So, yeah...
Our citizenship interview is scheduled for Thursday. I didn't really blog about this, I only mentioned it in passing in one of the 2018 posts. We got the letters for the appointments when we came back on 12/31.
Sigh... my brothers-in-law are joking that now we're going to have that man's signature on our citizenship certificate. :-( Serves us well for waiting for so long, right? Maybe it is the best moment to become a citizen, though. I can't wait to vote!!
I'll let you know how it goes. After they interview they have to schedule our swearing in ceremony. I won't be celebrating this event, it's just one more rite of passage in our lives as accidental immigrants (whoa, when I wrote that post in 2009, we had been here only 13 years. Now it's been 21.5!).
My apologies for not being in a good mood today, but I hardly ever am when I talk about this whole process, particularly the fact we have to promise to bear arms. I guess I'm ok with the pledging allegiance part, somewhat.
In any case, wish us luck. I'm hoping it won't take too long. My friend from Belize said she had to wait FOUR HOURS to be called for her interview. That would be awful! I'll report back.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Thursday, January 18, 2018
From Summer to Winter — Bedding edition ;-)
This is one of the things I did on January first. It was/is so cold this year that even though I adore our two year old Spring & Summer bedding (and didn't do the switch last year because of that very reason), I decided to change it to our heavier winter one and I also swapped the thin comforter we had under the duvet by a down one. I also have winter curtains, so I changed those too.
Pardon my messy bedroom (later that week I cleaned the clutter next to the window. I'm still working on the stuff on the other side (my side of the bed):
When I bought this duvet cover (which I found "accidentally" browsing
something on Kohl's website, but then bought it elsewhere because it was
cheaper) I already had those decals* on the wall, but don't they match perfectly? I LOVE botanicals and I truly adore this duvet cover. *most of which I got at Target, some from IKEA and online.
This bedding is the one I purchased (at JC Penney! On clearance!) because the comforter/bedspread we had at the other house (photo here, third photo from the end) didn't match the sage green of the walls -- it is now used inside the "summer" duvet cover!
And... I made a quick time-lapse of the whole thing. The music is the introduction to Ivan Lins' "Formigueiro" (ant-house). I had a lot of fun adding the music. I will start playing more with videos, now that I have a phone that takes great photos and video.
from summer to winter from Mama(e) in Translation on Vimeo.
Pardon my messy bedroom (later that week I cleaned the clutter next to the window. I'm still working on the stuff on the other side (my side of the bed):
The Spring/Summer bed:
The Winter version:
And... I made a quick time-lapse of the whole thing. The music is the introduction to Ivan Lins' "Formigueiro" (ant-house). I had a lot of fun adding the music. I will start playing more with videos, now that I have a phone that takes great photos and video.
from summer to winter from Mama(e) in Translation on Vimeo.
Last Day/ First Day
"Yesterday" (meaning Tuesday, 1/16, I'm still awake, so it's still Wednesday for me) was my last day of the winter break, so I spent extra time in bed after dropping off my son at school at 8:50 am, which led to a spectacular parenting "fail."
I never thought I'd sleep until the home phone* rang at 11:55 am with my son asking me whether I was going to bring him lunch. I had not only silenced my cell phone, but also turned off vibrate when I started getting too many texts from a group of friends in the early morning, but I thought I'd wake up at 11:30... I never put the alarm (which surprised him).
My 15 year old was very understanding. He patiently listened to me getting up, heading to the kitchen and frantically telling him the options for food (frozen Indian or lasagna? No. A sandwich? "You? No!" [apparently only daddy makes good sandwiches], until I said, "Well, what about veggie dogs?" "If you have hot dog buns, then yes, why didn't you mention that earlier?" Luckily I DID have the buns and I didn't mention that earlier because I hadn't thought of it yet, DUH! I kept asking what else he wanted and he was very nice about it, "Just put mayo on the bread, mom. How long is it going to take?" Said he with a quiet voice that implied a bit of impatience. "Ten minutes, max!" I barely had enough mayo for the three hot dogs, but I thawed some home made tomato sauce to season it (in Brazil we cook the hot dogs on a type of marinara sauce, for big parties they are actually thinly sliced, when cooking for the whole family I just slice them lengthwise so they'll go farther, but I put three whole ones for Kelv).
When I said to him what a big failure I'd been he only chuckled and thanked me for the food. I love that kid! I went back home, put a load of clothes in the wash (laundry has been pretty intense this early January -- too much stuff piled up from December and I'm not done with all the bed linens yet), then later I drove to town -- my first trip pretty much since before Christmas (I did take my son to buy a backpack the day before school, but that was it!) and I was only able to stay for an hour and a half (went to Costco & Target) because I needed to pick up the boys at 5.
I didn't work on my syllabus until late in the evening, but I wasn't worried, since I only needed to make some small changes.
The other "fail" for this first day was the snow that never came, so there was no snow day as my son so wanted and secretly me too! ;-) I had to drive on very light snow during my last 20 minutes of the drive and I thought I'd missed the bus, but I hadn't, the app was just weird.
It was a roller coaster of a day... I won't go into details, but I was upset and stressed that 16 of the 45 students I had last semester didn't register for this semester's sequel class. Then, I had an unexpected and unexpectedly good meeting with my colleague and spent hours writing some emails and trying to leave. I didn't leave until past 5 pm. I stopped at a bunch of stores along the way and only got home close to 9 pm! I still cooked some pasta for the boys and got them to go to bed because K had to stay late at the university.
Yeah... this sounds like a typical "first day" to me! Working is wholesome. Yeah... I don't know what else to say about that now. Hopefully it will get better someday... I hope it'll be a good semester. In spite of the lower number of students. I have a feeling it will be!
*yes, we still have a "home phone" line -- it's a VOIP & we pay 6 dollars a month for the line. I can no longer call 60+ countries (we paid 39 for that for years), but I'm using Google voice to call my parents. I still like to have a phone line, and for 6 a month, I don't think it's bad.
I never thought I'd sleep until the home phone* rang at 11:55 am with my son asking me whether I was going to bring him lunch. I had not only silenced my cell phone, but also turned off vibrate when I started getting too many texts from a group of friends in the early morning, but I thought I'd wake up at 11:30... I never put the alarm (which surprised him).
My 15 year old was very understanding. He patiently listened to me getting up, heading to the kitchen and frantically telling him the options for food (frozen Indian or lasagna? No. A sandwich? "You? No!" [apparently only daddy makes good sandwiches], until I said, "Well, what about veggie dogs?" "If you have hot dog buns, then yes, why didn't you mention that earlier?" Luckily I DID have the buns and I didn't mention that earlier because I hadn't thought of it yet, DUH! I kept asking what else he wanted and he was very nice about it, "Just put mayo on the bread, mom. How long is it going to take?" Said he with a quiet voice that implied a bit of impatience. "Ten minutes, max!" I barely had enough mayo for the three hot dogs, but I thawed some home made tomato sauce to season it (in Brazil we cook the hot dogs on a type of marinara sauce, for big parties they are actually thinly sliced, when cooking for the whole family I just slice them lengthwise so they'll go farther, but I put three whole ones for Kelv).
When I said to him what a big failure I'd been he only chuckled and thanked me for the food. I love that kid! I went back home, put a load of clothes in the wash (laundry has been pretty intense this early January -- too much stuff piled up from December and I'm not done with all the bed linens yet), then later I drove to town -- my first trip pretty much since before Christmas (I did take my son to buy a backpack the day before school, but that was it!) and I was only able to stay for an hour and a half (went to Costco & Target) because I needed to pick up the boys at 5.
I didn't work on my syllabus until late in the evening, but I wasn't worried, since I only needed to make some small changes.
The other "fail" for this first day was the snow that never came, so there was no snow day as my son so wanted and secretly me too! ;-) I had to drive on very light snow during my last 20 minutes of the drive and I thought I'd missed the bus, but I hadn't, the app was just weird.
It was a roller coaster of a day... I won't go into details, but I was upset and stressed that 16 of the 45 students I had last semester didn't register for this semester's sequel class. Then, I had an unexpected and unexpectedly good meeting with my colleague and spent hours writing some emails and trying to leave. I didn't leave until past 5 pm. I stopped at a bunch of stores along the way and only got home close to 9 pm! I still cooked some pasta for the boys and got them to go to bed because K had to stay late at the university.
Yeah... this sounds like a typical "first day" to me! Working is wholesome. Yeah... I don't know what else to say about that now. Hopefully it will get better someday... I hope it'll be a good semester. In spite of the lower number of students. I have a feeling it will be!
*yes, we still have a "home phone" line -- it's a VOIP & we pay 6 dollars a month for the line. I can no longer call 60+ countries (we paid 39 for that for years), but I'm using Google voice to call my parents. I still like to have a phone line, and for 6 a month, I don't think it's bad.
Monday, January 15, 2018
Goodbye Spring-Summer Look, Hello Fall-Winter! (Living-Room edition)
I wrote most of this post on 10/2, but only managed to upload the photos on 11/23/17 & 1/15/18!
This post is almost two months overdue!
I changed some of the pillows in my couches back on October 2nd (here's a post from 2012 showing in detail how I came to finally settle on my "summer" pillows). It is a subtle change for the sofa (the solid ones stay). Maybe I'll buy more pillows to change looks 3 or 4 times a year... we'll see! My oldest son hates the cold season pillows because they are filled with pesky feathers... sigh. What could I do? It would be horribly time consuming to open the seams to remove the inner pillows and replace them. (Cheesy humor ahead: see, this is literally a "fluffy" post) ;-P
A lot of the decorations in my house involve several shades of my most favorite color: aqua green, teal, or turquoise. And also brown because I love brown, and lots of different shades of green because green is my favorite. I need to post more photos of the house sometime!
This post is almost two months overdue!
I changed some of the pillows in my couches back on October 2nd (here's a post from 2012 showing in detail how I came to finally settle on my "summer" pillows). It is a subtle change for the sofa (the solid ones stay). Maybe I'll buy more pillows to change looks 3 or 4 times a year... we'll see! My oldest son hates the cold season pillows because they are filled with pesky feathers... sigh. What could I do? It would be horribly time consuming to open the seams to remove the inner pillows and replace them. (Cheesy humor ahead: see, this is literally a "fluffy" post) ;-P
Good-bye Spring-Summer look:
Hello Fall-Winter:
Friday, January 12, 2018
Family Internationalization - 2018 Update
Eleven and a half years ago in 2006, I documented our family's "internationalization" on the blog when my brother moved to China and K's uncle to South Africa. I think that a more catchy title would have been "Our Family Goes Global!"
A year later, in May 2017, I added part 2, about Klebert's second brother K3 (third out of four) moving from TX to Turkey to teach in an International School. In Feb. 2008, while we and K2 were in the process to get our residency, we found out K4, the youngest brother would be emigrating to Canada and a month later it was confirmed that my brother was moving from China to New Zealand! (we never got to visit either place, but in three years my brother may be back in NZ for good).
I only blogged this briefly and in retrospect, but in 2009, the year K4 moved from Brazil to Canada, my in-laws were forced by circumstances to move back from the U.S. to Brazil (long frustrating story). Fortunately, in the same year K3 moved from Turkey to Brazil to teach in an international school and there he remained until 2014 -- it was very nice for my in-laws to have a son and his family, particularly the young grandchildren, close by. (I don't know the exact years, but K's uncle moved from South Africa to Mozambique for a few years, then came back to the U.S.).
In August 2013, to the great joy of my parents, my brother moved back from NZ to Brazil with my 1.5 year old nephew and 3 month old newborn daughter. Then, in March 2014, K2 and his family moved to Egypt (they moved back to the U.S. last year in August, not because they wanted to, but because of my BIL's reoccurring cancer) and not too long after their uncle moved to Tunisia.
In 2015 I wrote a quick post to report about the uncle and say that my brother had gone back to Brazil, but I think I never mentioned in the blog that in August of that year, K3 and his family moved from Brazil to Qatar to continue teaching at an international school. (I did say that back in October '17 when I blogged about our thwarted travel plans and the events that didn't allow us to spend Christmas with them in the Middle East this year).
All this to share two very exciting pieces of news:
A year later, in May 2017, I added part 2, about Klebert's second brother K3 (third out of four) moving from TX to Turkey to teach in an International School. In Feb. 2008, while we and K2 were in the process to get our residency, we found out K4, the youngest brother would be emigrating to Canada and a month later it was confirmed that my brother was moving from China to New Zealand! (we never got to visit either place, but in three years my brother may be back in NZ for good).
I only blogged this briefly and in retrospect, but in 2009, the year K4 moved from Brazil to Canada, my in-laws were forced by circumstances to move back from the U.S. to Brazil (long frustrating story). Fortunately, in the same year K3 moved from Turkey to Brazil to teach in an international school and there he remained until 2014 -- it was very nice for my in-laws to have a son and his family, particularly the young grandchildren, close by. (I don't know the exact years, but K's uncle moved from South Africa to Mozambique for a few years, then came back to the U.S.).
In August 2013, to the great joy of my parents, my brother moved back from NZ to Brazil with my 1.5 year old nephew and 3 month old newborn daughter. Then, in March 2014, K2 and his family moved to Egypt (they moved back to the U.S. last year in August, not because they wanted to, but because of my BIL's reoccurring cancer) and not too long after their uncle moved to Tunisia.
In 2015 I wrote a quick post to report about the uncle and say that my brother had gone back to Brazil, but I think I never mentioned in the blog that in August of that year, K3 and his family moved from Brazil to Qatar to continue teaching at an international school. (I did say that back in October '17 when I blogged about our thwarted travel plans and the events that didn't allow us to spend Christmas with them in the Middle East this year).
All this to share two very exciting pieces of news:
- My brother (it's his 44th birthday today!!) and his family JUST MOVED to Indonesia! They left Brazil a week ago today and have been in their new house for two days only. He is going to work for a large paper company named April.
- This summer, K's brother K3 and family will relocate from Qatar to South Korea and they are very excited to work at an amazing school there.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Retroactive Blogging or 17/71
Written last week on 1/4:
It's not about the 77 posts, it's more about getting posts from last year out of the drafts folder and still in the last year, and also other New Year's Eve related posts that don't belong here in January.
So I will do some retroactive blogging in the next day or two, without any guilt because it's my blog, my life, etc.
I also want to write some more New Year minded posts before it's too late.
--------------
OK, so in the end I only wrote three posts (on 1/9) and because 71 is 17 backwards I think those to posts are enough!
The first is a list of things that were kind of new/unique in 2017 -- my apologies if the post is a tad negative. Sigh...
The second was also a list (yeah, I know, I'm way too much into lists and looking at the past and figuring out what happened every year) of the family reunion holidays since I started blogging THIRTEEN YEARS ago! :-)
And the third is a list (with brief commentary) of all the films I watched this summer -- most were Marvel!
Yeah, so there you go, I hope you enjoy my "retroactive" posts. ;-P
It's not about the 77 posts, it's more about getting posts from last year out of the drafts folder and still in the last year, and also other New Year's Eve related posts that don't belong here in January.
So I will do some retroactive blogging in the next day or two, without any guilt because it's my blog, my life, etc.
I also want to write some more New Year minded posts before it's too late.
--------------
OK, so in the end I only wrote three posts (on 1/9) and because 71 is 17 backwards I think those to posts are enough!
The first is a list of things that were kind of new/unique in 2017 -- my apologies if the post is a tad negative. Sigh...
The second was also a list (yeah, I know, I'm way too much into lists and looking at the past and figuring out what happened every year) of the family reunion holidays since I started blogging THIRTEEN YEARS ago! :-)
And the third is a list (with brief commentary) of all the films I watched this summer -- most were Marvel!
Yeah, so there you go, I hope you enjoy my "retroactive" posts. ;-P
Tuesday, January 02, 2018
In 2018...
... I hope no one in our family dies (first thing I wrote back in Dec. 2016). Thankfully nobody did in 2017, unlike 2016. I think this will be a standard wish every year now. And I know that people will die at some point. :-(
... I hope any health challenges family members experience won't be too overwhelming and life-threatening.
... I will get politically involved to help elect Democrats locally. I hope the Dems take the house in November.
... we may become citizens. And maybe I will be able to vote!!!
... my youngest will graduate 8th grade and start high school. I hope he won't suffer much from anxiety in this transition.
... my parents will come for an extended visit. I hope they are healthy. We may travel with them to either Canada or maybe to Asia (more on that later).
... I hope my brother's family will have an OK transition in their big move (which deserves its own post).
... I have to undergo a review in my job. I hope and pray it goes well and my contract is renewed.
... we will see all of K's family again in July. I hope all goes well. My brother is supposed to come for Christmas and I am looking forward to that long overdue visit.
... I hope against hope that things won't get worse with that man in the White House, but I dare not hope too much, because I know it can get worse very fast. :-(
... I hope any health challenges family members experience won't be too overwhelming and life-threatening.
... I will get politically involved to help elect Democrats locally. I hope the Dems take the house in November.
... we may become citizens. And maybe I will be able to vote!!!
... my youngest will graduate 8th grade and start high school. I hope he won't suffer much from anxiety in this transition.
... my parents will come for an extended visit. I hope they are healthy. We may travel with them to either Canada or maybe to Asia (more on that later).
... I hope my brother's family will have an OK transition in their big move (which deserves its own post).
... I have to undergo a review in my job. I hope and pray it goes well and my contract is renewed.
... we will see all of K's family again in July. I hope all goes well. My brother is supposed to come for Christmas and I am looking forward to that long overdue visit.
... I hope against hope that things won't get worse with that man in the White House, but I dare not hope too much, because I know it can get worse very fast. :-(
Monday, January 01, 2018
Happy New Year!
Yeah... I never got to post and reach my goal of 77 posts in 2017. So lame!
Sigh...
We left the rental house past 11 am, and since we had to stop by the airport to pick up our other car that K's brother "K3" had left there as they went back home to Qatar, we decided to stop for lunch on the way at our new favorite fast food place: Blaze Pizza. We actually invited K2 and his family to join us, so we had a few more moments together with them.
Then we picked up the other car, stopped at Trader Joe's and Aldi to do some grocery shopping and didn't get home until past 7 pm. I did my best to cook a relatively ok New Year's Eve meal and then... we decided to end the year watching a movie with our oldest son -- Batman Begins. It ended shortly before midnight and we saw the stupid ball drop.
It was then I realized I hadn't blogged. oh well!
The truth is that I don't really like my work laptop. I didn't want a Mac, so I went for a PC (Dell) and it turns out that I cannot install or update ANYTHING because I don't have administrator privileges! SO USELESS! My brother said it was the same thing with him, so I don't feel that awful anymore, but if I knew this, even though I have come to dislike Mac laptops (I am still 100% in love with the iMac I have on my desk at work and which will be removed at some point, since I have the laptop).
Anyway... I don't like laptops and wish I could use our home's desktop instead, but our son, the gamer, is always on it.
I will try to post the pending 2017 posts tomorrow. Perhaps "cheating" on the date (as I am with this one, publishing one hour earlier than the actual time).
Happy New Year!
Sigh...
We left the rental house past 11 am, and since we had to stop by the airport to pick up our other car that K's brother "K3" had left there as they went back home to Qatar, we decided to stop for lunch on the way at our new favorite fast food place: Blaze Pizza. We actually invited K2 and his family to join us, so we had a few more moments together with them.
Then we picked up the other car, stopped at Trader Joe's and Aldi to do some grocery shopping and didn't get home until past 7 pm. I did my best to cook a relatively ok New Year's Eve meal and then... we decided to end the year watching a movie with our oldest son -- Batman Begins. It ended shortly before midnight and we saw the stupid ball drop.
It was then I realized I hadn't blogged. oh well!
The truth is that I don't really like my work laptop. I didn't want a Mac, so I went for a PC (Dell) and it turns out that I cannot install or update ANYTHING because I don't have administrator privileges! SO USELESS! My brother said it was the same thing with him, so I don't feel that awful anymore, but if I knew this, even though I have come to dislike Mac laptops (I am still 100% in love with the iMac I have on my desk at work and which will be removed at some point, since I have the laptop).
Anyway... I don't like laptops and wish I could use our home's desktop instead, but our son, the gamer, is always on it.
I will try to post the pending 2017 posts tomorrow. Perhaps "cheating" on the date (as I am with this one, publishing one hour earlier than the actual time).
Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Vacation/Family Reunion Blogging
Since I started blogging 13 years ago, our family spent several holidays (Christmas & New Year's or at least New Year's Eve) with my husband's whole family, generally in odd years:
Posting on 1/9/2018, having meant to have posted on 12/31/17.
- 2005 (Brazil): all of us (minus the honeymooning couple -- we went to Brazil for their wedding) spent Christmas at my in-laws' apartment and a week & New Year's at a rental house at the beach. There were only 3 grandsons: aged 3 & 1.5 (two of them). 12 people (with my husband's paternal grandmother).
- 2006 (U.S.): Christmas at my brother-in-law's house in Maryland (missing youngest BIL who joined us on a live-stream) & New Year's Eve with everyone at our house in Philly. 4 grandsons: aged 4, 2 (2) & 6 months old. 14 people.
- 2009 (Brazil): --> missing "the pregnant Canadians:" New Year's Eve in Brazil with the news of new nephew/niece upcoming birth 9 months later. 5 grandsons: 7, 5 (2), 3 and 1. 13 people.
- 2011: (U.S. - FL): "epic" Christmas & New Year's at big rental house in Orlando). 6 grandsons (9, 7 (2), 5, 3.5, 1.5) and 1 grand-daughter (1.5). 17 people.
- 2013 (Brazil): historic "opening" of my father & mother-in-law's in Brazil, whole family plus two grandmothers, then wonderful days & New Year's at the beach in the Brazilian Northeast. 6 grandsons (+ last one on the way): aged 11, 9 (2), 7, 5, 3.5 and 1 grandaughter (3.5). 17 people.
- 2015 (U.S. - FL) a repeat of 2011 at an even larger house, now the family was complete, with all 8 grandchildren (13 to 1.5): seven boys and one girl, 18 people total.
- 2017 (U.S. - PA) first winter get together up North (we could never do anything in cold places during winter with my father-in-law). All 8 grandchildren (15 to 3.5), 17 people. :-(
Posting on 1/9/2018, having meant to have posted on 12/31/17.
In 2017...
... I had two amazing trips that were only 7-8 days long: to the West Coast with my son, his teacher, and the Robotics team (May 1-8) and to Patagonia (Argentina & Chile, Oct. 30 - Nov 7). The natural beauty I saw on these two trips was incredible, particularly on the one to Patagonia/ Tierra del Fuego.
... I planted morning glory (one of my favorite flowers) again for the first time since 2007! I cannot believe it had been TEN YEARS! :-( I seriously feel like sitting down and crying thinking of that. (I did that with some help of a lovely friend who shared four seedlings with me to add to the seeds I'd put in the soil).
... After one year dragging my feed with indecision I got my own laptop at work and I'm not very happy with it. Because I decided to with a PC instead of a Mac (long story of grievances) I don't have administrator privileges and cannot install ANYTHING, not even software updates sometimes, without calling the IT tech at work. Talk about a nearly useless machine. Oh, and I'd always hated the way Macs dealt with photos. Guess what, stupid Windows 10 literally does it the same way (you cannot preview your photos and just go through them anymore on the PC. I hate Windows 10 -- which is made for touch screens, it feels very "Mac like" with a passionate rage! :-( If I'd known about the admin issue I would definitely have gotten a Mac. Sigh...
... I watched LOTS of movies on DVD & Blu-ray and even some in the theater. I have a post about this coming.
... We FINALLY decided to become citizens of this country in the worst year ever to do so -- the horrible first year of that orange man's "regime."
... I intensely helped a family of refugees get settled (and now I feel guilty that I am too busy to continue to help them much).
... I actually got to teach a literature class that went extremely well which was a bittersweet experience to say the least.
... for the very first time in my life I exercised 5 or almost 6 times a week with a group of friends & with a video for about 6 weeks in June -- but then NOT ever AGAIN more than once or twice a week (they just started doing it at 6 am yesterday, but I cannot handle 6 am, unfortunately, I did 7 am, and IN THE SUMMER NO LESS, but no, not 6 am, even less in the winter).
... We saw everyone in my husband's family twice (I also have a post about this).
... We did some long overdue work to the outside of the house (never got to post about this): trimming of bushes that hadn't been done in years, mulching of backyard, and we bought a power wash and power-washed the driveway, the front steps and the back patio. Still remains to be done: the siding. (and re-staining the deck).
... I taught a private class for 4 weeks in the summer whose compensation will probably make us pay EVEN MORE taxes, just like the 8K translation that took me a year and a half to complete just to cost us pretty much half in taxes. And it's infuriating to know that the new tax law won't help us at all, only the rich. :-(
... Oh, and for the first time ever I spent a week at a beach in this country and it was amazing! My father-in-law would have LOVED it. We are carrying on his legacy by doing the things he enjoyed together as a family.
Those are all the significant things I can think about right now. Lots of the same: soccer for younger son, swim team for both sons, K working a lot.
My apologies for the fact that most of these have an "oh, but..." side to them. That's life, I guess. Most things have a bad side. :-(
actually written on 1/9/2018, but intended to have been written on 12/31/2017
... I planted morning glory (one of my favorite flowers) again for the first time since 2007! I cannot believe it had been TEN YEARS! :-( I seriously feel like sitting down and crying thinking of that. (I did that with some help of a lovely friend who shared four seedlings with me to add to the seeds I'd put in the soil).
... After one year dragging my feed with indecision I got my own laptop at work and I'm not very happy with it. Because I decided to with a PC instead of a Mac (long story of grievances) I don't have administrator privileges and cannot install ANYTHING, not even software updates sometimes, without calling the IT tech at work. Talk about a nearly useless machine. Oh, and I'd always hated the way Macs dealt with photos. Guess what, stupid Windows 10 literally does it the same way (you cannot preview your photos and just go through them anymore on the PC. I hate Windows 10 -- which is made for touch screens, it feels very "Mac like" with a passionate rage! :-( If I'd known about the admin issue I would definitely have gotten a Mac. Sigh...
... I watched LOTS of movies on DVD & Blu-ray and even some in the theater. I have a post about this coming.
... We FINALLY decided to become citizens of this country in the worst year ever to do so -- the horrible first year of that orange man's "regime."
... I intensely helped a family of refugees get settled (and now I feel guilty that I am too busy to continue to help them much).
... I actually got to teach a literature class that went extremely well which was a bittersweet experience to say the least.
... for the very first time in my life I exercised 5 or almost 6 times a week with a group of friends & with a video for about 6 weeks in June -- but then NOT ever AGAIN more than once or twice a week (they just started doing it at 6 am yesterday, but I cannot handle 6 am, unfortunately, I did 7 am, and IN THE SUMMER NO LESS, but no, not 6 am, even less in the winter).
... We saw everyone in my husband's family twice (I also have a post about this).
... We did some long overdue work to the outside of the house (never got to post about this): trimming of bushes that hadn't been done in years, mulching of backyard, and we bought a power wash and power-washed the driveway, the front steps and the back patio. Still remains to be done: the siding. (and re-staining the deck).
... I taught a private class for 4 weeks in the summer whose compensation will probably make us pay EVEN MORE taxes, just like the 8K translation that took me a year and a half to complete just to cost us pretty much half in taxes. And it's infuriating to know that the new tax law won't help us at all, only the rich. :-(
... Oh, and for the first time ever I spent a week at a beach in this country and it was amazing! My father-in-law would have LOVED it. We are carrying on his legacy by doing the things he enjoyed together as a family.
Those are all the significant things I can think about right now. Lots of the same: soccer for younger son, swim team for both sons, K working a lot.
My apologies for the fact that most of these have an "oh, but..." side to them. That's life, I guess. Most things have a bad side. :-(
actually written on 1/9/2018, but intended to have been written on 12/31/2017
MARVELous Movie Marathon
First part written on 6/22/17, second part written on 1/9/18, but retroactively dated from 12/31/17.
It used to be our tradition -- after the school year was over during graduate school or, when we were still in Brazil, mostly during the "winter break" in July, we would rent lots of VHS tapes of movies and watch them for several days in a row.
We still did that when we had our first baby, back when we lived in Massachusetts and there was this great video/DVD rental place that let you rent 5 DVDs or VHS tapes for 5 days for 5 dollars, that was so great!
After the second baby came, it became harder and harder and even though we had Netflix (one DVD at a time) we would only watch movies sporadically. There was one year in particular, 2007, I think, that we kept a Netflix DVD for THREE MONTHS and wouldn't stop and watch it. We could have BOUGHT two or three copies of that DVD, that's how much money we wasted.
So several years ago I stopped our Netflix subscription. I NEVER EVER liked their streaming services because there are very few good movies in it. Same thing with Amazon prime streaming, which we've used since it became available -- once in a while we find a film we like there and stream it. I'm not into TV shows or original series.
Here is a list of films I've seen in the past 3 weeks (before 6/22), the Marvel movies (which my son insist I see, in order, so I can go to see the new releases with him in the theater) have an M:
Anna Karenina (DVD from the library) by myself
Imitation Game (DVD from the library) -with hubby
Hidden Figures -- blu-ray with husband and youngest son
Bright Light (had already seen it, but saw it again, by myself, DVD from the library) - the special features are awesome
M - Iron Man (streaming from Amazon)
The BFG - blu-ray from Netflix - special features are excellent. I saw it with my youngest son.
M - Iron Man 2 - blu-ray from Netflix (DVD.com) - watched part of it again (second half) with director comments -- it's great to hear their comments
M - Thor - got it from the library. Liked it OK, until now, my least favorite Marvel character.
(until 6/22) Rest of the summer (all movies listed were blu-rays from "DVD.com"):
M - Guardians of the Galaxy (I saw this one out of order, Kelvin watched it with me, then we saw #2 in the theater)
Moonlight - I liked it, my husband liked the other Oscar favorite more.
M - Captain America: The First Avenger (my son may have seen part of it with me) (He watched National Treasure and the sequel on DVD, I didn't)
M - The Avengers (I'd seen it in an airplane years ago and loved it, now, with the context, I liked it even more)
M - Iron Man 3
M - Thor: The Dark World (I liked it OK)
M - Captain American: The Winter Soldier (I liked this one)
M - Avengers: Age of Ultron - my son had said it was his least favorite, but I liked it. It's pretty dark and a good criticism of the emphasis on militarization in this country.
La-la-Land - my husband LOVED it, I didn't care for it that much. I think my husband loves the very realistic fight scene & the ending. Sigh... I kind of hated the music. BLAH.
M - Ant Man (this was fun!)
Hacksaw Ridge - saw with my husband (the true guy belonged to our church and lived pretty close to where we live -- I was very impressed by this true story. In spite of Mel Gibson, sigh...)
M - Captain America: Civil War -- I think we saw this streaming from Netflix. I had seen it in the theater with my son last year and enjoyed it, but hadn't fully understood it, obviously. I liked it a lot.
M - Dr. Strange (I thought I wouldn't like it, but I did)
Loving - wow, what a nicely done film! I think I've never seen a movie with so little dialogue, seriously! Great film, and very close to "home" too. ;-)
Queen of Katwe - I saw this on my own and I really liked it. Special features are good.
The Theory of Everything - fascinating! My husband the physicist obviously watched it with me.
WOW, 24 films, 13 Marvel.
I then saw a couple of missing episodes of Masterpiece's Victoria and cancelled my plan.
I saw the other two Marvel movies in the theater with my son: Spider-Man: Homecoming (pretty great) & Thor: Ragnarock -- so much fun! We've decided to see Infinity Wars on IMAX. I already put it on my calendar!
Yeah, this was MY YEAR for becoming a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, wasn't it? It may be the year I've seen more films in my whole life. Definitely the summer!
It used to be our tradition -- after the school year was over during graduate school or, when we were still in Brazil, mostly during the "winter break" in July, we would rent lots of VHS tapes of movies and watch them for several days in a row.
We still did that when we had our first baby, back when we lived in Massachusetts and there was this great video/DVD rental place that let you rent 5 DVDs or VHS tapes for 5 days for 5 dollars, that was so great!
After the second baby came, it became harder and harder and even though we had Netflix (one DVD at a time) we would only watch movies sporadically. There was one year in particular, 2007, I think, that we kept a Netflix DVD for THREE MONTHS and wouldn't stop and watch it. We could have BOUGHT two or three copies of that DVD, that's how much money we wasted.
So several years ago I stopped our Netflix subscription. I NEVER EVER liked their streaming services because there are very few good movies in it. Same thing with Amazon prime streaming, which we've used since it became available -- once in a while we find a film we like there and stream it. I'm not into TV shows or original series.
Here is a list of films I've seen in the past 3 weeks (before 6/22), the Marvel movies (which my son insist I see, in order, so I can go to see the new releases with him in the theater) have an M:
Anna Karenina (DVD from the library) by myself
Imitation Game (DVD from the library) -with hubby
Hidden Figures -- blu-ray with husband and youngest son
Bright Light (had already seen it, but saw it again, by myself, DVD from the library) - the special features are awesome
M - Iron Man (streaming from Amazon)
The BFG - blu-ray from Netflix - special features are excellent. I saw it with my youngest son.
M - Iron Man 2 - blu-ray from Netflix (DVD.com) - watched part of it again (second half) with director comments -- it's great to hear their comments
M - Thor - got it from the library. Liked it OK, until now, my least favorite Marvel character.
(until 6/22) Rest of the summer (all movies listed were blu-rays from "DVD.com"):
M - Guardians of the Galaxy (I saw this one out of order, Kelvin watched it with me, then we saw #2 in the theater)
Moonlight - I liked it, my husband liked the other Oscar favorite more.
M - Captain America: The First Avenger (my son may have seen part of it with me) (He watched National Treasure and the sequel on DVD, I didn't)
M - The Avengers (I'd seen it in an airplane years ago and loved it, now, with the context, I liked it even more)
M - Iron Man 3
M - Thor: The Dark World (I liked it OK)
M - Captain American: The Winter Soldier (I liked this one)
M - Avengers: Age of Ultron - my son had said it was his least favorite, but I liked it. It's pretty dark and a good criticism of the emphasis on militarization in this country.
La-la-Land - my husband LOVED it, I didn't care for it that much. I think my husband loves the very realistic fight scene & the ending. Sigh... I kind of hated the music. BLAH.
M - Ant Man (this was fun!)
Hacksaw Ridge - saw with my husband (the true guy belonged to our church and lived pretty close to where we live -- I was very impressed by this true story. In spite of Mel Gibson, sigh...)
M - Captain America: Civil War -- I think we saw this streaming from Netflix. I had seen it in the theater with my son last year and enjoyed it, but hadn't fully understood it, obviously. I liked it a lot.
M - Dr. Strange (I thought I wouldn't like it, but I did)
Loving - wow, what a nicely done film! I think I've never seen a movie with so little dialogue, seriously! Great film, and very close to "home" too. ;-)
Queen of Katwe - I saw this on my own and I really liked it. Special features are good.
The Theory of Everything - fascinating! My husband the physicist obviously watched it with me.
WOW, 24 films, 13 Marvel.
I then saw a couple of missing episodes of Masterpiece's Victoria and cancelled my plan.
I saw the other two Marvel movies in the theater with my son: Spider-Man: Homecoming (pretty great) & Thor: Ragnarock -- so much fun! We've decided to see Infinity Wars on IMAX. I already put it on my calendar!
Yeah, this was MY YEAR for becoming a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, wasn't it? It may be the year I've seen more films in my whole life. Definitely the summer!
Saturday, December 30, 2017
8 posts to go...
... to get to 77 (because one is already written).
I'll have to post them all in the next 24h, but that won't be hard. ;-)
Sometimes I wish I were blogging more, but I keep in touch with former bloggers (such as Leery Polyp, Professing Mama, Anastasia, Raising WEG, etc.) on Facebook. I like it that Jamie (Light & Momentary), What Now?, and Laura (11D) are still around in blogland, though.
OK, gotta post this and come back for more later. Today the family who lives in Qatar (K3+family) had to leave to fly back home. Tomorrow morning the rest of us will leave the Poconos, so tonight my husband, his youngest brother and four of the boys (my youngest, K3's two boys, and K4's oldest) decided to go snowboarding/skiing because it snowed lightly all day. I hope they'll have fun and that my son & hubby won't get sicker -- they had scratchy throats. I'll update later.
I'll have to post them all in the next 24h, but that won't be hard. ;-)
Sometimes I wish I were blogging more, but I keep in touch with former bloggers (such as Leery Polyp, Professing Mama, Anastasia, Raising WEG, etc.) on Facebook. I like it that Jamie (Light & Momentary), What Now?, and Laura (11D) are still around in blogland, though.
OK, gotta post this and come back for more later. Today the family who lives in Qatar (K3+family) had to leave to fly back home. Tomorrow morning the rest of us will leave the Poconos, so tonight my husband, his youngest brother and four of the boys (my youngest, K3's two boys, and K4's oldest) decided to go snowboarding/skiing because it snowed lightly all day. I hope they'll have fun and that my son & hubby won't get sicker -- they had scratchy throats. I'll update later.
Friday, December 29, 2017
Really Cold Holidays in PA
I've been writing a post about all holidays spent with my husband's family for a few days now (I have this need to look back and to make lists) and I hope to post it soon.
In the meantime, I just wanted to say that we've been here in the Poconos mountains since Christmas Eve. We like the house we rented a lot! It has lots of entertainment for the kids and lots of bedrooms so we are comfortably installed. We brought clothes and equipment (only one snowboard, but 4 helmets -- one of which I just bought) packed tightly in our tiny Prius, but in the end it was so cold we decided not to go skiing, fearing that we'd spend a lot of money and then not be able to stay at the mountain for very long.
We also have a lot of young kids, two of which live in Qatar (and before that in Brazil), so they're not used to the cold and that was another reason not to go. Of course my nephews from Canada (7 and 3) were right at home in the cold!
We also love playing board games (Dominion, Seven Wonders, Ticket to Ride - Rails and Sails, Sushi Go, Blokus, just the 4 brothers: Galaxy Trucker, Patch, the little kids - Monopoly Super Mario) and spent a lot of time doing that. We didn't even play all the games we brought (Settlers of Catan, Hanabi & some others I don't know that my brother-in-law brought from Canada).
We did a little bit of shopping too and went out to eat at Olive Garden, one of K's family's traditions.
My "Candian" sister-in-law had to fly back to Montreal on Wednesday and tomorrow the first family leaves (the ones who live in Qatar). We will see each other again in Florida in the first week of July.
Gotta go to bed now, but I hope to finish the other post tomorrow!
In the meantime, I just wanted to say that we've been here in the Poconos mountains since Christmas Eve. We like the house we rented a lot! It has lots of entertainment for the kids and lots of bedrooms so we are comfortably installed. We brought clothes and equipment (only one snowboard, but 4 helmets -- one of which I just bought) packed tightly in our tiny Prius, but in the end it was so cold we decided not to go skiing, fearing that we'd spend a lot of money and then not be able to stay at the mountain for very long.
We also have a lot of young kids, two of which live in Qatar (and before that in Brazil), so they're not used to the cold and that was another reason not to go. Of course my nephews from Canada (7 and 3) were right at home in the cold!
We also love playing board games (Dominion, Seven Wonders, Ticket to Ride - Rails and Sails, Sushi Go, Blokus, just the 4 brothers: Galaxy Trucker, Patch, the little kids - Monopoly Super Mario) and spent a lot of time doing that. We didn't even play all the games we brought (Settlers of Catan, Hanabi & some others I don't know that my brother-in-law brought from Canada).
We did a little bit of shopping too and went out to eat at Olive Garden, one of K's family's traditions.
My "Candian" sister-in-law had to fly back to Montreal on Wednesday and tomorrow the first family leaves (the ones who live in Qatar). We will see each other again in Florida in the first week of July.
Gotta go to bed now, but I hope to finish the other post tomorrow!
Friday, December 15, 2017
Greatest Fear Revised
Back in 2011 I blogged about my greatest fear (wow, I was already living in this house and it was also December!) and then revisited that idea/post in March 2015 when my husband's cousin's wife had a very scary brush with death.
Well... I guess my greatest fear has changed now that my sons are older and it has reverted back to what it was before I became a mother. If I die now, my sons will not only have lots of memories of me and our relationship, but they are older and while that would still be awful, they don't need me as much anymore (well, they do, but I don't feel so scared and helpless with the thought of leaving them behind).
My greatest fear has always been losing my mind, having a mental breakdown, going crazy. Whatever you wanna call it. My dad's family immediate has a history of mental-health issues. His youngest brother was schizophrenic (I pretty much told his life in my post about my "three uncles" a couple years ago) and his sisters are pretty troubled (bipolar, probably? and we don't know what the other one has).
The fact that I am not neuro-typical by having ADHD doesn't help my fear and there's something I've experienced since I was 16, which I never discussed with a mental health professional (not that I've seen one for long anyway and I was unhappy with him) -- I experience these "dream attacks" that I guess one could call "panic attacks," but not so serious (I haven't researched much about panic attacks either). I can write a post about that, exploring how and when it started (it's an interesting story) but the experience is just brief moments of feeling that I'm "living inside" my own previous dream and it's very unsettling. It's happened often enough in my life that I'm capable of weathering and brushing it off much more than I could do when I was 16.
Anyway, in days like today, when I'm extremely stressed out by all the things I desperately need to do and don't have enough time: FINISH GRADING, it TAKES FOREVER!, The Xmas Cards have been printed and ready to go for THREE WEEKS and I haven't mailed them :-( , the house is filthy and needs cleaning, guests arrive on Sunday evening and the house needs cleaning and I need to plan food for guests while K and I go on our anniversary getaway for two nights. OH, and there's laundry to be done! (but I wish I could line dry it, but it's too cold!!) Sigh...
Yeah, not a recipe for a good place mental-health wise. Sigh...
Well, even though nobody is reading I needed the free therapy of blogging this morning to help me cope with the busy-ness. And I will constantly be praying that I won't ever lose my mind. That I will find good professionals to help me so it can be avoided. HOPEFULLY!!
P.S. it doesn't help that this presidency/regime is angering and stressing me out so much! I have a blog post in the drafts folder about the CHIP program, in addition to the net-neutrality worries.
Well... I guess my greatest fear has changed now that my sons are older and it has reverted back to what it was before I became a mother. If I die now, my sons will not only have lots of memories of me and our relationship, but they are older and while that would still be awful, they don't need me as much anymore (well, they do, but I don't feel so scared and helpless with the thought of leaving them behind).
My greatest fear has always been losing my mind, having a mental breakdown, going crazy. Whatever you wanna call it. My dad's family immediate has a history of mental-health issues. His youngest brother was schizophrenic (I pretty much told his life in my post about my "three uncles" a couple years ago) and his sisters are pretty troubled (bipolar, probably? and we don't know what the other one has).
The fact that I am not neuro-typical by having ADHD doesn't help my fear and there's something I've experienced since I was 16, which I never discussed with a mental health professional (not that I've seen one for long anyway and I was unhappy with him) -- I experience these "dream attacks" that I guess one could call "panic attacks," but not so serious (I haven't researched much about panic attacks either). I can write a post about that, exploring how and when it started (it's an interesting story) but the experience is just brief moments of feeling that I'm "living inside" my own previous dream and it's very unsettling. It's happened often enough in my life that I'm capable of weathering and brushing it off much more than I could do when I was 16.
Anyway, in days like today, when I'm extremely stressed out by all the things I desperately need to do and don't have enough time: FINISH GRADING, it TAKES FOREVER!, The Xmas Cards have been printed and ready to go for THREE WEEKS and I haven't mailed them :-( , the house is filthy and needs cleaning, guests arrive on Sunday evening and the house needs cleaning and I need to plan food for guests while K and I go on our anniversary getaway for two nights. OH, and there's laundry to be done! (but I wish I could line dry it, but it's too cold!!) Sigh...
Yeah, not a recipe for a good place mental-health wise. Sigh...
Well, even though nobody is reading I needed the free therapy of blogging this morning to help me cope with the busy-ness. And I will constantly be praying that I won't ever lose my mind. That I will find good professionals to help me so it can be avoided. HOPEFULLY!!
P.S. it doesn't help that this presidency/regime is angering and stressing me out so much! I have a blog post in the drafts folder about the CHIP program, in addition to the net-neutrality worries.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
NOOOOO!!!! Net Neutrality was Killed!!
A small victory one day (Doug Jones wins) and large setbacks the next day. How are we going to survive this horrible administration?
They are beginning to interfere with our lives in very tangible ways!!
Sigh... I don't even know what else to say, except that I feel powerless and that how can we effectively RESIST if big corporations and their profits are given more and more power over our lives?
I'm so angry! This anger and stress and daily worries will take its toll on all of us, seriously!
I have to go find more things to read, but this commentary is good.
P.S. it's like Brad, Jo's friend said, after Doug Jones's Alabama victory on Tuesday, we had to get a bad thing happen before the end of the week. We couldn't get both. :-(
They are beginning to interfere with our lives in very tangible ways!!
Sigh... I don't even know what else to say, except that I feel powerless and that how can we effectively RESIST if big corporations and their profits are given more and more power over our lives?
I'm so angry! This anger and stress and daily worries will take its toll on all of us, seriously!
I have to go find more things to read, but this commentary is good.
P.S. it's like Brad, Jo's friend said, after Doug Jones's Alabama victory on Tuesday, we had to get a bad thing happen before the end of the week. We couldn't get both. :-(
Monday, December 11, 2017
Found!
Last time I blogged I was upset because I couldn't find something I'd written and I found it the next day on my phone's notes.
I will post it, maybe later today, but I feel I need to write an update since I have been posting very sparsely, no? Sigh...
I'm at the orthodontist's office with my youngest son right now and this morning I had to drive to school to take an inhaler to my oldest (he hardly ever needs it, but I guess running during P.E. made him wheezy, I hope he'll keep the inhaler in his backpack and use it as needed).
The past two weekends were extremely busy, first we did our annual "mega-volunteering" for our church's Christmas community outreach event: a very involved "guided tour" of 1 AD Bethlehem. My husband and I are guides as is our 15 year old with a classmate. We help for over 4 hours 5 nights straight (plus a couple of hours two days before for the dress rehearsal).
This past weekend our high-schooler and his classmates had the Christmas concerts weekend: Candlelight concert Friday night with a repeat performance Saturday afternoon, performances at church in the morning and a Pop concert on Saturday night.
I'm tired! But I'm happy that yesterday I was able to put up a small Christmas tree. I hope to share photos soon!
Appointment is done and we're off!
I will post it, maybe later today, but I feel I need to write an update since I have been posting very sparsely, no? Sigh...
I'm at the orthodontist's office with my youngest son right now and this morning I had to drive to school to take an inhaler to my oldest (he hardly ever needs it, but I guess running during P.E. made him wheezy, I hope he'll keep the inhaler in his backpack and use it as needed).
The past two weekends were extremely busy, first we did our annual "mega-volunteering" for our church's Christmas community outreach event: a very involved "guided tour" of 1 AD Bethlehem. My husband and I are guides as is our 15 year old with a classmate. We help for over 4 hours 5 nights straight (plus a couple of hours two days before for the dress rehearsal).
This past weekend our high-schooler and his classmates had the Christmas concerts weekend: Candlelight concert Friday night with a repeat performance Saturday afternoon, performances at church in the morning and a Pop concert on Saturday night.
I'm tired! But I'm happy that yesterday I was able to put up a small Christmas tree. I hope to share photos soon!
Appointment is done and we're off!
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
When you think you wrote something...
... and then can't find it.
I thought I'd blogged it, so I looked in my archives this year (easy peasy because, hello! only 62 posts, the most depressing number ever), part of last year (wow, what a depressing year 2016 was!) and came up empty.
It may be in my journal somewhere, that's what I'm hoping. If it is maybe I'll even post a photo.
Yesterday a former blogger I really like* and who often posts funny things on facebook that all her really cool friends comment on and we always have great interactions in the comment sections couldn't sleep and wrote a post with chapters of a "book" of self-condemnation items. People chimed in with chapter titles and appendices and what not, and I wrote a comment outlining my own very sad book of regrets & other negative things.
However, a while back -- a few months? half a year? a year? I was feeling like literally writing such a list of negative things, but I stopped myself and wrote a list of the things I'm best of.
That's what I'm looking for. I'll go look in my journal, maybe it's there.
* and one of a select group of bloggers I met several times in person, in her case and two others because of LLL!
I thought I'd blogged it, so I looked in my archives this year (easy peasy because, hello! only 62 posts, the most depressing number ever), part of last year (wow, what a depressing year 2016 was!) and came up empty.
It may be in my journal somewhere, that's what I'm hoping. If it is maybe I'll even post a photo.
Yesterday a former blogger I really like* and who often posts funny things on facebook that all her really cool friends comment on and we always have great interactions in the comment sections couldn't sleep and wrote a post with chapters of a "book" of self-condemnation items. People chimed in with chapter titles and appendices and what not, and I wrote a comment outlining my own very sad book of regrets & other negative things.
However, a while back -- a few months? half a year? a year? I was feeling like literally writing such a list of negative things, but I stopped myself and wrote a list of the things I'm best of.
That's what I'm looking for. I'll go look in my journal, maybe it's there.
* and one of a select group of bloggers I met several times in person, in her case and two others because of LLL!
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Headed to the Big Apple!
We're headed to NYC later today. It's going to be the second time we stay in Manhattan.
The first time was only for ONE NIGHT and it was December 30, 2001 -- right after 9/11 and when I was heavily pregnant with my eldest son. We went to NYC with my husband K's three brothers, K2 and his wife, K3 and his girlfriend, and K4 who was still single then.
On Dec. 31st we stood in line for many hours to see ground zero with our very own eyes. :-( And while we were there, Rudy Giuliani and his girlfriend came to pay a visit on his last day in office. We took photos. Yuck, Giuliani!
Anyway... we ALMOST went to see the ball drop in Times Square, but I had a silly old backpack (I was pregnant and needed water & snacks) which I didn't want to toss in the trash -- maybe I should have? So we drove back up to Massachusetts while K3 (who had his own car) and his girlfriend stayed behind to see it.
We're staying in a hotel close to the Brooklyn bridge. We are wondering if the cheaper prices downtown have anything to do with the latest terrorist attack (that unfortunately killed 5 Argentine men from Rosario, my dear Argentine graduate school friend's hometown. BTW, did you hear about the Argentine submarine that went missing? So sad!).
Then, on Thanksgiving day we will drive up to Montreal to visit K4 and his family. It'll be a short visit because it's not a holiday for them. We'll see them again at Christmas, which we're spending with K's whole family in a house we rented in the Poconos, PA.
I'll try to post from NYC!
The first time was only for ONE NIGHT and it was December 30, 2001 -- right after 9/11 and when I was heavily pregnant with my eldest son. We went to NYC with my husband K's three brothers, K2 and his wife, K3 and his girlfriend, and K4 who was still single then.
On Dec. 31st we stood in line for many hours to see ground zero with our very own eyes. :-( And while we were there, Rudy Giuliani and his girlfriend came to pay a visit on his last day in office. We took photos. Yuck, Giuliani!
Anyway... we ALMOST went to see the ball drop in Times Square, but I had a silly old backpack (I was pregnant and needed water & snacks) which I didn't want to toss in the trash -- maybe I should have? So we drove back up to Massachusetts while K3 (who had his own car) and his girlfriend stayed behind to see it.
We're staying in a hotel close to the Brooklyn bridge. We are wondering if the cheaper prices downtown have anything to do with the latest terrorist attack (that unfortunately killed 5 Argentine men from Rosario, my dear Argentine graduate school friend's hometown. BTW, did you hear about the Argentine submarine that went missing? So sad!).
Then, on Thanksgiving day we will drive up to Montreal to visit K4 and his family. It'll be a short visit because it's not a holiday for them. We'll see them again at Christmas, which we're spending with K's whole family in a house we rented in the Poconos, PA.
I'll try to post from NYC!
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Highly Curated Content versus Relatively Raw & Unflitered...
... or the Instagram/Pinterest versus the Blogger/WordPress generations.
Nothing like a scattered and hastily written blog post to dispel writer's block, I guess? ;-) ;-P
Yes, I know that smiley faces make me look less intelligent, but this is not a work email, and I don't care. Although I am bravely resisting the urge of adding emoticons to my emails to students. I still draw smileys on exams, though. ;-)
I have wanted to say this for a while and I wish I could write a highly edited and curated blog post, but a quick one will have to do, before the writer's block sets in again! (can you feel the despair in my voice?)
;-P
In any case, first of all, I think this is a generational difference... (that's why I added the "Aging" label -- I don't have one about different generations) younger people (and by that, I mean folks 10-15 years younger than me) have a "thing" going. At least the sample of younger people that I know and interact with -- most are originally from Brazil, BTW. They are very intentional in the way they decorate their house, plan and execute their weddings, pose for photos, not to mention fashion choices. They also photographeverything daily life & events very selectively and at expert angles & lighting and post it to Instagram.
I guess it all started with Pinterest and the ability to curate content online (so people would find the same things cute & "fashion" would become even more uniform than it already is) and then Instagram made it easy to share one's highly photogenic choices and lifestyle.
There are some older people (although maybe still slightly younger than me) such as Dooce and other professional bloggers who have been very picture perfect in their online life, although not exactly like the younger people I know -- but those are the "professional" web content creators. Today, everyone looks perfect like that, I mean, at least the sample I'm exposed to.
One thing that is kind of scary to me is how fads and styles have become the same here and in Brazil. The style of wedding decoration and children's parties, for example... Wooden things, greenery, mason jars for drinking, naked cakes, hanging lights...
Sigh...
Can you tell I'm slightly irritated by all this perfection?
I miss words, many many words rather than pretty images. I miss raw feeling and relatively unfiltered thoughts. I still attempt to share them here, but I confess that I'm becoming more and more overwhelmed by the millennials that create such perfect content online now. I severely limit my exposure to such folks, only following a few people I know on Instagram, but even this small exposure already influences me.
Looking at their neutral colors, extremely beautiful party decor, lovely assortment of picture frames arranged on walls, is making me feel ugly and old and too colorful and LOUD, even.
I LOVE who I am, I love my funky style, all the colors, all the flowers, but sometimes I feel like I want some of that stereotypically beautiful style that today's younger generation likes.
A prime example is the new Magnolia line at Target. I have also been photographing things in this style for a while on my phone and I'll try to illustrate my point with photos later.
For now I just want to say that I really, really, REALLY miss the community of bloggers that I was active part of from 2005-2009, maybe 2010. I have some more thoughts about this (that have to do with the openness that came along the advent of blogging and that has now waned), but I'll try to share those later.
Have you noticed this new Pinterest/Instagram trend? What do you think?
Nothing like a scattered and hastily written blog post to dispel writer's block, I guess? ;-) ;-P
Yes, I know that smiley faces make me look less intelligent, but this is not a work email, and I don't care. Although I am bravely resisting the urge of adding emoticons to my emails to students. I still draw smileys on exams, though. ;-)
I have wanted to say this for a while and I wish I could write a highly edited and curated blog post, but a quick one will have to do, before the writer's block sets in again! (can you feel the despair in my voice?)
;-P
In any case, first of all, I think this is a generational difference... (that's why I added the "Aging" label -- I don't have one about different generations) younger people (and by that, I mean folks 10-15 years younger than me) have a "thing" going. At least the sample of younger people that I know and interact with -- most are originally from Brazil, BTW. They are very intentional in the way they decorate their house, plan and execute their weddings, pose for photos, not to mention fashion choices. They also photograph
I guess it all started with Pinterest and the ability to curate content online (so people would find the same things cute & "fashion" would become even more uniform than it already is) and then Instagram made it easy to share one's highly photogenic choices and lifestyle.
There are some older people (although maybe still slightly younger than me) such as Dooce and other professional bloggers who have been very picture perfect in their online life, although not exactly like the younger people I know -- but those are the "professional" web content creators. Today, everyone looks perfect like that, I mean, at least the sample I'm exposed to.
One thing that is kind of scary to me is how fads and styles have become the same here and in Brazil. The style of wedding decoration and children's parties, for example... Wooden things, greenery, mason jars for drinking, naked cakes, hanging lights...
Sigh...
Can you tell I'm slightly irritated by all this perfection?
I miss words, many many words rather than pretty images. I miss raw feeling and relatively unfiltered thoughts. I still attempt to share them here, but I confess that I'm becoming more and more overwhelmed by the millennials that create such perfect content online now. I severely limit my exposure to such folks, only following a few people I know on Instagram, but even this small exposure already influences me.
Looking at their neutral colors, extremely beautiful party decor, lovely assortment of picture frames arranged on walls, is making me feel ugly and old and too colorful and LOUD, even.
I LOVE who I am, I love my funky style, all the colors, all the flowers, but sometimes I feel like I want some of that stereotypically beautiful style that today's younger generation likes.
A prime example is the new Magnolia line at Target. I have also been photographing things in this style for a while on my phone and I'll try to illustrate my point with photos later.
For now I just want to say that I really, really, REALLY miss the community of bloggers that I was active part of from 2005-2009, maybe 2010. I have some more thoughts about this (that have to do with the openness that came along the advent of blogging and that has now waned), but I'll try to share those later.
Have you noticed this new Pinterest/Instagram trend? What do you think?
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Gotta Write Something! (And a Xmas Card brought to you by... Lowered Expectations!)
OK, I have FIVE posts sitting in the draft folder right now, all my latest posts, and about 5 more in draft since June.
I'm tired of thinking of the draft folder. I also think that the internet and my phone are exacerbating my ADHD to such a point that I'm becoming a useless person. Really.
So I've gotta write and publish something. ANYTHING!!
It's cold and I think that now that I've been back from my trip for a week I'm finally back to "normal" -- especially today that I finally took my medication again (it had run out a few days before my trip and I had not had time to fill the prescription and did so only yesterday).
And back to normal is not especially pleasant since I feel HORRIBLY guilty that I have a HUGE number of compositions and online work from my students that I haven't read and graded since the beginning of the semester. Yes, I am a horrible person and a horrible teacher. Sigh...
I hate online homework. I don't know how I can make that better. All the "PTSD" from the horrible University of Phoenix gig (from like 8 years ago!) is still a factor.
Ok, what else can I say?
We've decided to go to Montreal next week to visit my youngest brother-in-law and his family. Oldest son is suggesting we stop for a night or two in NYC and get a hotel in Manhattan.
Youngest son is grumbling that he hates cities and it will be torture (this is the poor kid that was "forced" to spend his 12th birthday in Manhattan with us last year -- MoMA (which he loved, BTW) and Top of the ROK.
What else? Oh, yeah, Last night I ordered our Christmas Card at Costco and we picked them up today. This is the photo paper one that I send to Brazil to be mailed to all our family and friends. I order extra-early so my mother-in-law can take them to Brazil for me for my mom to mail them out.
We had NO nice photos at all, so I used a photo taken at a sunset at the beach in FL (and the light looks horrible in the print out) and -- GASP!!! -- a SELFIE! How low have I gone!? A selfie in a Xmas card? Talk about lowered expectations!! Then I added two more photos -- one of our youngest son and I in San Francisco and the other a nice photo of K and Kelvin on my new phone. It's not too horrible.
That should be enough for one post.
I'm tired of thinking of the draft folder. I also think that the internet and my phone are exacerbating my ADHD to such a point that I'm becoming a useless person. Really.
So I've gotta write and publish something. ANYTHING!!
It's cold and I think that now that I've been back from my trip for a week I'm finally back to "normal" -- especially today that I finally took my medication again (it had run out a few days before my trip and I had not had time to fill the prescription and did so only yesterday).
And back to normal is not especially pleasant since I feel HORRIBLY guilty that I have a HUGE number of compositions and online work from my students that I haven't read and graded since the beginning of the semester. Yes, I am a horrible person and a horrible teacher. Sigh...
I hate online homework. I don't know how I can make that better. All the "PTSD" from the horrible University of Phoenix gig (from like 8 years ago!) is still a factor.
Ok, what else can I say?
We've decided to go to Montreal next week to visit my youngest brother-in-law and his family. Oldest son is suggesting we stop for a night or two in NYC and get a hotel in Manhattan.
Youngest son is grumbling that he hates cities and it will be torture (this is the poor kid that was "forced" to spend his 12th birthday in Manhattan with us last year -- MoMA (which he loved, BTW) and Top of the ROK.
What else? Oh, yeah, Last night I ordered our Christmas Card at Costco and we picked them up today. This is the photo paper one that I send to Brazil to be mailed to all our family and friends. I order extra-early so my mother-in-law can take them to Brazil for me for my mom to mail them out.
We had NO nice photos at all, so I used a photo taken at a sunset at the beach in FL (and the light looks horrible in the print out) and -- GASP!!! -- a SELFIE! How low have I gone!? A selfie in a Xmas card? Talk about lowered expectations!! Then I added two more photos -- one of our youngest son and I in San Francisco and the other a nice photo of K and Kelvin on my new phone. It's not too horrible.
That should be enough for one post.
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