We're just over two weeks into 2011. The year has been challenging (that's the word I chose before, right?) to keep it brief. I won't get into the gory details as while blogging is a bit like being able to leave a really long FB post, this isn't really supposed to be "all about me" but rather an ongoing connection with others. This is why artists paint, collage, draw, sculpt and why writers write. We seek a connection, whether it is ever realized personally or not. We hope to reach others. We are, in turn, influenced by those who write back or comment and by the art we see, with which we interact and by what we read. I hope that as you read this, you gain a sense of shared experience of there being pitfalls, tangents and detours and yet realize your ability to wend your way back to the main road, or at least to arrive at the intended destination, even if by a different route than planned.
My instructional design course, listed as goal one, has been postponed due to budgetary constraints. I'm not too bummed out by this. I'll move my web design self-study into this slot and see if funds are there for a summer course or for two classes in the fall. This is a practical matter and not me failing to rise to the occasion of completing the course, so I just let it go. Herein, I "miss the turn" on the road yet may still meet that two-course goal before December.
I've been studying Spanish. I think the real way to learn the language is to just sit with my Spanish translation of The Godfather and a Spanish-English dictionary, and possibly a notebook, and read in Spanish to learn to speak and write it. Memorizing vocabulary feels futile. No matter how many times I review the picture book of the yard with the fence and hose and potted flowers, unless I'm using these words in everyday life, they're just not going to stick. I can almost guarantee that the translation test required in PhD programs will not reference potted flowers watered with a hose that sits near a fence. While the "mob" may not figure into the test either, I think that the usage of verbs and the actual language in action will be a better way to learn. (If anyone has learned a language and can offer some tips on effective ways of doing so, feel free to post/email.)
Where the scale is concerned, the red line still lies on the same small black one. This is o.k. with me as I've been eating consciously and exercising with some more regularity.
My feminist reading is moving along. I'm questioning everything Susan Faludi is saying now. She keeps tearing apart studies that may indicate some worsening of the female condition as the result of "women's rights," while not providing the reader with the same criticisms of methodology for studies that come from women-friendly sources...although the Virginia Slims tobacco company is hardly "woman-friendly" in the real sense of that term. This reminds me of the vaccination argument that gets tossed around in parenting circles. The "good" of vaccinations cannot be examined without acknowledgement of the development of germ theory and anti-bacterial and anti-viral medications. Our survival of disease is not merely predicated on vaccination, but also on hand-washing and the availability of anti-biotics and anti-virals. I digress. I'll devote a full post (or more) to the feminist studies as I'm fascinated and love questioning what I read and applying critical thinking and Mills's sociological imagination to my studies. (Have I become a total academic, or what? It's 7a.m. on a Monday and I'm going on about methodologies, making analogies to esoteric subjects, using words like "esoteric," espousing buzz phrases like critical thinking, and scholarly ideas like the sociological imagination.)
My exercising and eating have been in line with my plans for hiking the White Mountain 4k's this summer and fall. I've been reading more about hiking the various peaks, drooling over maps and routes and patting my thick hiking socks in my drawer when I pull out the sports bras to jump onto the elliptical in the house. There's always the Mount Washington observatory website to help me realize why I will not be winter climbing. (Today, at this moment, it is -5.1 Fahrenheit and -29.5 with the wind chill at the summit. As a comparison, Mt. Everest's summit temperature is "only" -32 or so at its coldest, which is January. This is why those preparing for Everest often winter hike Mt. Washington.)
I made time to make artist trading cards with my friend, Jill. I'm attending the New England ATC meetup this coming Saturday. So far, so good on the art front!
My house is clean and organized. I've been watching movies and playing games with my husband and children. Chores have been made into family time and we've consciously taken time for fun, too. We've been playing pinball as often as possible. (Yes, that is an owl you see on my shoulder. "Owl?" you ask. Yes, because I am THE pinball WIZARD!) Of course, if I'm honest with you, there have been lots of family arguments, tears, yelling, teenagers storming off to their rooms and all that "normal" family crap. There have been baskets of laundry that sit for three days without being folded. There are those nagging little "things" that need doing and somehow remain on to-do lists undone. Overall, however, it's working.
Lastly, the volunteering, or, non-volunteering. Wow, is this hard! I've re-written this portion of my post fifty different ways. The guilt that plagues me needs a lot of further consideration. I need insight here, so if you're willing to share, let me know: do you volunteer? In what capacity? Does anything else in your life suffer for your volunteer hours? Are you able to strike a balance between giving of yourself and your time? How do you manage this?
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