Learning to Breathe

Tuesday marked the official end of my sabbatical. While I will miss my large blocks of time, I feel as though I have more of a handle on my research and will be able to continue said work as I ease back into teaching. My class met at 11am and I am lucky (read: not-so-much) to teach in a lecture hall that has not been rennovated since the building was built in 1965. Same old wood seats, poor ventilation, poor lighting, etc. I got to welcome my students into the Sangren Hall sauna, since it was pushing 80 degrees Fahrenheit. We did well, all 95+ students, one Teaching Assistant, and I. Oh, and I invited one of my colleagues from Communications to come in and observe and I decided to videotape my first class session to show others. Yep, all on my first day back from sabbatical. Not to blow my own horn or anything, but my colleague was delighted to have the chance to see what goes on in someone else's large section course and several students had waited for me to come back from sabbatical to take my class. I know, it sounds like butt-kissing, but frankly the woman they hired in my place last year was atrocious.

Taking a page from hhw's playbook, I decided to take a four course sequence for a certificate in Student Affairs and Higher Education. I start tomorrow night in a course on the Foundations of Student Affairs. The professor is a friend of mine, so we're looking forward to harrassing each other. I've already started the readings and it's quite cool so far.

And in a vaguely related note, I made a contact with a senior scholar who does large scale school evaluations (he's done work on charter schools, for example). THere's a chance I might join him and a few other colleagues to do some research. That would be an excellent opportunity to get some more experience with a research project.

I promise to do more of a reflective piece on the sabbatical experience, but I did want to update folks who may be wondering how the transition is going...

So I finally managed to get my butt to a women's group ride this morning and it was fantastic! The weather is just gorgeous today and the roads didn't have much chip&seal. The red clover is still out and the scenery on this route is off the hook. Even the few hills on this route were fun (mostly...don't get me wrong). For me, my advantage is downhill because I carry some solid mass, so I can kick my lighter friend's on those. They get me back on climbs.But my lack of training this summer caught up with me around the 20 mile mark (we road 25 today) and my legs nearly bonked. It was a fantastic ride...glad to be back in the saddle.

It started a in Atlanta, I think. I don't remember when beach volleyball was introduced as an Olympic sport, but why, oh why, does it have to completely take over the coverage of the games?!?!?!?! There are over twenty sports represented in the games, and all NBC seems to want to show on TV is this stupid sport (my apologies to any beach volleyball players out there - I'm just super mad). The Canadian channels at least show a greater vareity of sports and players. NBC likes to show just the Americans and just beach volleyball. I'm sick of it.

Four years ago, I watched the games on Telemundo...I don't speak Spanish, but their coverage was better than NBC. I watched women's soccer - an entire match! You never get to see that on NBC.

I'd like to see judo, fencing, rowing, canoeing and keyaking. But no, I've got four sand covered knuckleheads (men and women) jumping up and down swatting at a ball...

I love the Olympics. I've been watching since I was little. I remember the 1972 Olympics coverage on ABC with the late Jim McKay. Comparatively, the coverage today is insipid and disappointing. So much for progress...

Okay, she's really a cantor. Shalombaby84 has been calling around to find a jewish clergyperson who would consider performing a wedding ceremony for a) an interfaith couple who are b) lesbians. Guess which is a bigger issue? If you guessed (a), you are right. For one of the first times in my life, I'm being treated like everyone else, which actually delights me! Seriously, I've never been so happy being told "no" in my life. Of course, I grew up the product of a "mixed marriage" (meaning one parent was Catholic, the other Protestant). Apparently, many rabbis won't marry an interfaith couple on principle. I get that and I'm good with it.

So we were given the name of this cantor who also happens to be a practicing chiropractor, acupuncturist, and a Buddhist Jew. There is a whole realm of Jews who have taken to fusing their Judaism with some meditation stuff. They call themselves JuBu's. Anyway, our cantor sounds pretty cool - I kinda needed some Eastern influence. Of course, my friend Eric wrote this to me (he's a big flamer himself, hence the language): "A JuBu cantor/acupuncturist... jesusmaryandjoseph (or "oye, shlomy"), could you be more of a dyke?!" This made me laugh and laugh this afternoon.

I was so engrossed in this novel that it took me about three days to read it. That's fast, since I'm an inherently slow reader (I never read things twice, usually). And I usually am not a fiction fan. So this was something akin to my response to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (which scared the hell out of me), Marion Zimmer Bradley's THe Mists of Avalon (don't ever see the TV version of it - it sucks big time), and Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. I ate these books up and each of them spawned it's own strand of research. So this week, I've been reading the Old Testament/Torah portions which discuss Jacob, Joseph, Dinah, etc. Diamant did a very nice job in her extrapolation of the story that Genesis refers to as THe Rape of Dinah. Diamant weaves in some feminist critique of mainstream interpretation to craft a story that draws the reader into how some theistic traditions survived while others were set aside. Suffice it to say that menstrual blood is so scary to patriarchal theism that there was no way a female deity could make it as the only deity, nor could she share the spotlight with a male deity. Hmph. Keep in mind that my particular reading is clouded. I wanted to be an alterboy as a child, but I didn't have the equipment to pull it off. I wanted to participate directly in my religious experience, but was often set aside because of my gender. Nowadays, I could be an alter server, or in many Protestant traditions, a minister. I could even be a rabbi if I wanted. But I've gotten to the point where I don't really trust monotheism. I struggle with monotheism because I feel like things started going to hell in a handbasket (or the underworld in a handbasket, whatever your preference) once people started to say "My God is the only god." My pagan/Gaiaist friends out there would probably agree. Once we lost touch with the many spirits, stewardship of the earth went right out the perverbial window. While Diamant is a strong writer, I feel that MZB did a more magical job of weaving her particular narrative. And perhaps it's the actual narrative itself, too, that helps the reader find that "magic." I felt dusty reading The Red Tent, which is a good sign. Oh, and a number of my friends have read it and liked it. I'm getting to it eleven years after it's release, so as usual, I"m late to the party. But hey, I got here, didn't I!? Diamant,A. (1997). The Red Tent.

Verizon, the cellular company known for the tagline "Can you hear me know" recently aired a television commercial featuring two menacing pit bull type dogs on chains in a junkyard while a young white man approaches a cell phone just out of reach of the dogs' chains.  He grabs the "Dare" phone just as the dogs reach the end of their chains. 

Many who know me know that I am committed to disabusing people of the notion that pit bulls are mean.  My dogs and I have spent the last decade trying to show people what amazing animals pit bulls can be.  The news of the company's poor judgment has made the rounds of the various on-line pibble communities today and I want to let others know there is a petition to get Verizon to consider the damage such a dispicable image can create.  The ASPCA is sponsoring the petition.  Please sign if you feel so moved.  Make THEM hear YOU now...

to wardo68!  Happy birthday, you introverted ham, you!  

This post is in response to alikander's post "Pulling a fast one."  Nothing like a little coercion to get things going...;)

In Finland, they hang wash out instead of using dryers.  I think hhw prefers to hang her laundry out as well.  "Would you like to hang your wash next to mine" is an Irish marriage proposal.  So my first question to all of you who have done this is, how did you decide whether you wanted to hang it next that of  your significant other?  How long did it take for you to get to that point? 

I ask because on the morning of my birthday, shalombaby84 presented me with a beautiful claddagh with a diamond at the center of the heart and asked me if I would like to hang my wash next to hers.  I said yes.   I was so nervous that I felt completely nauseated.  I honestly  don't know how people do this calmly.  Thankfully, the proposal itself was something I could say yes to - right now, I can only legally get married in California (which would involve Ron and Eric, of course) and it would not be recognized by my backwater of the Great Lakes state of residence.  There is a possibility that Massachusetts will join California, but that's to be decided.  I did not realize until today that marriage affords over one thousand rights to couples. 

For the record, we haven't gotten any further than this...we still have to work out all sorts of details, including two homes, three pieces of property, five cats, two dogs, and oh, yeah, jobs....we'll be keeping you posted...and asking for any advice you might have to offer...

This was the response I got when I shared the triumph of Dara Torres' finish in the 100freestyle finals.  The 41 year old mother of one posted a 53.78 two days ago and tonight, she whomped the 50free with a 24.58 finish.  Of course, everyone is all flipped out about how a 40-something  is able to swim like this, some are even arguing that she's doping.   But that's some cynical ESPN reporter.   Can't we accept that this woman is apparently a complete freak about her training and nutrition.   And she spends about half the time in the pool as her competitors do.  For me, Dara Torres is the same age as some of my own teammates on the high school swim team, and I couldn't be more proud.  I'm choosing to believe in this because I don't find it that impossible.

I am considering referring to myself as a "professional liberal artist."  It fits better than "professor," since I rarely find anything to profess.  Mostly, I think of myself as sharing some things.  And to think, this all began twenty-five years ago this coming August...

My favorite example of the impact of my undergraduate education is how one odd course in music appreciation changed the course of my relationship with music.  Certainly, this didn't happen right away, but over time I became more interested in music that is off the beaten path.  When I was in Estonia and Finland, my intent was to buy some folk cds.  I walked out of a little shop in Tallin with a cd called "Forgotten Peoples" by  the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.  It showcases arrangements made by Veljo Tormis of Karelian, Livonian, Vepsian, Votian, Izhorian, and Ingermanland Finnish folk music.  These are Baltic people I had never heard of previously and I purposely sought out this work because I find it interesting and because it gives me a chance to learn something, even if I don't understand any of these languages (some of which are endangered or are extinct...I'll have to look that up).  It's beauty in the world, nonetheless.  And that's why studying the liberal arts is a good thing. 

Oh, and if you get a chance to see EPCC, buy the damn ticket - you won't be sorry.