THE HELP, The Movie, May Shoot this Summer

THE HELP, The Movie, May Shoot this Summer

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3 Beautiful Images

They're not great photography, but the images make me happy.

Exhibit #1: Samwise, trying to get as far under the shelf as possible to feel the heat from the vent that's under there on his face.




Exhibit #2: Cheese Souffle. We had this for Sunday breakfast a few weeks ago, and I had meant to post the pic then. It still looks delish. Think I'll make another one this weekend.






Exhibit #3: Rice Krispie treats in the shape of hearts. Yup, they were for Valentine's Day. I'm a little late uploading pics, obviously. These were yum and very easy to work into my eating plan (unlike the souffle!).

3 Beautiful Things

I came across this article today with 10 tips for staying happy at work. All good advice! In honor of this list, I'm doing all 3 BT's about work today (I know, yesterday had 2 of them about work - weird, huh?).

1. My office window is now decorated with huge retro flowers in bright purple, pink and lime green!

2. I went to help the Ready to Read Corps at the Free Store today, and Abby was so good at working the crowd. It made me feel so good and proud and strong, knowing that CML is doing great things with amazing people in those jobs.

3. A toddler was having a crying fit when I went out to the public area this afternoon, and when he saw me he paused and gave a half smile. He was obviously too tired to stay calm, but I think he's getting to know me a little, and it made me feel good that he stopped long enough to let me read him a quick book.

Bonus BT: planning a little surprise that is going to make my son's eyes sparkle tomorrow. :-)

3 Beautiful Things

1. Reading with 3 little boys today, they all crowded close so we could talk about the Spiderman Villains together. I am thankful that my own (not so) little boy educated me well on this topic!

2. A young girl came in tonight and said "I read those books you left for me last week. They were fun. Do you have any more?" Do I have more? Seriously?

3. Finding a new song on the radio that touches me so deeply that I think "I have to learn that song right now."

1. Seeing the results from a photo shoot of me and thinking "eh, not so bad as it could have been."

2. The smell of Spring-ish rain on the city streets makes me love the city, even though I still have to pause at the shininess of the pavement, thinking it might be slippery.

3. My teenager saying "don't I get a hug?" Cynicism doesn't always reign supreme.

American Idol, making dreams come true and my bucket list

Do you have a bucket list? I don't have one written down, but I do sort of have a list of things I've always wanted to do and would like to accomplish in my life. One of those things involves music.

I have always loved making music. I'm told by my family that I pretty much started singing right when I learned to talk. My sister complained that I would wake her up in the middle of the night (we shared a room) because I'd wake up and sing myself back to sleep. Of course, being a little kid, I wouldn't sing a complete song, but would mindlessly just sing snippets from every song I knew in a sort of random fashion. I'm like that.

I like all kinds of music: folk, rock. church, classical, opera, hip hop, rap, Christian alternative, Jazz, blues, etc. I enjoy singing it all, too. The other day, Si got in the car and said "what are you listening to today, Mom?" thinking I had a book in, as per usual. I turned the CD player on and he got a blasting earful of Beyonce. I embarrassed him by singing and dancing along to Single Ladies as we went down the road. I did some musical theater in college and right after college, and I hope to again some day. I have sung in church choirs and I love karaoke. And I get together with 2 colleagues for our little band and play now and then for some traditional music (folk, gospel type stuff).

I don't know why I never really watched American Idol until last year. I don't like all the drama-building they do and the commercials and stuff, so we DVR it and watch it at our leisure, FFing past Ryan Seacrest and commercials. If I were younger I'd dream of going on that show, only struggling with what kind of music I would want to claim as "my own". I've enjoyed hearing about Susan Boyle and her rise to stardom with her amazing voice. It gives me hope that ordinary folks can do extraordinary, dream-quality things sometimes.

So that brings me to my bucket list. Someday, I'd like to front a blues band. I'd love to really sing all those great songs made famous by Bill Withers, BB King, Etta James and others, and have back-up singers and musicians around me. Mmm mm mm, wouldn't that be fun?

If you could sing in a band, what would you want to sing? What is on your bucket list?

3 Beautiful Things

My SIL has asked - again - that I post more often, and it just occured to me that posting 3BT would be a great way to lift my spirits and post more (win-win!).

1. Seeing the scale stop one number sooner than last week - finally breaking the plateau I've been on for 3 weeks.

2. Sliding through the warm water of the pool with flippers on reminds me that my muscles work, that I am Blessed, and that I am getting stronger every day.

3. My son, reminding me that he has made good choices in the past and perhaps should be trusted to make this big decision about next year, and knowing in my heart that we've done well to get him this far into adulthood so soon. So proud of him.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

My friend Amanda posted a list of 10 things that make her happy and said that anyone reading it should consider themselves tagged and make their own lists. Then I went over the Cheryl's blog and found I was tagged there, too! Here is mine! (these are definitely NOT in priority order)

10 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

1. LISTS: Lists can really be useful for those of us who are easily distracted. A list can keep me on task, help me remember things longer than a minute, get something off my mind so that I can re-focus on what I'm supposed to be doing. I often keep a list during meetings of ideas/thoughts/stuff I need to do so that I can keep concentrating on the meeting w/o forgetting what bright little idea just occurred to me. I keep paper and a pencil handy on my nightstand so that I can make a list if something is keeping me awake at night (sometimes this doesn't work). Lists are also handy when you don't feel like writing prose.
2. FAMILY: I am truly blessed to have a great family: parents, sibs, in-laws, and a wonderful husband and son. We have a great time when we are together, I miss them when we're apart, and I'm so lucky to have them all. I include our 2 cats in this category, too. Purring heat sources make me very happy.
   
3. SIMON: He gets his own mention because. You know, just because. I am very proud of him. He is brilliant, fabulously talented, and even when things get tough, he will work to get through it. He's caring and thoughtful, too, for which I am extremely grateful.
   
4. CREATING THINGS WITH MY HANDS: I love crafts, and knitting is, of course, my latest obsession. It's lasting longer than any other ever has, I think, and I'm actually making useful finished items, so it's better than many of the things I've gotten into before! I enjoy the creative process, but knitting also allows me to keep my hands busy even when my mind is doing something else.
5. PERFORMING: I love being on stage, the center of attention, making people laugh, entertaining people. It makes me happy, regardless of the medium . . . puppets, storytelling, public speaking, music, comedy.
6. WATER: Swimming, water therapy, water aerobics or just splashing around, it all makes me happy. There's something wonderful about being weightless. Also, it makes me happy that when you exercise in water you don't sweat . . . or at least you don't notice the sweat because you're already wet. Sweating does not make me happy.
7. LEARNING: Actually, I do love learning new things. What makes me really happy, though, is watching/helping someone else learn something new. That is partly why I've enjoyed working with children so much. Young children learn new things every day, and it's delightful to watch that happen. It's like little miracles popping all around you.
8. SMILES: This seems obvious, but maybe smiling makes me a little more happy than just average happiness. Isn't it great to make another person smile? or better yet, to make them laugh?
   
9. SPONTANEITY: I get positively giddy on vacation when we can just roam, with money our pockets, and see where the road takes us. I love stopping at a road-side monument or finding some out-of-the-way diner or just deciding that "today we'll all speak with British accents". It's silly, and it's delightful.
10. ASSURANCE: I believe that I know my eternal fate, and that assurance makes me happy, content in a way to which nothing on this earth could ever compare. Those of you who know me well already know what I'm talking about, but if anyone ever wants to talk about this with me, please ask!

Thanks for tagging me, Cheryl and Amanda! If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged. What 10 things make you happy?

Important Things

I'm thinking today about what is important in life. What makes something important, and what level of sacrifice would you be willing to give for those things?

Oh yes, there are some "easy" answers to those questions. I would venture to suggest that each of us has at least one person, but often several persons for whom we would sacrifice a great deal. What I'm talking about now, though, is what, other than people, are you willing to lay on the line, say, for your job? Your car? Your food?

Backing up a little, let me explain how I got to these deep thoughts.

First of all, my favorite car has reached the point where it will cost more in repairs than I'm willing to sacrifice. I bought my nifty, purple PT Cruiser several years ago when we decided to downsize from a van and save some gas money. I've loved this car more than any other I've ever had. It looks cool (I mean, it's freakin purple!), it has a moon roof, it has SEAT WARMERS, and electric gadgets all over the place. I love love love this car! It gets decent mileage, it's quirky, it has great visibility from the driver's seat . . . and did I mention that it's purple? Anyway, it's reached the point, like all cars do, where fixing it would cost more than it's blue book value. Sigh. Most of the vehicles I've had, although I've grown somewhat attached to them, I really have just seen as transportation, but this Cruiser, well, it's sorta been a part of who I am for a while, you know? Silly? Of course it is! I love being silly, haven't you noticed? So we're giving it away, and I'm feeling a little blue about that.

Second, I work for the public library (as if you didn't already know that). I love my job, and I love my library system. I believe we do really important work. I believe, in my deepest of deep parts that the library is one of the most important institutions in our country, and indeed, that we cannot have a free and democratic society without a library. I believe that a good library (like ours) can be a major factor in changing the course of generational poverty and helping families break long, long cycles by helping them increase their literacy and job capabilities. I believe that everyone should have free, easy access to the internet, global information and intellectual freedom. But you know what? When the snow is coming down in big, fluffy flakes at a rate of 1/4 inch an hour and the roads are slick and freezing, I still wanna get me a snow day! I know, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but that's just the way it is. My good friend, Nick, said something on FB or Twitter that got me thinking about how vital our services and our availability are to our customers . . . and really, especially in the neighborhood I serve this is true. For some of my customers, the library is about the only thing they have to do on any given day, let alone a snowy one! If I can slowly and cautiously make my way there to open our doors, it's probably a very good thing, but I'm still not sure I want to sacrifice my life.

Third, I am thinking today about what makes a day special for me. Today I'm trying to make the day special for Simon by making him brownies to celebrate his early release day (due to snow). I gathered my special brownie-making bowl, my special brownie-making spoon, etc. I used the same recipe (well, with some alterations to make them less sugary and more dark chocolatey) I've used my whole life, from Mom's cook book. It is a special experience for me, and making the brownies cheered me up. Is there a recipe that cheers you up? I smiled, thinking that food always cheers me, and that is probably partly why I struggle with my weight. But then, who cares? Frankly, if it wasn't a health risk, I wouldn't care about the weight. It is, though, which sucks, so I won't be eating any of those delicious dark chocolate brownies with chocolate chunks. That sacrifice is worth it, and I got the pleasure of making them for my skinny kid.

So what is important to you? What do you sacrifice for your job? Is it worth the sacrifices you make? What do you sacrifice for your eating/drinking habits? Is it worth it? What would you do if you figured out that something you were doing wasn't worth the sacrifices you were making to do it?

What's on your mind?

I have to admit that I've had a really hard time focusing today. I often have trouble focusing, especially when I have to do some writing. Don't get me wrong - I love writing, even when, like today, it's all about writing Performance Appraisals for my employees (faithful minions, all). I just have a hard time getting all of the distractions of daily life out of the way so I can get down to writing.

When I was in college, I would clean my room and organize my desk before writing a paper or studying for a test. Now I don't always have the luxury of having the time to get my desk cleaned and organized before I have to write, so I have to find other ways of reigning in my thoughts. Sometimes I am successful. Today, however, I was not. Much of what was distracting me was still work . . . schedule stuff, staffing, budget, customers (bless them), projects, and my own required time on the public service desk, Caldecott and Newbery winners, email clean-up, to name a few. I also let myself become distracted by other things . . . hunger, stretching stiff muscles, news from Haiti, stuff I should have done over the weekend and is now on my mind. You know how it is, right?

So - everyone deals with distractions - how do you handle them at work? Do you work better with tight deadlines (like me) or long-range deadlines? Do you have any tips for me so I can have more success as the week progresses?

Jumble of Pics

Simon finally removed all the wrist bands he's been wearing and adding to for about 3 years. It was momentous. Look at the difference in his wrists! I'm surprised he didn't need physical therapy! He removed several months ago, but . .. well . . .you know. I'm just getting caught up!




Mike and I got away for a few days to go up to Lake Erie in October. We love it up there, and had a great time. This was at sunset, on the deck of our hotel.






I fished out a few pics of my in-laws at Xmas that I think they won't kill me for posting. We play Shanghai Rummy, and it was fun!






I love that Si is finally old enough to really be good at cards and other games.







This is Dodger, the oldest Terrier "Grand-dog" (my mom's got one grandson and now has 9 grand-dogs - LOL), with Jasper, the baby. Both are decked out in their winter duds.






OK - just one more puppy shot. Mike loved the little guy, too!








And sunset over Lake Erie. (Hey, I warned you it was a jumble!)

Christmases Galore!

I have finally uploaded pictures! Come to find out, I had 262 pictures on my camera that hadn't been loaded onto the computer yet. Yikes! I think I'll start with the most recent events and work my way backwards.

We had 3 Christmases this year. This is not unusual for us, since we end up traveling to my in-law's and then my family's, and we all love having multiple celebrations! First Christmas this year was with my in-laws. We had a great time, and got lots of loot. I took other pics, but I can't share them here because were in our jammies and my MIL and FIL would disown me if I published them. :-)

Christmas 2.0 was with the folks from the L. This is my new staff, and I made everyone hats. The best part of the night was having fun with them, playing games and eating great food.





I do have to admit to joy, though, that they all seem to like their hats (or most of them, anyway), and most of them are actually wearing them in the snow!



Our real Second Christmas was with my family over the New Year's weekend. We got to meet the new puppy that my Brother and SIL got (his name is Jasper).

I made him a little sweater, too, but I'm sure he's torn it up with wiggling by now! I'm going to have to find more stable patterns! He's a little ball of energy!



We had a great time with the family there making puzzles and playing games (and we got another load of loot, which was easier to transport because we also bought a van whilst we were up there).

Back to Blogging

Well, if anyone is still out there, reading my blog, I'm here to say I'm back to writing. I'm sorry it's been so long. There has been a lot going on, and as I mentioned in my last post, I have had a lot of Dr visits and other things taking up my time. Yes, I've done lots and lots of knitting, too! I managed to make a hat for each of my employees at the branch, and I made some socks for my FIL, a cool little knitted ornament for each of Si's teachers and I've started a lovely sweater vest for my mom. Oh, and I've also done several more decorative scarves. I'll share pictures soon.

Things that have kept me from posting on the blog:

• feeling like my life isn't interesting enough (my bro very kindly said, at Thanksgiving "Yea, but it's YOUR boring crap, so we want to read it.")
• not having my pictures uploaded from my camera yet
• having forgotten to take pictures to begin with
• feeling like everything I had to say was just depressing and whiney

Stuff I was doing instead:

• working
• knitting
• sleeping
• Dr visits
• Physical therapy for my leg
• zoning out in front of Facebook/TV

Why I'm back:

• my brother and SIL and Mom all convinced me that they really are interested in reading it, even if it's boring
• It's New Year's Eve and I feel like I should mark the day
• lots of changes have happened this year that I want to commemorate
• there's nothing else to do at the moment and keeping my hands busy typing helps me not eat more Christmas Cookies

Bad things that happened this year:

• slipped on the ice, tore up my knee/ligaments and badly broke my leg
• had a bit of an emotional breakdown because of the leg thing (or maybe that was just the pain meds playing with my brain)
  
• had a spontaneous CSF leak and had to go through horrible procedures to get it fixed
• had both cars broken into while they were in our driveway at home, resulting in the loss of the car radio from the Neon
• Spent medium bucks to put new tires and other repairs into the Cruiser, only to realize later that it needs to just be given away now

Good things that happened this year:

• My brother and Suzie got married!
• Si got as tall as Mike
• Si hiked the Appalachian Trail for over 50 miles
• Si took off all those blasted wrist bands!!!!!!!!!!
• Si got his braces off!
• We bought a new (to us) van (just yesterday - yikes!)
• I learned to walk again
• I knit a gazillion things
• I took a great class with my dear sister in Christ, Val
  
• I read books
• I transferred to a new branch
• I've been reminded, over and over again, how much God loves me, usually through the kind servanthood of my church-mates' blessings, and the sweetness of several of my knitting pals
  

So here's the thing . . . there have been more good things than bad. It's true, and I need to remember that. Life is hard, right? That isn't going to change. But I can choose to deal with things differently, and I'm working on that. I've always been an optimist, but once in a while things just overwhelm me and I forget how to optimize . . . you know what I mean? I think I'm back, and I'm going to work on writing again. Promise! We're at my parents' house right now, but when we get home tomorrow I'll work on loading up some pics and making the blog more interesting to behold.

In the meantime, thanks for reading . .. and I'll see you next year!

An Unplanned Day

Now that I'm back at work, I work a lot. My typical daily schedule:
~5:30-6 am: Wake up
6-6:40: cajole son into eating and dressing and getting to the bus on time (6:40)
6:35- 1/2 hour before work (either 8:30 or 10:30 or somewhere in between): personal email, Facebook, knitting, breakfast, banking, odd but quick errands
9-6 or 11-8 or some variation (yesterday was 9-8): work
6:30 or 8:30 til around 10: dinner w/DH and DS, watch TV together, more computer playing

It seems so simple, distilled like this, but as you all know, life is never that simple. One thing you can see, though, is that if you're still recovering from, say, a brain leak, and you need a lot of sleep, there isn't much time to just hang out and do nothing. This week, because of all the great things my staff want to do in our community, I am working both Friday and Saturday (rarely happens) and am taking today (Wednesday) off to compensate myself.

So, what shall I do on my day off? I've already gotten my Obligatory Important Task to Better the Family done today (took both cats to the Vet for their annual check up, hissing and shots). Frankly, I think I scheduled the Vet visit just because it would be completely unheard of to have a day off w/o a doctor visit somewhere in it.

I will probably take a bit of a nap at some point today, just because I can . . . but this unexpected, unplanned day off is such a treat! I sit here in my kitchen wondering how I should spend the time so that I feel good at the end of the day, good and accomplished.

Suggestions? What do you do on unexpected free days?

They Have to be Carefully Taught

I think perhaps the only time we actually talked about race relations at my house (although I am rather flighty sometimes and might have missed deeper discussions) was one night when my dad started singing a lyric from South Pacific:

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

His point, and the point of the song, is that parents will pass along their own prejudices to their children, whether they do it consciously or not.

I remember feeling confused at first, because in nearly all ways, my parents were teaching me to make friends with everyone, regardless of the color of their skin or other differences. The thing is, I grew up in a nearly-all-white neighborhood/school/church. I didn't come into contact with much diversity until I was in late middle school and started going to Conference-wide Youth Group meetings and events for my church. That is where my mind started to open and I started to learn more about people who were different from me, and it was delightful (usually) and challenging (once in a while) and surprising (sometimes).

For the last 8 years or so, I've been managing library branches in neighborhoods where I am the minority. I've been in meetings where I've been the only white face in the room, and when I go out to lunch near my branch, I'm often the only melanin-challenged person in the place. If I go to certain places near my last branch, I can go into restaurants where I am probably the only native English-speaker. I have no problem with any of this, of course, and I love my job (and the neighborhoods in which I've worked).

Why do I bring this up? My friend, Erin, sent me a link to this article from Newsweek about recent research to see if multicultural TV shows and videos are helping our kids be more open-minded, and also what kinds of parent-child interactions would help. Although I have a few issues with the study (they used only Caucasian families, for instance) it is still interesting. The study says that many families just don't talk about racial differences, hoping that raising their children in a diverse world and not pointing out differences will allow their children to be "colorblind" . . . but this appears to be a false hope.

The results of the study? If you want to help your child to view everyone as valuable, you should talk about differences in appearances, but then affirm that we're all valuable. You might actually have to struggle through feeling uncomfortable and TALK. From the Newsweek article:

What parents say depends heavily on their own race: a 2007 study in the Journal of Marriage and Family found that out of 17,000 families with kindergartners, nonwhite parents are about three times more likely to discuss race than white parents; 75 percent of the latter never, or almost never, talk about race.

Aha- so some groups are having the discussions at home, and others are not. Mine was a family that didn't talk about it much, and here I am, a very open-minded, loving person who embraces equality and diversity. I've met some people recently who, judging from some of the comments their teenage boys have made (openly racist), discuss race-relations at home in a way that I would find abhorrent.

The article goes on to describe a study where kids in a preschool were given different shirt colors, red and blue, and for a while weren't treated any differently. They played and interacted as one large group all day, but after a few weeks, when questioned, the kids felt strongly that their own color of shirt was better than the other, and that kids in the other color were "less" in various ways.

This goes right along with other things kids are learning at a young age. Our brains are programed to file information away according to "same" and "different". That is why young babies have to test things out with all their senses (putting everything in their mouth?), sorting through the world by subconsciously saying "same", "different". We are hard-wired to notice differences, then . . . and it's up to us to figure out how to react to the differences. Will we celebrate them or will we mistrust and fear them?

The conclusions that are drawn through this research seem to be that we need to talk specifically to our kids about racial attitudes, especially if we want to help them develop positive thoughts and feelings.

In many (most?) middle-class white families, this topic is probably still taboo. Do you talk to the children in your life about racial attitudes? Do you talk about which behaviors/thoughts are appropriate and which are ugly? And what about beyond race . . . do you talk about being accepting of people of different religions? People who have graduated from a rival school (even that state up North?) People who vote differently from you? Do you talk openly, do you mention the elephant in the room?

Let me know what you're thinking!

Best Bad Example

I've had this topic rattling around in my head for a long time. It all came to me when my sister and I went to lunch at a great (usually) place near her office. This is an amazing story:

When we walked in, the host didn't even say hello, just held up 2 fingers, and started walking with some menus in his hand. He put the menus down on a booth table and then kept walking, and L and I weren't certain if we were supposed to follow him or sit at the booth! When I saw that he stopped to talk to someone at a far table, I figured this booth was for us. After all our menus were there, right?

This guy turned out to be our waiter. He took our drink order by saying "drinks?" He came, brought the salsa and some water, but no chips. Then he came with his order pad in hand and stood there, waiting to write. Still no words, he just looked at us, one at a time. We gave our order and he walked away. L wondered - are we going to get any tortilla chips? I flagged down a waiter (not ours, I don't think) and said "can we please have some chips?", and after a little confusion, he went and got some chips. By this time, L and I were laughing at the bad service. When the waiter brought out our food and set it down w/o a word, I said to L, maybe we should tip one quarter per word. So far that would be, what, 50 cents? I am not exaggerating - throughout our entire time at lunch, that waiter said 3 words to us! Only 3! He barely made eye contact, and was not at all attentive. If the food wasn't so spectacular, we'd never go back.

This got me to thinking about customer service at the Library. I mean, we're in the business, right? How much do we actually say to people who come in our doors? Are we enthusiastic about helping people? When we announce programs, do they sound enticing? Do we assume that everyone has been there before, or do we assume there is someone in the building who really has no idea how things work? Are we patient, treating each customer like they're the first and most important person of our day? I have thought about going back to that restaurant and taking a pic of that horrible waiter, just to keep in my mind how important it is to connect with our customers.

We don't sell great food, we don't even offer snacks or drinks. Sometimes, the building is full enough that there aren't even any available chairs! Our product is more ethereal - it is connection. We give our customers connection to the internet, for sure, but also a connection to another human being. We are sometimes the first person they've asked for help in using the computer or finding that information they need. Sometimes, we're their last resort, sometimes we are their third place and sometimes we're part of the vast array of middle ground.

Regardless of where we fit into the pecking order of their lives, we are there, at the Library, to provide great service. If we can't do that, we are failing.

That's my 2 cents on the topic today.

Parenting

Oh, and Stephanie totally got the feelings right about parenting in her latest post about her daughter. Hope over and read it, if you are interested.

Crisp Air, Delicious Flavors

Fresh raspberries and peaches were on sale at the grocery (sorry, didn't make it to the farmer's market this week). Don't they look delicious? Let me tell you - they are! I topped these babies with some shortcake batter and baked it all for about 50 minutes. Cobblery goodness, I tell ya!

Now, I know I was out of commission for a while with the brain leak, but how did it get to be Fall already? I don't just mean school starting, I mean the weather! We had our windows and doors open yesterday (and honestly, didn't everyone?) and I actually got COLD! It's still August! I'm having a hard time believing in Global Warming this Summer - anyone else?

Another New Year

Time can be measured in so many ways. As Jonathan Larson said in his lyrics for Rent,

525,600 minutes
how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes -
how do you measure a year in the life?

For many of us, especially those who work with children and students, we measure the passing of time according to the school year. When Fall is nearing and the first day of a new school year arrives, we once again go on pilgrimage to our office supply stores for unsharpened pencils, undefiled spirals, fresh erasers we futilely hope we'll never need. (Yea, that picture is me in my Freshman year in HS - it was 1978. Note the bolo tie, the corduroy vest, and the curling iron skill.)

When I was young, I remember being anxious about what to wear the first day and what kinds of folders and notebooks I had. I remember those folders that were like intricate coloring pages, and using study halls (and probably actual class time, truth be told) to color them in). Fall is when the marching band would take over our lives, filling our house with practicing, keeping track of uniform pieces and memorizing music. Fall was cold nights on rickety-feeling bleachers watching football games with my best friends, laughing at the trombone and tuba players and their antics, and wondering who was going to ask whom out.

I'm not sure what Si uses to measure time. Would it be Boy Scout trips? Badges earned? Birthdays? School years? Boxes of Cheezits? I know he's not really anxious about clothing, but he does like to look "geeky cool".

He has started High School this week. I seem to be incapable of taking a decent picture in the morning, but here he is, on his second day of HS. The molecular thingy on his Tshirt is caffeine - fitting, somehow, for my coffee-drinking teen.

He's maturing so quickly now. He cooks, he actually spent time cleaning his room yesterday (after I threatened to ground him from all activities, though), and he's been so helpful all year while I've been recovering. I feel so blessed to have him.

A Great Woman

I had many great professors at GCC throughout my years there, but Barb Akin held a special place in my heart. She was my adviser, and I admired and respected her greatly. I went to her ordination (instead of the Homecoming parade), I learned many great lessons from her (not the least of which was the art of skimming a book for salient points w/o reading every word), and I enjoyed her lectures immensely. Even her tests, when given, were admirable - always really and truly testing to see what you learned, not to try to trip you up on something you might have missed.

Just the other day I was talking about Barb, and telling someone, I forget who, how she'd kept me from taking certain "easy A" classes because she had higher expectations for me. She was brassy, strong, brilliantly smart and fun to hang out with. I remember her smoking in class, cussing sometimes, too (which at GCC was shocking!), and basically being her amazing self. She was like a cross between Prof. McGonagall and Mae West, and, although we didn't keep in touch, I did love her.

I look forward to learning from you again someday, Barb, on the other side.


in my email today:
Retired Faculty Member Dr. M. Barbara Akin Passes Away August 14, 2009

___________________________________________________________

Dear Catherine,

We are sorry to report that retired faculty member Dr. M. Barbara Akin passed away on Friday, August 14, 2009 at her home.

Dr. Akin taught at Grove City College from 1970 to 1999 and chaired the history department during that time. She had also served as vicar of the Church of the Epiphany Episcopal in Grove City from 1985 through her retirement in 2008.

The funeral service is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday, August 19, at the Church of the Epiphany Episcopal, 870 Liberty Street Extension, with Bishop Sean Rowe ’97 officiating.

The College offers sincere condolences to Dr. Akin's family, friends and her former students.