catching my breath

Just logging in long enough to report (to those of you who know about the family crisis I've been living for the last year) that my mom is settled in Chicago. We still aren't sure how we pulled it off, but clearly the fall and second trip to a skilled nursing facility brought home to her the high degree of vulnerability her age and current mental state represents. My sister-in-law escorted her on the flight, while my brother and I, along with TH and MP2 (poor kid!--not much of a Thanksgiving Break) loaded the furniture from her assisted living apartment (unoccupied since her fall and long-term stay in the nursing home) into a u-haul truck for return to her house or the drive (my brother's) to Chicago. MP1 and MP2 saw her house (she didn't want that to happen, but it was good for them to see what we've been dealing with) and reminisced about memories of running around it as kids. That made me happy. I'm leaving out the details of the crisis on the Chicago end when my SIL and mom arrived to the facility into which she was supposed to move only to discover that they'd overbooked their skilled nursing facility (where she was supposed to be for a few more weeks before release to her assisted living facility in the same Senior Home). She spent Friday through Wednesday night at my brother's house meeting her great-grandkids, etc. Last night she was in the new apartment (and I mean new as in she refused to go back to the one originally reserved for her). Her cast is off and she is walking again (still needs lot of physical therapy, though). Last night I didn't wake up in a cold sweat worrying about her or her house. I SHOULD worry about her house, but I think I'll wait till January. Maybe I can write coherent posts by then.

progress

My brother and I have been frustrated and worried because my mom (since we moved her into her assisted living facility in mid-May) hasn't been joining the other residents down in the dining room for meals. Instead, she's been isolating herself in her room and eating there, and missing out therefore on social opportunities that will improve her mental health. Whenever one of us visits, the staff will inevitably remark on the fact that she doesn't come out of her room. Yesterday she told me that she went down for televised church services and that she's been going down for dinner (not sure about the other meals). This makes me SO happy. And I can hear the improvement in her voice.  Further, I had a conversation with her about her house. She tends to worry about maintenance issues constantly (hello!, she deferred it for 11 years--why worry now?), but anyhow--when she said we need to call termite people to spray so the house doesn't "fall down," I gently suggested that this was a waste of her money (like fixing the roof in any permanent way). I told her we need to clear the house out and sell it, so she can bank the money. She actually agrees (although my brother and I notice that she tends to say one thing to one of us and another to the other; nothing new there). But, she seems truly to be on board with this. I told her Spring Break would be the first opportunity to really get in there and go through stuff room by room. She wants to go and sit in the driveway while we do this. I had to give her some hope that this might happen and said we'd see after talking to her doctors, etc. She ended the conversation with "and now Santa Claus, can you buy me some more blouses and a skirt or new pants? I can't wear the same things down there [dining room] every week!" Some things never change. Looking forward to seeing MP2 in July/August!  MP1will be in Texas residence by August 1. Time flies.

Happy Birthday MP2

cheers, from the
olden days
at  J. Frank Dobie ranch

on a happier note

Some good things also came out of our last trip to Texas. After we got my mom moved into her new assisted living place, we headed up to the greater Dallas area to visit with MP2, who needed a new flute (actually--he's never had one of his own, but had been playing his sister's from high school).  His girlfriend went with us (it is her primary instrument) to help him choose one.



didn't take the camera,
so these are all iPhone



After that, we went to nearby Richardson, where MP1 is moving in August. We drove by her new place of employment and the apartment complex that was recommended to her. And luckily, they had an apartment coming available the week before she starts work, so we were able to help reserve that. It is a very cool mixed use retail/residential development. I think she's going to love it. I know I would.

We then had equally good luck back in Denton, since MP2 and CG were able to find a new apartment in MP2's current complex that will become available in August. So that means everyone in the fam is moving this summer, but us. Fun, fun, fun. 

l'austin

MP1 and 2,  along with 2's gf, spent a few days of NT spring break in my favorite hill country cité. It is truly amazing how much I miss that place. I offer a few pics since I have basically nothing to say for or about myself--except that I am scrambling to tie up loose ends (read-read-read, write a paper I have to give in a couple months, scan some sections of humungous old govt. volumes that I need for sabbatical writing so that I don't have to haul them back to sabbatical house [sabbatical house: yay!], write a ridiculous number of emails and an agenda for upcoming prof. mtg. etc., etc.). Sheesh that organization is SO much work. So, so much work. Why do I never get those service gigs that are "show up and breathe"? Better get back to all that. These may go poof. But maybe not, cause I do miss these guys.

~  all gone ~

happy flying

MP2 comes home today for the first time since Christmas last year. It'll be great to have him back home, if only for a few days.

a picture is worth...?

Yesterday this photo arrived by text message from MP2; no words, just an image. Sending congrats his way. I'm sure he is walking on air.

summer trip goodies

These are my summer trip souvenirs. Clearly, I'm taking a very minimalist approach to shopping and packing.

The kitchen towels are great! Huge and very soft and absorbent, and a much better color than they than they look here. Worth every penny. I found them in a great market in my mom's city. The skillet is from her kitchen, I've been asking her--for years (!)-- for one of her cast iron skillets.  It is certainly well-seasoned, but also needs some cleaing. Any suggestions? (TH had to stuff in his suitcase, as mine was over the 50 lb. limit.) And the book is a first edition that I was thrilled to find in a great used book store in MP2's town. I also brought home a hilarious phrase of his: "If it's baroque, fix it." Cracked me up; so much for that summer music history course. And now I need to get packing for the start of sabbatical fun. 

catching up with April (part 1)

The last few months have been beyond crazy and I have had little time for blogging. This is partly my own fault,  because I designed and taught a museum course that was about 3 courses-worth of work for me. I am still wrapping up that class, even though grades are in and the semester is long over (more on that in another post). Okay--back to April.

We spent April 22-25 in Texas, upon the occasion of the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival.  The  headliner was Chick Corea, who drew a huge crowd, including the little redhead (below) in the Paul Frank t-shirt. But we were really there to visit MP2, see his lab band play, and listen to the famous "One O'Clock."  We had lots of fun, despite (me) having a low-grade fever (the 4th floor of my building is such a petri dish),  insane winds and allergies, and hilarious fair "food."

Thanks to MP1 for the decent photos. I decided to leave my camera at home, which explains the blurry iPhone images I already posted here and here.  We flew home on the 25th. I think I was furloughed on that Monday, but I'm also sure I worked that day--because I had papers to grade and to write. Can I just say that we have now gone from World Cup (all day) to a sci-fi film called St*nehenge Apocalypse? At least it doesn't have that obnoxious buzzing in the background.

happy birthday to mp2

June 2, 1989, Methodist Hospital: 7:08 a.m., 7 lbs. 8 oz. Time flies. Happy 21st--hope it's a great one!  Try to stay cool out there, and don't forget to check the mail...

4 O'Clocking it. Denton Arts and Jazz Festival, April 2010

land of bluebonnets

We are visiting MP2, making the best of furloughs in the form of travel. Last night, we had dinner with him and his gf  (CG) at a fun restaurant to which TH and I had never been. MP1, who has only been here once before, then got to see all the various and sundry music buildings, then CG took us on a tour of the library (my favorite of all venues to hang out in and yet I'd never stepped foot inside this one these last few years).   She works in the music library, so we got to see it's vastness. It is really, and I mean *really,* impressive. The rare music book room was closed, not that we would have known what to ooooh and aaaaah over, but still--very cool that there is one.  I was also  floored by the number of music periodicals that are 1) apparently in publication and 2) subscribed to by the university. (And here, I just have to say how depressing it is going to be to go home to my institution, which has such a pathetic library when it comes to research. When I was hired, it was not spectacular by any means, but it was at least up to the par one expects at a teaching univerity. NOW, it is pretty sorry. I was in the stacks two days ago checking that the most recent issues of a journal were still on the shelves and not off at the bindery,  so that I coud send students over to work on a journal-related assignment , and I nearly fell over when I saw how many journals have been dropped). The most impressive and simultaneously depressing thing about this tour? This library was open and very much in use after 10 pm.  Good luck with that at my place.

This morning (after a night of little sleep), we dropped off MP1 to hang around with her sib and go to some music event, took care of some apartment issues for next year, walked around the downtown square (with a brief side trip into the antique mall to look for Americana Indian crap for MGC), and got ourselves some coffee. We are back at the hotel for a while, trying to cope with the effects of the time change. This is why I hate giving papers anywhere outside of my timezone--I'm just a zombie if I don't get at least 6 good hours of sleep. On the  paper-giving front, I got some work done in that direction on the plane. So I don't think I'll be in horrid shape next Friday, especially since I have to get home from here and that will be 3 more hours of being "unplugged" from distractions, plus another furlough day on Monday (oh,  yeah, on which I will NOT being doing any  'work.'   Can you tell that  I am pretty fed up with not being paid my full salary under the pretense that my workload can be reduced by magic and nothing in the scope of my job will suffer?!).

Here are a few random photos--iPhone and in the dark quality. Too lazy to bring along my good camera or my personal computer (which is loaded with software that might correct these somewhat).

let it snow, let it snow, let it stop

Record-setting snow this February in the DFW area; these are of UNT, courtesy of MP2. I think they are ready for the "snow-days" to be over, now... 

A winter his car will likely never again see.

congrats--just for the nominations, ya know?

We are watching the Grammy pre-telecast on the web and hoping that MP2's college jazz program gets due recognition for simply being nominated in categories 11 and 45. I'm sure he's watching from UNT (where he plays in the Four O'Clock Lab Band) and holding out hope for category 45. Crossing my fingers, but happy for the One O'Clock Lab Band, either way. Many congratulations.

almost smiling...

MP2--that is--standing here beside his new (used) wheels. I tried to make that Texas freewayscape behind him look a bit more interesting, but it was truly a losing battle. Sort of like the timeline I gave myself for getting my Spring courses prepped. We start one week from tomorrow, so it's got to happen this week--in between a workshop, a committee meeting (that I haven't yet called--I know, I know, I know), and a faculty meeting. Time to get myself into high gear.

countdown to finals week

Watched the sun come up at the airport this morning (that little dot on the horizon is MP2's plane headed back to Texas). It was such a nice holiday break--lots of good (excellent) food and fun with family and friends. The rest of the semester should fly by--2 more furlough days, 2 more weeks of instruction, 1 more curriculum committee meeting, party for retiring colleague (Sunday), final faculty meeting of the semester (next Friday), followed immediately (literally--all of 30 minutes) by MP1's master's recital, followed by her graduation on yet the following Friday. The big news of tomorrow will be whether or not the CMS people will be able to fix one of my Spring course/lab listings so that students can actually enroll in it. For the past week, it has been forcing them to add themselves onto a waitlist. So predictable. None of the office staff can figure it out. And I can just imagine how pleased they'll be if they are forced to add everyone by hand...

homecomings, turkey dinners & teaching about kinship

ETA: attendance was 43 out of 131 (for which most of them earned 5 pts. extra credit by identifying parallel cousins on a kinship diagram. Some of them identified their children as their cousins, proving that even when one states at the beginning of class "pay attention and ask questions if you do not understand, since TODAY there will be an extra credit opportunity related to this," one cannot distract everyone from their FB pages or movies or whatever it is they do in class).

Yes, that sums up my day, in reverse order. MP2 comes home today and we are having a traditional southern (seasonal) dinner because he is seriously ready for some home-cooking; not Thanksgiving dinner, just a variety thereof for our little foursome (Thanksgiving dinner is a veritable feast with family and friends and card games galore). I forgot to reserve a smoked turkey for tonight, but I was able to get a 10 lb. fresh hen (we buy diestel organic turkeys from wholepaycheck). After class today, I'll head home to begin roasting it. Yesterday was grocery shopping and baking day. The oven kept us warm for hours, as cornbread (for MP1's favorite stuffing), oatmeal/raisin cookies (for MP2's snacking pleasure) and dark chocolate brownies (that would be for TH) rotated in and out. I processed the last of a whole-grain loaf of bread for the additional bread crumbs; potatoes and green beans are standing by for afternoon prep. I actually meant to make chili yesterday, to give us all a break from turkey sandwiches, but I can still do that for Saturday (MP2 flies out early on Sunday). And now, after 2 hours of doctoring up my PPT slides, I am headed onto campus to teach about inc*st, exogamy, endogamy, cross/parallel-cousins, ghost marriage, polyandry, woman/woman marriage in Africa (including a discussion of women who formed their own patrilineages in East Africa during the colonial era--this always blows the mind of students who don't understand how "naturalized" kinship systems really are), and all that fun stuff (I actually really do like this chapter--I'd love to teach an entire course on marriage). Hmm, I might just do that. I am sure I will not have a full house or anything approaching one (maybe 60 students/half the house, if I'm guessing correctly). I was one of the few folks in my department who did not clump their furlough days this week. I am saving them for the Spring--so I can either line them up with spring break and/or take a trip to see MP2 perform in a Spring jazz marathon event UNT hosts each year. Finally a couple photos to mark the season. I took these with my iPh*ne on Monday. Free-range (parking-lot) turkeys. I have NO idea where they came from, but they were strutting around like they owned the campus. Cars were honking at them to get out of the way. Very funny (click on images to enlarge).

busy in a good way

• Sent Halloween treats (candy and teeny bit of mad $) to MP2--should arrive today via UPS. Enjoy!
• Handed back midterms that ranged in scores from 108 (10 pts. worth of xtra credit offered during the 1st unit--my alternative to the security blanket of a study guide--a FURLOUGH work reduction strategy) down to 44 (and that's with a few xc points). I have mostly excellent students in this class, for which I am eternally grateful.
• Got a really good night's sleep Wednesday night. That was clearly a prelude to next bullet.
• Went to the library yesterday to investigate two African art auction catalogs that were recently entered into my university library's collection--and which might have been turned in to the library accidentally by my hapless high school intern. Full story here. Yippee! They were, complete with the library's name stamped over mine. They are not among the most expensive of the books that Hapless Intern "gave" to them, but I use them a lot in class and in the museum, so I will take what I can get. The associate dean of the library has been helping me like nobody's business. I am impressed, even though we haven't found the more expensive books. I figure someone in the library donations office sold them on amazon--or something along those lines. Maybe not, but the Friends of Library people claim they never came to them. So, ???
• Left library for the campus j*mba juice, which I had not yet patronized. Ordered and paid for a small drink, but they accidently gave me a large. Doesn't make up for the furlough pay cuts, but they were very pleased to do their part.
• Yesterday morning, I had to drag a Maori cloak down from the repository loft (by myself!) so that I could have it ready prior to class, when I would need to get my students rotated through the repository in small groups (we are reading a museum ethnography about New Zealand/Scotland connections) and I must say, I was really pleased to see that the new storage technique another student and I improvised a year ago seems to be working for this artifact--flax is sturdy and all, but this is more than 140 years old. After class, a student actually volunteered to help me put it back into loft storage; so no lives were lost this week making "the climb" with a 10 foot long tube in hand.
• Created and uploaded a way-overdue webpage to the Museum site. 10 more to come (student projects). Stay tuned...off to lunch with BFF who is freaking out over new spring FTEs requirements in his (and I suspect, all) departments.

spaced out

Do I have office hours this morning? NO!!! Did I nonetheless race onto campus through all kinds of traffic in order to be here for them? YES. I clearly need a good night's sleep (a necessary pleasure that has entirely eluded me this week).

This about covers my state of being; iPhone photo credit goes to MP2, with whom I had a great conversation yesterday morning. He has settled into an excellent year at UNT, thinks he gave his best audition ever, is super happy he is finally in a jazz combo and has graduated from the ranks of classical lessons. Maybe in a week's time I'll feel all settled into the new school year, too. I take comfort in the fact that MP1 seems to share my current state of mind--it takes a while to get back in the groove.

back-to-school shopping

This is a follow-up to my previous post about MP1's new car. I think anyone who has purchased a car in the last 100 years knows what a hard sell the business office begins once they've got you in the office to sign the loan papers. This person, who checks one's credit, draws up the loan papers, obtains one's signature on 40 different documents (at least that number, when cashing in a clunker) etc., is motivated by commission to sell you an even better (i.e. more costly) warranty, on-call road service, anti-theft this-n-that, and the famous inside and out sealant. Having been through all this quite recently, with the purchase of my Prius (2 years ago counts as recent in our family--especially where new cars are concerned), I was fully prepared to keep this guy from a) selling us stuff we didn't need, and b) trying to fold what we did decide to buy into the loan price. He was pretty disappointed when I related that the Toyota finance agent had a big snit-fit when I refused to purchase the already-installed-by-the-dealer anti-theft device (he had to send someone out to remove it from the car and was absolutely furious that I wouldn't pay for it). I realize these folks need to make some money on their side of the car sale, but it is our money they are going after. So the other night, this guy realized pretty quickly that we weren't going to be suckers for all these add-ons that would effectively raise our purchase price by the very same amount we'd gotten through their rebate: $3,000.00. But he did try, and I suppose he has too. I could just feel his pain as he was forced to delete item after item that he had ever so hopefully added onto our loan. We ended up going for only 1 add-on, the sealant. I did this for my Prius and it does help to protect the car (especially the exterior finish, which is very important when parking daily under sappy trees, or--in the case of MP1--without benefit of garage). Both our cars have white leather interiors and in truth, I don't think we needed them "sealed." We buy leather for its durability, versus its resale, since we tend to drive our cars till they are literally all worn out. However, there is no option to go for just the exterior sealant, so we got the price knocked down by $100.00, wrote a check for that amount, and then made an appointment to have the job done that Friday.

This day also happened to be TH's first formal "furlough Friday," and given the fact that a) the dealership would need the car for quite a few hours and b) there is a very nice mall nearby, we decided to turn this into a back-to-school shopping day for MP2, who needed a few special items for when he performs. He has been wearing the same dress-shirt and couple of ties for several years, so I was thrilled that he actually wanted something new (he is a committed non-consumer of everything, but music).

Once we got to the mall, TH and MP1 went one way (blue-tooth device shopping), and MP2 and I headed off to Macy's. I had the sales clerk take his measurements and here is what we bought. I love it all, but especially the paisley.

Very jazz-musician worthy, I think. The white shirt has french cuffs,

so we found some very stylish cuff-links for that.

New shoes!

These handsome, Ecc* Berlin, bicycle-toe, dress shoes will be very comfortable for the long hours of standing up, playing the horn. [Side note: they were a little more expensive than some similar brands, but they've got great rubber soles. It was easy to justfy buying them for that reason alone. But I also felt like they were practically free because they cost almost to the penny the same amount of money that I had just, a few nights before, emptied out of one of our many change jars and rolled up to take to the bank. We throw all our loose change into one or another container--we've got several around the house--and then TH and MP2 inspect it for old or rare coins before we turn it in.]

This was my big purchase for the day.

A new Paul Fr*nk silicone iPhone case. Isn't it cute?

good job!

I'm late posting this (too much happening these last few days!)--but, many congrats to MP2 who wandered in on Monday morning, laptop in hand, to announce that he had just been awarded another scholarship. This one is based on academic merit and twice the amount he has already been awarded for next year based on merit in his major (music). This hugely reduces his tuition fees right at the very moment when we really need it due to impending furloughs and paycuts to my own and TH's salary. Sometimes good news comes when you least expect it.