5-2-18

The kids love the design challenge!

5-1-18

4-30-18

Today I showed up at the elementary school at 8:30 and started watching a teacher teach my curriculum. It's like watching a play you've written. Way cool!

Then I walked up the bluff back to our apartment. 

We have an apartment in the back of this house.

Isn't it cool? The bed is too small though. Only 6' long and very narrow. We had a rough night's sleep last night. 

We picked up Jes for dinner in Venice. We had a great dinner at a vegetarian place.

Then we took some funny pictures, dropped her off, came back to the apartment, fixed the toilet (long story) and I graded papers.

4-29-18

We spent last night with Jes. I finished my sock today. Now for the second sock! We checked out a local farmer's market and I bought some strawberries, flowers, and oranges. Then we drove to Pasadena to see my aunt and uncle. They made us a delicious lasagne dinner with pear tarte for dessert. Then we checked into our apartment on the bluff overlooking the elementary school. 

4-28-18

It's April. I've been typing March for weeks now. Pretty soon it will be May.

We hung out at Sakura's house today. Dan played hot wheels with Buddy and Fossy while I knitted and cooked dinner. Yum! Food imitates Italian tiles here. I worked out with my sister too (learned how to do a plank), and went for a walk with Dan. It was a good day.

4-27-18

I didn't have to work at the elementary school today so Dan and I went to the Getty Museum after leaving Jes's place, on our way to Sakura's place. The art was amazing and the views stunning but the garden was peaceful like nothing else. Sublime. I got hungry and had a bit of a low blood sugar thing until we found "chicken in a cup" for a snack. So that was top notch too.

4-26-18

Today is today. I am here in LA and woke up with a migraine for the second day in a row. I spent the day at the elementary school getting all the materials ready and showing the teachers. I didn't get the warmest of receptions and then had some trouble articulating myself. A bit stressful.

Afterwards I came back to Jes's apartment and slept, I was so exhausted. For dinner we had sushi at a Japanese market. It was a strange world. Like I was plunked down in Japan.

4-25-18

We are on the way to California. After months of preparation and writing and planning I'm going to see what my curriculum looks like in five Kindergarten classrooms in Los Angeles. Also we get to see Jes! And Sakura! And Fossy and Buddy!

4-22-18

I dyed my roots! It worked! They were gray and almost black before!

4-21-18

My MIL helped me purchase plants for my front porch. Looks better now.

4-20-18

I'm in this magazine for my research.
See the cute snail? Just one of the activities in my new curriculum.

4-20-18

This town is changing and I don't think it's for the better.

4-18-18

And yet spring seeds sprout.

4-16-18

I know this is a horrible picture but it only serves to remind me of the day. It's a Monday. I worked all day then my class started at 5:45 and my grad student came to help. Then I had to dart over to the student center around 7:00 to see my doc student receive an award. It was bittersweet because her work is still being scrutinized.

4-15-18

My MIL and FIL are in town as is my Dad, and we all had dinner together tonight with friends. Here is the only photo of me and Dan with our 'rents. Pretty cool. Two of them are in their 80s and two are in their 70s. It was a happy evening. I was in a good mood for once.

4-13-18

Today I had to go photograph data that the university has held hostage while they comb through it looking for any evidence of cheating.

4-12-18

This is my attempt to check some of the data my student collected for her research. It's been so terrible.

4-8-18

This week has been horrible. The day after my student defended her dissatisfaction someone file a report accusing her of cheating. It's been just too terrible to write about. She didn't cheat. Someone is either trying to stab me in the back through her, or just being cruel to her.

Mom had us over for dinner.

4-3-18

My first doctoral student defended her dissertation today. I don't want to put a picture of her on my blog so here are some notes I took.
I cried when I hugged her to congratulate her afterwards.

3-31-18

3-D printing like crazy all weekend getting ready for the trip to California to teach kindergarten kids engineering.

3-27-18

I bought all the purple pens in the bookstore in order to properly edit my student's dissertation draft.

3-25-18

My newest project- socks made from very thin and fragile yarn. I think there's a saying for this.

3-24-18

Today is today.
I forgot I had a blog. Seriously.
My memory is so bad I forget that my memory is bad.
I forget what I used to do, what my students' names are, what season it is, where I am, who I know.

I can write and think and read and I have my wits... but not my memory.
I hoped it would get better once my body got used to the medication that has basically taken away my pain, but instead I have a choice to make---
Do I try to wean off the medicine that has taken away my pain?

Oh, the picture above- we went to a dinner tonight put on by a group of international women. This group played Indian music.

When I got home, I remembered I had a blog and decided that I needed it to help me remember my life. That's what it's for.

3-23-18

We went to see John McCutcheon in concert last night. He is fantastic. We used to see him when we lived in Charlottesville because he lived there at the time too and would play concerts. He played the fiddle, banjo, piano, guitar, autoharp, hammer dulcimer, sang, and said poetry. Amazing. His stories were the best stories. 

He wrote that song, Christmas in the Trenches.

Watch and listen to it here:

https://youtu.be/sJi41RWaTCs

3-20-18

I got to the last level on Train of Thought. It's very hard and I doubt I will ever master it. But it's fun to try. 47 trains.

It's March 20th, a Tuesday, and I didn't teach last night primarily because I had a headache (a migraine, really) but also because a massive storm was rolling into the state and there were warnings of tornadoes. They hit, but another university got them.

3-16-18

Why didn't I take two photos so one would have my mother's eyes open?

This is my mom and her 1st cousin VC. They both like clunky necklaces, see that?

I came home from the conference and the drove back to Atlanta today to pick VC up from downtown at another conference and we went to dinner tonight.

It was a long day.

3-13-18

Me on the top of the Westin at the conference having lunch with one of my doc students.

3-11-18

Another day in Atlanta. Cold.

Rainy.

I RAN A 5K THIS MORNING

in the dark in the rain.

I came in last

but

that was ok.

3-10-18

I'm in Atlanta with my students at a conference.

I'm staying on the 54th floor of a fancy hotel and this is my view.

I really like it up here.

3-9-18

Today my best friend from high school visited. We hadn't seen each other in over a decade. She brought a picture of us when we were teens and we re-created it.

I was so freaking cute!

But those bangs. No wonder my mother was always after me with scissors.