Summer List - 2012

In no particular order, here are my goals for this summer:

-recover my home office

-get a password management system up and running

-get tap shoes and use them (for clogging)

-ride at least three 50+ mile road adventures

-tromp or ride in the woods once a week

-put a ceiling in the basement

-read books everyday

-put new edging around front beds

-grow out my hair or chop it all off (decide before Sept 4)

-draft 3 chapters of my book

-write 2-3 new urban history lectures

-sort all my teaching files

-ride to AA to work once a week (when not traveling)

-take kids on an overnight backpacking adventure

-donate or trash at least one bag/box of stuff for every week of Jun, July, and August

-paint Emma's door to look like the Tardis (I could use help with this)

-teach Emma to cook

-help Owen find a sporty activity he loves

-develop a workable chore schedule for the kiddos

-avoid all contact with poison ivy

Leaves and a Mohawk

Hey, it is fall in Michigan. So there are leaves to be raked... and then, of course, jumped into.

Also featured in this video: the boy's new haircut, which he got just in time for his 4th grade school pictures.

Trick or Treat 2011

Halloween with a 9 and 12 year old and a bunch of their friends is pretty great, even if one of them had a bit of a cold.

Gems from the draft box...

On the theory that it is better to laugh then cry, I share with you these gems from the most recent midterm season...

"I'm sorry I missed the exam, my liver hurt."

On the Identification section (what was it and what was its significance to American history?):

The Spanish America war was a war with Spain to win Texas and California.

Mmmm...summer's end

I've engaged in a couple of season changing rituals this weekend. Yesterday, there was some mountain biking in some lovely, crisp weather...it was definitely feeling fall like. Then today, I went to the Detroit International Jazz Fest, an end of summer activity that I've done for many years.

Over the years I've found less and less that I really wanted to hear at the fest, though it is usually fun to wander. There is often too much smooth jazz, standards, big band, etc. Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing Herbie Hancock, Joey DeFrancesco, Joshua Redman, and Medeski, Scofield, Martin, and Wood there, but I've come to not expect anything outside the mainstream. Considering this, I was delighted to see Myra Melford on the bill this year. My friend Jules introduced me to her music years ago, but I've never seen her live (and she has never performed at this festival before). She played with Matt Wilson and Mark Dresser as the Trio M. They were delicious. And it was wonderful to see the crowd get into it. Certainly some were surprised, but the response from those who stuck it out was enthusiastic.

Wintertasticness

Winter seems to have concentrated itself in late February. We've had lots of snow... plenty to shovel, build snow forts in, and send some of us off into the woods on skis.... There have many lovely discoveries, including O's skating abilities!

Cooking

Not eggs, but work. The last few days I've been on my game and made some real progress. I finished the anti-porn/Minneapolis article and sent it off, I nailed down the community partners and research projects for URS 450, I negotiated my way through a stack of readings on neighborhood activism -- putting some in the article and picking others to go on the 450 syllabus, I did a bunch of organizing for the WILL program, and now I'm working on the public toilets piece again.

It feels good. When school gets out in the Spring, I revel in the freedom to let my mind and work wander, range, and roam. Somewhere in the middle of the summer, that gets a little painful, though. It starts to feel useless rather than freeing. And that is is the headspace from which I have emerged this week... which means the 'gearing up for the start of term' activities and the need to produce finished research projects actually feels like a kind of a relief.

Time to buckle down

Hello August.

I'm going to do lots.

There's the house stuff. Lots of it. I tackled the bushes out front tonight with the kids playing in the clippings. What do you know? There is house behind there! There is the brick/gutter issue on the driveway side to be solved, some caulking, lots of painting, and, egads, won't someone please wash those windows? Ick.

There's work stuff, too. This week is the porn article (I love that I have a file called "porn to do list" on my computer) and URS 450 project. Next week is comfort stations/bathrooms/toilets and HIS 3695. The week after is HIS 370, more 3695, and more public toilets. Cottage week is writing, writing, writing.

But there will also be lots o' playing. July got away from me but I'm planning on skidding into September with sore bits from road miles and plenty of scrapes and bug bites from trail rides. I want one more camping trip. One more beer trip (combo Stony Creek and Dragonmead run anyone???). I'll be throwing in a couple more long silly evenings rolling around town and many more trips to the pool. It'll be a stretch to get O to pass the swim test this year, but he's getting the front crawl, now he just needs the distance. It could happen and he would be so happy to be free in the deep end.

And entertaining. I still need to have the already-promised dystopian book club meet on Lord of the Flies (get reading people... date tba soon). And euchre/hammock/badminton party. Won't someone come play euchre with me?

And cooking. Had the first eggplant out of the garden last night. The broccoli is close. E's cukes will soon drown us in yogurt and cucumber yumminess and O's melons look very promising. And the farmer's market is always there for serious hauls of tomatoes and corn and peaches. Mmmmm.... peach shortcake this weekend!!!! I'm going to teach those kiddos how to whip cream. Next year I'll teach them my secret shortcake recipe.

It'll be grand and all I have to say to those of you are making "fall is almost here" noises is pfft, don't bother me I'm still blissing out on summer and you can't stop me.

Frank

I came home from a walk this afternoon to find a squirrel in my basement -- thrashing and crashing around and obviously wishing he was not in the basement. On this we agreed, I did not want him in my basement either. We differed a bit on how he was going to leave, but the back door is open. I visited him in the laundry room, and left to close off as much of the rest of the house as I could. Now there is no sign of him. Here's hoping he left (though I actually don't have much hope on that front, I suspect he is just scared shitless and holed up somewhere down there). Anyone have a have-a-heart trap in a squirrel size?

Anyway, since it seemed like we might be spending a little time together, I named him Frank. Why a male name? I dunno... its spring. Maybe his testosterone addled brain convinced him that coming into my house would be a good idea. As I was reminded of last night, the desire to get laid makes some males do really stoopid things.




****Update**** I barricaded what I could and left the back door wide open, while I sat down to quietly do some work. After a while, I heard some rustling at the back of the house, snuck through the kitchen and found a squirrel just past the back step. Was it Frank leaving my house? It had to be. I had a little chat with him about not doing this again while he chattered at me from the tree.

Freedom

Okay, Summer, I'm ready...

Bye-Bye Summer

Here it is. The last evening of summer.

This was not the bloggiest of seasons for me. Like many of the friendly blogs in my world, YesterdayLooksGood got very little attention. Her sister blog, Breaking the Code, got even less.

I meant to record more of my happenings -- they are fun to look back at, a way to solidify memories, etc. -- but many posts were never started and of those that were, I abandoned more posts than I actually published.

Using my calendar and a scroll through the drafts-never-published here are the highlights of Summer 2008:

In May, we went to Traditional Arts Weekend at Wheatland. Just like always, and nicely so.

In June I went to Minneapolis/St. Paul for a conference and research (probably the highlight of my summer in terms of work).

In June, E finished 4th grade (which she loved) and O finished Kindergarten (which he tolerated). They understood that they were supposed to be happy about summer, but they didn't quite know what to do with themselves with day after day of unstructured time. Apparently, they didn't feel the chores I assigned them was the kind of structure they were looking for, however. They did a week of low-quality day camp that convinced us they were better off rattling around the house bored and beating on each other than in that environment.

In late June/early July, we went to my folks' cottage. This is a trip I have done for years, but this particular trip came with some twists. I went without my dog, for one. It was her favorite place in the world. She was dune colored and loved to romp there. [sniff]

In July, I became a stay-at-home mom. I struggled with this for awhile. I finally had to accept that my sabbatical was over and stop trying to parent and write at the same time. Things got much easier after that. I scheduled playdates so I could launch a new article and get ready for classes, but I also took other people's kids on adventures with us, rode bikes with my pups, went blueberry picking, hit the pool and the waterpark, danced to the bands at Crossroads, became a regular at the Tuesday farmers' market, and visited many area parks. The kids and I even rode our bikes in the Heritage Festival parade (which I think we all found pretty boring).

In July, E went off for a week at sleep-away camp. I loved camp as a kid and went for multiple weeks (regular, horseback riding, competitive swimming, and, my favorite, sailing) so I was rather excited for her. She did great there but was incredibly tired when I retrieved her. The promised "vegetarian option at every meal" also turned out to be salad and peanut butter sandwiches, so she was mighty happy to have a plate of pasta plopped down in front of her. I had hoped that a week apart would get the kids out of the negative patterns of taunting they had developed. It didn't. Almost as soon as I had fetched her I heard from the backseat, "mom, he's looking at meeeeeeee!"

July also meant beerfest and I had a lovely time with my dad, brother, and many buddies. I didn't pick a "best beer" this year, but I enjoyed several ryes... and I really enjoyed that there were several ryes to enjoy. Worst beer: Jolly Pumpkin's Perseguido. It almost doesn't seem fair, since I don't like their beers/sour beers in general, but EVERYONE in my universe that day agreed that this one particularly sucked.

In August, we went to Dunegrass, the music festival in Empire, MI. Year #2 for us and it held up well, which is not surprising because the kids are now old enough to be fairly sturdy on such outings, we took the camper and therefore had cushy digs, and there is a beautiful beach with great dunes just down the way. moe. wins for best band, I think. Particle was the same as always, only I was too tired to get into the groove this year.

Also in August, S finally got me to play water polo. Okay, yes, it is fun. Water polo easily slid into the hole left by us quitting clogging (E lost her interest and I wasn't going to force it). The kids could swim in the shallows while mommy dunked the college boys... then we would all go home mellow and tired. E wormed her way into one game and played well. I'll coach a tweener team next year if the pool folks will let me! Most of my other exercise came from the bike. I think my fitness level peaked somewhere in late August. If I had to pick a day, I'd say it was when I rode (read: held on for) the local shop ride: 32 miles in about an hour and half. Otherwise I rode with Bike Ypsi many Sundays and took to early morning roll outs so that I could do 20-30 miles and be back in time for W to leave for work. (Tom's right: it's a great time because there is no wind!) My favorite ride became the Saline-Milan route (40 miles), though it was hard to squeeze in on weekday mornings.

The last bit of August contained my birthday weekend. I celebrated Bike Ypsi's first birthday, helped break in Andre and Stephanie's new house at their first party there, closed the pool for the season, and celebrated my many revolutions around the sun with my extended family.

September saw me not only enter my forties but also take on my first big administrative job: department chair. The kids went back to school. We celebrated surviving that momentous week with a bonfire at the party barn, including a birthday king and queen, and chocolate cake with a milk fountain built in.

But the signs of fall have started to arrive. E started soccer, the rain pushed the last Crossroads act (Black Jake and the Carnies) inside, and it was time to make pesto. I rode 50 miles last Saturday to help make 35 pounds of pesto at Jeff's house out in Chelsea. It poured for much of the ride, but it was warm and I loved it except for my fogging glasses. On Sunday, I rolled out in the ran again to ride Tom's Taco Tour. Five taco stops over 19 miles and we ended -- very wet -- at the Corner.

What this summary, focused on specific events and dominant trends, glosses over is the emotional terrain of my summer. It is hard to characterize, but I think I have spent much of the last three months trying to get my head in the game -- whatever the game may be. I've been sad, I've been unfocused, I've raised indecision to a near art form, and somehow I became a procrastinator. I've decided I'm angrier (in general, or maybe it is that I am easier to anger) than I realized. This is not to say that I was not happy this summer. I was, at times, but these other things had me pulled off in too many directions to focus on the things that made me happy. So this is the problem I am tackling this fall: how to be in the right place... or at least how to be in the place I am. How old-school hippie-ish, eh? Yeah, well, I seem to need to go back to that school. To frame it positively (and find a way out of this post!), my goal for the fall is to be good with where I am and what I am doing in that moment and not overthink where else I might be. I'll be in that other place soon enough.

Wait, can it be????

Yes, it is spring. Okay, technically it isn't spring until 1:48am on Thursday, March 20th, but the signs are here.... There are birds chirping outside my window, there is an almost-warm (or at least not cold) gray rain falling, and only the once-largest but now all dingy snow banks remain. The temperature was 34 yesterday, but today it might hit 50 degrees. Yep, that is spring in Michigan.

A more personal measure... I have ridden my bike for six days in a row. It doesn't hurt that my car is currently on the bench due to illness, but I'd like to think I would have ridden anyway. The first couple of ventures out were tough after almost six weeks off (and not a whole lot of riding in the six weeks before that), but it got better quickly and I felt great zipping about with the Bike Ypsi crew on Sunday. That zingy feeling of arriving at one's destination with blood pumping is pretty cool. I even rode to and from the Women's Studies conference this weekend -- a first for me. Now I just need to get my bikes a bit more cleaned up, exorcise the gear-shifting demons that live in the black bike, and find a water/wind-proof/resistant jacket that has sleeves long enough to cover my wrists even when I'm riding on the hoods and I'll be all set to embrace the season.

Yay! Spring!