Miscellaneous Missives

Our beautiful fall has left.  These leaves have blown off the tree with the latest cold wind accompanied by some snow.  Boo, and I'm no talking Halloween boo. Although my week was difficult, it ended with Wing Young Huie in my classroom.  He's amazing.  I love watching the kids reactions to his photographs and the stories behind the photographs.  The students will be interviewing someone about their culture and taking similar pictures.  I'm already looking forward to their stories. I don't have much to say.  It was a tough week at work, and I'm disheartened with a couple staff members.  Fortunately, most of my colleagues are amazing!  To make sure I don't let the couple colleagues get me down, I've adopted a new motto:  If you're not with me, I'm going to run you over.  Yep, it sounds aggressive, but I'm going to keep kicking ass and doing a good job.  This brings me to some positives from the week: 1) I was able t...

Each year around this time, typically MEA weekend, I travel to Dallas to hang out with my college roommate.  Her husband is one of the coordinators of the Sports Extravaganza .  It's a track and field event for kids who are visually impaired.  I talk to the high school volunteers and get kids lined up on the track.  This year our morning volunteers lacked a little personality, but the runners make up for it with their enthusiasm.  At lunch, we were delivered a high school sophomore or junior who came alone.  She had helped on person out in the morning and was sent to us for the afternoon.  All afternoon she helped, smiled, chatted, and was an amazing volunteer.  When the events were over, she even stayed to help us tear down the track and get everything back to the "barn." She kept saying it was a great experience, and I kept trying to make sure she had fun too.  It's a blessing to work with a young lady who will certainly make our f...

Before my Minnesota Writing Project (MWP) workshop this morning, I made my Saturday trip to the farmers' market.  Not only did I buy apples, I also bought a container of pears.  Last week I purchase a couple while I was in Iowa and wished I had bought more.  Pairing the MWP workshop with the farmers' market is a perfect start to the day.  After the workshop I went the two pairs of glasses that had been shipped to Costco.  They're progressive bifocals, and I am struggling with them a bit.  Actually, the truth is that it's probably easier for me since I haven't seen clearly in decades.  In fact, I was wondering if I would be better taking them off while I was typing on the computer since it's difficult finding the correct range, but when I took them off, it was even a bit more blurry.  We'll see how it goes today. A follow up to LH's visit.  I brought ham rolls to today's workshop since I still had ham left from her visit.    I ...

Yesterday was an interesting day.  It started with one a great song on the radio and ended with too much food in my house.  Actually, it all caught me a bit off guard.  As I was trying to read Ron Chernow's Grant, a text came from LH asking what I was doing for the evening.  She was actually in town and wanted to bring dinner.  Who was I to say no?!  It was a nice reprieve for the nonfiction reading which I'm supposed to have read by Halloween.  My first concern was that she might not appreciate my lack of cleanliness then I realized that her book was at school.  She was in town and wasn't going to be able to sign my book .  The was all forgotten when she arrived with the largest ham I had ever seen.  I'm not even kidding.  It must have been 50 pounds.  I wasn't even sure I had a cutting board to slice the beast, and I was certain I didn't have a knife big enough to tackle it.  Of course LH was prepared.  As she ...

Yesterday I made another quick trip to Iowa.  This time I went back to Okoboji where I grew up.  I met with folks and visited all my favorite spots.  Plus, I took a trip out to see my dad's land.  Okoboji is beautiful in the fall.  My main reason for the trip was my "check engine" light, and yes, I still take my car back to Iowa for service when I can.  My loaner was a big white Chevy pickup with 46 miles.  It was so big that I could barely see over the hood.  As I drove it to out into the country I felt like one of the farmer's engaging in harvest. As I was taking pictures of a small pond, my phone rang.  "What's going on with Iowa State?" the voice asked.  I tried to explain that OU was rated #3, and the starting quarterback wasn't playing.  "No, they're tied," the voice excitedly stated.  I continued to ask the same question over and over as I almost went off the road trying to find the game on the radio.  Final...

My first observation of the year happened on comfy cozy day.  I had on my insulated, red sweatpants and my heavy Cubs sweatshirt on to show my support.  Unfortunately, as I walked around the room, I became warm to the point that I was sweating (glistening).  A couple students noticed it, and I admitted I had warn the wrong clothes for the beginning of October.  The Q-Comp coach who was observing me found it entertaining.  Plus, it was a fun class.  All is well!  This group is tough, but I still love my job. 

This weekend was the Sloof Ride in Iowa.  I meet some members of my RAGBRAI team in Cedar Falls and we rode the ride which was on some trails (I'm thankful for the trails in Minneapolis!).  Chris and I also rode some extra miles on blacktops.  Some said we were overachievers, but riding through Iowa during harvest time is beautiful.  Unfortunately, I was trying to fight the headwind and some inclines, so I didn't get pictures from the road.  I love hanging out with these folks we had a day of riding, laughing, and some drinking.