Writing: It's not just for college

This one goes out to my College Writing 2 students. "I Love You Period" by Dan Baird:

I love the fact that he makes something nerdy (being a good writer) into something cool (which being a good writer already was, but how many of us really think like that?). Let's face it--if you can't punctuate your love letters, how far do you think you'll get in life? Okay, so the song is still full of geek, but it's a fun example of why we should care about punctuation ;)


Here's a song with an opposite take on punctuation: "Oxford Comma" by Vampire Weekend

"Oxford Comma" points out the ridiculosity (it's a word. I may have just made it up, but it's a word) of how uptight we tend to be about language. (The English teacher in me needs to remind everyone that, while language changes and we need to be flexible, PUNCTUATION IS STILL IMPORTANT! Remember those love letters from the first song?)


Now, one we've all experienced: "Writer's Block" by Just Jack (a fun Brit-Hip Hop take on the curse we all know).

See? Even rappers know what it's like.


And here's the ultimate song for writers. From the Beatles:

Writing. It's hip. 

Hands, Explanations, and Wile E. Coyote

Can you tell I've become obsessed with slam poetry?

Here's some Def Poetry. I really like the way this young woman presents herself. It's a cool topic, and she talks about it honestly, beautifully, ironically, and makes it cooler.

And here's part of why slam poetry is so awesome (warning: this one is almost 15 minutes. It's selections of poetry interspersed with commentary):

National Poetry Slam Director's Cut

And here's some nostalgic poetry for us Loony Toons fans:

Yeah, I know, it makes a point about addiction. But really, it's about Wile E.

More Poetry Slamming

This one is about being pretty. I love it!
 

 

What I love about poetry slams: the intense philosophy crammed into just a few minutes.

And speaking of poetry slams, there's a restaurant/bookstore/fair trade market in DC called Busboys and Poets. I've never been there, but after seeing several videos of poetry slammers recently, I looked into local events, and found this place. They host a monthly poetry slam on the second Friday of every month. I'm going to go and check one out next month. They also have weekly open mic nights, which should be pretty cool. 

Who wants to start going to poetry slams with me?

Why We Teach

This is a poetry slam performance, so don't be shocked by this guy's vehemence!

He sums up why teachers teach in a 3-minute performance. Pretty impressive.

Long time, no write!

It's been a long time, but I'm finally back! (Cue groans and boos) The last eight months have been good, but very busy.

August and September were filled with pet sitting. I spent a lot of time taking care of some lovely kitties (other than Hide and Seek)! I also had Jane's birthday, Jane's homecoming anniversary, Mom's birthday, and a novel that I've started writing. I got some writing done during August & September, but that fell off dramatically after...

A trip to the ICU in September. I had an insulin pump malfunction (which was partly user error!) that caused me to go into DKA. I wasn't getting enough insulin, so my blood sugar went high, I started barfing, etc. When I talked to my endocrinologist, he said to get to the ER--so I did! They got me stabilized, but I had to spend three days in the ICU while they fixed the issues with my blood sugar, insulin and various chemicals the body needs (there was something with potassium and phosphorus). It turns out (I discovered at the end of my hospital stay when we were trying to figure out what caused the DKA) that there was a tiny kink in the tubing of my insulin pump (hidden beneath the little plastic disk where it enters the body, so I didn't see it when I looked for problems), which meant that I wasn't getting the insulin my body needed. Well, lesson learned! I now know to check ALL parts of the tubing. Immediately after my Insulin Adventure, life got really cool when...

In October, I started a new job. I'm now teaching at Westwood College! I teach College Writing and Reading courses. After teaching at NOVA last summer, I discovered that A) I'm good at teaching and B) I love it. I got an email from Westwood in September in response to my Craigslist resume. I interviewed with Amanda, and got the job. Westwood is a career college that focuses on helping students succeed in the world of work. It takes three years to get a Bachelor's degree. There are five 9- to 10-week terms per year, which allows students to get through the curriculum more quickly than a two semester per year program. The work is interesting and challenging; many of our students come from school systems that don't do a good job teaching the basics, so we give them those foundational tools to build on to.

I'm now in my second term at Westwood, and I still love it. I'm an adjunct professor, which means that I'm essentially part-time. I'm hoping/praying that this will turn into a full-time position. Being a full faculty member would be a dream come true.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to for the past eight months.

Teaching and petsitting and weddings, oh my!

It's been a busy few months, and as we all know, time flies. (I would like to point out that time flies whether you're having fun or not. Which is not to say that I haven't been having fun, but time would be flying regardless.) Anyway, Summer's here--almost over, in fact--and I've been a busy bee.

Starting in mid-May, I taught an ESL class at NVCC. It was Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 9:00-12:00. After class, I'd go straight to my full time job at PRD. It made for long days, but I LOVED my class, and it was totally worth it. The class was an advanced reading class, so I was teaching academic reading skills, vocab, and general college reading stuff. We went through two text books and a novel in 8 weeks. I felt sorry for my students, because they had so much to keep up with! The novel we read was Ernest Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying, which is one of the most beautiful & moving stories ever. Anyway, I had a lot of fun teaching. Class ended on July 12.

On July 3, I had a Very Important Event--Kara's wedding! It was beautiful, and a TON of fun. The weeks leading up to the wedding were busy, not surprisingly. One of the highlights was our trip to Doukenie Winery on the Tuesday before the wedding. It's a really nice place, and the wine was excellent (this is from me, a non-wine drinker). As bachelorette parties go, I have to say, this was a winner! It was a great day.

After the wedding, we had a small family gathering on the 4th. After the recent Big Events, it was quite lovely to have some quieter time. The evening of the fourth, I started a couple of pet sitting jobs (I pet sit through a pet sitting agency) that went through the next week. The week after that, I was on staycation, but had two additional pet sitting jobs to keep me from being too lazy. I've had pet sitting gigs consistently through the whole month of July (and it should keep going into August). Whew!

Now that life is slowing down a little bit (maybe), I've started some behind-the-scenes volunteering for Homeward Trails (that's the organization that Rachel & I fostered through when we roomed together. Rachel still fosters dogs with them). HT works with several shelters in the area, including King William County's Regional Animal Shelter. What I'm doing is reposting animals from RAS's petfinder listings to HT's petfinder listings (and then posting on Craigslist) to get the animals more exposure--and hopefully help them find fosters or adopters. It's a bit heartbreaking to see all of the homeless, helpless, abused, abandoned, etc. animals out there (and to know that many of them won't make it out of the shelter), but knowing that I might help a few of them makes it totally worth it. And frankly, it's easy. I just have to go to the library (or Starbucks, if I have my laptop with me), go online, and essentially copy & paste info. I hope I make a difference in some animals' lives!

So, that's me. What's new with everyone else?

Imagine...

This is from Sara and Brian Brandsmeier's blog, Ephphatha Poetry, originally from Tim Wise. It's incredibly thoughtful, not to mention thought-provoking. It's also very true. I believe whole-heartedly in freedom of speech, as well as the other freedoms protected in the First Amendment, but I also believe in respect, tolerance, and love. The behaviors that Wise addresses in this essay, while protected under the First, fall short of respecting, tolerating, and loving our fellow humans.

But isn't it great that we live in a culture where we can protest, say offensive and objectionable things, disrespect others--and call each other out on that behavior? I can't approve of saying or doing these things (I can, however, approve of protesting against them!), but thank God that we have that right. 

Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black

Seek the Fashionisto

Seek likes climbing in my closet. It turns out, he also likes "helping" me fold laundry.

Or maybe he just puts up with me folding laundry on "his" bed.

Continuing Kitten Antics

Not surprisingly, Hide and Seek are still silly, energetic, and curious. The result is sometimes...hmm. Interesting may be the word.

Exhibit 1: I have a dangly mousie that hooks over the door on my bedroom door. The cats go crazy for it. On the other side of the door, I have my ironing board on a door-hook-thing. One morning recently, I woke up to a thunderous noise. Thinking the house was falling down around me, I jumped up to investigate. It turns out that Hide had managed to bat the mousie over the door. The cacophony was the sound of him climbing the ironing board to retrieve his toy.

Exhibit 2: Turns out, Seek likes clothes. If I open my closet door for more than a millisecond, both cats take advantage and go in to play (their names are appropriate, after all). Last week, I discovered Seek standing on my clothes. No, not on a pile of clothes on the floor or a shelf. ON THE CLOTHES ON HANGERS. I don't know how he got there or why he thought it was a good idea, but he's done it several times, so it must be fun.

Exhibit 3: They also, not surprisingly, like to jump up on the kitchen cabinets, where they can look down on me from their superior position. Typically, they jump to the counter next to the fridge (the only counter area they're allowed to be!), then up on top of the fridge, then to the cabinets. Okay, not abnormal, right? What is surprising is that, if I have the freezer door open, Hide will jump from the floor into the freezer. That's right, he jumps straight up about four feet into the FREEZER. Why? My only guess is that he likes surprising me.

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll have more ridiculous cat stories in days to come.

What is normal, anyway?

As I mentioned a few months ago, I started a new medication in December. It's made a remarkable difference. I feel...well...normal. Of course I still have moods, but the ups and downs aren't months-long, and they don't control me. I can be sad without it taking over my brain, and I can be happy without worrying about when it will end. How weird is that?

Another note about depression: one of the problems is that it can make you feel helpless and controlled by the condition. What I've discovered is that, in addition to therapy and medication, taking any concrete step makes a huge difference. Rather than wallowing, I just get up and clean the sink, or exercise for 10 minutes, or sweep the floor, or cook dinner. A small step makes a big difference! I guess Nike knows what they're talking about--just do it.