an evening with Matt Smith, right?

Summer, Day 9: Speed demon

My driver’s license was due to expire later this week, so today was the perfect day to head down to the license bureau. I’ve been carrying the supplementary materials around since last week – utility bill, checkbook, passport – because I thought I’d take care of it last Thursday.

Only, I remembered just in time that I was wearing workout clothes because I was on my way to Zumba. And I hadn’t put on makeup all week. And we won’t mention my hair.

I think it goes without saying that while none of those would have prevented me from getting the license renewed, those factors certainly didn’t help. I had a great photo on the expiring license and wanted to continue the trend.

So, mission accomplished. In less than 10 minutes, I’d renewed my license. That may be a record, and if not, I’d say that 2 good license photos in a row certainly counts as one.

Summer, Day 8: Small Victories

It may not look like it, but this is progress on the Archnemesis. This morning, that shelf was overflowing with pretty much every history book I’ve accumulated since I started grad school in 2005. (The only exceptions are the core books I used for my dissertation, all located on an adjoining bookcase.)

I have several piles of books culled from the shelves. There’s a sizable stack of “to get rid of” books, and there are a few more to add to the top as keepers. The items on the bottom 2.5 shelves will head to my classroom in the next few days, along with another container already full of books and ready to go in my car in the morning.

The piles are atrocious already, but at least things are starting to get better. It’s always darkest before the dawn.

Summer, Day 7 (late): Sunshower on Main Street

Yesterday got away from me and I didn’t manage to post the photo I took mid-afternoon, so I’ll do it late and bring in today’s photo later.

Saturday afternoon, I jaunted down to Old Main Street for a glass fusing class at The Glass Workbench, a shop The Spouse frequents. The Spouse was called away for family obligations, so I took his place and learned how to make a necklace (which shall be revealed later; it’s in the shop being fired in the kiln over the next few days). After I finished, I ran down to a couple more places I like, including the olive oil shop and the British shop. I was surprised by sunshowers on the way, though, and tried to capture them in this photo. I suppose it just looks sunny and wet, but it really was raining at the same time.

“Old Main Street” – or really, just Main Street – is where you’ll find the original state capital of Missouri. Although it’s a suburb on the western side of St. Louis – highly populated these days – to most St. Louisians it still seems about as remote as it was when Louis and Clark passed through a couple hundred years ago. Even with the cobblestone streets and old buildings, though, it really has come a long way in the last two centuries.

Summer, Day 6: Portents of Return

Signs The Spouse has returned from vacation…

The Spouse arrived home at about 4:15 this morning, as evidenced by the drying-out waders and the fishing gear vest thingy hanging near by. Last Saturday, he headed out of town at the last minute with his dad for a week in Colorado. My father-in-law had some job training to do and let The Spouse tag along to go fishing while he was busy. I enjoyed the glorious silence of the house (hence why I got so much reading done) and he had the much-needed time away from work: if he’d been in town, he would’ve been fielding calls and emails and possibly going in to the office.

In other news, summer school started today. Looks like it’ll be a good group for the next two and a half weeks, but those are stories for next week.

Summer, Day 5: Awkward Feet

Hidden somewhere on the whiteboard in my classroom, there’s a magnet that says “Do one thing every day that scares you. – Eleanor Roosevelt”

I’ve done a lot of that this year, or at least I like to think that. But I can always do more of that, and this past week I put it into practice with Zumba (and a Yoga class, but that’s another story). The photo above doesn’t so much capture the spirit of Zumba as it does the way things looked as class broke up this morning, but that’s okay. I found a local place through LivingSocial and have made it to 3 classes this week – hoping for another one tomorrow and/or Saturday. I’d done Zumba on the Kinect before, but the class is way more fun. And empowering, in its own way, even if I do spend half the time tripping over my awkward feet.

These hips don’t lie, either, but they certainly don’t yet move as smoothly as my instructor’s do. Still, awkward feet and hips aside, I adore the concept of spending an hour dancing as a way to get my workout in.

This summer, I promise to really work on that whole “do one thing every day that scares you” idea. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Summer, Day 4: Funk Wall

Today was my last weekday sleep-in day before summer school starts, which meant staying in bed until 8 a.m. and lounging in my pajamas all morning as I finished Naomi Benaron’s Running the Rift (the first book I ever got in my Powell’s Indiespensable book club membership). The book had me in tears, and then I found myself in a funk.

Strange, because I’m looking forward to Vino Van Gogh with a friend tonight. Predictable, I suppose, because I just devoured 7.5 books in the last few days.

I made a list, starting with “get dressed”, and took Puppy for a walk since the weather is cool enough for a mid-day jaunt. Coming back, we discovered that the pool had just opened for the day….and no kids had yet splashed into the water.

It was then that I made the momentous decision to go swimming.

Yes, momentous. Momentous because we’ve lived in this neighborhood nine years this September and have never yet gone to the pool. The easiest reasons were always “we don’t have kids, and the pool is always full of kids” or “we’re too busy – traveling for research to do the dissertation! working late!”. This year, I vowed to change that.

And maybe I did only make it through 20 minutes of swimming laps (barely), but it felt good. Including the after-swim poolside reading, where I managed to sink 50 pages into another book from my summer list.

Summer, Day 3: Hidden Little Secrets

Today I was a reading fiend, but I suspect that in the next day or so I’ll slow down a bit. It’s just that I have ALL these great looking books to read this summer, and they’ve mostly been sitting around on my to-read shelf for what seems like a billion years. So today I powered through three of them, particularly loving Lea VanderVelde’s Mrs. Dred Scott. I’ve come to really appreciate histories about my adopted metropolis, and this one really gave me new insights into slavery as it was practiced outside of the south, not to mention details of Dred Scott v. Sanford that I didn’t know. (In particular, the fact that Harriet really had the more fascinating and, I think, clear-cut case – in some ways – but that since her suit was ultimately subsumed under her husband’s….well. You should check out the book.)

I’ve also decided to send my trusty bookmark into quasi-retirement. And this is where my hidden little secret comes in. Below, a photo of my newly-quasi-retired bookmark (left) and my brand new bookmark:

If you’re wondering, yes, that IS a High School Musical bookmark featuring Zac Efron. Until today, I never noticed that he originated the haircut we now tend to associate with Justin Bieber (who, thankfully, now sports a shorter ‘do).

Dude, I don’t apologize for my Zac Efron-loving ways. But I do know when it’s time to get a bookmark with a much better tassel, hence the one on the right. Which is not quite as cool as the mug I found today that takes that motif, pops it into TARDIS blue and rewrites it as “Keep Calm and Remember I’m the Doctor.”

(Dear Mom: please remember that I told you I desperately need that mug as a birthday gift!)

In other – related – news, I finally read/finished Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, so I officially grant myself permission to see the movie when it comes out.