17 Classes + 2 exams

I'm officially counting the days now until I am done teaching in a teleconference room if not forever, for a long time.

I cannot write an exclamation point there. It's a relief tinged with sadness. I can't wait to be done, I can't wait to have more time to become a better teacher to my better students at U#2 (which I guess will continue to be U#2 because U#1 will refer to where my husband teaches). At the same time, I feel sad.

That's why I want to keep emphasizing the things I don't like and that I can't wait to be over, but I don't know if that helps or not.

It's a constant challenge to teach this way, not to mention torture, when students aren't learning much (often because of a series of reasons, mostly not my fault) and students have so many levels of skill and ability to learn a foreign language. I've had some dark moments in these past four years. I'd say that the Fall of 2014 with its crazy challenging beginner class was the lowest point.

Few things were crazier than that first semester, though, when I taught in an empty room for students in two other universities.

And even fewer things were crazier and more awful than the Fall of 2013 when I was teaching almost seven 50 minute class periods two days a week with a one hour drive in between. I taught one 75 minutes long and two 50 minutes long classes, from 9:30 am to 12:50 pm then drove for an hour (while trying to eat something -- when I had it) to teach two more 75 minute long classes from 3-5:45!!! Thursday nights were the worst because I still had to drive 76 miles to teach two classes on Friday morning -- thankfully starting at 11 am. (I blogged a bit about that at the time calling those my über-packed days).

Edited to add: The hardest thing to believe is that in September 2013 I blogged about how I felt energized and did lots of stuff and how I was still productive a week later. I blogged a lot too, on purpose to reach my goal of more posts than the year before -- I wrote 26 posts in September, 25 in October and 30 in November (I always blog daily that month anyway). This goes on to prove my husband's theory that the busier we are, the most productive we get. In retrospect, it's interesting to see that I sound SUPER cheerful describing my Tuesdays and saying that I liked them because I went to the Farmer's market (until the end of Nov.) and yoga.

Towards the end of October my husband left for a conference and I was utterly exhausted, so I think the semester ended up taking its toll on me and by November the exhaustion was really taking its toll on me -- so in the December I wrote that the torture [was] over -- and it was, the following Fall wasn't as terrible

In the Fall 2014 it was easier because I only had two 50 minute classes in the morning and two longer ones in the afternoon and Fridays free!

Those two Falls were bad... OK, I want to write a few more posts about this transitional phase, but now I began to read old posts from 2013, so I'll come back later to write more!

It's Official: I'm leaving U#1

No exclamation point.

Relief, that's for sure. Counting the days to never again (I know! Never say never!) teach a shared class with another university using a teleconference room, even this special one that I use.

And a bit of apprehension because (as I mentioned here) I will be making a bit less money (and working way less!) and paying more than double for the oldest son's tuition. Sigh...

I also feel a little wistful and sad to leave the place where my husband works and was just granted tenure and where I taught for 6 years and made many good friends and had fabulous colleagues. 

I need to keep reminding myself how little they paid me, how unprofessional the department is, how ABSURDLY exploitative of adjunct labor and... last, but not least, the quality of students cannot compare to U#2 (and #3)'s students. That last one is sad, but very true.

(and the last thing that is stressing me out is that the lady who will replace me has such a hard time with technology that I am worried thinking of what will happen, but I don't want to worry about it, I'll just give her the info she needs -- which will take some time -- and leave).

So, I should be happy, but there is some other stuff related to adjunct labor ALSO happening at U#2, so it's complicated. Happy mixed with sad and outrageous and fair mixed with upsetting. I don't know how much I'll be able to blog about that without saying too much and being too upset, but I'll try. 

Anyway, just thought I needed to let you know about this!

P.S. blogger's block officially over!

Blogger's Block?

Sigh...

I know, I sigh A LOT, don't I?

And I always have these periodic periods (oh, does that sounds redundant much?! I'll leave it, I don't care) of some writing apathy.

A mix of the fact that nobody almost no one reads blogs anymore or maybe some do but are too busy to comment so I don't feel like writing to no one and the reality that I'm continuing to be WAY too busy. I, for once, never read blogs on my phone, I only do it when I'm using a computer at home (never at work!) and sometimes that doesn't happen as often as I'd like -- but I still read and comment -- often more than I blog.

As for being too busy... sigh... I hope this will be the last semester of that!! More on next post.

So, I hope now that I broke the blog writing block I'll come back with more posts.

P.S. I'm also blogging way less because I no longer have data on my phone where I work MWF, only WiFi -- data can only be used when I'm in a LTE network, not 3G. I'm also saving some money b/c of that! a mixed blessing... ;-P

Sorry for the Silence... but I've got Sense, and Sensibility! ;-)

I'm sorry about the silly alliterative title, couldn't resist!

Everything is fine. Warning: tons of digressions ahead! ;-) AND CAPS. 

One of the reasons for the not-blogging is the fun I had this past weekend re-reading Sense & Sensibility (how in the world that one wasn't of my favorites before? Seriously? It is a bit melodramatic, but it's every bit as awesomely written as my other favorites -- #1 Persuasion, #2 P & P.)

(digressive sigh... I wish Dawn read this and we could talk about Jane Austen, and its adaptations... sigh...)

I re-read it for two main reasons:

1) I had a strong feeling I needed some "comfort reading" and since I'm a Jane-ite, one of her books it the utmost comfort read. I started this "tradition" five years ago of reading one of her novels around Valentine's day, but I guess I skipped a few years.. :-P
         
(Digression: I CANNOT believe it's been three years since my last Jane Austen post. and this post just made me realize I will have to watch the most recent PBS adaptation of S&S!)

2) Since Alan Rickman died last week, I wanted to watch the movie adaptation of S&S again and, OF COURSE I couldn't do it without re-reading the novel first (I'm not sure I'd ever re-read it, like I've done multiple times with my two favorites).

So I watched the movie on Monday night (literally in the middle of the night, how bad am I?).

I LOOOOOVED the movie, BTW, in spite that it's HARD to try to see 36 year old Emma Thompson as a 21 year old. And then I went and discovered that she married Greg Wise, the really handsome fella who played Willoughby -- but it looks like both of them are pretty wacky creatures, some weird statements to the press & a silly tax evasion protest thing). Emma totally deserved the Oscar for the screenplay. Not visually stunning like the latest P&P, but lovely. Ang Lee is good.

Going back in time... we also went skiing Sunday, I mean, the K & Kelvin were snowboarding and I was supposed to ski, but I decided to try snowboarding and I loved it. Too bad I fell multiple times and now I am sore and feeling pain in various parts of my body (even though it's been 3 days).

I've been working a lot and also shopping a bit, since I hadn't been to stores for a couple of weeks. I had to get jeans for my son (had to return a pair and get another) and do TJ's & wholesale club grocery shopping.

What else? Yeah... so last weekend I also did my super commute on Saturday night to go to a play put up by the department and it was awesome.

Last, but not least. I've made important work-related decisions and going to a work meeting made me HORRIBLY upset again about the whole adjuncting thing. Sigh...

But those are subjects for other blog posts! This one is already a crazy mish-mash.

P.S. Tomorrow we're going skiing with my sons' elementary school, but it's going to be SOOOO cold I'm taking another Jane Austen novel with me! Thankfully I'm not driving, I'm going with friends which is nice because I arrived really late back from work today (we showed a movie to students and nobody showed up, booo!), so I had a 13 hour day...

A Tale of Three Uncles: the Rich, the Rascal, and the...

... schizophrenic?

I've been planning this post in my head for years, but I could never find the right "R" for the third uncle. Over a year ago, on November 3, 2014 I tentatively titled the post: "The Rich, the Rascal, and the Rebel, or 'A Tale of Three Uncles'" and wrote "I still haven't found [the right R], but Rebel will have to do for now. You see, my dad just told me that this uncle of mine is doing very poorly right now, so I wanted to write about him."

I never went on to write the post. Now I have to, but I'll say why later. I have more than three uncles (2 in my mom's side and 3 in my dad's, plus my aunts' husbands -- another long story), but these three stand out.

Most people have a rich uncle (don't they?) and mine is my mom's oldest brother (they are five siblings and my mom is the much younger "baby"). He is a handsome man (you can scroll down on this post to see him as a baby), who married really well into an entrepreneurial Italian-Brazilian family and became wealthy as a result. He also became more part of his wife's family than ours and my mom resents that.

She is also many years younger than him (15+ years), so they were never very close. He was always very nice to our family and let us use his beach house for free every summer (my parents still go there, but not every year anymore). We always saw him (sometimes only in church) when we visited my family's hometown (Curitiba) and in 2001 when we went to Brazil for my brother's wedding, K and caught a ride to Curitiba with him and his wife in their SUV and stayed at their apartment one night. My mom is always a bit upset with him because she wanted him to help financially other family members, particularly the children and grandchildren of their sister (second oldest), and he would always help begrudgingly only if she insisted.

I was happy to see this uncle and his wife in Texas last year. They had just done a cruise in Alaska with my in-laws who took a group with their tour company and I wasn't expecting to see them there. I think this uncle will turn 100 years old and still be in good health. He reminds me a bit of my grandpa, so I am always a bit moved to see him.

The "Rascal" is my mom's second brother, who also married an Italian-Brazilian wife! He was always very affectionate with my mom, so she was very fond of this brother. He was also kind of a rebel (he could have been both of those "Rs") and turned away from his dad's religious upbringing to marry the feistiest girl he could find. I say he's a "rascal" because we could never figure out if he had an actual job, and there were rumors that both him and his wife fooled around at various time, but he is doing well in his old age, still with his (feisty) wife. They have extremely successful children and grandchildren -- their oldest son is a doctor with a prestigious career who is also a professor at a medical school in addition to his practice. I haven't seen them in  over 20 years. :-(

My dad had three brothers, the oldest one got divorced over 40 years ago, never remarried, and now lives close to my parents. The one a bit younger than dad lives a few hours from us here in the U.S. and was left disabled by a benign brain tumor removal surgery he had back in 2009. The third one is my uncle Daniel who had schizophrenia, lived a very sad, troubled life, and died unexpectedly last Friday.

I mean, he hadn't been doing well since late 2014 (and much before that, frankly), but this is what happened...

... this uncle was very intelligent, but troubled. Unfortunately, mental illness runs in my dad's family and some siblings were more affected by it than others. My dad was always, ever since I remember, trying to help his younger brother out. I remember tio Daniel visiting us and I have some very good memories of those times -- he always would either bring or buy me and my brother presents -- toys. He bought me a large plastic doll once and I always thought of him when I played with it. I also remember how the way that he nervously moved his knees sideways as he was sitting on the couch talking to my dad made me feel uncomfortable. It was like a nervous tic and didn't seem normal to me.

He got married in the late 70s (against everyone's advice) and decided to become a policeman. He joined the police academy, passed the tests, and began to work. His wife had a baby, Rafael, and I remember a few visits to their apartment, getting to meet the new (and youngest) baby cousin. However, he drank a lot and was very unstable. His wife said he beat her and left him, moving away with the baby to her hometown. Then, my uncle ended up being discharged from the police (I don't remember if it was state or military police) with a disability pension -- one of the few positive points of his troubled life story. I remember quite a bit of tension whenever my dad's family discussed about him.

I don't know when exactly, but soon after, in the early 1980s, he went back to live in the small town in the North of Paraná state where they all had grown up. Many people in town knew him from babyhood (he may have been born there), and looked after him. After my grandfather died in 1978, the other seven siblings (my grandma had four girls & four boys) decided that they wouldn't sell one of two of their parents' houses in that small town so the house could be given to their troubled brother. My parents visited the former wife (then remarried) and her son a couple of times, but she and the boy wanted nothing to do with my uncle. She later died and my parents lost contact with the son. The step-dad actually told my parents that he probably wasn't my uncle's baby. Who knows?

I remember once, when I was 12-13 (?), that my dad needed to pick up this uncle to take him to the capital to go to the doctor and solve some problems with his pension and my brother and I went with him. It was very strange to hear our uncle talk about so many disparate things. I don't know if it was the last time I saw him, maybe it was.

There was a time when my aunt and her husband were helping care for him (taking him clothes, making sure he had access to his money, checking on the house) and my poor grandma, who died in 2008 would always be stressed about his well-being. Once in a while, when grandma wasn't bed-ridden yet, uncle Daniel would show up at grandma's house unannounced and she would be a bit disturbed (because he talked a lot and made up so many stories), so his sisters forbade him to come. My dad then took over caring for him and he would go every year, sometimes more than once, hiring people to help bring him food and look after him.

My uncle's health kept declining -- he also smoked a lot, having even set fire accidentally to his bed and house a couple of times -- and he lived in a filthy  house surrounded of junk (including old dilapidated cars that he'd buy) and he had lost his bank card and access to his pension. So finally dad had to take him to a judge and become his legal custodian, in charge of his bank accounts. The judge saw my uncle's condition and granted that, but the legal process was still ongoing.

(My dad was extremely stressed out about this whole process, because he thought that my uncle would make a scene at the judge -- he didn't want to feel controlled by anyone -- but tio Daniel didn't even realize what was happening).

Late last year, Daniel wasn't doing well and my dad decided to go see him after Christmas and try to bring him to a nursing facility in Curitiba (the capital). Fortunately he had the help of his "baby" sister and her husband, who live in Tennessee, but are paying an extended visit to Brazil now. They helped him convince Daniel to come and they had to take him straight to the hospital, because he was in bad shape, suffering from pneumonia. He was going to be discharged after four days, but the nursing home had no openings until last week on Monday (2/1), so he stayed in the hospital for a full week. Because he is older than 70, someone had to stay with him overnight, and they ended up paying for some nurses to stay because they were exhausted taking turns staying with him.

It was very hard on everyone because my uncle would become agitated and scream insults at them all, my dad wouldn't have been able to manage without his youngest sister, her husband and my cousin who is a dentist and dental school professor and helped get our uncle admitted and then kept at the Red Cross Hospital. So everyone was relieved when he finally entered the nursing home. They even traveled to the hometown to do some paperwork.

On Friday morning, when the news of his death reached my mom (he died overnight of heart failure), my dad was out without his cell phone, securing my uncle's health card (something like a Medicare card from the government). He got the card, but in the meantime his sister had already gotten another card, the one to go get his death certificate later. Dad called my mom from a payphone to ask where she wanted to go eat lunch and she told him to come immediately home (they were at my mom's sister home, the one who just lost her husband in August -- I never blogged that, will have to fix that, how sad!). So my mom told him when he got there that "It was all over" and he hugged her, cried and sobbed, saying:

I did all I could, I did all I could to help him!

Yes daddy, you did. Poor daddy. My mom said he was extremely stressed out about everything, so now he could finally be at peace.

My dad and his four sisters, three of which live in Curitiba, got together at the funeral home/crematorium. The one who hadn't been talking to the other sisters for years came and said that if they had called her to help in the hospital she would have helped. Three cousins also came. They said their goodbyes and he was cremated. My parents will do their best to notify his son and only heir that he can go and claim the property and any remaining benefits my uncle might pass on to him from his short-lived government job.

My uncle Daniel is the one standing on the left in this photo (my dad is on the far right, close to his dad, both wearing jackets, apparently, he was the favorite child):

Second from left with the white shirt (the two girls in the back worked for the family):

You're finally at rest, tio, and I'm so sorry that your life was so troubled.

It's 100% Official: K has Tenure!

He received the official letter from the provost today and I'm happy for him! It's nice to see how he feels more confident and "settled" and he's also happy that I have a more stable job too!

Good news for the whole family!

The Super Long Snow Weekend Was Great!

It felt like a mini vacation, and the worst part was that I had only taught ONE day of classes at U#2. I hope that won't make for a more complicated semester. I didn't miss any of my classes at U#1 because they are both TuTh classes.

I think our main accomplishment was watching three more Star War films with Kelvin (Episodes 5, 6 and 1) and laundry!! lots of laundry!  And food -- some a failure (sushi with too sticky rice -- horribly, terribly BAD rice-cooker that I stupidly bought!! I will write a SCATHING review on Amazon, as soon as I'm not too mad to write something) and some yummy (Brazilian cheese rolls!).

And the best thing was the skiing, on Sunday (all of us) and Monday for K and the boys. I had to go teach ONE class at U#2 -- my now very nice "boss/colleague" called me not to come right when I was dropping off the boys at the ski place and heading off to U#2. It was OK that I went.

OK, I'll stop here and post some photos of the snow from my phone soon!

It started!!

And I had forgotten we had this:

It's a gas fireplace that works without electricity, so we're good if the power goes out! I just need to find the candles and matches now. ;-) But I hope not to lose electricity! 

The Eve our First Snow Day!

We're excited! And relaxed, and prepared... I mean, I don't think we will be OK if we lose power, but we can walk across town to our friends who have a wood stove. It would be a long, cold walk, but we could do it if necessary! ;-)

U#2 canceled first, then U#1 and now I checked the local TV Channel listing and the kids' elementary school is canceled too, so it's official!

Of course now that everything is canceled it won't start snowing until, say, 2 pm, but we'll be happily home! I'm planning to cook yummy pasta, make sushi, bake Brazilian cheese rolls and sleep a lot!

Let's just hope we don't lose power or we might have to move across town... oh well.

And we can't wait to go skiing on Sunday! Of course it will be SUPER crowded, but it should be great nevertheless.

First Day (2nd round)

Today was my first day at U#2 and it was ok. I have to get used again to driving over 150 miles each day. When I'm not used to it I just feel exhausted...

Oh, and if I want to do some shopping afterwards (of groceries or just walk around & relax) I need to be prepared for 11-hour days again... Sigh...

I will acclimate soon enough to my new routine, but now it's 9:40 pm and I'm ready to go to sleep in my cozy bed!

The day wasn't better only because I was unable to leave earlier and thus got there kind of late. If my work computer's keyboard's batteries weren't dead I would have been able to print and copy the syllabus and handout before class, but I needed to get new batteries and then was a few minutes late for my first class. :-(

And then I wanted to leave right after my last class so I didn't have lunch and went to meet with my colleague instead. It was a good conversation and I hope we can make positive changes to the language program. With the new contract I finally few like I am truly part of the program, what a relief.

Because of the scarcity of time in my office before class and between classes and meetings I was barely able to talk to my friends/office mates. :-( We need to plan to get together soon, I've missed them!

Most important, I DO NOT have to teach at 8 am tomorrow morning!! I know that this will make ALL the difference in my life this semester. I'm so happy!

Can't wait for next school year, though, when I will actually have TWO DAYS completely free  (Tu/Th). I can hardly believe that this will happen and I'm looking forward to being a much better teacher (not to mention a happier more rested person) because of that.

MLK

From last April in DC:

Trying to Work & about Going Back in Spring Semester

I already worked last week, but it's this week that I'm gearing up to really start working and doing my mega-commute before teaching my classes at U#2.

I am preparing my syllabi right now and it's a lot of work because I am using a brand new textbook and workbook for one of my classes, and I'm hoping with all my heart that this book will be great. It's very time-consuming and horribly tedious to prepare a new syllabus with a new book, but I hope I can finish tonight or, at the latest, tomorrow morning so I can print the documents at U#1 and only have to copy them at U#2 on Wednesday morning before my classes.

Sigh...

I don't like to go back to work after a long break. In the Fall the break is longer, the students will mostly be new, so there's a lot of novelty and excitement, but in the Spring it's very very cold, the days are shorter, I know it will take long for it to warm up and for the days to be longer. It's ridiculous to think like this, but I can't wait for Spring Break and I have a feeling that February will be the longest, slowest month ever.

Sigh again.

I'm glad that this first week of work is shorter and also that I don't start until Wednesday. Next week will be the tough week to contend with. Maybe I'll car-pool with my friend at least one day -- that would make everything better!

I hope everyone has a great semester, whether you've already started or are starting tomorrow!

First Day

Today is my first day back at work, but only at one of the universities, and hopefully it will be my last semester there. I'm not looking forward to this first day because I have so few students that it's depressing... sigh...

OK, I have to go teach, so I'll blog more later, maybe.

At least I'm happy that I recovered (not 100% yet) in time to start teaching!

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence -- how I remember David Bowie

Everyone was talking about David Bowie on Facebook yesterday, about his music, things he said, and the movie Labyrinth, but nobody mentioned my strongest memory of him, his role in the 1983 British-Japanese film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (also known as Furyo in Europe). This WW2 movie introduced him to me and to Ryuichi Sakamoto's music (I had no idea it was his very first film score and also his debut as an actor, thanks Wikipedia! Ha, and I just found out he scored The Revenant).

Here's the trailer, a great role for Bowie:

In 2016...

... We finally go back to Brasil after 2.5 years away!! ( the boys and I travel on 6/30, get back on 8/5)
I wish we could go every year, but that would only happen if I had a study abroad there, or something. It is very hard to afford the tickets (although I must say that the prices are falling, we paid 700+ instead of 1200+ this year in addition to two award travel tickets).

... Kelvin will graduate from 8th grade and start high school and this will start a chain of six graduations that, if the boys finish college in 4 years, will go on uninterrupted, every two years for ten years into the future (until 2026!).

... My parents will visit (for the graduation) for the first time in five years -- I don't know if they'll manage to come every two years for the next 10 years, though (both in terms of $ and health). Sigh... I hope my in-laws can.

... I have the exciting prospect of having a few long anticipated "blogger meet-ups" when I go to OH for a conference in June. I really want to meet Jenna, and Dawn and I hope I will! I frankly don't care much about the conference I'm going to, I do go nearly every year, but this year the location is the primary factor. ;-)

... I will start my three year contract at U#2 in August and leave U#1 (where my husband works) and thus I will LOSE the funding to go to conferences which I get from my department at U#1. It's the only negative aspect of leaving this school. OK, and not being able to use their athletic facilities and parking on campus any more (only on weekends with K). I do have mixed feelings about walking away, but it's not fair for U#2 to have me divided since now they'll be payment me decent wages.

... Talking of wages, our family's income will decrease slightly this year with me leaving U#2, but I'll be working less and having more time to "live." I'm hoping it will be a good trade-off.

... we'll begin to pay way more for tuition because the private high-school costs much more than the elementary. Hopefully Kelvin will continue to do hours of community service that we started in 2015 to help offset the costs.

It took me nearly two weeks to finally finish this post. Sigh... I'm sure that other things will happen this year, but these are the main ones. I have a feeling it will be another great, but super busy year -- I just hope it doesn't feel as horribly busy as 2015!!

Last Little Thing Finished!

Written on Friday 1/8, late at night.

I can't sleep, I can't stop coughing. :-( This is the story of my life in the past week.

And yet, I won't take cough suppressants (I don't ever take those or decongestants or any of the multi-symptom cold medications that are so ubiquitous in every store in this country), I feel that the after-effects of those medications aren't good and since I have asthma, they generally just make everything tight in my airways.

Today I went and bought a couple of homeopathic medications for cold and cough and I'm taking those, but I'm still coughing. particularly when lying down.

Ending written today:
But the purpose of this post is to say that last Friday I took some time to finally upload the very last document that was missing of the translation (which I finished translating on Thursday night when I was feeling a bit better) and in the process found another little document that needed to be translated too and did that one.

So... I'm officially DONE with the translation and now I wait for the payment... sigh...

I can't believe it took this long!

Adding Injury to Illness

Written yesterday, today I'm worse & may or may not blog about it... ;-)

I'm still sick. The good thing is that I wasn't sick at all in 2015 -- at least not during the semesters when I had to work, and I don't remember being sick in the summer. So I guess that this long bout with a virus was overdue. :-(

The sore throat has been gone for almost a week, but I'm coughing a lot now, which makes it hard to sleep. I also don't feel any hunger, so I haven't been eating much, and I feel a slight headache that comes and goes and congested (I think my sinuses and inner ears are also affected, though not very seriously).

In order to try to get some sleep I have been having to lie down in different positions, such as lying flat on my back, sometimes propped up by pillows and this has brought on a mild lower back injury. Last night I slept with an ice-pack on my back and that helped, so hopefully the pain on my back won't get worse. Sigh...

I am hoping that this will be all the sickness I get until the end of the Spring semester!!

The Book I Wanted to Write is Already Written OR "There's nothing new under the sun"

Well, not exactly, because my focus would be a little narrower, but the fact is that the book is not only already written, but it's not even one volume, but THREE! They tell the story of Brazil as a Republic (which started in 1889) up until 2002 through Brazilian popular music/songs.

What I wanted to have written would have been a bit less ambitious -- I wanted to collect all songs that "Sing the Nation" and those that are meta-musical (i.e. talk about music and musicians). I think I can still pursue that latter part of the project (if someone isn't already doing it), but now I have three books to buy and read to see if I have anything new that's left to say.

This whole thing is equally exciting and frustrating. Ever since I finished my dissertation and found out that a few months earlier there had been a symposium New York sponsored by the Brazilian Consulate that focused on some of the issues I discussed on the dissertation and that I'd missed it -- I have had this feeling that I'm always too late to everything, that I'm doomed to be late and therefore not part of anything meaningful. I know that's not exactly true, but it surely reflects many situations I've been in during my incipient academic "non-career" (the latest was very recent, I just didn't have the energy to blog it just yet).

In any case, it's a fascinating and all-encompassing research project that I'm delighted exists, particularly as it is accompanied by a website containing all the music (more that a thousand songs!) discussed in the book.

You know, maybe someday I'll be able to share some of the scholarship I've already produced and even more, but often I think that this will never happen. :-(

I need to thank the amazing journalist Mauro Ferreira for blogging about this trilogy!

Binge Watching

Thanks to Amazon Prime & sleeping in this morning I just watched all of Downton Abbey's season 5 today. ;-)

Last night I watched the "Premiere" of Season 6 on PBS in spite of the fact that I had only watched the first episode of the previous season. I couldn't resist watching it for the very first time on our TV since we now have a few channels of cable.

I thought I'd watched more episodes of season 5, but it had been just one -- I was way too busy last year in January to do it). I'm looking forward to watching the season to the end on TV, for the most part. (except for the Oscars night ;-)

I don't watch any TV, so it's fun to be enthralled by it once in a while... too bad a lot of things were spoiled by having watched last night. I sure want to visit Highclare Castle someday!

Happy New Year! Pure Delight -- Hot Water in the Morning :-)

Looking Forward to 2016 - 19/19

This is the last post -- Happy New Year!

Now everyone is packing and making sure they have all their cables and charges and games. So sad! :-(

In 2016 we will be all together for at least a week, when we celebrate K's grandmother's 90th birthday in July. It will probably be the last and a very rare time when the whole family of K's maternal grandma will be together.

I'm glad that this birthday is the reason why we're going to Brazil next year, after 2.5 years away. I wish I could go every year, but we can't afford that (and we also travel to other places, that's part of the reason why we can't afford it).

I have no idea where we'll be spending the holidays in 2016. If we can afford it, maybe we'll go to Egypt to visit K2 and family. If that doesn't work out, we may be getting together with the "Canadians."

We'll see!

I wish I were more excited about my "new" old job with the three year contract, but I'm not, really. And I'm sad that the grant rejection took some luster away from K's receipt of tenure. In any case, 2016 is a new year and it has the potential of being better than 2015. For most years of our lives together, K and I always feel that the most recent year is always the best one (with the exception of 2009).

"Visiting" 1993 while waiting for 2016 to arrive - 18/19

We are showing K's uncle and wife a video of our visit to them in Massachusetts back in 1993 during their first year in the U.S. and they are mystified because they don't have any video of this time in their lives.

It was our first epic family trip, the one that literally defined our lives today -- my parents-in-law brought their four sons to tour the U.S. and I, the serious girlfriend of their eldest son, came along because I was already fluent in English and wanted to visit the U.S. too (we got engaged six months late, my mom was a bit upset that we traveled before our engagement).

Three years after that trip, K & I moved to the U.S. His two youngest brothers followed to study a few years later, one stayed and married an American girl, the second brother joined the brothers in TX in 2001 and only the youngest went back to Brazil (and now lives in Canada). It's because of that trip that we are here today.

These moments are rare, when we are together with family members and can watch old home videos together. I'm glad it happened!

2015 in One Word - 17/19

Intense

That's the word I used to describe this year when someone asked on facebook.

2015 was in intense year, particularly as far as teaching is concerned. The boys were also very busy, we hardly had any time for anything that wasn't work or school. I'm glad it's over and I hope next year won't be as intense and stressful.

No more NSF grant writing, no more tenure package preparation, no more job applications. I'm sure there will be other deadlines, but hopefully not that tough.

The Yummy Brazilian Dessert I Shouldn't be Eating - 16/19

Five Posts to Go! - 15/19

Counting this one, only four, actually. ;-)

If everyone continues talking, I don't know how I'll be able to concentrate and write the posts. I ate a bit of dessert (strawberries covered with chocolate and with cream at the bottom) and I think that this is going to make me feel worse... Sigh... So I will try not to finish my bowl...

Everyone the women got up and they're cleaning the kitchen right now... We may play some games, but maybe not because those who want to leave early to go back North tomorrow want to go to bed early. A little bit anti-climatic this New Year's Eve, that's for sure! Maybe we should be going back as well, but I don't want to leave my in-laws by themselves in this big house for three more days, so we're planning to leave on Sunday morning.

Past Midnight in Brazil - 14/19

Written an hour and a half ago, but posted later. (original title "Almost Midnight...")

Christmas, with its "Northern" traditions,  feels strange in the Brazilian Summer, but New Year's eve always feels wrong to me here in the U.S. and I only enjoy it fully when I am in Brazil. Being in Florida helps, but it's still not the same. :-(

Of course New Year's is more fun in Brazil when you are at the beach, but no matter where you are there are always lots of fire-crackers at midnight (because most people cannot afford fireworks, but they still enjoy the noise). It's a tradition, really loud fire-crackers everywhere for soccer games and for New Year's Eve, or "Reveillon" as they sometimes call it there, using the French term.

We haven't eaten yet and the kids are hungry, but I don't know about the adults because we ate A LOT at the restaurant.  --> that was at 8:50 pm.

Now we already ate and kids are watching videos on their ipads as the adults talk... (and I blog).

A Bit Sick on New Year's Eve - 13/19

I've been sick for the past three-four days. Today I'm feeling slightly worse and I'm actually afraid to go to the hot tub and pool which were fixed and are nice and warm now. My throat is not hurting anymore, but I am coughing a bit and my chest feels tight. My nose is running slightly and while my head isn't aching right now, it hurt a bit earlier. I'm also sleepy, even though I had a good night of sleep.

I feel bad, but I didn't help cook the meal for tonight, I'm just sitting here with my laptop while they are putting the finishing touches on the dishes. Of course I have the excuse that I "need" to be blogging right now. ;-)

I'm also sad that early tomorrow morning two families are leaving to go to Maryland on their way to their final destinations (Montreal and Cairo) and K's uncle is leaving for Miami to go on a cruise.

Right now there's a small crisis going on, my SIL's iPhone is missing. We're calling it, and trying to find it, with little success, they can't leave tomorrow without it! I hope we'll find it before midnight. ;-)

It was found! Less than a minute after I published the post. In the middle of a bunch of folded clothes.

Matchy Clothes Selfies -12/19

Another photo post, I'll try to do some nicer ones with Europe photos, let's see if I'l have time (I need to get my husband's computer to do that). I took some of these selfies to share with friends I thought would like my matchy outfits or to save it for later reference. The next two, for example, I twitted to Jenna:

This one was to show how I bought the polish to match the outfit, but then returned the overalls because they were too tight:

Nail polish & clothes matching: 

Looking Back to 2015 - 11/19

I just read the Looking Forward to 2016 post and everything went as planned, down to the last paragraph (that I enjoyed the trips and all, but that I'm really looking forward to going back to Brazil next year).

Everything went OK with K's tenure process and with my three year position (in spite of the delay), too bad the grant didn't come through for K. :-(

6th and 8th grades were busy and the family is here in Florida, having taken the family photo. Now I have to think about next year, but I don't feel like doing that at all!

The one unforeseen negative event was the return of my BIL's cancer and subsequent trip to the U.S. and surgery. The good side was that we got to see them, my in-laws and the cousins spent a good amount of time together, but the bad side is that now we will all be worried about it coming back again. :-( Let's hope it won't happen. My BIL is leading an extremely healthy lifestyle, particularly in diet and exercise, so we're confident that his prognostic is good.

Frivolous "Firsts" of 2015 - 10/19

This year was the first time that I did two things:
1) used dark/colorful nail polish in my fingernails (the most I'd done in the best was French manicures);
2) dyed my whole hair dark blonde (NEVER doing this again!).

I loved the nail polish and I want to keep doing it, although I didn't do it at all this semester because I didn't have time :-(

Very first time, March 2, one of my "favoritest" colors, brown:

Same color and (cheap) polish, a few days later:

 Next color, aqua green, the same one I'd first used on my toenails in 2014:

 A darker aqua, this time from a better brand:

Second Essie polish I bought, Cartel Style:

"Butler, Please" from Essie, matches my colorful dress:

Bonus Photo, Ombré toenails, since I own too many aqua hues of polish:

It was a colorful year!

Most Spectacular "Firsts" of 2015 - 9/19

The most special "first" of this year was taking my sons to Europe for the first time! We landed and spent about 7 hours in Frankfurt, but only my youngest came to the center of the city with me (Kelvin was too tired from watching movies in the flight from the U.S. and wanted to sleep, so K stayed with him). This was our first glimpse of the Old Continent.

Then, after our (amazing) trip to Egypt, Jordan & Israel, we flew to Zurich and then visited Switzerland, Chamonix/Mont Blanc in France, Geneva (where I was born), and Germany (Frankfurt, Rhine region, Hamburg and Berlin). We spent the last few days at our "aunt's" (MIL's cousin) house in Basel, doing some day trips. It was awesome! I hope I can take the boys again, but, frankly, I told them that I'd prefer that they go on their own when they're grown up because right now they don't like to go to museums, ao I don't feel like going with them anymore.

Another "first" is not as much a first as a unique event in life, my sons' baptism in the Jordan River by their grandparents (and my nephew by his dad, K's brother K2). It was so moving and special! In fact, had never had much interest in visiting Israel (and I do have very mixed feelings because of the situation Palestinians), so I was incredibly surprised at how moved I was when we arrived in Jerusalem.

After the baptism:

A Good Lottery - 8/19

My husband didn't get his grant, but a few weeks ago he received an exciting email from the university, saying that he had been selected as a winner in the faculty senate's technology lottery! It was not very hard for him how to decide to use his 500 dollars -- he put some more money (400+ that will be paid via paycheck deduction with no interest) and got an iPad Pro. And he used some grant money to buy the keyboard and the pen (100!!).

He doesn't use Apple computers, but a few years ago he used the university grant money to buy an iPad which is how he reads and annotates academic papers. He now upgraded to the Pro. He already wanted it, but then his colleague showed him his and he was sold. He didn't show it to the family and we put it with the other presents, then he opened it saying that it was a gift from the university to him. ;-)

Our son Kelvin already has an iPad mini, but he is smitten and won't stop using it. It has an amazing display and four speakers all around, so the sound is great too. I am supposed to "inherit" his 128 Giga iPad because we gave an iPad mini to our youngest son for Christmas (using some of his leftover birthday money).

Waiting for the 7 - 7/19

OK, this is a throwaway post... I was wasting a lot of time trying to find some photos for one of the "First" blog posts about 2015 and I got derailed.

So, since this is the 7th post I'll share that I am waiting for the iPhone 7 since 7 is my favorite number (I was born on 7/7!!).

We're waiting for the baby to wake up to go to a restaurant to eat together  -- Sweet Tomatoes, another family favorite, a bit healthier than Olive Garden where we ate last Sunday after the family photo session.

I forgot to mention that I'm a little sick, I caught a virus that settled on my throat (probably my larynx) and I had sore throat for a few days. Now I have nasty stuff coming up when I cough. No real fever, but I feel a little chilly with a bit of a headache.

Last random comment, the pool pump and heating weren't working in the last day and a half and they were fixed this morning, so more hot water to enjoy until we leave on Sunday! YAY!

Some of the Roller-Coasters (Photos) - 6/19

An International Family, 2015 changes - 5/19

Back in 2006 I wrote about our Family's Further "Internationalization" when my brother moved to China and K's uncle moved to South Africa. At that time my mother- and father-in-law were living in Massachusetts and K2 and K3 lived in the U.S. (only K4 and his wife were in Brazil).

In 2007, K3 and his wife moved to Turkey to teach at the International School, in 2009 my in-laws went back to Brazil and soon after K3 went to Brazil as well, while K4 and his wife immigrated to Canada! At some point (don't remember the year), my brother moved from China to New Zealand and K's uncle moved from South Africa to Mozambique. My brother returned to Brazil in 2012 and the uncle came back to the U.S. (to TX).

In 2014, after living 10 years close to us K2 moved to Egypt with his family and this year, K3 and family moved to Qatar to teach at the international school there and K's uncle moved to Tunisia!

It sounds funny, but right now, out of my in-laws' 4 sons, we are the closest to them, even though we are 9,000 miles away! K4 & family are in Montreal, K2 in Cairo & K3 in Qatar!

More about these days in Florida - 4/19

Last year on Dec. 31st I had to write 11 blog posts, to reach 214. Today, I am supposed to be writing 17 (not counting the one I wrote late last night), which I think will be a new kind of (meaningless) record for this blog (ha ha...).

So, more about these days in FL:

- W had another family photo session last Sunday (the last one was back in 2011), but the photos were not that great, which we already expected. Next time we should certainly hire a photographer and not just go to one of those photo stores.

- We had two "Secret Santas" -- one for the kids, another for the adults and that was fun. My husband got me and gave me the Blu-ray set of the two Star Wars trilogies which is what I've wanted for the longest time. (Oh, and we had no tree because the living room in this house was tiny and there was no room, kind of sad! -- K & I bought some lights at IKEA and colored balls at the dollar store and put them on a fake plant)

- The house has a pool and this year the heating really worked, so all of us had a great time using it day and night!

- It has been so much fun to have "the baby" (18 months) around because he's such a charmer, an extrovert and a cutie. He's supposed to be the very last grandchild and we are all "babying" him as much as possible.

- It's not easy to cook and clean for 18 people, but I think we did OK. The house has 7 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms, so we were pretty comfortable.

Disheartening (Grants are Lotteries) - 3/19

K read the reviews this morning and he's very disheartened.

Last time, two years ago, he was a finalist with a much weaker proposal. He had five reviewers, got 3 excellent reviews, one very good, and one good/fair.

This time there were only four reviewers and three reviews were very good and one good. This feels like such a random process, not really fair, not really consistent.

I feel so terrible for him, but there's nothing I can do. The only positive side for him is that he feels that it would be tough to manage a postdoc, so maybe it's for the best.

Sigh...

It is still sad and disheartening, though.

P.S. And K won't say anything to his parents because they don't really know what a grant is and what it means to him. (It's funny that he barely mentioned to them that he got tenure).

No NSF Grant for K :-( 2/19

This was K's last chance for what they call a "career grant." Two years ago he was a finalist and they didn't tell him he'd gotten the grant very late in the Spring, so he missed applying in the Summer of 2014. This past summer he worked like crazy to submit the proposal

(because if you don't know already, writing a grant proposal takes hundreds of hours of hard work, not considering all the other hours of the work that is actually described there -- e.g. publications, research, etc.)

K is understandably very disappointed. What an anti-climatic way to end the year, no?

And this news means NO SUMMER SALARIES are guaranteed for the next 5 years (part of the grant money is assigned for 7K of summer salary for him) and K has to scramble once more to apply to small internal grants at the university to make at least 3K in the summer.

I'm NOT PAID all summer long, so it's pretty tough for us every summer (because it's hard to plan and save during the other 9 months when I do have a salary).

You know, that's why I feel so ABSURDLY ANGRY when politicians get it WRONG and say that the cost of tuition at universities is due to the faculty salaries.

GAH!!!! Academics make very little money, seriously.

All right, it's very late and we have to sleep. And K's family won't even really know what this means to him.

Sigh... it's not fun to start a new year like that, right? :-(

A Few of My Favorite Things (Roller Coasters! Hot Water!) - 1/19

In the first day here last week I enjoyed two of my favorite things (which, incidentally, one can't enjoy while pregnant and which I missed a lot during my first pregnancy -- particularly because we had purchased a Six Flags pass the summer I got pregnant): roller-coasters and soaking in a hot spa!

Our house has a pool and spa and we paid extra to have the water heated and that was perfect (except that the pump probably broke yesterday so today the water was cool)! And we went to a park that has a few good roller-coasters on our very first day here (Tuesday 12/22) and another with even more this past Monday. I will add a few photos below (from my phone) in a later post.

9 days with 18 people (K's family)

Last Monday night we arrived at the seven-bedroom house that my in-laws rented in the Orlando, FL area to spend over a week with K's whole family -- his parents, his three brothers, and our nephews and niece.

We are having a lovely time, but today the first family left, K's brother K3 who lives in Qatar. We were sad to see them go, but tonight, my MIL's youngest brother arrived with his wife and daughter. He has often joined us for a brief time between Christmas and New Year's in the past 15 years and precisely a year ago we stopped for a couple of hours in Daytona Beach to see him and his family.

I'll write another post about the international adventures of our family, which I first mentioned on this blog back in 2006.

I don't know yet if I'll try to write 19 more posts in the next two days to reach 215. Nobody will ever read these posts, but I will, so I may decide to do it. ;-)

Done Submitting Grades!! Now to Finish that Pesky Translation!!

Six pages of legalese stand between me and freedom right now.

I started this never ending translation project in July 2014 -- during the World Cup, isn't that crazy? However, my absurdly packed scheduled prevented me from finishing it. These last six pages have been "hanging" since September, but I couldn't find head space and a block of time to do it before.

Now that we had to postpone our driving down to FL to be with family by a day so we both could finish our grading I will also go ahead and finish this translation! I will also go through the laborious process of Word Counts and coming up with an invoice that I will email them late tonight.

I don't feel relieved or accomplished, I just feel burnt out and NOT ready to drive 12 hours to Florida, but well... that's what will have to be done. Xmas won't be that great because there won't be a tree (no room in the rental house, I'm told) and there's only a lame "secret santa" to look forward to. Sigh...

OK, Let's see how long it will take me to finish the legalese translation!

21 Years!

Our anniversary was yesterday, but we went out for dinner on Tuesday night because yesterday was a crazy-busy day.

In that dinner K gave me the gift that he brought all the way from Israel, a Swarovki crystal rainbow flower ring from Michal Negrin -- a designer I fell in love with during the trip. The next day I gave him his gift, a rainbow-colored shirt I bought at Stein Mart (later insert designer here). 

Perfectly matching gifts for a perfectly matched couple! ;-)

We tried some quick photos in the sunlight, this afternoon, but they didn't come out that great:

P.S. I don't really wear (or used to wear) jewelry, so this is actually the very first gift of this kind that K has given me. I suspect that purchased the ring unbeknownst to me after I took him into the Michal Negrin store at the Tel Aviv airport to show him how much I'd loved it, since I'm crazy for rainbow colors. 

Offer Signed!!! & Musings about the Future

Finally, this morning, the offer arrived via email. Better late than never, I guess, but I will have to wait until the end of the holidays to talk to folks at U#1 about me quitting my part-time, poorly compensated, work there.

I signed it and already filled out the background check online paperwork that was sent my way.

The best part? This contract says that I am eligible for an expectation of "Continuing Employment" following my second review, to take place in 2021 -- by then my son might be going to school at the same university if he is accepted! My husband is already talking about moving there. Not so soon, though! Until our youngest graduates from high-school at the nearby boarding academy (where both out boys will be "village kids"), we'll live here.

The plan is to buy an apartment within walking distance of campus if Kelvin gets accepted there in 2020. He has been raised "the Brazilian way" and doesn't mind living with us during college. Of course I know he will feel pressure to go where his friends are going, but he is convinced that an in-state education will be more affordable and better quality than going to a private church-affiliated university.

We'll see! It's great to be able to feel that a more professionally stable future is in sight for me! Now we lecturers at U#2 need to keep up the good fight to have more rights, namely, assert our desire to also do research (in spite of not being TT faculty) and ask for support to go to conferences and to develop professionally. "The New Faculty Majority" needs to mobilize and achieve more rights!

Last Exams!!

I administered the last two exams this afternoon! Now I need to finish the grading and be done!! 

I'm slowly beginning to feel in the mood to pack the car and travel down to Florida for he holidays with K's whole family.

This is good because I've been so exhausted that last night I felt like I wanted and needed to be home for several days before I could be ready to travel. I didn't feel like my "normal self" last night, but I guess all I needed was a light at the end of the tunnel to restore my level of energy!

Let's see how it goes because our to do list is bottomless!!

New Haircut and Curly Hair Resources!

I had a haircut and new highlights and color done to my hair yesterday by this lovely hairdresser that was recommended by my colleagues at the university! The photo is not that great, but it gives a good idea:

And I bought this book and these products to see if they will help. 

I already love the book, which was written by the woman who launched the DevaCurl line of products. I'll report back after I start using the products! I'm excited! 

New fashion for teen boys

I feel "done," but I'm only partly done

My students just finished the second exam of the day. It's almost all over but the grading... Oh, the grading! The online assignments are the most annoying, but I need to get to then ASAP! And to the emailed papers (shudder!). And e-portfolios! (Yikes!)

And I will, but I need to kick my son out of the computer and of editing his minecraft videos (sigh...). That is no easy task and my productivity this semester has been seriously affected by this new obsession of his. 

Well, good luck with grading to all of us!

A sad first

Today was the first time in my last 5.5 years teaching language that a student had the courage to bring his workbook for me to check and he had "fake" answered nearly all of the activities, mostly in English or unintelligible gibberish. For three whole chapters (out of four).

So sad! :-(  [Big sigh...]

Choosing not to do the work is one thing, buy attempting to pretend you did it just feels so awful to me! I couldn't yak to him in private, so I just quickly mentioned that he had not done the work and reminded him that it was 20% of the grade. He looked a bit upset and even slightly surprised/annoyed that he was caught. I also told him that I'll be on campus on Thursday if he decides to do the work.

I think I will send him an email. What do I say, though? I truly love these kids and want them to learn, but that was very upsetting. Did he think I would t notice? I also said to him the the activities are important and necessary and that's how one learns. And mentioned that his grade will probably reflect the lack of practice. 

Sigh... Sometimes it's hard to be a teacher! Especially at this university. I had the exact opposite experience at the other school. This young man simply disappeared halfway through the semester, but he came back two days before the final and took the missing tests and did great. He obviously did all the work. He is getting a zero for attendance (10% of the grade), but he'll pass with a good grade and a clear conscience.

I wish the semester had ended without this bitter experience!

The Last Day of Exams (not!)

Today was supposed to be my last day at U#1, but two students begged to take the exam on Thursday, so I'm not done! ARGH!! 

At least they are demonstrating they care about the class and want to do well, unlike their classmate. Sigh...

29 to go, maybe?

I will try to complete 215 posts this year, but I don't know if I'll be able to. The only reason I managed to do so last year was that we were home for both Christmas and New Year's and I just blogged a lot in the last two days of 2014.

This year will be more challenging because we will be in Florida with my husband's whole family, 18 people, 10 adults and 8 kids. This coming week will probably be insane because I have LOTS of grading to do and catching up on other things (the translation, hopefully?!), so let's see how this is going to work.

I'll try, but prepare myself not to be overly frustrated if it doesn't work.

This warm weather feels SO WRONG!

I am sweating right now in my cotton sweater, and tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70s -- this is crazy! 

I'm also upset because we bought ski passes and I'm hoping we won't have wasted our money! And of course it's scary that climate change is creeping into  our daily lives more and more. 

P.S. If you know me you'll know that I LOOOOVE warm weather, but not when it feels so wrong like this. 

Extrovert + Extremely Shy + ADD = Bad Party Goer

Sigh...

I hate parties in confined spaces with people I barely know. The noise is overwhelming to ADD me, then, because I'm shy I simply won't talk to strangers & I HATE small talk which is unbearably boring for people with ADD. The worst part is that since I'm an extrovert I actually really want to talk to people I know and I enjoy that, but my few friends are "normal" and, therefore, socializing with everyone else they know.

Sigh...

Yeah, that's why I HATE work parties. 

P.S. Another big problem is being contingent labor & feeling like I cannot even talk to same level with the TT faculty . (I'm tired of having too many chips on my shoulders... Sigh)

Last Day #1

I still have meetings and parties to attend, final exams to administer (at inconvenient times), but today is my first "last day" of the semester. My last day of classes at U#2.

In addition having to deal with another university, there is series of "last days" that comprise the end of a semester: last day of exams, last day to turn in grades. We live from deadline to deadline when working in an academic setting.

Today is my last day with a group of students I had for three semesters, though, and that's sad.

. . .

I taught the class in the morning and they clapped at the end. One of the students gave me cookies & a beautiful card! I don't feel sad anymore, it's simply over. I hope I was able to help them develop their Portuguese.

Now I need to drive back home... Sigh...

Three more times of mega-commute until next year. And I won't even feel relieved on Saturday night when I drive home after the last exam because I'll have tons of grading ahead. Oh well!

Tired

Most boring post title ever, and post too...

Sorry, but I've got nothing better. I really am tired because I have been volunteering on a church-wide project for the past four nights for over four hours...

Sigh... it's fun, but very involved. Good thing that at least tonight the boys stayed home and took a break. Tomorrow is the last night and they'll be there with us.

Last day of class for me at U#2 tomorrow, we keep going until Thursday at U#1. Then finals for several days...

very tiresome.

Three minutes late

Oh well, I was reading blogs and other stuff and now I'm a few minutes late to post this.

It's ok. I had a good time and I'll post even more in December to make up to 215 posts. Last year it was crazy, I think I wrote about 10 posts on December 31st! I will try to avoid that this year.

In any case, I'm not saying it's "the end" for me because it's not! More blog posting ahead!

Can't believe December is here, time's flying this year!

Back to Work

This evening I went back to work. I will probably have to stay up late for a few hours to be done or get up really early, but in any case, I work better under pressure (grading, writing exams, etc).

The ends of breaks are really hard, aren't they? Sigh... at least I didn't have a whole lot of grading, most of it was done before, I just need to finish some things.

Just two weeks to go! (and one week with finals at U#1, finals are next week at U#2).

Yummiest, Most Traditional Thanksgiving Ever!

It was really yummy and there weren't too many leftovers (especially because I took a plate for a friend of ours who was sick with strep). We ate the sweet potato & green bean casserole yesterday (for breakfast!) and now all that is left is the pies and cranberry sauce. Can't wait for next year!

A really good first: no shopping on Black Friday

Ok, I did get up at 7 am to purchase a gorgeous watercolor calendar and a print Ruth Simmons's Grace Laced Shoppe because there was a 35% discount and then went back to bed for a couple more hours! 

I didn't go to the stores last night, I don't need to buy anything, really. Maybe I should make a resolution of never going shopping on this date again. Sigh...

We are now headed to One of out "favoritest" places on earth:Longwood Gardens. It's far, we were late leaving the house, and we'll be there only a few hours, but it will do us good. We haven't been in there for a few years. Perhaps the last time was also on Black Friday back in 2012. Longwood brings us happy memories of the past 11 years, so it's a special thing to kick of our holiday season.

I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving, ours was yummy!! I hope to share some photos later!

When you're curly haired & sleep with wet hair

Also, the dark brown (that covered the blonde blunder from the summer) is washing away a bit... In addition to the hair being thick and tangly and feeling tough and unhealthy at the tips. I'm never ever dying my whole hair again! Only highlights for me as I've always done. I wonder if any products can help or if only growing it out and cutting will solve the problem! :-(

Tomorrow's Menu

Edited to add new photo, now with all items: 

It's hard to see, but first item is "Veggie Loaf" and further down is gravy. Oh!!! I forgot the mashed potatoes! I'll go add that now.