Something Shiny! » NaBloPoMo

The Final Countdown

emily — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:56:46 +0000

Nothing like a little bad ’80s hair band to kick off a blog post, amirite? So here we are. NaBloPoMo Day 30: praise the lord and pass the potatoes. I’ve missed this space a lot, I really have, but blogging everyday when I’m otherwise crazy busy was HARD. I like the idea of blogging everyday, in theory, but I found that I’m sort of lacking in material these days. Well, I’m pregnant, so I’m never lacking in that kind of material. But I don’t want to bore everyone (including myself) with day after day of MAH BAYBEE. That gets really old really fast. But I am hoping to visit this space more often, so hopefully I’ll see you around here too! Over and out.

Deep and gorgeous thirst

emily — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:09:20 +0000

I’d like to apologize to anyone facing a water or orange juice or lemonade shortage these days. It seems that I can’t get enough liquids to quench my deep and gorgeous thirst (The Philadelphia Story, anyone?). I drink and drink and drink and still wind up barking at the animals to get out of my way so that I can refill my water glass again. I have to confess, this was a side effect of pregnancy that I had NO idea existed! And yet, here we are. Can someone get me a glass of water?

Lowest Common Denominator

emily — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:07:06 +0000

I’ve said before that teaching can be the most rewarding but also the most frustrating undertaking. There are some students who are so eager, so diligent, so interested and engaged, that they are a joy to have in the classroom. But there are others who need to be brought along much, much more. They are the reason that teachers wind up teaching to the lowest common denominator. These are the students who, after you’ve announced something several times in class, will come up to you afterwards and ask for the same information again because they weren’t listening the first several times. They are the students who lose and/or completely ignore assignment handouts. Who perform poorly on tests for the simple reason that they didn’t read the instructions. Understand that I’m not talking about learning disabled students; that’s a different matter. The lowest common denominator is comprised of students who are otherwise perfectly capable but who just don’t try. These are the students, in short, who make me crazy, who make teaching frustrating, and who (particularly at this point in the semester) make me really look forward to finals week!

The spirit of Christmas

emily — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:22:08 +0000

For me, the point of Christmas is not overloading people with things they don’t need or even want. So many of us already have everything we need and (I’m sure) we’ve all got people on our shopping lists who are impossible to buy for. (Don’t end a sentence with a preposition, I know, I know. But “for whom finding a gift is impossible” sounded weird, as if the difficult people themselves have a hard time finding a gift… nevermind.) In those cases, why not donate money in their names to a worthy cause? Without sounding like Sally Struthers, there are plenty of great charities out there who need our help, particularly in tough economic times. You can find a terrific cause to support through places like Charity Navigator, which rates charities on a 4-star scale. It’s a simple way to make a big difference!

Just beachy

emily — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 04:52:23 +0000

One of these days I’ll have to tell you about our trip to the beach in May. The sky was ridiculously blue, the water was fantastic, and the sand was warm and deliciously soft. There were plenty of bumps and hiccups in that trip, none of which I’d like to repeat, but man, what a view.

Something new

emily — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:40:16 +0000

I’m a firm believer in the old adage that you learn something new every day. Most days, admittedly, the “something new” that I learn is pretty mundane. Some days, though, I’m shocked at what I learn. To give a recent example: at our first childbirth class a couple weeks ago, the teacher (trainer?) mentioned that we don’t really know what starts labor. I’ll admit, that made me sit up a bit straighter and pay more attention. Really? We don’t know how labor starts? We can put a human being on the moon. We can resuscitate an 80-year-old man’s sex life with nothing but a little blue pill. We can predict, with relative certainty, where a hurricane will make landfall. But we don’t know what starts something so fundamental as labor? That blew my mind, I don’t mind saying.

We gather together

emily — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 22:13:26 +0000

Ooooh, turkey coma. Wherever you are, however you celebrate, I hope you’re enjoying the day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Scaling back

emily — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 04:22:44 +0000

About a week ago, John and I had a conversation about the Thanksgiving menu. John opened with, “I’ve been thinking that it would be a good idea to cut back on how much food we make. It’s just the two of us, after all.” So I grabbed a pen and started jotting some notes about what we might have on our Thanksgiving table and what we might be able to cut. But the more I tried to cut, the harder I found the task to be. Of course we don’t need that much food; we’re only two people. But I couldn’t bring myself to cut the things that were traditionally on my family’s table at Thanksgiving (cranberry relish, for example), nor could I find it in me to cut the things I’ve come to expect on Thanksgiving (apple pie, because I’m not a fan of pumpkin pie). All of which is to say, I spent the day baking today and John will spend tomorrow cooking. There’ll be too much food, for sure, but what’s Thanksgiving without too much food? It’s the American way!

Getting real in here

emily — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:36:34 +0000

Teh Crib, it has arrived (apologies for the crappy Android photo):

Minecraft remix

emily — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:10:24 +0000

John has been playing Minecraft lately in the evenings, while I’ve been nose-deep in my Kindle (doesn’t quite have the same ring as “in a book,” but we’ll get there). And somehow those two things have been intermingling in my brain overnight and culminating in the damn strangest dreams. While I was reading The Wordy Shipmates, I dreamt that John Winthrop had to build the Arbella using blocks that he had carved out of the landscape (remarkably cubical blocks, they were). And then, when I moved on to The Killer Angels, I dreamt that the Army of the Potomac was facing off with the Army of Northern Virginia in some kind of mining extravaganza using, again, extraordinarily cubical blocks. Maybe something to do with trench warfare? Hard to say. In any case, it’s making for some unusual dreams. I wonder what I’ll come up with tonight, when I delve further into The Whites of Their Eyes?