54 Versus 540

I just renewed my parking permit for U#1 online. So easy, YAY! (in previous years I've done in in person, so much more troublesome!)

Yeah, it's precisely 10% of what I pay for my U#2 permit which made me so upset a while ago. :-(

What can I say? At least one of the schools I (marginally) work for charges me a reasonable rate for parking! Sigh...

An Automotive "Sign"

You guys know that we own very very old cars. In fact, we're nearly "famous" for our old cars -- our mechanic says we are the clients who own the oldest cars of his whole clientele and that he actually does tell some clients about us (in positive terms, as in, "I know these people who have these old cars and they're fine!" ;-)

In any case, after driving all the way to South Carolina and then back up to Philadelphia with our beat up Honday Odyssey (292K miles!), we had decided to risk it and to drive to Florida with it. Thankfully, on Thursday we had a "sign" that this would not be a good idea!

The car has been making a strange "weak engine" noise when the air conditioning is on and we stop at intersections. When we turn off the AC the engine returns to normal. Last week, however, I turned off the AC but then the car died. When I restarted the engine now it was making that noise and feeling like it was going to die during normal driving (except on the highway when it was perfectly fine). It was a bit scary! It died a couple more times on Friday, so we decided we can't risk it and are renting a car to drive to Florida...

Oh well, it's better be safe than sorry, right? I'm excited we're going to Florida!! We'll visit friends and go to the beach. YAY!

Accidental 'World Premiere' Viewing - "The Pool Master"

Last Saturday night I wanted to watch "World Cup Tonight" and the compact version of that day's soccer games and while I waited for ESPN to start showing soccer, I started watching "The Pool Master" in the Discovery Channel (it's actually produced by Animal Planet). It was fascinating to watch this eccentric British man "talk" to boulders and have them removed in order to make a natural looking pool.

What I had no idea whatsoever is that I was watching the show's premiere! I decided to google it tonight and couldn't believe when I found that out! Another show I enjoyed last Saturday was Tree House Master. Here's a preview:
Too bad in a month we'll cancel cable and I won't be wasting precious hours watching a bunch of contractors led by a crazy visionary building pools for other people anymore! ;-)

On the Road Again!

Now it's K's turn to have a conference and this time were headed to our old stomping grounds in Philadelphia. 

It was good to be home for 36 hours and for a brief period I felt like I wanted to stay home longer, but the feeling doesn't last long -- I was literally born and raised to travel and my sons have too! 

I feel slightly bad for our cats who are mostly confined to the garage when we travel (when we're home I let them out daily), but I know they'll be ok.

We had to leave by a certain time again (to go to a baby shower), but we're half an hour late. I just hope we get to Phily in time for K to register and go to the reception!

I'm excited we'll get to stay with and visit old friends and that I get to go to IKEA!!! ;-) and Aldi! And Christmas Tree shop! ;-) too bad I can't spend any $ (no summer salary -- maybe for K).

I'll try to blog more often this week!

18 Years!

Today it's been eighteen years since I came to this country and stayed! I'm on the road and can't blog much now, but I didn't want to forget this day. I'll write more about it later.

Wow, I can hardly believe I've been in this country that long! But I obviously  still consider Brazil as my home country -- unlike a lady from Trinidad today at the conference who said she's been in the US for 16 years so she wouldn't put a pin on Trinidad on a world map. "Not me!" I exclaimed, "It's been 18 years, but it'll be Brazil forever!" ;-) 

My Academic Blogger's Dream Come True: A Conference Blogger Meet Up!

As old-time readers will know, there are few things I like better than blogger meet ups!! (Here are some past ones). I've lost count, but I think I've met more than a dozen friends I made through the blog in "real life!"

Today's meet-up was special to me because it was completely unexpected! Every conference I've been to since I started blogging back in 2004 I've walked around looking at people and wondering if they also blog and whether any of my blogger friends may be in attendance. And I longed, really longed to be there with someone who read my blog and who really knew me. 

Today, it happened. This morning I was looking at the schedule and saw a name. I went to facebook and messaged her and then went to her panel where I introduced myself and we talked before she gave her paper. It was only a day which it passed way too quickly. We didn't have much time to talk and I hope I didn't annoy her with some of my questions, but it was truly AMAZING to finally get to meet M!!

I hope you enjoyed the conference and that we meet again in the future! I know she's not really blogging anymore and that's ok. What matters to me is that for nearly 8 years we interacted through our blogs and became friends. I hope she liked meeting me too! I'll see her tomorrow once more and then we leave. Too bad most blogger-meet ups are always so fleeting! :-( Sigh...

I still can't believe it happened, I'm so thrilled I can't even concentrate and finish my paper!

Chico Buarque turns 70! "The Time and the Artist"

I just found out that Chico Buarque, the celebrated Brazilian singer-songwriter-poet-novelist turned 70 today! And I really like what the brilliant journalist Mauro Ferreira wrote today (Ferreira has an incredible blog - Notas Musicais [musical notes] about Brazilian music and pop music in general too -- too bad it's in Portuguese, right?).

Ferreira's blog post title says "Chico approaches the infinite tangentially reaching 70 with a glorified oeuvre [body of work]." It's impossible to understand this title without knowing the lyrics of one of Chico Buarque's gems, a song from the 1996 album Paratodos [for all]:
"O Tempo e o Artista"                       "The Time and the Artist"

Imagino o artista num                       I imagine the artist in an
         [anfiteatro                                         [amphitheater
Onde o tempo é a grande estrela       Where time is the great star
Vejo o tempo obrar a sua arte            I see time work* its art
Tendo o mesmo artista como tela      Having the same artist as a screen

Modelando o artista ao seu feitio      Shaping the artist at its will
O tempo, com seu lápis impreciso    Time as an imprecise pencil
Põe-lhe rugas ao redor da boca         Places wrinkles around the mouth
Como contrapesos de um sorriso      As counter-weights to a smile

Já vestindo a pele do artista              Wearing the artist's skin
O tempo arrebata-lhe a garganta       Time captures his throat
O velho cantor subindo ao palco      The old singer climbing on stage
Apenas abre a voz, e o tempo           He only opens his voice, and time
                          [canta                                             [sings

Dança o tempo sem cessar,              Time dances without ceasing,
                        [montando                                    [climbing
O dorso do exausto bailarino           On the dancer's exhausted torso
Trêmulo o ator recita um                 Tremulous, the actor recites a
                     [drama                                                    [drama
Que ainda está por ser escrito          That is yet to be written

No anfiteatro, sob o céu                  In the amphitheater, under the
                   [de estrelas                                              [starry sky
Um concerto eu imagino                 I imagine a concert
onde, num relance,                         where, in a glimpse (?)
     [o tempo alcance a glória                      [time reaches glory
E o artista, o infinito                      And the artist, infinity
                                                                   *work=make an oeuvre

Pure genius. In the same album Chico has another AMAZING song titled (in Portuguese): "The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and hopefully I'll blog about it someday!

I'll come back to edit the post with a Youtube video later. Now I have to go finish a conference paper!

P.S. I really feel like my blog name when I'm translating. It's still really a huge part of my life, I guess, translation. :-)

What Most (or Many) Men in Brazil Know

I just realized that my husband, and his dad, and probably his brothers and cousins know the winners of every single World Cup that has ever taken place! I enjoy watching the World Cup, but I never thought of learning about all of them!

I suspect that most people (men and women, of course! -- I'll probably be criticized for referring to "men" on the post's title) who care for soccer, in Brazil or elsewhere in the world, may know that too! 

Soccer is really a passion most everywhere, except for the U.S.!

Appointments and Trips

We're on our way! To my son's optometrist, that is, but the car is packed and we'll continue on to our trip from there.

I had forgotten how convenient an appointment is in providing a "firm deadline" to leave on a trip. I should always schedule something! I do t think I forgot anything important, only my son's toothbrush which is easy to replace and... oh, and my BB face cream! :-( I'll try to buy another one..

 

Wish us a good trip!

Anxious Update

I'm anxious because we're traveling today for the only "true" (i.e. non-local) academic conference I'll attend all year and I OBVIOUSLY haven't written my paper and I need to pack and we have a firm time to leave the house all ready and packed since my son has an appointment with the optometrist this afternoon. Sigh...

I know we'll manage, but I wish I had a written paper so I could enjoy at least a day in peace at the conference (instead of half a day on Friday). It's always like that -- I ALWAYS leave things for the last minute.

That's why last night, because of a last-minute cancellation, I had my first visit with the doctor so I can be "labeled"* (I mentioned here that I finally had made an appointment, but it was not until next week). I brought home the necessary questionnaires and I'll undergo the testing next week, so... by next Friday when I have my next appointment I should know officially if I've been diagnosed with ADHD or not.

Yeah... After (or maybe during?) this conference I hope to have the head space to blog some more. Another reason for my sparse blogging is that my sons are now official Minecraft addicts (sigh...). They had previously been playing the limited "pocket edition" on their iPads, but now Kelvin bought Minecraft and installed it in my laptop. We'll soon buy it for our youngest son too, but we URGENTLY need a new computer (in fact two, but we can afford none!) so they can play and we haven't been able to decide on one (or decide to spend the money). So, the boys have been using my laptop as often as they can.

OK, I have to go make sure I have all materials to finish writing my paper and to prepare the power point and then to pack. I hate packing for trips because I always feel anxious that I'm going to forget something! :-(  And then there's the chronic procrastinator's problem: before trips there are always things that need to be taken care of around the house that I didn't do earlier. At least I planted my flowers last night (one of the most important pending things)... Sorry for the boring update!

P.S. I've been reading old journals lately, from the angsty years when I was 17-18. YIKES, it's not fun to read those at all! Ghosts from the past creep up on me and bad feelings from negative interactions with my mom too. I shouldn't be torturing myself with this, but I can't help it! Good thing I know that all turned out OK in the end! ;-)

* Ha! I didn't even remember that getting labeled was one of the few resolutions I made last year. Sigh... better late than never is what I always say!

Why we don't have cable or why I won't watch TV

I suppose tonight is the night to write blog posts that explain the reasons why... as briefly as possible! ;-)

We got cable installed today for the first time in the three years we've lived in this house. We did that because of the World Cup that will take place in Brazil and that begins on Thursday, we decided we wanted to watch in HD, instead of streaming online. (and we're actually glad to be watching the cup from afar, not only because we wouldn't be able to afford to travel to Brazil this summer, but also because it would be too crazy).

Anyway, I cannot have or watch TV because it's like crack for me, I'd be hopelessly addicted, particularly to HGTV! (watched almost two "flipping" shows this afternoon).

That's it. I'd rather spend my time reading about real people in blogs (while they still exist, right?).

Jo(e), thanks for the supportive comment, we'll be the "last two standing" in blogland, OK? Promise!!

Why the World Cup is Cool, but FIFA is Evil -- thanks John Oliver!!

And also, to those of you who know about the turmoil and protests that the World Cup has been eliciting in Brazil, this explains why:
And John Oliver is hilarious, I'll try to watch his program every week from now on!!

On "Being a Blogger"

Has this "very old" in today's term (about 15 years old?) medium basically died? I mean, it's frustrating to me, to say the least, that it is apparently so. My preferred means of expression, blogging, rendered basically useless... it's downright depressing (and since I never get around to writing "the post" about it, I'll just keep these short rants going).

Maybe I need to print one of those pretty, if expensive, books that will have all of the thousands of pages of this blog in it for a keepsake before Google pulls the plug on Blogger. Because I have come to believe that Google, like all other internet companies out there, is evil* too. Sigh... Amazon is trying to bully printing presses into submission, Google holds 10 years of my life (in email and blogging) that it could destroy in a few seconds... Gah. I can back up the blog, but how can I back up emails?

(and speaking about "evil" companies, don't get me started on facebook! And yet I'm there because I miss hundreds of people who were part of my life in the past and of with whom I can keep in touch that way... it's not easy to be an expatriate and miss one's country and family and friends, I tell you!)

The key is not to place so much value in these things (because, truly, they aren't the most important in life) and to keep on living. I suppose that's why I haven't been blogging as much, because I am enjoying my life outside of the computer and I hope I can detach a bit from this place that I cherish and think about every day -- because I do, for better of for worse, cherish it. Being a "blogger" -- even though most people I know in "real life" don't know I blog -- is a key part of my identity as a person at this point. Sigh...

Sometimes I wish it weren't so, I wish I could just shut down this place and stop thinking about taking photos "for the blog" that I end up never posting... Or writing posts in my head. There's this never-ending conflict in my soul that prevents me from "wasting time" writing on the blog or spending hours editing photos for the blog (because I would post more photos if I could only bring myself to decide which ones to use and that the time spent was worthwhile).

I cannot bring myself to do that, though (quit blogging). Maybe someday I will, but not yet, not now.

This was supposed to be a post about the month of May, but I changed the title, kept to one subject and here you go! At least I'm still trying to be a semi-decent writer! And in order to overcome "blogger's block" (in lieu of "writer's block") I always need to do some old-fashioned ranting and let out my never-ending angst! ;-) Oh well, I do what I've gotta do, OK? 

* And I use the word evil here in the "dystopian fiction" evil kind of way in which we end up depending on these technology sources that can, in the end, be used against us or used to destroy us. I actually spent the week reading dystopian books, but that's the subject for another post!!

Green!!

I had never painted my toenails any color other than doing a neutral Feench manicure, so a week ago when I bought this nail polish on a whim and did it, I was pretty surprised at how much I loved it. Green, my favorite color!

Now I want to try other colors. Maybe. :-) (cause it will be hard not to want to stick to green!)

One More Thing!

I forgot that I actually have one more thing to do, but it's such a "useless" thing that I had totally pushed it off my mind until now.

I need to update my CV and make a list of my teaching & professional development activities of the past year and email that to the chair of the department at U#2. The same chair who is not doing anything to help me continue to be full-time.

Does this document even matter to U#2? Probably not much. They didn't even start asking for it until last year, when the number of lecturers increased.

Sigh... And of course the reason why I didn't finish it has more to do with my angst in relationship to me working there than anything else. I was also trying to do as much work for U#2 on campus and on the day I started working on my document I was missing my CV which was not in Dropbox, but on my laptop at home.

Needless to say that since that day I've copied the CV into Dropbox, but did I go back to working on the document? Obviously not!

Oh well. Gotta take my son to soccer practice and will try to send that later today. Even if I don't feel like it...

Blah.

Out & In (Warning: TMI!)

I know this is probably be TMI,* but "that's what blogging is for," isn't it? Not always, but some of the time, at least, especially for "personal bloggers" like me. We kind of enjoy sharing a limited amount of TMI about ourselves. ;-)
* (too much information, in case you need help with the acronym, I used to be pretty bad at these texting and internet-age acronyms, such as IMHO or the ubiquitous LOL or ROFL, or even the business-like ASAP, but I think I'm slowly catching on!)

This past Monday I went to the doctor and this came out (my second one which was due to come out in July, since my son is turning 10 next week), because of that (results came in last month, it was effective).

After basically not having periods since mid-2001 when I got pregnant with my oldest son (I literally got pregnant again after my first period came back in 2003 after a year and a half of constant breast-feeding, and I didn't have them with the Mirena), I know I'll have them again soon after 13 years!

So I'm planning for this to go in. I'm really, really curious about it. Does anyone out there use the Diva cup? My doctor said that they have an excellent website, so I have to check it out! I first heard about it in a blog years ago, in the now gone Thin Pink Line, by Manuela. I'm looking forward to not ever using "feminine hygiene" products again!

Now I Fell Really DONE!

With work, I mean.

I was officially done turning grades in last week on Tuesday, but then I had professional development meetings I wanted to go to at U#1 -- I didn't have to, but I enjoy them so I went and they involved a few free meals and I'm all for free meals!

I also had to do "tons" of yoga last week which is not work and it's actually great, but I had to go four times because my class pass had already expired and I had to beg the studio to postpone it for two more weeks which ended this past Sunday. So I drove three times into town (we live 17 miles away) just for yoga classes, something I usually avoid at all costs (even though it's just a couple of dollars in gas to do the trip, I'm that thrifty, sigh, but I want to change that and just go more often for free yoga & other fitness classes on campus and also at the studio!).

Then there were two more things I needed to do and which I completed last night (OK, at like 2 am!). These weren't work related either, but they made me feel like "not done:"

1) I wanted/needed to take three of the boarding academy girls out to eat and to the mall because I'd wanted to do that for years and was never able to do it.* So I did that last night, from 5-9:30 pm, even though needed to finish item #2 below. We had a good time and the girls were also able to do some shopping (one girl is from Angola and she'd actually never bought/wore sweatpants and we found some for sale at VS yesterday and I also helped her pick a bra for a strapless dress as well as a cover-up little jacket). I need to do this more often because as a mother of boys it's fun to be out with these "daughters" that I don't actually have!**
*Our church, which is in the campus of a boarding academy, has this "adoption" of students thing in which we give students small gifts throughout the year, keep in touch, take them out for meals, etc., but had never managed to take them out to eat until last night!
**I'm so looking forward to my nieces growing up, I plan to spoil them rotten (take them shopping for clothes or things they want, etc.) Ahhhhh!!! I had one aunt that did that for me once I a while when I was young and I love(d) her for it! She still always buys me gifts -- two of my aunts do that, my aunt Esther in my mom's side (the one who took me shopping) and my aunt Ofélia on my dad's side. They're sweethearts!

2) Our private elementary school's principal, his wife, who teaches 5th grade, and their four children are moving to California and we're throwing them a big farewell party next Tuesday. I, the photo fanatic, was responsible for making a photo book for them and I hadn't had time to work on it until this week, so I was crazy busy doing it during all day and part of the night in the past two days. I'm relatively happy with the results, but it was SOOOOO much trouble that I've decided to never use Shutterfly again and try out blurb and MyPublisher (that now owns Shutterfly or is owned by it) instead. We'll see how that goes.

So after I finished the book last night -- I was so tired I ended up laying down on the sofa around 11 pm and taking an unexpected nap until a little past midnight when my husband found me and I woke up scared and came back to work, finishing a bit after 2 am (I had a 50% discount that had to be used until midnight, California time) -- I was actually wide awake and never went to bed until 4 am!

I slept in this morning then, and was woken up by the school calling me at 9:30 am to let me know my youngest son is eating lunch there and won't need me to bring him food.

I should be working now, cleaning the house (which is a mess! K's been incredibly busy writing a grant and I was doing this photo book) because we have guests coming from Brazil today -- the parents of an academy student who came to spend her senior year here and who is graduating -- but I'm just enjoying my first day of summer break! I'll write more about our summer plans later. Meanwhile, I'll go eat something and start cleaning!

P.S. I didn't start working on the book until after Monday because I also had to plant three flowering plants/bushes I'd bought two-three weeks ago and which urgently needed to go on the ground and needed some serious digging. Hopefully I can share photos. And I'm glad I'm all "updated" now!

I don't know...

... why I am blogging so little this year.

If I make it past 120 posts in 2014 it'll be a victory, I suppose, unless all of a sudden I start posting a lot, but I don't know if it'll happen.

Maybe it's because I've been so busy? Or because I've felt so ambivalent and angst ridden about my work life?

As always, one of the reasons is that I take too many photos I'd love to share and I have to decide which ones to use and making small decisions like those is hard for me. And I also procrastinate and then I reason that it's "too late" to blog about this and that. (ADHD much?)

And, of course, the biggest reason is fact that blogging has declined as other social-media take over.* This leaves me with the sinking feeling that this little blog of mine has not made any impact and that even though I truly cherish the friends I made through blogging, many of them aren't blogging anymore or, most importantly for my own writing in this space, reading my blog. :-(

I didn't want to make tons of money off my blog (though I did make a little bit back in 2005-6) and become a professional blogger. (In fact, I am still really scared of not being semi-anonymous, I feel safer not using my name). But it's very disheartening to witness all this talking of 10 years of BlogHer and all the women bloggers out there who were/are so successful and to realize that I started blogging in 2004, which makes me kind of a "pioneer" of women & mommy-blogging, but that I'm pretty much a sad little "failed" blogger. OK, let's quit the whining.

On other news, I finally, FINALLY made an appointment to be officially "labeled"(just edited the post to add this link!). I don't know where this journey will take me. I don't want to take medication, but maybe I should when I have grading to do. I'm afraid of a "cognitive" therapeutic approach, I know I could use some help, but I don't want to feel I'm going to become someone else or something.

I found a local specialist in adult ADHD who is also Christian (a graduate of Fuller Seminary) and that sounds good to me, but I hope I will like this person. We'll see. At least I'm being proactive after so many years of just talking about it. I think my SIL (who encouraged me to do it back in January) will be happy with my decision to seek professional help. I'll have to wait for nearly a month, though, unless there's a cancelation, so I won't be able to use our flexible spending account for the many co-pays (I think we scheduled about 5 appointments, including the testing and follow-ups).

* I've been trying to write a post about that for a long time, but as I can't find all the links I'd love to include -- see, I'm always trying to be a good and "thorough" blogger and that actually keeps me from blogging more. Vicious cycle. :-( And the fifth paragraph above just kind of made that post moot... sigh...

Orchard in Bloom -- For Heidi!

I took these photos back on April 24 and never got around to posting them!

The orchard always reminds me of my dear friend Heidi & her husband because I found out they were leaving on our very first orchard walk in April last year. (There were about three, I think, we really wanted to follow the flowers closely, as it was her first and last opportunity!) ;-(

So in these photos I wanted not only to enjoy the flowers, but also document the orchard's development for my friend. You see, this orchard was basically abandoned for many years and last year was the first one in which it started to be cared for with pruning and other tree & orchard maintenance measures.

This year, there was even more pruning (as the huge piles of branches demonstrate) and it looks like the freshly pruned trees are healthier and (hopefully!) will produce more. This orchard has different varieties of apples, as well as peaches and nectarines -- but I didn't photograph those trees, only last year, I think they were past bloom when I walked there this time -- so it's only apple trees & blossoms.  Enjoy!!

When my youngest son, who was actually with me when I walked around the orchard, saw the photo above and the ones like it, he said "these look exactly like the orchard photos I saw in a book!" ;-) Can you tell he's very much a visually oriented learner?

I don't think it's possible for this branch and the ones below to support the weight of this many prospective apples!! 

Another one of those "crazily populated" branches! I'll try to come photograph the apples in the fall for Heidi & for the blog!

I miss you my friend, I hope you enjoy these photos and that you don't get too wistful for the flowers here. :-( I'm glad I can always think of you when I see the orchard and lovely flowers, though, it's wonderful to have friends to share one's love of nature, right?

Breakfast in Bed II

Here's the photo I promised of yesterday's mother's day celebration:

Oh, and my gift was two Target gift cards!