11.10.2010 Wednesday Water Closet Creativity

Started the day with making a fake pie for Kristen's art project.  It was two real crusts with tin foil balls and waxed paper filling covered with a layer of red tissue paper.  It was supposed to represent a cranberry pie for her display and has to be able to remain in the art case for a length of time.  It turned out pretty well though a tad overdone.  A piece of the crust baked off, but a few squirts of wallpaper paste fixed that situation.  Kristen was pleasantly surprised.  The student presentations on creativity were very good.  I thoroughly enjoyed the final one today.  The student (who shall remain nameless because I can't think of it tonight) had a very good presentation with video clips from the author's website and class exercises.  He said that the 5 most creative places are #1 while on the john, #2 just falling asleep/waking up  #3 while shaving (not sure how this translates to women) #4 during boring meetings  #5 while showering.  So this means in addition to toilet paper, writing paper/utensil need to be close at hand.  Also notepaper by where you sleep, during boring meetings (I've got that one nailed, I've always doodled during meetings and many ideas come then.  Finally I need to figure out some way to record thoughts in the shower.  Maybe a dry erase marker up high on the shower wall????  Since so many occur in the bathroom, it is important that the room is one you want to be in and has the necessary items to record ideas immediately.  You can use a dry erase marker on the mirror.  We've left each other messages for years doing that....just haven't jotted down ideas.  Evening class was also a good one.  I so enjoy learning from other students.  When the prof just presents their material that is only one brain exposed but when the class shares openly, there is the wisdom of 20 brains and sometimes many years' worth of experience and reflection.  The longer I am in adult education the more I value the voice of the learner.  Everyone has something to share no matter what the age or educational level. 

11.09.2010 Tuesday

Tuesdays, this semester, have typically been the start of a 48 hour marathon.  It starts with taking two of the grand kids to Bible study and then bringing a luncheon back for the Gilbert Street gang.  This is immediately followed by work, class, class and home by about 9:30pm.  Wednesday continues with work early and all day then class and night class number two.  Needless to say my Thursday night is the new Friday just because I am spent.  This Tuesday though was better.  I am making progress on a researched journal article for work, the afternoon class I actually knew what the Prof was talking about and could contribute and the evening class (though I was late struggling with printer issues) was informative and practical.  I am still way behind on turning in assignments, but they are slowly making sense and should be doable in the very near future.  Why I haven't just quit has been a puzzle.  It's not really pride...paying back the loans is a concern.  I think it is more of a project that is incomplete.  I definitely am project oriented and to walk away from one this big only fifty percent complete would be quit a defeat.  I did that once in higher education and it took many years to make up the error.  I don't want to do it again. 

11.08.2010 Monday

The student presented book reviews have proven to be very interesting in the scope and diversity of text on the broad subject of creativity.  Today's theoretical lecture was so vast that it was difficult to follow and make a logical sequential progression.  The presentation itself was wonderful, it was just the topic I had trouble following.  I am so thankful that I pursuing this degree as a seasoned non-traditional....if I had been presented with this much information as a traditionally aged student, I truly believe my brain would have exploded from the attempt to gather, organize, retain and be transformed by the avalanche of information, new concepts and theories....not to mention the application of theory to practice and what has worked and what hasn't.  My mantra of "It's not how much you know, but how much you can take" had a new line added that says "...and what you deem worthy of accepting."  It took me many years to develop any kind of filter.  I feared that I was too ignorant to apply any kind of qualifying measure to new concepts or ideas, but I now am at least confident enough to use self-talk like "that's a bunch of...."
or "that could have merit" or even just "cool".  I do like to listen with an open mind, but some things just have to enter and move on down the line without using any bandwidth.  That is somewhat liberating, not
obsessing about every little detail.  "It's not how much you know....

Watched The Secret Life of Bees as a suggestion of a good memoir.  I was moved by the film and am anxious to listen to the audio book. 

11.07.2010 Sunday

It must have been the time change or the temperature change or the fact that this semester is about to kill us, but Kristen and I were both battling some kind of downward spiraling mental funk.  She about being single, me about being old and alone.  The Colt's taking a beating from Philadelphia in the late afternoon didn't help nor the fact that Holly had a stomach upset AND fell down her parent's stairs while helping babysit in Indy. 
We DID have a fun time doing a photoshoot for an engaged couple.  It was a brilliant day (sun-wise) and perhaps being out in it helped.  The couple had a good time and we got some very nice shots.  We just didn't make much headway academically this weekend...and we both have to make some real progress to end the semester on a good note.  Holly DID complete two online classes in great shape.  She said it was a relief to have those completed. 
We had a single service at church which would have been good, but I was called out by James.  He was involved in a t-bone style fender bender on his way to church.  A couple of college kids thought the two-way stop was a four-way and James didn't have enough time to stop.  No one hurt and not really much damage to James' jeep but the kids Civic looked pretty bad.  James decided to come to our house to watch the football game and he brought Sonny with him.  She wanted, desperately, to stick her nose out the window so he unzipped the passenger side window.  When he slowed to make the turn onto Royal Oak, low and behold ... she jumped out the window!  He stopped as quickly as possible and ran around to unthread the leash.  We don't think she was hurt as she roughhoused with Chewey and Lucky all through the football game, but it was just not a great day.

11.06.2010 Saturday Time Change

Spent the entire day by myself.  Not that I was shunning people, I asked for company on several occasions....it just worked out that way.  Found the Barnes and Noble in Carmel right beside an Office Max and Don Pablos.  Went to all three without moving the car.  Found Kelly's new job site (I think) and maybe a back way to it that would save her a few minutes.  Got a little bit of homework completed and some research started.  A good day.  The extra hour's sleep was a bonus, but it's going to get dark awfully early this week. 

Here's something I have to get creative with....when waitresses (usually young one's ...late teens or early 20's) address me as "Hon" or "Honey".  Granted they introduce themselves by their first name and assume that that transparency puts them on a higher level but they don't ask my name or the names of my dining companions....so where does it become acceptable to address me by a condescending form of endearment by someone who is waiting on me and doesn't know my name until I pay with a debit card. (she wouldn't know my name at all if it were a cash transaction!)  Also, this seems to be a female phenomen only.  I am not sure how to address this issue (I won't call it a problem, because some people must like it). 1) I could squarely say "Please don't call me Hon" and risk having my food and drink contaminated.  2) I could reflect my displeasure in the tip, but would that be fair in that the wait staff would not know ahead of time that was the rule?  3)  I could leave a note saying that the flippant term of endearment is offensive.  4) Return each "hon" with an "OK...Toots" (this is my preference since it would be a way for me to be retaliatory but the same food contamination possibility exists see #1 above) or finally 5) Suck it up and enjoy a meal out and forget about the wait staff.  Suggestions are welcomed....and yes I've been accused by live-in family members of being entirely too sensitive, but I just don't appreciate being called "hon".

11.05.2010 Friday Snow.. :-(

Missed  funeral today to the poor planning of my daughter and her emergency print job (that didn't turn out to be a true emergency nor was it printed when she said it would be).  Long story short, I could have gone to the funeral and been back for the normal printing job and everyone would have been the served.  I know the reason her emergencies are so irritating is because they are exactly what I do.  I need to learn from her lack of enough prep time and avoid that myself.  arghhhhh.

Finished the afternoon with heavy wet snow.  I had heard earlier in the week that this could happen but chose to not dwell on it.  I'm just as certain as the emergency theory that the advent of winter is heralded less as one ages.  I new season used to be a great thing for me.  I liked the closure of one season and the newness of the next one.  A chance for a clean start...a different feel to the world...a different set of challenges....  but now, especially with winter and hot hot summer, I'm finding the extremes less, much less enjoyable. 

We met soggy Gnaps at the new Fusion Restaurant in the Village.  They decided to walk and were really cold and wet.  Kristen and I drug Dennis to see the Civic Theatre's production of Hello Dolly.  He slept through a goodly portion of the it, but Kristen and I enjoyed ourselves.  The idea of "the parade passing by" was in my head when I went to bed.  It's not raining on this parade...it's snowing!

11.04.2010 Thursday

The portion of The Facebook Effect that I read for work were very good.  I really didn't know that much about Zuckerberg or really even how it started....I just knew that it was college chums who wanted to stay in contact.  I was never an adopter of MySpace and I joined Facebook with a blank page that remained that way for an entire year before someone showed me the ropes and now I check it more than e-mail.  Just made a page for the S.O.S. group at BSU.  (Student's Offering Support)  A group of current, pre and post doc students in Adult, Higher and Community Ed who get together to casually reflect, share, applaud and support each other through the journey to the EdD.  It's great to hear, first hand, how someone made it work with a full time job, or a new baby or a sick spouse or loved one or how they dealt with challenging faculty or family who don't offer support or just the grueling task of the degree.  We are having such difficulty meeting this year that I thought "Let's try virtual."  If it doesn't have the same feel....or accomplish it's intended purpose, we'll have to try harder to make the physical space and face time work. 

It finally happened that one reading assignment in one class also applied to the same thing in another.  Finally, this is great....

11.3.2010 Wednesday Blog turned in today...

Wednesday survived!  Many things finished today some of the most important being review of comp questions by peers.  It's funny how it's easy to believe someone who has experienced what you have not as an expert...even if they have only done the thing once!!  People marvel at survivors even if it's something minuscule that was survived.  We all have a story to tell and many, many people are anxious not just to listen, but to hang on every single word and believe it as though it were gospel.  Interesting to sit back and watch this little drama unfold.  The awe of the listener and the instantaneous expertness of the storyteller.  It would be easy to be caught up on either side of this word volley. 

11.02.2010 Tuesday Mid Term Elections

I voted, Dennis voted, James refused, Kristen wasn't registered and I don't think Holly or Kelly or Aaron are registered either.  I am allowed to complain.  I didn't like the gifting that was going on outside the poll right up to the door.  I didn't want my vote "bought" with an emery board. 

Have started The Facebook Effect for work's article.  A good read.  Interesting to see where it came from and where they think they are heading. 

Tuesday night's class was enlightening.  The hands on activities are better for me than any lecture.  The prof guided workshops that were very instructional and great jumping off points for discussion amount the class.  I also found that most of my classmates are as stressed as I with this particular class and the workload assigned.  Somehow it's easier to take with company.  Perhaps the analogy of yesterday should be several draft horses pulling in circles.  Speaking of which, the grand kids definitely love the "Scamper" stories of my childhood.  Every week they ask to be told those as we drive to New Castle.  Maybe a book is in the offing.  That may be a good legacy.  Pet stories...I'll have to find some photos of the old biter.  He was one cantankerous Shetland pony. 

11.01.2010 Monday

November 1st!  This is crazy.  By the time November gets here, the year is essentially over.  The mad rush to the end is dizzying.  True to form my workload for this week is inhuman. Presented the book report on Monday ....no one died from it (including me).  The ambiguity of the term creative is both confusing and liberating.  If no one know, concretely what it is, then it's hard to not be accepted as a creative.  Hmmmmm.

Adult Ed has spoiled me.  Having a cohort of colleague/students since 2007 makes it easy to forget the effort required to be accepted by an established group of students and instructors.  I also easily forget how low my "good first impression" quotient is.  That's an important thing to have always before you.  It's such a relief when the acceptance reaches the tipping point.  The stress of pushing up that ramp is akin to a draft horse pulling an overloaded wagon in circles....monumental effort without any accomplishment, so to speak.  I'll get out of the ruts eventually.  It's just lonely until it happens. 

Very enjoyable evening spent in respite in the media room.  I need to soundproof that room.  I am torn between time with the husband and working on the projects I have looming.  I can't seem to do both concurrently.  I either sit with him glued to the TV or I'm sequestered in my room working.  I read an article about the preponderance of loneliness of 50 somethings.  They will go shopping, not to buy or communicate but just to be in the same vicinity of other people.  Maybe that's how he can pass depression tests.  He's not depressed...just lonely.  He needs another wife....right now I'm a grad student and I can't do both of those well concurrently either!  lol