It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

I was going to title this post, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," because it's snowing and looks like the middle of the Arctic out there.  But, it's not actually all that cold.  Or maybe I'm finally adjusting to life in the mid-West and my skin has, in fact, finally turned to leather.

So, inside and outside, it's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas.  I'm down to just one student to tutor over the break.  That said, we meet several times a week, so somewhere in my subconscious I can convince myself that I'm actually making money. 

Hold on while I chuckle to myself.

G says his paycheck laughs at my paycheck.  Then we are both like, wait, what paycheck??  Yeah.

I haven't written lately because I've been too busy sleeping and reading.  I read our latest Lit Society book (<-- more to come) and it motivated me to read a closely-associated book (<-- more to come) then I tried to read a book I borrowed and couldn't get into it and now I'm totally into another one.  I'm averaging one 2.5-hr nap each day.  I'm napping so much that I'm not sleeping all that well at night, (GAWWW, I know, I know), so every day I tell myself I'm not going to nap, and a couple hours later I wake up with a book on my face.

But I have managed to do some things, like watch the season finale of Homeland.  Today I spent our life savings at the grocery store and we are now stocked for Christmas and New Year's deliciousness.

This Pinot Noir is amazing.

I spend a lot of time sitting here staring at the tree.

Our Christmas package from G's parents was broken into somewhere in transit and all of the food was taken.  Chex Mix, home made cookies, and one gift.  The remaining gifts were here, but the wrapping paper had been ripped off them.  I guess the thieves didn't like our taste in books and dvd's.  

Speaking of Bah Humbug...

Planning the Spring semester is going to be the death of me.  I've decided to change around a lot of things, so I spend an hour or two on this every day.  Hence the napping.

I've also managed to drag myself into the kitchen.  I have a whole baking schedule this week.  Today's agenda included these cookies, and yes, I know they don't constitute actual baking...

 ...and home made Chex Mix, which does, in fact, constitute hours and hours of baking.  Tomorrow things get way more complicated.  As does each subsequent day as we work up to the Big Bang on Thursday.

Here's hoping you're off to a good start to this holiday week!

More Break, More Books

I would just like to say that I didn't get out of my pj's at all yesterday. 

I keep thinking I should work out, but since that involves changing into workout clothes, and leaving the couch, it hasn't happened yet.

But, reading?  Reading has happened.

Lit Society was the other night and it was wonderful.

Here's what I love about these people.  It was "my night" to bring the food and a couple of days before, NKC (<---Nat King Cole) texted me and asked if it was a problem if Chef Campo made homemade crab cakes.  A problem, I said?  Yawn...sigh...nah, I guess that's OK.

Hello???  Of course that's OK.  Why don't we all just have a moment of honesty and decide that I shouldn't bring food anymore?  That Chef Campo should be designated our Lit Society Chef In Residence and be brought at least into the periphery of our group?

HOME MADE CRAB CAKE SANDWICHES

Served with a fresh slaw salad.

It seems like there was something else I was going to tell you.  Oh, yes.  The book.

For last month's non fiction choice we read Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.

He is a surgeon, a visiting professor at Harvard, a writer, a husband, and a father of several children.  And the man can write.  Slacker.  Maybe I should reconsider spending entire days in my pj's.  Ah, we all know that will never happen.

Being Mortal tells the convoluted history of how we in America have come to deal with the "problem" of aging and death.  It tells the history of nursing homes and hospices, and points out socio-cultural views about dying (i.e. what is dying? Do we even know?), aging, the role of death, and what it means to live a good life.  While it is not the most uplifting book in the world, it is also not depressing, per se.  It is often humorous, even.  It raises legitimate questions about the role of medicine in prolonging life, and how much we are willing (or not) to sacrifice quality (often at horrific costs) in favor of quantity. What do we want out of life?  How can we have a bit of control, so to speak, over a quality death?  I highly recommend this book and want to read his others.

I also just finished The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.  G was like, what is up with you this year?  Anorexia?  Death?  The Holocaust?  What's next, airplane bombings?  Maybe an in depth study of 9/11?

The man has a point.  But still, such a good book.

I'm probably the last one to this party because I'm extremely careful about reading Holocaust books.  The stories and images and events are so disturbing that I can't really let them go.  It affects me deeply, so I'm not one to pore through tons of WWII books. 

But, this one.  Wow.

Everyone in the world (literally) knows this already, but I'll explain anyway.  Corrie Ten Boom was a watch maker in a small Dutch town during WWII.  She was in her late 40's, living with her older sister and elderly father.  What started out as helping to hide a few Jews eventually led to Corrie's house becoming headquarters for the Dutch underground.  You know what's coming.  They were discovered and she and her sister - in their fifties - were sent to prison and then to Ravensbruck concentration camp.

She barely survived.  But it's not really about survival; it's about holding onto God's love and sharing it with others.  Her and her family's faith is staggering.  And so are some of the miracles that occurred because they believed and risked their lives to share their faith.  The book is remarkable.  If you, like me, somehow missed this, go pick it up!  It's a treasure!

Today will most likely be another pj day.  At least until this afternoon when I have a tutoring sesh.  However, today begins true prep for next semester.  There is a detailed syllabus and new grading rubric in my future.  Somewhere.  After I leisurely sip some coffee and stare at the Christmas tree.

Books lately

Now it feels like holiday break.  I can deal with this.  Only a couple more tutoring seshes this week, almost all the Christmas shopping is done, grades are in.  This is how I like it.

First up, Dracula by Bram Stoker.  A couple of misconceptions I had about the book before reading it: Bram Stoker wasn't British, he was Irish.  The book was published in the very late 1800's and reads in a remarkably modern tone.  I had expected it to read like a classic, if you know what I mean, and that I would squint my way through it, but it was quite engaging. 

The story is told in the form of journal entries from several different - and at first, seemingly unrelated - characters.  One is a doctor who works with a particularly unpleasant man in an asylum.  One is a solicitor who is sent far East to sort out the affairs of Count Dracula and realizes that something isn't right.  One is a prominent professor who starts to take the supernatural seriously.  One is a young woman who ends up being the heroine of the book.  A weird one to read at Christmas time, I'll give you that, but it's good!

Next up is An Apple a Day by Emma Woolf, the great-niece of Virginia Woolf.  I read this book a couple of years ago during the Africa trip and recently picked it up for another go.  Emma is a recovering anorexic in her mid-thirties who has been struggling with the disorder for 14 years.  It's a fascinating peak into such a strong and destructive mental and physical illness.  I will say that at times, it's a little over the top.  She travels the world with her journalist boyfriend and there are a few eye-rolling parts where he's scouring the streets of like, Cape Town, on a rainy night trying to find a sweat shirt for her while she waits in the hotel room.  There are plenty of parts where he pulls the chef aside in whatever elaborate foreign restaurant they find themselves in and makes a plea for simple steamed veggies.  Inevitably, they arrive with butter on them and the whole dinner is a disaster.  It's hard not to be like, Oh, please.  It's hard to understand why anyone would choose to be around her.  But then, that's part of her point.  The disorder, in the end, takes everything from its sufferer and is yet almost impossible to overcome.  It's fascinating.

Tonight is Lit Society (!) so I'll have another good book review up soon, along with food pics (you know that's part of it).

Excuse me while I go make another cup of coffee and check that Lucyfer isn't chewing on our Santa Claus decorations...

Farewell, Fall 2014

And just like that (not really, it took forever), all my final grades are calculated and entered.

Fall 2014 is officially over.

This is how the library has looked for about 4 days.

I plan to celebrate by eating leftovers of this pepperoni pizza bake I made last night.  It's divine.  Next time I'm going to add sundried tomatoes and a hint of marinara sauce. 

I've been jotting down a lot more lessons learned about teaching, but alas I do not have the energy to deal with them right now.  Also, book posts.  Currently can not analyze information or form a coherent thought.

Which means I need to go watch the latest episode of Homeland and be glared at by this one.

I plan to do absolutely nothing productive other than prep for the 7 hours of tutoring I have tonight.

Again I Ask You: WHAT HOLIDAY BREAK?!

Let me just say that on this Saturday morning I have spent (so far) two hours grading.  I have 5 final grades done.  20 more to go.

In hindsight, I could have been a lot more organized throughout the semester.

Also?  One of my tutoring students is freaking out about a paper due this week, so I agreed to work with her on it for a couple of hours this afternoon.

So again with the non-existent holiday break.  Lucy and I are not cut out for this fast-paced lifestyle.  But at least we can work in our pj's...so there's that.

There may be home made chili in our future.

TWENTY MORE FINAL GRADES TO CALCULATE????

There's been yet another change in the ole job category of my life: I resigned from the K-8 school.  I got a much-coveted position on campus as a writing consultant.  It was actually easier than I expected to resign; it's almost time for the holiday break and kids are absent and sick, and it's generally chaotic.  I will certainly miss some relationships there, and I learned a lot about education, kids, teaching, and myself.

However.

Although all of my jobs this past year have had an educational component in common, it will be nice that now my two main ones will be composition-focused.  I think they will reinforce each other, and the only (partial) outlier will be tutoring, which is fine.

I'm more excited than I'm showing on here.  Mainly because I'm starting to freak out a bit about the work load next semester.  Why did I think it was a good idea to teach TWO classes?  THEN why did I think it was a good idea to completely overhaul my syllabus and create hours and days and weeks of more work for myself?  In addition to taking TWO literature classes?  Oh, and starting a new job.  A career-level, contributing-to-my-future, most-likely-IS-my-future job?

I need a drink.

TGIF people!

Sometimes you just really need bottled water.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Someone needs to turn off these tacky lights.

 

Do I smell cookies?

 

Jingle Bells?  Really?