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(For the record, there is an apostrophe in the title of this post, but wordpress doesn’t like it.  And, I don’t like wordpress right now.)

This morning, I got a quick run in and then Dan and I went over to Ben’s for a pancake breakfast provided by my mom, who drove down with Guido just to spend the day in Columbus.  The pancakes were great and we all huddled around the table taking turns getting the next pancake and chatting about how Guido and Dan somehow always end up buying the same shoes (It’s weird, really; I think they are somehow cosmically joined at the feet).  Of course, with all the eating and chatting, I forgot to take a picture.  Oh well.

After breakfast, we went outside to play some cornhole (everyone else) or just sit around (me).  Here are my mom and I relaxing:

Next time, let's do this in Duck.

And here was the view (at least for a minute) from my seat:

The back of Ben and Rachael's heads

Tonight, I’m heading to the interfaith dinner at the mosque and will blog about that asap.

Just a quick post before everyone gets here for dinner.  Last night, Knead was delicious!  They have a vegan sloppy joe and the “joe” was all tasty and tomato-y and the bread was a toasted rosemary focaccia and it blew my mind.  I will be back!

Slop V Joe

Oh, and they use local ingredients as much as possible, so they have this cool map showing all of that jazz.

Aw, Ohio.

And then Dan and I both really enjoyed Get Low.  Bill Murray is always great, even though his humor seemed a little out of place in the 1930s (the time period of the movie).  I live in 2010, so it was all good for me.  My pal, Tracey (who knows a thing or two thousand about movies), said it might be a little slow, but I think it helped that I didn’t know anything about the movie and so the whole thing was a surprise to me.  A nice surprise.  The main character is a gem and, it’s about a funeral party.  Yes, you heard that right.  Two thumbs up from Dan and I!

The past two days have been kinda full.  Yesterday I was stuck at home because Dan was in Cincinnati again working on joysticks.  I worked on revising my exams and getting them in a final draft before getting to the work of figuring out how much it was going to cost to print those suckers.  After much too much work in that department, it turns out that our print shop on campus, Uniprint, had the best deal.  $75 for five copies of bound 124-page booklets.  I’m okay with that.

Today, I got up a little late, bought my ticket to Denver for the AESA conference (so excited about that) and got ready to run some errands.  First, I went to drop of and get a few books from the library.  Then, I stopped by campus to drop of my “Notice of Candidacy Examination” form.  That made me feel nervous even though I’m still waiting until October to defend.  It’s just… very official, you know?  After that, I attended my first service at a mosque as part of my “challenge” this week.  I am dying to write about it, but I am going to wait until Sunday when I get to go to an interfaith dinner and evening prayers (I’ll write one long post about the whole experience, which I should say so far has been very nice!).  After the service, I had to get some groceries because Ben, Rachael and Megan are coming over for some dinner tomorrow before we all go to the Clippers game (that’s the minor league team here in Columbus, and they just built a new stadium downtown).

Tonight, Dan and I are headed to Knead (a new restaurant in the Short North) and a movie (not sure what yet, but we’re thinking Get Low, the new flick with Bill Murray)!  Looking forward to it!

The past two days have been a bit crazy.  And my head is spinning and I can’t release the tension in my head muscle (you know what I mean).

Friday morning I had an interview with a small, but prestigious private all girls school in Columbus to be a substitute teacher.  I really miss being in the classroom and I feel like this would be a good opportunity to do it once in a while (since it’s a small school, I don’t imagine there would be a sub needed every day).  But, when I was there, they offered up an after school program, to help their Lego team this year.  The Lego team programs these Lego bricks and other moving parts to get through an obstacle course and then they go to a competition.  It’s a nice-sized stipend and my schedule is much more open this year as I don’t need to take classes, but I’m also gone/busy a lot in September and October what with vacation, five conferences and, oh yeah, my oral defense.  So, I’m not sure they’ll want me when they see my availability, but even so, I’m not sure I should take it since I’ll be super busy.  But, a team of girls who want to do programming?  Hello.  This is so up my alley.  Hmm, we’ll see what they say.

Anyway, after all that excitement, I had to get my 16 mile run in on a Friday afternoon (I usually run Saturday morning) because Dan and I had signed up to run the Crew 5k on Saturday morning and Sunday we are going to Cincinnati for Joyce’s birthday.  Since it was so hot outside, I went to the rec center and alternated between a 1/8 mile track and treadmill.  It was pretty boring, but I did it and it’s done.  Then, I had to come home, shower, and get to work on some analysis for the project I am currently working on with a professor.  I only fell asleep once!  But, it took me until 7:30pm to get everything I wanted to get done finished and I was exhausted after that.  Funny thing is, Dan’s been super busy at work too, and he didn’t get finished with work until 7:30pm either.  We both need spa treatments.  But, instead, I made dinner and went to bed early. Hurrah!

This morning was the Crew 5k and Dan and I finished at a very leisurely pace.  It’s so nice to run with my husband because I don’t have to be jealous of all those perky running couples.    Even though our finishing times were lame, it was worth it for the free shirts.  They were nice this year!  They also give you free tickets to the game in the evening, but Dan has a Street Fighter tournament (What can I say?  It’s the truth.) and there are thunderstorms forecast for the evening, so I am staying home.  After the race we went out to eat at The Best Breakfast and Sandwiches again and the waitress told us that we were becoming regulars.  I like that idea.  Then, I dropped Dan off at his tournament and went grocery shopping.  This afternoon, I made my head spin again by trying to make plans for all five conferences I need to attend.  I’m still not sure if I even registered for one.  The jury and an email is out.  Then, I decided that I should start a Columbus vegetarian food blog, which led me to search the internet and make discoveries (like this Columbus vegan blog and this Columbus vegetarian blog), and also to decide that I didn’t need one more thing to do.  See, this is why Dan shouldn’t leave me alone.  I get ideas!

When it was time for dinner, I called the Happy Greek to get some takeout and walked down to pick it up, only to see that there was some sort of festival blocking High Street.  Turns out, the Gay softball league (or something close to that) is having their world series here this weekend.  There were rainbow flags everywhere and it made me appreciate my diverse neighborhood and the fact that I run into festivals when I’m just trying to pick up some take out.  Everyone loves the Short North.  I can’t blame ‘em. 

This week’s challenge was to go to a play. Marcy and I went to see the Broadway musical, Wicked at the Ohio Theater. We got all dressed up, went out to a nice dinner at a sushi restaurant, and then headed downtown feeling a little bit fancy. See, we had splurged on fifth row seats and when we got to the old regal theater, with the gilded walls and ceiling and red velvet curtains and seats, it felt nice (and foreign) to walk right into the first level and then be escorted to the front by a kindly old gentleman in a tux that asked us one question before we took out seats, “First you have to tell me, how excited are you?” Neither of us have ever been good about masking our feelings. We must have been beaming.

We sat down and took the theater in. It was beautiful and I’ve never had to crane my neck backwards to see the entire theater before. We sat and listened to the fancy orchestra seat crowd talk about how they were getting rid of their horses, taking an aging parent to Ireland, and sending the kids off to college in California and Texas. It reminded me of a comment Marcy said earlier that day. “You know what’s funny about us getting fancy? We’re so not.” But, then again maybe we are. I mean, there we were, right?

The lights went down and we both looked at each other with our super-sized smiles. Two hours later, I felt like I’d barely been watching for twenty minutes. It was intermission time and we went to grab some snacks from the lobby. We debriefed that we loved the costumes, couldn’t find the mic on the main characters, saw themes of power, truth, history, depth of character, racism, animal rights, etc (This story had to have been written by a PhD, I swear. Yep, just looked it up). Marcy had read the book beforehand and was letting me in on just how different it was. I didn’t want the show to end, but the second act came and went as quickly as the first and before we knew it we were giving a standing ovation and fawning over how well the writer of the screenplay incorporated this story into the original story, The Wizard of Oz (One of my top two childhood favorites… the other, Annie). It was fun to see this author’s ideas about how the Tinman, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion came to be, and how, of course, the Wicked Witch might not have been so wicked.

What’s so great about getting to spend an evening watching a really good play, or any other type of performing art, is that you get to feel fancy. What do I mean by “feeling fancy” though? I like to use that term, and what I think I mean is that I allow myself to appreciate and partake in some beauty in the world. Instead of my old practical, efficient self, I enjoy dressing up, eating good food, watching and critiquing art, things that most of us as we get caught up in the day-to-day do very infrequently. Feeling fancy is usually a little above my station. I need to remember to allow myself to feel fancy more often.

The past two days have been nice.  Nice enough to forget about blogging.  Yesterday, I read outside on the porch (I’m re-reading Eat, Pray, Love in preparation for the movie that comes out on August 13, that Marcy and I will be seeing together.  I have to say, I’m not disappointed).  Then, I cleaned all morning and ran errands all afternoon.  It was a good day to get things done.  I also had the chance to stop at the library (I had to return some books since I finished reading two books in six days!) and browse at my leisure.  I love browsing the library.  I found two more books and was forced out because the library closes at 4pm on Friday (what’s up with that?).  Later on, Dan and I went out to the North Market for dinner and then to Denise’s for ice cream.  Then, we went home for a little while before heading out to meet up with some school/work friends to celebrate my friend, Nicole’s, successful dissertation defense, which means she is now a real PhD, which means it’s fun to call her doctor and which makes me feel like maybe someday I might get there too.  I hope.

Today, I got up to run 14 miles.  It was such a beautiful morning that I can’t complain (even though my legs are tired).  It was 61 degrees when I woke up, and compared to last weekend, was absolute humid-free heaven.  When I got home and showered up, Dan and I went out for brunch and then walked around Easton for a bit.  Then, I took a much needed nap and made dinner.  We were thinking about watching a movie, but instead we’re just hanging out, Dan playing games, me reading (well, right at this second I’m blogging).  Tomorrow, we pack up for a week in Cincinnati.  Uncle Ray is coming into town early Monday morning! 

P.S. Happy Birthday to my cousin Beth!

Picnic in the par

Since I’m still not spending money, yesterday we (I) decided that it would be nice to get out and do a couple of free things in Columbus.  There’s this topiary park right by the main branch of the library downtown that I’d been meaning to go to since we moved here.  It’s in a place called “Old Deaf School Park” because it’s the original location for Ohio’s school for the deaf (It’s an amazing place where kids are bussed in from all over the state, board from Monday through Friday and then go home for the weekends.  I once had a teacher from there in one of my tech classes.).  Now the school is on Morse Road somewhere, but the old building is beautiful and the park has been transformed into this topiary garden that is made to look like Georges Seurat’s famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grand Jatte.  How cool is that?  So, we had a picnic lunch of leftover pizza and Dan got some pictures of this lady sitting on a blanket under a tree wearing a floppy straw hat with a black ribbon and painting the scenery.  It was kind of amazing.

The library staircase

Just as Dan was really getting some good shots, though, it started to rain.  So, we took out stuff back to the car, grabbed an umbrella and decided to go walk around the library and browse the video section (scholars that we are).  I don’t know what happened to public libraries in the past few years, but this one is really cool.  The staircase on the way in is painted with urban artwork.  There’s a cafe and a used book store selling old library books for $1 (I resisted) and they also have comfy chairs, free wifi and the top floor is full of of computer stations that were almost completely filled with people (many of whom were spending time on facebook… I peeked).

Computer stations at the library

Dan and I didn’t find any videos, but we did end up finding some books we wanted to read and other books we didn’t know we wanted to read.  We actually had a little too much fun trying to figure out where our books were (especially since Dan forgets how to use the dewey decimal system).  We left with five in all.  And since we didn’t have library cards, we had to sign up for one, which now of course involves filling out a form on a screen instead of on paper AND (here’s the kicker) a choice of four different library card designs!  “Wow,” I said to the young hip librarian, “the library sure has changed.”  “It’s the 21st century,” he said coyly.

So after all that fun we came home and I read my new books for a few hours, then I made some aloo mutter for dinner (I saved a potato just for the occasion).  It was pretty good aside from a minor over-cayenne-ing accident (I mixed up curry powder and cayenne.  They’re the same color!).  After dinner, we sat down with some air-popped popcorn and watched A Single Man, which was a really good movie, “visually stunning” the critics might say.  I just say, it looked cool, but the story was good, it was well-acted, and it was set in the early 60s (I love to see the old clothes, hairstyles, furniture, cars, etc.).  Dan and I read our library books before bed and it turned out to be a nice day, even though we spent nothing.  Hooray for frugal dates.

Well, this no talking thing is turning out to be VERY difficult.  I’m doing okay, and I’ll save the details for the end of the week, but the Bachelorette apparently causes me to have unexpected outbursts.  “How can you be mad about Frank still being in love with his ex, when you are CURRENTLY dating TWO other guys?!?  Duh!”

Anyway, there are a couple of stories that I’ve been dying to tell Dan today and since I can’t, I’m going to tell the internet (that Dan also reads)!  For the first story you need a little background that Dan already has, but too bad Dan, everyone else needs this part.  So, I am submitting another journal article for publication and for some reason this journal requires that I mail two paper copies and a CD with the file on it (because apparently they’ve never heard of online submission systems).  I wanted to get this done yesterday, so Dan and I went to a FedEx center and I picked up a cardboard envelope thing, filled out the forms and then went up to the counter to mail it.  The guy asked for the zip code and I fumbled around for a minute because it was going to Canada and their zip codes have letters in them… crazy Canada.  But so, I read it to him and he goes, “Okay, to get there on Tuesday or Wednesday, it’s going to be 59 or 60.”  And, I go, “Dollars?” And he goes, “Yep.”  And I said, “Do you have anything cheaper?”  And he looks all annoyed and says, “Um, no, I don’t see anything.”  And I’m thinking, this is a flat envelope that weighs 8 ounces and is going to Ontario, which technically borders Ohio!  But, I didn’t yell, I just said, “Well, can I just pay for the envelope?  I’ll go somewhere else to ship it.”  And I pay my $1.59 and as I’m walking out the door, I say to Dan, “I shipped a box to Burkina Faso in Africa for cheaper!  That’s insane!”  Blah.  So, today at lunch I walk to our local US Postal Service, filled out a form and guess how much it’s going to cost to mail a large envelope to Ontario, Canada?  $4.  Yeah.  That’s what I thought.  FedEx, you stink.

Okay okay, this is a good one too.  I’m on the porch this morning eating breakfast and doing work and I see my neighbor two doors down.  I don’t know him too well, but I’ve gotten to know his habits since I’ve been home full time working on my exams.  He has two shih tzus that he seems to be walking every time I head out for a run.  He also smokes on the front porch just about every hour or so and since I’ve been spending a lot of time working on the front porch, I’ve been seeing a lot of him.  We don’t usually talk, but today (of all days), he decides he wants to say hi.  And he says, “You sure do stay out here a long time.”  And I say, “Well, I kind of have to.”  But, I didn’t elaborate because, well, I’m not supposed to be talking this week.  Gah.  And then that’s it and he goes inside.  But, this afternoon, I’m back outside again and it’s smoke break time (I guess) and this time he goes, “Do you have problems with your internet or something?”  And I go, “No, I just like working outside.”  And he says, “Oh, well, before you said you had to be out here and I figured since our walls are made of metal (they are) that you were having problems with your internet.”  I say, “Oh, no, I’m just working on some exams and I just have to be reading and writing for long stretches, that’s all.”  “Oh,” he says, “I work from home, I’m a writer, and I have problems with my internet all the time.”  “Oh, yeah?  I thought you might work from home.”  But really I’m thinking two things, Stop talking! and I live next to a writer!  Maybe he can tell me how to get something published! But, then I don’t say anything else and he goes, “Well, good luck with your exams.”  “Thanks.”  See, I know this sounds like a lot of talking, but I kept it to a minimum, I swear, and what I really wanted to do was jump up and walk over to his porch and introduce myself and ask what he was writing, but I refrained, for now.  It made me feel kind of socially awkward, but I’m all about following the rules of my challenges.  But really, how cool is it that we live next to a writer?  Neat, huh, Dan? 

I need to taaaallkkkk.  Wah.

After a particularly good, long run this morning (I felt fast), I was in the mood for pancakes.  Mmm, I love some humongous pancakes after a hard run.  And, since this week I had watched a show called “Breakfast Special” on PBS, I heard of two new restaurants in the Columbus area that has some good ones.  If you didn’t see this show, you should follow that link and watched.  It was so neat!  They went all over the US and ate breakfast in Columbus, upstate New York (a place on the way to visit Uncle Ray!  I’m so there next time!), somewhere in Georgia, St. Augustine, Florida, San Francisco and (Beth, I know you already know that your town is the king of breakfast, but…) Portland!!  Of the two in Columbus, we decided to try The Best Breakfast and Sandwiches which is in this tiny plaza in the middle of nowhere Westerville.  It has diner food and is run by a nice little family.  It was really crowded (I think partly because the show aired this week) and everyone seemed a little frantic, but our waitress was super nice and speedy.  Dan got an omelette and I got chocolate chip pancakes.  Did you hear that?  Chocolate chip pancakes!  It wasn’t one of my finer moments and for the rest of my day I felt like I had eaten 14 doughnuts covered in ice cream for breakfast, but at the time, it was pretty tasty!  We’ll be back, but next time I’ll make it blueberry.

Beth, the Portland places were Tin Shed and Helsey’s.  Ever been?

P.S. Dan thinks the plural of breakfast is breakfastses.  Say it out loud.  You can’t not laugh.

Today was a much better day as far as work is concerned.  I finished the first complete draft of question 3 by noon and was able to work more on my AERA proposals and contract work with my professor.  Tomorrow, I will spend the day revising and, if there’s time, doing some extra reading.  But in the mean time, I feel like I have time to take a moment and really blog.

Yay!

I’ve been dying to share a picture of my new porch set-up that I got this weekend at Ikea in Cincinnati.  It’s been oh so lovely to eat breakfast and read out here in the morning.  In fact, I’m sitting here writing my blog this evening too.  And since my other porch chairs (and Zoe!) were stolen, I’ve been bringing them in at night, so don’t worry.

Speaking of sitting on my porch every morning and taking a moment to relax and enjoy the early morning hours, I swear I’ve been hearing what can only be described as a breathing tree.  I live on a pretty busy street, one that leads to a highway entrance ramp just a third of a mile or so down the road, which means that traffic is pretty busy our here around 7:30am, when I usually end up eating breakfast.  But, there’s also a traffic light just a little way down the road the other direction, so during the red lights, while the cars are waiting to make a break for the interstate, there’s a few minutes of peace.  In those few minutes of peace, I hear this whooshing sound that’s very soft and rhythmic.  It has the rhythm of someone breathing or ocean waves hitting the shore, but the exhale sounds like wind blowing through a tree.  At first I thought that’s what it was, just a light wind, but I’ve heard it every morning now and it has a tempo to it.  I’ve even gotten up to look up into the tree that’s just in front of my porch, but even when it’s still, I can hear the sound.  The same goes for the tree across the street in front of the Catholic school.  Then, I thought maybe it it was some contraption on the top of the school, but it just sounds too natural (?).  I don’t know, it’s a mystery for now, but either way, I kind of like it.

After listening to the breathing tree for a while this morning, I got to work at my desk.  I was very productive and finished 6 pages by noon, putting me at 21 pages and feeling really good.  As I took some time to think through what I was writing today, I also started to think how lucky I am that this is my work right now.  I’m being paid (sort of) to think, to read, to analyze, to try to make sense of a certain type of knowledge in a field I consider to be very important, education.  I felt like I was reveling in it, pausing to sift through some difficult concept, fancying myself a thinker, elbow on my knee, index finger on my chin, like Plato or Socrates (if Plato and Socrates studied learning in virtual environments ).  That is until I hit a tough spot, where I realized how little I know.  This is when I start to panic and then try to remember that it’s not about the finish line.  There is no finish line.  Enjoy the journey, I try to tell myself, think and read and write and sooner or later, something relatively coherent does come together and things work out.  There’s no rush.  This is against my adult nature (my kid nature was much more into joie de vivre), but I’m slowly getting the hang of it, of being able to do it and enjoy it.

I think this is part of why I’m having trouble writing journal articles right now.  I have gathered so much data and read so much literature and theory and it just hasn’t melded into something coherent yet, at least not as coherent as I would like.  It still feels like a jumble in my mind.  I have glimpses of coherence and I try to grab them and nail them down as fast as I can, but they are fleeting and often when I go back to reread them, I don’t think they are coherent anymore.  And so I walk away for a bit, return and struggle, and walk away again.  I just read a paper that Dr. Nespor wrote suggesting that keeping a research journal would help.  Of course, my head went straight to a blog, so I think I may start one, or start posting more of my thoughts here.  We’ll see.

I read a lot this afternoon, still searching the literature for question 3, trying to be sure that I’m covering all aspects of the topic thoroughly (enough).  In this one edited volume I was perusing, each chapter started with a pertinent quote.  They weren’t by famous academics or anything, just quotes that were relevant to the chapter from someone in that field.  And I really started wondering if someday someone would take a little snippet of what I had written and find it juicy enough to put at the beginning of their chapter.  Wouldn’t that be exciting?  A few lines of my own words, centered on the page and sounding oh so poignant, followed by my name in italics.  Sounds lovely.  Now, if I can just get something published…