Manhattan, I've missed you!

Photo taken from the George Washington Bridge

I used to come visit nearly every year during our 8 years in MA. And for the six years we lived in Philly our Brazilian consulate was here, so we came for passports for the boys and for dropping and picking up up family at the airport. I took the boys to various playgrounds at the Central Park several times & felt like a local even though I lived a couple of hours away.

In 2008, on the way back after my dissertation defense, we stopped here on a whim on Memorial Day and took the kids to this awesome playground with a natural stone slide. I'm thrilled that we're going back on Memorial Day tomorrow, after we attend a wedding in MA today. 

I can't wait! 

Quick update of my "indiscriminate and reckless" helping ;-)

I began to write this last night, but then felt bad that my husband was driving and I wasn't talking to him, so I stopped. And then this morning I wrote the other quick post about NYC.

My life has been crazy & intense three past few weeks. I hadn't even finished turning my last grades in when I began to work on some crafts projects of decorations for my friend's wedding. Since we're traveling this week, I needed to have most everything done before the trip, so I threw myself feverishly and hyper-focused-ly into work after I decided which colors to use (when I talked to the bride) and what to make. After she sees them at the shower next weekend, I want to post photos and share more details!

--> The post's title comes from my an email I sent to my friend when I was feeling guilty for making too much stuff that she might not even like or use (you'll understand when you see the photos). She thought it was hilarious that I talked about my helping that way! ;-)

My parents helped me a lot with those projects and more, but things got crazier when I threw myself head-first (again) into helping with my son's eighth grade graduation. I went completely overboard as usual. I took photos of the 8th graders in class on Friday 5/20 (and spent most of the day at the school as the kids received and signed their yearbook). Photographed them in their concerts at church the next day, went to soccer games on Sunday, and last, but most importantly, took formal portraits in black & white of each 8th grader on Monday.

Then I began to edit the photos, ordered prints at Costco, and continued collecting photos and croping them to create collages for each of the 14 kids while my parents painted wooden photo frames. In the meantime, my friend, whose son is the class president (my son is treasurer) was crocheting a blanket on her spare time as a class gift to the teacher (she works full time, BTW).

Sigh... I had 4-5 hours of sleep every night on these weeks. 

Oh, and did I mention that my in-laws arrived for the graduation on Wednesday,  I helped decorate all day on Thursday (the graduation was that evening), and on Friday, after all of it, I had to take ice cream cake to celebrate younger son's birthday with his class since it was the last day of school & his birthday is May 30.

Are you exhausted yet reading this? But it was all awesome! The graduation reception was very lovely and the children loved it. I even wrote a letter/card for each of them during the ceremony.

Ok. I'll have a photo post now with the few pics on my phone!

Almost over... and, Broken (by the grading)

This year the grading broke me.

I mean, it wasn't the grading, it was the online homework that many students didn't complete that broke me. I didn't check it until the very end, as I usually do (because it's time consuming), but this year, I decided I was going to be more strict and really take points off for late submission. After all, they were aware of the deadline. Until... I realized that several students had NOT done the work.

And some of those were really good students who were doing well. Some of them contacted me after the final yesterday, when they saw the damage their lack of homework had inflicted on their grade. Some of them actually had a good reason -- that made me think that I could maybe bend the rules, but I can't do that for the past, only for the future -- they said that they left the online homework to do before the final so they could use it to study. Fair enough, but still, I had already taken points from everyone for lateness and it would take A LOT of time to go change everyone's grades at this point (8 lessons and several hundred online activities to scroll through in the report).

It's technically their fault, not mine, that they didn't do the work, but I feel horribly guilty and broken nevertheless. I contacted a student (who was not doing that well and who had done next to nothing of the homework, at the time I hadn't yet checked the other students), but I must have written the wrong words, because this student responded back with a negative tone and... worst of all, even after I wrote that the work could be accepted late (but for less credit) this student didn't get the work done. (and didn't do well in the final). It's hard not to feel it's partly my fault, because I contacted the student trying to help and it had the opposite result. :-(

I keep telling myself that even though the assignments are in the syllabus, I should have emphasized in class that they NEED to be done. And I do think I said it a few times. I am quire sure that the students knew that they were 20% of the grade.

I still feel broken. And I feel responsible -- because I was the one teaching more classes than I should and not putting in more time into working with my students.

I'm sad and upset about all this. There is no way to really fix it. I have allowed some students to do the rest of the work for partial credit even though I didn't want to. Students with As on the final exam and Cs on their homework. :-(

This will be bitter a lesson, for them and for me. I wish the end of this semester didn't have to be bitter like this. I hope next school year will be better. I feel this semester was the worst one ever. :-(

Edited to add: I'm feeling a little better and more hopeful after grading some compositions and getting ready to leave everything ready to submit once the "late work" I'm allowing is submitted. Sigh... I hate grading. It's like passing judgment one someone, I just don't like to do it.

My parents are here! After 5 years not visiting.

In the meantime, we visited Brazil twice and met them in other parts of the world (South Africa into 2012 and  in the Middle east and Europe in 2015), but it is so good to have them back at our house for an extended visit!

I am driving home and hoping that they will already be there. We will pick up the boys from school and later on go to their piano recital. That's why my parents came for one evening visit. They return to my uncle's house tomorrow morning, and then come back on Saturday to stay!

I'm very happy!

Edited to add, at 4 pm: they were not here when I arrived, but I'm hoping they will soon be... Sigh... I don't like it that they don't have their cell phone working. I'll let you know when they're here!

5 pm: They arrived!

Should we be freaking out?? :-(

Independents WON'T vote for Hillary, is it possible that a crazed outspoken, racist, bigot, anti-women, billionaire celebrity with no substance and questionable morals could really become president to this nation? :-(

I wish Bernie had a real chance. Independents WILL vote for him. 

What is going to happen? I can't believe it has come to this. But we obviously have had it coming for years.

:-( 

Late!

I can't believe I'm late for my first final exam. :-( 

Class is at 2, exam was at 1 and I was on "automatic pilot" and forgot. 

Sigh... Hope it all goes well.

The Third "Last Day"

This semester I have five "last days" -- last Thursday was the first, the last day of classes at U#1. Yesterday, was the second one, last day of classes at U#2.

Today is the (first and) last day of exams for me at U#1 and I have two days of exams at U#2, this Thursday and next week on Thursday.

Yeah, this CRAZY semester of teaching is drawing to an end, as well as the insane four years of teaching at two universities. I am not at all sad about it all ending, except maybe for earning a bit less (2-3K), but I'll be doing LESS WORK and being paid nearly the same.

I am cautiously optimistic about trying to slowly go back to my main research project (from my crazy 500 page dissertation). I already have a conference presentation in October and I want MORE!! Sigh... the plan is to integrate the research to my teaching and even apply for an internal grant for it. We'll see how it goes. Sigh...

I can't wait to have some free days, but before I have to face all these last days, all the grading and, next week, an intense conference in which I'll be helping out. Probably in exchange for a few free meals and perhaps good interactions and networking, but maybe there will be some payment (if funding comes through for my friend the organizer).

I'm mentally spent, exhausted really. I think this was the worst semester yet, not in craziness of hours of teaching (that was the Fall of 2013 -- utter insanity), but teaching with a brand new book and, "tele-teaching" FIVE days a week (that hadn't happened before, it was always only Tu/Th). This takes a lot of energy, not to mention the stress and claustrophobic feeling of teaching in a room without windows, in the basement of a building (for 4-5 hours straight on Tu/Th -- teaching and then preparing materials, printing, etc).

Today is my last day in the teleconference room. YAY!! I'm moving on and I won't look back (remember I was counting the days?). Phew!!

Pop!

"These are great pants! I love them!" Said the lady crossing paths with me at the university and smiling. 

"Thanks!" I reply, also smiling now. And I didn't even have time to say, "Yeah, I got them in the girl clothes' section at Target!" ;-)

I'm not afraid to wear bright colors, that's for sure! And while hot pink is not one of my favorite colors, I'll gladly wear it:

Written on Wednesday 4/27.

My "Baby" is Back Home & My Parents Arrived Safely in the U.S.

On Sunday night, my 14 year-old son returned from a six-day trip to Florida with his school's bell choir. We all missed him so much! (especially mama here, sigh...) He's a joy to be around and I'm thrilled that he's back, ready to experience his last month of Elementary school. His 8th grade graduation is precisely a month from today. I am so proud of the young man he is becoming, so responsible, so poised, so intelligent and determined. When they get their yearbooks I'll share here what I wrote to him there. It was hard to write only 150 words.

This morning my parents arrived safely in the U.S., flying into NY and then taking a connecting flight into D.C. I'm sad that they won't arrive at our house until next week because they will be helping my aunt with my uncle Oseas, my dad's younger brother. He was left permanently disabled by the removal of a benign brain tumor back in 2009 and needs around-the-clock care. My aunt is taking this opportunity of my parents coming to take a break for a week traveling with her sister.

It feels very strange to have them in the country and not to have even talked to them yet. My mom thinks it's unnecessary for me to go see them now, especially because we're horribly busy with the last week of our semester. I wanted to go see them on Saturday, but we have an event with our church, so maybe we'll go Saturday afternoon. Sigh...

I can't believe the semester is almost over!

I forgot to blog about Brasil...

Last Sunday, after a weekend of upheaval in the Brazilian Congress -- speeches ALL NIGHT from Friday to Saturday and all day Saturday, arguing pro and against impeaching the current president Dilma Rousseff -- they voted to begin impeachment proceedings.

I watched/listened to the voting live while I pulled weeds from my backyard for hours! It was very entertaining and very depressing, all at the same time. 

(Since I'm writing this on my phone, I was going to insert various sadness and frustration emoticons here, and then thought that those aren't really part of blog writing... Sigh! Texting and social media commenting are ruining our writing, no?) :-( 

It was depressing, almost alarming to watch the vote, because it was a true snapshot of the population of the country. Many uneducated folks, making errors while speaking, invoking the most disparate reasons for voting "Yes" and "dedicating" their votes to every member or their family in shameless family and self promotion (a very Brazilian thing BTW).  An analysis of their "speeches" would enable a researcher to find out the most popular baby names in the country for the past 10-20 years (Sophia is wildly popular).

The representatives against the impeachment, many from the president's party (the Worker's Party), and every single member of the Communist Party, were in the minority's and were, for the most part, very articulate, unlike the riotous majority. Oh, and it was a circus, the voting was!! Booing, screaming, crowding around the microphone, insulting the president of the Congress/Speaker of the House (also being indicted for corruption), not to mention the crazy "celebrity" representatives-- this guy who won the Big Brother Brazil competition who spat (yes, spat!!) on another guy who dared praise a horrid torturer from the military dictatorship years (the man who tortured Dilma Rousseff). 

Sigh... It was interesting to see the reaction of all my friends on Facebook, ashamed of the spectacle, of our country. I had friends who were very happy with the results (367 in favor of the impeachment, 137 against) and had actually gone to watch with the crowds in the center of the city of São Paulo. 

Now the Senate will decide whether to impeach her or not, but it's pretty much a fait accompli, it's a given that she'll be impeached. And nobody knows what is going to happen because the vice-president is also implicated in the corruption scandal as well as the "speaker of the house," Eduardo Cunha who was insulted countless times on Sunday, but still maintained a "Cheshire Cat-like" grin most of the time. 

Sigh... What will happen to our country? :-(

Your own kind of beautiful

I couldn't resist and bought this for me a couple of months ago. It hangs right next to my closet!

Oh, and somedays, one's hair is just cuter than on other days! 

On being "cute"

I don't know what got into me, but I felt like writing this post.
 
I am kind of cute. You can tell me that I'm "beautiful" all you want, and I respect your opinion, but I know the truth.

There are "drop-dead-gorgeous" people (extremely rare), there are not-very-good-looking people and then there are millions of us in the middle, kind of cute, almost pretty, pleasant looking, but not really beautiful. 

I had a keen awareness of this from a very young age for two reasons (and I am being as vague as possible on purpose). My younger brother is one of those truly good looking people and everyone told me that I looked like someone and my honest assessment was that that person wasn't beautiful.

Sigh... this is not a big deal and I am very self-confident, I love my body (for the most part), my curls, my cute derrière and I know that, all things considered, I look pretty good. In addition being small and relatively skinny (and fitting into clothes sold to teenage girls) makes lots of people jealous (some of whom don't hesitate to tell me so to my face).

Oh, and there's this small detail, I'm EXTREMELY photogenic -- I am one of those lucky folks that looks really good in photos, always. But looking good in photographs (which is where some of you may gather your idea that I'm beautiful) does not mean that a person is indeed beautiful.

I don't know where I am going with this, so I know I shouldn't even be writing it (whatever!), but I've been thinking about this often lately. When I see people with gorgeous long hair, which I know I can't ever have or when I catch a glimpse of one of those rare gorgeous folks. Or when I wake up and look in the mirror and think I look "ugly" that day (I know, NOT true! But some days are harder than others).

I have also had these funny conversations with my husband, who is definitely also cute. When he praises my beauty I tease him a little and say that I'm merely "cute" and that I'm special to him for other reasons, not just my physical "beauty." And I joke with him that none of us could have married a truly "beautiful" person, that we're the perfect fit in terms our appearance.

Last, but not least, I love cute clothes and outfits, so I often look "cute" because of what I wear. I've wanted to blog about clothes and fashion forever and maybe someday I will. I'll let you know if I do!

He skipped two whole sizes! ;-)

Two years ago, when my eldest son had turned 12, the pediatrician warned me: "Buy him only one pair of pants and one pair of shoes because he's going to be growing like crazy in the coming year!"

I laughed to myself because I have always bought my boys multiple pairs of pants, shorts, polo shirts (their school wear), but thankfully they generally have only one pair of sneakers and one pair of dress shoes (ok, until size 4 youth they also had another pair of brown or khaki color dressy shoes, I like them to look sharp in church every week!).

The pediatrician wasn't kidding. Once Kelvin started growing, he grew like ...whoa! Last year in the Spring he went through 3 pairs/sizes of dress shoes in five months, and because he was performing with his bell choir and school band & choir I had to get him new ones every time – good thing his younger brother gets to wear every single one!

This year it was pants that he outgrew at an outstanding pace. I bought and had to return several pairs, to Kelvin's great triumph and delight! He would try a brand new pair of pants and it would be tight! 

He went from size 12-14 khakis (which he mostly wears to perform with the bell choir) straight to 18 -- 16 wouldn't fit him! At least size 16 jeans are ok (for now). Well, I better check his black pants before he leaves on his Florida tour with the bell choir next week!!

This was written 2 days ago, & didn't publish for some reason.

Letting Go...

just a quick update to say I decided not to go to Ohio. (a few people asked me off blog about that)

:-(

It's hard to let go, but in this case I just had to. It would be too great an expense without funding from the university. Sigh...

Someday I'll go to Columbus and meet Dawn, Jenna, maybe even Amber! AND -- I really need to visit two other places in the same trip: Pittsburgh and Cedar Point!! I've always dreamed of going to Cedar Point.

Let's dream on.

New Book! Catastrophic Happiness

[photo to be added tomorrow]
Gone are the "good old days" when I'd get books before their release date to review on my blog.

Sigh...

I was thrilled to find out that Catherine Newman (of Ben & Birdy fame) was going to publish a new book! I was a faithful reader of the Raising Ben (Then Ben & Birdy) Baby Center column and I loved her first book, Waiting for Birdy.

Catastrophic Happiness: Finding Joy in Childhood's Messy Years, arrived today and although I have only read for about an hour, I really love it.


I will write a proper review after I've finished reading it, but for now, I just wanted to register my happiness in getting a book on the day of its publication!

Watching Figure Skating! --> Silver!!

I don't know if the Americans will earn a medal and make "history" tonight, but I'm enjoying watching figure skating! 

 10:56 pm--> Ashley Wagner won silver! 

Oh no! Gracie fell, that's sad.

I don't think they can win because one of the Russians scored the highest free skate performance ever. 

Well, let's see! 

I'm glad that the 9 year "drought" of world championship medals is over for American women skaters! 

Really Hard Decision: Conference & Blogger Meet-Ups

One of the unintended consequences of leaving U#1 is losing my academic conference funding. It was one of the "perks" that I really enjoyed and didn't even take enough advantage of in the past few years when I was working at both universities (given my difficulty with not being able to find substitutes during the regular school year at U#2 & its lack of support).

I don't know what I was thinking when I submitted a paper proposal to one of my favorite conferences (the Kid lit one) without realizing that I wouldn't have funding to go. The deadline to register for the conference is tomorrow, so I have to decide whether I am going or not.

The saddest part is that I had decided to go to this conference no matter what because going there would enable me to meet up two bloggers/former bloggers that I really love (Dawn & Jenna), I was really looking forward to that! :-(

It's a hard decision to make because this trip will mean expenses that I probably shouldn't have. I also wish I could take my parents with me (that was part of the original plan) because they love getting to know new places... or, go with the family to Cedar Point and also visit Pittsburgh (which is on the way), since I've never been there.

Yeah, a hard decision and almost no time to make it. I kept putting it off too... :-(

(I truly hate money, I wish money wasn't such a "problem")

My car hit a bird! :-(

And I'm so, so sad! :-(

I could see its wings flailing desperately in the middle of the road through therearview mirror. I don't know if it died or not, but it probably did... :-(

First thing in the morning too...

I'm upset. May the rest of the day be better. For me, you, and everyone we love. 

The Busiest Craziest Semester

We are horribly busy this semester. It's all kinds of overwhelming! Sigh...

And soccer season just started (practices, games in a week), I don't know how we'll survive the next six weeks! My dear parents will arrive precisely when classes end for me and K and the craziness subsides -- good for them!!

K is teaching three classes instead of his regular class, so he has extra preps, an extra night class and no free time of any kind. He just had two back to back conferences and we're still recovering. So, what's the best way for recovering than to have ten people come visit for the weekend?

We had 8 come in 2014 and it was a record, but this will blow the previous record. BIL's family is coming from Montreal (can't wait to see my "baby" nephew!) and a childhood friend of mine is coming along, with her husband and three children. To top it off, my BIL who live in Egypt is defending his doctoral thesis today (YAY! Good for him!) in Michigan and will come tomorrow. I know it will be great, but it's not easy to juggle this with having to teach today and tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and our boys have their Spring break next week! :-( I suspect they will spend a lot of time playing Minecraft and -- good thing for my poor teen who has slept SO little in the past month --
hopefully getting lots of sleep. (He wasn't here last weekend -- he went to a robotics competition in TN and before that he spent a lot of time preparing for it with his team).

Well, Spring is here and I should rejoice that it's only six more crazy weeks!! (technically 5+ finals)

And now he hates the collages ;-P

So, remember the graduation photos? I spent a lot of time, stayed up really late and finally I have 10 photos now, but 4 of them are collages (I got PicMonkey to work on another browser and it's awesome!). But back to the collages... One has FOUR photos, another one three, and two have only two.

However, Kelvin says that he hates collages...

Sigh...

I'm inaugurating a new label right now: Teen Years.

Oh man, I have eight long years ahead!

I'm sure we'll find a compromise, but I'll have at least one of the collages, the patriotic one, with him wearing the same shirt, at three months and three years old:

And here are some of my favorite smiley photos from 7-8 years old. Oh, how I love this boy of mine! The top two were taken in Massachusetts in April 2009, bottom ones: left, Philadelphia Zoo, Nov. 2009; right, Longwood Gardens April 2010.

It's because of photos such as these that I never really cared for having professional photos taken...