One Down, Fifteen To Go

Week one of the Spring 2017 semester is over.  Let me just say that re-entry was tough!  Though I never really slept late over the holiday break, I was not up any day at 5:30 like I have been every day this week.  This adjustment to my morning alarm would have been much more tolerable if I had made a similar adjustment to my bedtime, if it also had moved three hours earlier.  I missed that step.  The result?  Three hours less sleep every night followed by a full day of work.  This definitely was not a good combination!!!  On the bright side...I have a great group of students.  Except for one...

Why is there always one person in every situation that upsets the chi?  One person who doesn't want to play by the rules.  One person who has to be in the spotlight all of the time.  One person who spends all of their energy trying to figure out how to beat the system rather than how to succeed within it.  Right now, my tolerance for such behavior is bordering on non-existent.  This may be because in almost every circumstance in which I find myself these days, not just at school, "this" person exists.  Perhaps it is all just some cruel learning experience that the universe is foisting upon me.

Dear Universe,  

I am too tired for this lesson right now!  Can we please wait until I am getting more than four or five hours of sleep at night to start this?  I will be a much better student then.  Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely, 

Me

In all seriousness,  I really do have a great deal of patience with those who are sincere, genuine, humble, compassionate, humorous,  a hard worker and responsible.  Conversely, I have zero tolerance for insincere, fake, arrogant, hurtful, mean, lazy, and irresponsible people.  Yes, I know we all have moments where we are not our best selves; however, for most of us, such instances are infrequent.  My rant here is directed toward those whose normal modus operandi is to consistently put themselves first, never considering how their actions and attitudes affect those around them.  Sadly, there are more people like this than I wish there were.  And right now, they all seem to be too close for comfort.

The best I can do when my final nerve has been stepped on is to put myself in time-out.  Some alone time with my camera, or a book, or my knitting will usually calm me down and help me to gain perspective and patience.  But not always...

This afternoon, I had camera time and knitting time.  This time to chill out made me fit to spend time in public having dinner with some close friends,  people who are good and thus are capable of restoring my faith in humanity.

A good ending to my day.

NO ALARM TOMORROW!

And Here It Is June...

So what have I learned lately?

My desire to do is greater than my ability to do.

My intention, once school was out was to write more.  I have done that...just not here, which was not the plan.  I thought that I could keep up here, with my regular Pixels, Plates, and LOLs posts, and writing every day for Blueper B...oh, and a photo a day for him and for me.  Then there was stuff like preparing meals, and laundry, and a little (very little) vacuuming and dusting.

Let's just say that during the month of May, I learned the limits my mental capacity.

Weber and I bought our friend Blueper B when we were in Delaware during my dad's illness.

I guess you could say that he was a silly diversion from all of the sadness and seriousness that was going on. He travels and he tells the story of his adventures in words, sometimes mixed up words, and pictures on his own blog.  I vowed that during the month of May I would help him write a post every day.  I fulfilled that promise, but at the expense of writing here.  Looking back, I am really okay with that.  Weber and I had fun with Blueper B's everyday posts.  If I am to be totally honest, I was a bit sad when I helped him write his last post of his Month of Me yesterday.

If you are interested, here is Blueper B's blog.

He will continue to write regularly, but regularly will not be every day.

Now that I know that I can only write so much, and three regular blogs is too much, my writing attention for June will be back here in my own voice.  I suppose if I were a little more disciplined I could manage all three, but I'm not right now.  Maybe I will get there.

The biggest thing happening in my world this month is that Weber is retiring after twenty-five years of teaching.

As of right now, his plan is to be a house husband.  I am perfectly okay with that as I am not retiring.  It will be a bit of a role reversal for both of us as he has worked for the last forty plus years and although I have worked, I have also been the one primarily responsible for household chores for all of my adult life.  I suspect that I can get used to getting up to my breakfast being made and coming home to my clean laundry.  The furry kids are looking forward to having him home all day too.

It's funny...once people hear that he is retiring, the first thing they ask is if we are going to travel.  We are traveling quite a bit this summer, but that has nothing to do with his retirement; it is just the way things worked out.  We won't be taking any long trips during the school year since I'm still teaching; however, I don't teach on Fridays so we will have the ability to take some long weekend trips.  And, my semester breaks are longer than his were so much of January is time that we will have off together.

It is a new chapter to which we are both looking forward.  He just needs to get through the next two days, through the last last day of school!

Optimist or Pessimist: Your Choice

There was a time in my life when I was indeed the pessimist.  Not anymore.  That is a tough existence!

This photo is the result of camera settings that were totally wrong.  But, it worked for today's photo prompts around fastener and blue.  Let's just say it ended up being a happy accident!

I had three finals to write tonight and another set to grade.  Even after many years of practice, I am still terrible at multi-tasking so in trying to get my photo of the day done in between all of my school tasks, I failed to check my camera settings before taking this photo.  This is the result.  Its got a character of its own; that character, however, is not what I originally set out to capture!

Four more days of this semester and then I shouldn't have to multi-task like this until August!

Another End

Today was the final class day of this semester. By this time next week, final exams will be over and another academic year will have come to an end.  I will have completed year twenty-five in the same teaching position.

The music theory sequence is a minimum of four semesters of paired courses; it can be five if a student comes in needing to make up a deficiency.  Of those five courses, I teach four of them, all but the first (or second).  So by the time I have had the same students for three consecutive semesters in two courses each semester, I know them well, and I have a genuine interest in their lives beyond my classes.  Of those completing the sequence this semester, some have auditioned at four year universities and are excited to take the next step in their education, some are experiencing disappointment because they were not accepted to the school of their choice, and some are questioning whether or not they want to continue on in music or choose another career path.  Whatever the case, it has been my job and my privilege to serve each one of them - to teach them, guide them, and support them along the way as they prepare for whatever their next step may be.

I am grateful that I teach so many courses in this sequence.  Although I am bidding farewell to my class of music theory IV students, I will see those students who have been in Music Theory II and III again next fall.  Knowing that I have a group of returning students makes it a little easier to say goodbye to those who are moving on.

Another consolation is that those students who left last spring have completed their first year in a four year institution.  They are now coming back or sending emails sharing their successes and excitement surrounding their academic achievements.  That students take the time to stop by or write an email sharing with me how they are doing lets me know that they were aware of my genuine care and concern for them while they were in my classes.  In case you are wondering...yes, there are some that I never hear from again once they hand me the final exam.  With a very few, that's OK. I wish them well, but that's it.

I will spend my weekend writing final exams and finalizing grades, enduring the stress that the end of every semester brings.  Next Thursday night I will play for commencement.  And Friday, summer vacation begins.  Just as the semesters seem to fly by, so will the summer.  Before I know it, August will be here and my year twenty-six will begin.  A whole new group of students will come and I will have the opportunity to get to know them, perhaps touch their lives in a meaningful way, and then send them on as well.  The cycle of the academic life.

A Whirlwind Week

The past week seems to have flown by!  Last weekend we were in Baltimore because I had a NOAH board meeting.  Though it was a quick trip and I had little free time, I enjoyed the getaway and change of scenery.  Weber and I did have a bit of time to wander around Baltimore's Inner Harbor on Friday afternoon before my meeting began at 6.

It was interesting to see another lightship.  My dad was instrumental in restoring a similar one, The Overfalls, in Lewes, DE.

We didn't have time to do the on board tours of the Chesapeake or any of the other boats in the harbor. That will have to wait until our next trip to Baltimore.

U.S.S Constellation, constructed in 1854

Below is a seriously blown-out image of the Constellation.  I forget to check my camera settings before I shot the image.  It is so "not right", but there is something kind of magical about it that I like. Don't ask me why.

We had a nice lunch at an Irish pub overlooking the harbor.

After lunch and a little bit of shopping, where Weber got a new hat, we headed back to the hotel to rest a little before my meeting began.

The Friday night meeting only lasted about two hours.  It was during that time that the horrific events in Paris took place.  We emerged from the board room to see the chaos unfolding on every TV in the hotel.

While we were touring the city in the afternoon, we passed by the World Trade Center in Baltimore.  In front was a piece of mangled steel, a remnant of the devastation from the terrorist attack on the The World Trade Center in New York.

I had no idea when I took this photo that in only hours terrorists would again strike in one of the world's major cities.  We flew home early Sunday morning.  The security lines were long and slow at the airport and there seemed to be more TSA agents than usual.  I suppose this could have been my imagination or perhaps a coincidence.

Despite the uneasiness in the world, Monday morning came and we routinely started our school week like every other one this semester.  When I got to school, however, my students were not interested in analyzing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata or writing four-part chorales; they wanted to talk about what was going on in the world.  My job is to educate; sometimes that means setting aside my own lesson plans and "teaching" something different, something that would never be included on any course syllabus. I can answer the students' questions about what chords Beethoven is using, or how to avoid parallel fifths in part writing, but I cannot answer, "Why did this happen in Paris?" or, "Do you think we are on the verge of a Third World War?"  I don't know.  For the duration of that discussion, my students and I were on equal ground, no teacher and students, only people waiting, wondering, and praying about what the future holds.

All week long, the flags on campus that flew at half mast were a constant reminder that we are a grieving world.

On a different note, here is a twirl and haiku from this week...

"The Kiss"

Carefully chosen

To express the hidden me

Words and images.

The cat has decided that the puppy is no threat to her.  Honestly, Piper has absolutely no interest in Frankie.  Though Frankie will never admit it, I think that hurts her feelings a little bit.  With all of the unrest in the world, it is comforting to have peace at home!

Little, dog, big dog, medium dog, and cat happily co-existing!

And the week ended with me making pumpkin butter, a sign that the holidays are fast approaching as pumpkin butter is one of those things that I seem to only make around this time of year.  For the recipe, visit www.pixelsplatesandlols.blogspot.com

Despite all of the ugliness in the world right now, there still exist many reasons to be thankful.  This week I am thankful for safe travels, caring students, loving family and friends, my four-legged furry family members, a forgiving heart, time to make pumpkin butter, and hope.

Where I Work

Today's Capture Your 365 photo prompt is "Where I Work."  I was excited by this prompt because it encouraged me to take photos in a place where I normally am not thinking about my camera.  The sad part here is that it is the place that I have come nearly every work day for the past 23 years and of which I have very few photos.

As I walked in to school this morning, I was thinking about the possibilities for today's photo.  So many aspects of where I work would be worthy of a photo to represent my workplace - my students, my colleagues, the quirky details of my classroom or the music building, or perhaps a bigger picture of our campus.   

My teaching day began at 7:30am.  These were the students that I missed seeing on Tuesday when I was home sick.  Even though they had a test, they asked how I was feeling and we're glad that I was back.  This made for a wonderful start to my day.

I continued through the morning teaching back to back classes - lecturing in some, returning tests in another, and testing again in my last class of the day.  And then I went to lunch.  As I always do, I checked my personal email and Facebook expecting to find my email full of ads and my Facebook feed full of beautiful photos posted by my fellow CY365ers.  Instead, my phone's home screen was filled with news alerts about another mass shooting.  This one in  Oregon.  This one on a community college campus.  Suddenly,  my perspective on where I work changed.

Where I work is on a community college campus much like that of Umpqua Community College, the site of today's shooting rampage.  Every day I stand up in the front of a classroom filled with students just like those who were injured and killed today.  And every day, that scenario that unfolded in Oregon could have just as easily be where I work - in a classroom that I enter each day, without any reservation.

Those students at Umpqua Community College were in only the first week of their fall semester.  A morning and a  semester that for them began full of possibilities, hopes, and dreams ended in a few short minutes.  What could have been, no longer given a chance.  The lives of all those  sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends, and lovers who were working to better themselves by gaining an education now, rather than earning a college degree, earn a place in history as ten more innocent people taken by gun violence in this country.  

This is where I work.  In a classroom full of students striving to realize their dreams.  In a classroom where the reality is that those dreams can be shattered far more quickly and easily than they can be realized.  This is where I work.  On a college campus in a state whose legislature has voted to permit the legal possession of guns on our college campuses.   This is where I work.  

This is where I work.  Giving my all to every student with whom I share a classroom.  Hoping that I can play at least a small part in helping to make each of their dreams come true.  Praying that the senseless violence that has struck so many students in so many schools in so many places

 ceases and that none of us has to experience fear in any classroom.  This is where I work.

My heart aches for all of those whose lives are forever changed by the events on the Umpqua Community College campus today.  I pray for this college community, for the family and friends of those who were injured and those who lost their lives, for the students and staff who will return to that campus next week trying to move forward, for all those who enter classrooms around the world every day, for all those who believe that violence is an answer.   This is where I work.

What's Been Going On

What the saying?  "Life is what happens while we are busy making plans."  I made the big pronouncement that my plan was to post here regularly.  I guess the truth is that I don't yet have enough of a trend to define "regularly" but in my head that meant almost every day if not every day.  And here it is five days since my last post.  So what's been going on?  Lots, actually.

The biggest obstacle to posting has been no computer.  Well, that's not actually true.  I had two computers.  An old one and a new one.  

YAY!  Weber spent all weekend cleaning up files on my old computer, backing up everything, and then doing the migration of everything to the new one.  It was a long process that I am happy to say is now complete and everything is working perfectly so far, but it left me with no computer over the weekend.

Friday was food post day on Pixels, Plates, and LOLs.  Our subject is cinnamon.  If you are interested in recipes for cinnamon rolls or cinnamon streusel coffee cake, check out this link.

http://pixelsplatesandlols.blogspot.com/2015/09/sugar-and-spice-and-cinnamon-are-nice.html

On Saturday while Weber worked on my computer, I cleaned.  I'll spare you pictures of my clean bathroom, but I assure you that it is picture worthy. :-)

Then we get to Sunday, usually one of my favorite days of the week.  Normally it is filled with church, singing, food, fellowship, and, if I'm lucky, sometimes even a nap!  All of  those things happened, but I must say that church was discomforting, and not in a good way.  My morning started in the Episcopal Church, the church in which I was raised, married, and have called my spiritual home for my entire life.  The guest preacher was the newly elected diocesan bishop of Dallas, a man who is proud to stand in opposition to the held beliefs of the Episcopal Church as a denomination and the Supreme Court of the United States.  He is proud to preach in favor of injustice and inequality for gay and lesbian children of God.  He also began his sermon by invoking the story of St. Francis, which he totally bastardized.  I found myself saying out loud, "That is not the way the story goes!"  I left angry rather than refreshed.

The good news was that I had another service to attend at Cathedral of Hope Dallas where, in direct contrast, the sermon focused on our need to coexist with all of God's people, even with those who hurt us or with whom we disagree.  

There is something seriously wrong with having to go to a second church service because you are so unhappy with the things you heard at the first, especially when that first church is supposedly your home church.  And to add insult to injury, the "first church" had the nerve to do the stewardship pitch.  Yeah. NO.

And then came Monday... 

I woke up feeling not great, but went ahead and got ready and went to school, knowing that it was my shortest teaching day of the week.  I figured I could get through two classes just fine.  I did, but by the time I got home, I felt much worse.  After dinner, I was running a 101 temperature and made the decision that I should not, could not go to school today.  Why is that such a hard decision to make?  I felt terrible yet I also felt a sense of responsibility to my students.  I finally realized that there was no way that I could give them my best so instead of wasting their time, I emailed my classes and told them I would not be at school.  Once I had committed to staying home, I was able to rest and not worry too much.  I can't remember the last time I took a sick day from school.

The animals and I have spent all day doing pretty much nothing but resting, except for the test that i had to write for tomorrow.  

Though I still have the fever hangover kind of feeling, I am better.  I will be back at school tomorrow.

And it will be a new day.

36/365-3 My View

"A View Around Campus"

After twenty two years of walking this path I finally stopped long enough to take a picture.

30/365-3 Commitment

'A Commitment to Mentoring"

28/365-3 Play

"Work and Play"

I am fortunate that work means making music!

343/365-2 At The Lot

"A Lot of Fog"

Pardon the redundancy here.  I posted this photo to Facebook early today not knowing then that it would be today's POTD.

We awoke this morning to very thick fog, not a common thing here in Dallas.  It was both beautiful and a little ominous on this Tuesday morning of final exam week.  I had to give a final exam at eight o'clock this morning.  Seemingly very few others on campus were doing the same because much of the parking lot was still deserted at 7:45.  I snapped this photo with my phone as I headed into the building.

After my exam, I read the email containing the daily photo prompt "At the Lot."  The intention was a photo of choosing a tree at a Christmas tree lot.  Well, that was going to happen.  Our tree comes from a box, not a lot.  And even if it did come from a lot, it was not going to come today.  I chuckled as I thought about this image that I had already posted to Facebook...it is a lot...and it has trees.  

10 am and my photo of the day was done!

337/365-2 Construction

"Construct A Scrapbook!"

I have a student who is also a colleague teaching in another department as well as a friend.  As we were wrapping up the last week of classes this week before next week's final exams, the level of stress among faculty and students alike was rising.  Everyone was trying to find something, anything to bring down both their anxiety levels and blood pressure.  My student/colleague/friend decided that taking up scrapbooking is what I needed to take my mind off the pressures of school.  Really???

The thing is, I love all things paper, and stickers, and pens...For that very reason, I have resisted the temptation to follow the scrapbooking craze for all of these years.  I know it would just be one more thing for me to become totally absorbed.  Today I was given a big stack of scrapbooking pages, tons of stickers, some embellishments, binders, and a trimmer.  Every bit of it my student/colleague/friend chose knowing me and my interests very well...maybe too well.  The themes range from family to coffee, from labrador retrievers to menopause, from music to photography and beyond.  When I got home this evening, I started just looking at all of the papers.  I kept thinking, "I know what I can do with that one...and that one...and that one..."  I found myself planning out my days over the coming winter break.

Do I have a clean house?  No.  Do I have any Christmas decorations up?  No.  Have I done my Christmas shopping?  No.  Am I caught up on the photography classes that I am taking?  No.  Do I have any business taking on something else in the midst of all these things that aren't done?  No.  But...but, but I want to!!!

Perhaps that will be enough incentive to get all of these other things done in a timely manner.

I am blessed to be surrounded by so many people who care about me, and I am grateful for this awesome gift of today!

309/365-2 Where I Stand

"Heading Home"

...after a long day at school and then choir rehearsal that night.

268/365-2 Morning Light

'Early Morning Tree"

Early morning light...ha!  I wish that I could say that I am laughing about early morning light because I had the luxury of sleeping through it.  Sadly, that is not the case.  Sunrise in Dallas this morning was at 7:18.  By this time I was at school standing in front of the copy machine printing tests for my 7:30 class.  Sunrise came and went without even a notice  from me.  Walking across campus a little later to replenish my caffeine supply, I noticed this cool shadow of a tree cast on the wall by what was now not so early a morning light, but cool nonetheless.  I have no clue who this person is.  We'll just call her the photobomber.

252/365-2 Reading

"Classwork"

The sub-prompts for today's photo included school, learning, and education.  I have been teaching at the same school for over twenty years and most of that time has been in the same classroom.  Until recently, I have had no photos to document all of that time.  I am trying to remedy that situation.  Considering where and how I spend so many of my days, today's prompt should have been a breeze.

As I stood watching my class work on a counterpoint exercise this morning, I was struck by the concentration and effort of this young man.  He is such a hard working student.  

247/365-2 Beginning

'Beginning to Become"

Thursday afternoons are my favorite time of the week.  I am done teaching for the week at 3:00.  I can leave school and don't have to be concerned about anything having to be done this evening.  It is an awesome feeling after worrying on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights about making sure that I fully prepared for the following day.  I do spend Friday's preparing for the next week, but for now, I am free!  Teaching seven different classes is a lot to keep straight!  I am finding that I have to write EVERYTHING down - what I've done in each class, what I want to do, what I need to do, what I need to write, what I need copy, etc., etc., etc.  I find myself becoming some kind of distant relative to the crazy cat lady...the crazy list lady.  Lists rule my world right now.

All that said, because Thursday affords me some truly "free" time, I had a chance to think about and experiment with today's prompt - "beginning."  As I reflected on what that meant to me in this moment, I thought about how I am beginning to get myself together and am establishing a regular rhythm for this semester.  In that moment of confidence, I also realized that though I may be getting myself together,  I am really tired and, as hard as I am working, truthfully I feel like I am only a step ahead of the game.  Dismiss those thoughts for the moment.  Don't get bogged down.  This is playtime!  What better subject for depicting "putting yourself together" than Lego mini figures.  These guys never disappoint me when i comes to using them for photographs.

I spent at least an hour outside in the driveway taking different photos.  They all made me smile.  I was having pure fun, the kind of fun a child has when they are allowed to just play - no rules, no imposed goals, just imagination.  As I was going through all of the photos later in the evening, Brooke came in and watched over my shoulder as I scrolled through them. Even she got a chuckle out of all of the mini figure antics.  With her help, I decided on this photo to represent my day just because it is so ridiculous and because the look on his face clearly says, "I am who I am!"

245/365-2 Back to Reality

"Paper Chase"

And week two of the semesters begins...Despite having the day off yesterday, the work week got off to a rough start today.  The alarm was set for 5:50.  We got up at 6:44.  Neither of us remembers the alarm going off all.  The scary thing is that if it went off at all, it went off six times.  We have never slept through the alarm once, let alone six times!  Surely Weber didn't hot the snooze button six times in his sleep!  Hopefully this is not our new reality.  Oh, and did I mention that I teach a 7:30 class?  I managed to make it to class on time including making copies on the way.  Boy am I glad that we live only a mile and half from school!

And being the second week of school, the first batch of homework assignments is coming in.  Somehow in this supposed paperless society, I am still inundated with paper - papers to grade, music for analysis, class handouts, and yes, a paper agenda.  If it weren't for binders and clips, my world would be absolute chaos.  Well, it still kind of is chaos, but there is no doubt that it could and would be a lot worse without these things!

There is no meaning to the labels on the clips, but they do make me chuckle every now and then.

As long as we are talking about paper, here is another mandala made from one of yesterday's photos of the pencils.

240/365-2 A Backpack

'A Cooler Backpack"

I should learn to read ahead.  Since I used a photo of my own backpack earlier in the week for another prompt, I was stuck today when the prompt actually was "a backpack."  Throughout my day at school, I snapped several photos around campus with my phone, most of the people I did not know so I was a little leery of posting those photos.  As it turns out, that didn't matter; my favorite photo of the day was of someone I know and love so I was able to ask permission.  And, she has the "coolest" backpack of any that I saw on campus.

Here is Sara again.  She has been the star of my blog this week.  Sara has solved the problem of when you put everything you need in a backpack it becomes too heavy to carry.  She uses a rolling cooler for her school stuff.  It works perfectly!  The cooler holds more than any backpack and it rolls right along behind saving her back and shoulders.  (Can you tell that this is the voice of someone who carries way too much in her backpack?)

Sara is my last student of the week.  Too bad that cooler doesn't have some end of the week "refreshment" in it.  Just kidding, Sara!  Well, actually it does.  Yesterday it had delicious chocolate that she brought for me.

I am blessed to be surrounded by all kinds of caring, creative, and just plain awesome people!

238/365-2 Making Plans

"Planning for Class"

I have completed my first week of the semester - one down, fifteen to go.  I shouldn't say it like that because it makes it sound like I only looking to the end and that is not the case at all.  I have great students.  Everyone seems so excited to be in class, looking forward to what the semester has to offer, and what they will accomplish.  Even my 7:30 am class has been full of energy.

My course load is quite heavy, seven different classes and six private composition students.  Because many of my classes are small, I don't have a lot of students, but a class prep is a class prep.  It doesn't matter whether you are teaching five students or five hundred; you still have to prepare for the class.  I am teaching one class that I haven't taught in a long time and it was added to my load late in the game, so I am still in the planning stages with it.  Feeling that I am only one class period ahead of students is not a comfortable place for me  Much of the upcoming three-day weekend  will be spent trying to get my semester outline for this course done.

237/365-2 First Day Tradition

'Back to School"

I can honestly say that I am glad to be back at school.  Things have been busy, crazy, chaotic, but all in a good way.  I do much better with all aspects of my life when my days are more structured.  

The only thing that I don't like about being back at work is having to be "dressed" every day.  I am already missing the flip-flops and T-shirts.  The first thing to go at the end of the day is the "real" shoes.  My feet are feeling a bit confined.  They'll adjust.  Or, I'll give up and wear tennis shoes to school.  I'm pretty sure that I'll garner due respect from my students if I wear my red Converse to class one of these days.