Push

It happens every spring: the final weeks of the semester sneak up on me and I find my schedule over-loaded and my to-do list running over. Yet I'm surprised by this. Every. Single. Year. 

Have I learned nothing in my twenty-four years of schooling? Nothing? 

Ah, well.

Pictures from Luhvul

I giggle a bit whenever I visit Louisville, attempting to pronounce the city's name as the locals do. I still don't have it down, but I'm getting there. Scenes from this weekend's visit to the city, which includes some pretty awesome neon signs:

It seemed like the ice cream shop in this last shot is closed, but I loved the typography. 

Thrift Breaking: Fiesta and Silverware

I've collected Fiestaware for about a decade now, buying my first pieces in a Mervyn's store in Grand Rapids, Michigan the summer after my sophomore year at university. While my passion for the colorful dinnerware has waxed and waned, I always keep my eyes open for it in thrift stores. Up until Friday afternoon, the closest I had ever gotten to actually finding Fiesta at a thrift store was a mismatched teapot I found at a rummage sale for $5 more years ago than seems proper.

All in all, I found two plates, one dinner-sized and one bread-sized, and four mugs. Grand total: $4.46. Yep. I think that makes these pieces my least expensive Fiesta pieces ever. Granted, the plates, as seen above, are decently scratched. They have been well used but have much more life in them yet to live. They won't stay with me for long. Save for a lone coffee mug, I have plans for these pieces. I am not their forever-owner. 

Rounding out a good hour of thrifting Friday, I came across three more pieces of starburst silverware - including a fork in a pattern I've yet to identify. And spoons. Can you ever have too many spoons? 

On second thought, don't answer that. 

Thinking in Lists

I know I'm busy when I begin thinking in lists.

To keep with this state of mind, a list of things I've been thinking about in the world of the Internets:

I read this in Peggy Orenstein's Cinderella Ate My Daughter, but the Smithsonian Magazine goes into the historical background of our social construction of girls in pink, boys in blue.

I find this immensely entertaining:


I cannot tell a lie: I love IKEA. Expedit bookshelves, some day you will be mine. Preferably when I don't have to move. It do find their manufacturing practices here in the US to be interesting, though. "It's ironic that Ikea looks on the U.S. and Danville the way that most people in the U.S. look at Mexico"

Oh, Indiana. Yet another misguided attempt at school improvement. Invest in teachers, invest in students, stop investing in money-gobbling assessments. Please.

I have been slightly entertained by this comparison all week.

Kate, once again, leaves me slightly speechless. I need to stop being grumpy when I get ready to run in the morning. I can run, I need to relish that fact.

So many of my childhood memories are caught up in the mall. In the 90's. Hence my obsession with these photos. If only they were taken during those hilarious Christmas craft fairs... that would be awesome.

RIP, Flip Cam. I still love you.

In Which I Blather on about a Building

The above snap is from Widow at Windsor Antiques, a beautiful shop in Springfield, Illinois I visited a few months ago and never got around to writing about. It popped into my head today, strangely enough, as I was walking to class. Obviously, it wasn't always an antique store; the building used to serve a car dealership. The the arched windows on the right side of the building aren't windows at all, but garage doors, allowing the dealers to move large pieces in to the showroom. If French and Belgian antiques are your thing, this shop would be paradise. I'm  not particularly drawn to either of those styles, but I did fall instantly in love with the building. The building itself is amazing - literally a block or two from the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Dana-Thomas House - it is filled with amazing woodwork, beautiful tiling, and that amazing feeling of being in a building that had been cared for and aged well. Oh, the interior arches!

But I digress. I was thinking about this building today. It's stood there for decade upon decade and has managed to reinvent itself over and over again and, because of this, it has stayed relevant. That's a good lesson. One I need to keep in mind: reinvention is okay.

Breath in, breath out.

Sleepy Sunday

I went to an acting conference yesterday and was reminded why I am someone who can run the theatre house but cannot be on stage. The primary workshop was with Javier Cordona, a theatre scholar associated with Theatre of the Oppressed. While not TotO-specific, the workshop totally stretched me, making me uncomfortable at times but giving me insight into performance and the work needed to do acting work. The primary reason for going was to help me think of how to help the kiddos I'm working with in terms of their acting. Insight. Now to think about what to do with it. 

A little linky love before I head off to get work done: 

In the Czech Republic, they've found the remains of a male who was buried surrounded by domestic goods. Of course he must be gay. The oldest gay ever. Bury me with my knitting needles, please... 

... or perhaps just a wool coffin. Can I get this in fair isle, please? 

In preparation for teaching children's literature this summer, I came across this on NPR: children's literature or another genre entirely? 

Distraction, thy name is the Internet. The New Yorker says so. 

With data collection in full swing, I'm trying to stay focused on the task at hand and not borrow trouble about the job market. 

Lastly: How to steal like an artist. Brilliant. 

Happy Sunday, y'all. 

Crochet Color, Exhaustion Version

If PhDs were easy, everyone would have one. At least this is what I am trying to remind myself as I run back and forth from the elementary school, my video camera, tripod, and teaching materials in tow, while trying to balance giving feedback to my undergraduates, prepping for my trade books class this summer, and seeing the Man Friend on a somewhat regular basis. It's a lot and it's left me exhausted, but a good kind of exhausted. My brain is constantly firing and that's a good thing. I'm doing work that is interesting and helpful and I'm just taking it all as part and parcel of wanting to work with pre-service teachers. 

I finished these up last weekend and am just getting around to posting them now. I did break down and buy a skein of Cascade 220 in goldenrod. I know this was a stash-busting exercise, but I needed some brightness of the 70's variety. Also: this is one of my new favorite blogs. A granny a day indeed. 

I Might Need An Intervention

I need to buy a video camera for my dissertation research. So Friday, I set out to see what was available in the wider world of Bloomington and happened to stop into the Goodwill on the far side (at least from where I live) of town. I was talking with my aunt on the phone when I happened across the silverware section and audibly gasped. 

"What?! What?! Are you okay?! What happened?!" 

I was inaudible for a moment, overcome with the stack of Oneida Twin Star flatware that lay before me. There were spoons, large and small, and knives and - blessed be my heart! - forks! It was one of those finds that you dream about when you are collecting starburst silverware. Twin Star! For 20 cents a piece!

"Um... I just hit the motherlode of starburst silverware. You're going to have to talk louder. This might be a while."  

I started gathering starburst silverware toward the end of the summer. I was in a thrift store in Michigan with the same aunt who was on the phone when I happened upon the silverware and began casually going through it. I had dabbled with the idea of collecting Oneida Twin Star right after college, when the now-defunct Betty Crocker catalog resurrected the pattern for exclusive sale through that particular venue. Within a few weeks, the Betty Crocker catalog was no more and I hadn't thought about the pattern much since. Going through that tray of silverware, I became smitten all over again and not just with Twin Star. It seems there was a wide variety of starburst designs and I quickly found a spot on the floor and began sorting out the silverware. My aunt, she has patience. 

Having gathered about twenty pieces that first outing, a bit of an obsession was born. I began haunting the silverware bins at the local thrift stores, hoping I would find those familiar little stars. Some days, I would find just a piece or two - mostly butter knives and spoons, very rarely forks. Other times, I would find a multitude of pieces, close to thirty pieces - including forks! - of a Mar-Crest starburst pattern at a Goodwill in Springfield, IL. When I was driving home for the holidays, I stopped at Goodwill stores along the way and collected over fifty pieces. That's the thing about flatware: it's cheap and the ideal thing to thrift for when on the road due to it's portability. 

So far, I've collected twenty-eight different designs. For quite a few of them, I only have butter knives, but it sounds impressive, no? I love the idea of setting a table with mixed-and-matched sets, cohesive in the midcentury modern starburst fabulousness. There are still designs out there I would love to stumble upon (like this!), but isn't it all about the thrill of the hunt and the serendipitous finds of the thrift store? 

I took some time last night to identify as many of the patterns as I could. They're noted in the photos over on Flickr, should you be interested. 

A bit of crochet color

I still don't quite know what I am doing with all these granny squares (a blanket at some point, I would imagine) but I'm enjoying playing around with the color combinations. I think this particular combo is my favorite thus far: Cascade 220 in chartreuse, como blue, and Atlantic blue. 

I'm getting to the point that I can whip out six of these little things in about an hour and a half. Two episodes of This American Life. There are worse ways to spend Sunday afternoon. I'm up to 48 of these things so far. I figure I need about 372 to make a blanket large enough for a bed. So, yeah... a whopping 13% done. Go me. 

All this started as a way to use up some of my stash. I'm getting there, slowly but surely. 

Highs and Lows

Thursday was a ridiculously high day: I met with the course coordinator for the IU campus I will teach at the coming year to discuss classes and I'm going to get to teach some really phenomenal bits: tradebooks in the classroom (educational talk for children's literature), another assessment class, and (I am most geeked out about this one) research in language education. I essentially get to teach a class about reading research to connect with practice! It's my dream class, providing a conduit between those two seemingly separate worlds and I find myself dreaming of readings. Seriously. I'm pathetic, I know. Thursday was a high. 

Friday was a low. I made an appointment at the student health center to wrap my head around what was happening with my breathing. As in I wasn't doing it all that well. I figured this was my new head cold - I used to get them every fall and every spring but hadn't since moving to Indiana. My lungs ached, my throat was scratchy, they hurt after running. What the heck, right? Allergies, apparently. I've never had allergies in my life, so the world of inhalers and things are totally new to me. So after the PA decides that I don't have bronchitis, as this was diagnosed in the spring, but allergies. He writes me prescriptions and I go get them filled and I go to pay and find out that my student health insurance has expired. Hm. This has never happened before. As a fellowship recipient, I should receive health insurance through the end of the summer. I spent the first portion of the summer working as a graduate assistant for another professor in the department, putting together materials and helping out with teacher study groups, fulfilling my fall duties for my fellowship with a separate contract written for the spring. Apparently, those two contracts were never looked at together, so it looks like I am just teaching one class, not enough for health insurance. (It is important to note that both myself and the office manager in my department cleared the fall semester arrangement with people, so imagine my surprise when my insurance comes up as invalid!) So, the baseline frustration: I have allergies. They don't know to what yet, but I have a massive amount of prescription drugs and inhalers waiting for me upstairs in my bedroom. I do not have insurance. At least not right now. My fingers are crossed that the people in control of contracts and things are working on it. 

And today: today, I am sitting in my kitchen, drinking the last of this morning's pot of coffee and attempting to plan out what to do with my day. I need to finish taxes, accomplish some feedback, read some articles, volunteer for a play. Lots of stuff to do. Now to do it. I'm ready for an even-keel kind of day. 

In Memoriam

I knew Daphane in college, when we were both working to become teachers. She was terribly dedicated and worked hard in her coursework and eventually went on to become a teacher in the Detroit Public Schools. In addition to being a competent, caring teacher, she was a passionate mother and a good, solid friend. In the years between then and now, she and I kept in sporadic contact, emailing at the holidays and when we encountered teaching dilemmas we felt the other might have insight into. I'm still in shock of it all; there is the space that she once occupied but no longer does and I'm never comfortable with that. 

Rest in Peace, Daphane Ramey. You will be missed. 

Chicago Weekend

Highlights: 

* The chicks at the Museum of Science and Industry. They're just so cute. 

* Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me was hilarious. If you have a chance to see a taping - do it. The podcast is 47:30, but the taping was two hours. There's tons of stuff that are edited out - all of it hilarious. 

* Wandering the Lake Michigan shoreline in the morning. 

* The Vivian Maier exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center. Hauntingly beautiful. 

* The food, of course. The Chicago Diner makes the best milkshakes ever, hands down. 

But now it's Monday. Spring Break is officially over and I'm trying to catch up on those few things I didn't finish last week... 

Linky Love: Packing Edition

I'm heading to the Windy City tomorrow with the Man Friend (our first trip - a bit un-nerving) for a taping of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and a visit with my good friend Anne. I think I have everything packed and am just waiting on my sheets to dry before I can go to bed. We will not talk about the orange soda mishap that resulted in my sheets needing to dry. Anyway: links!

Embrace from Ben Sollee on Vimeo.

Ben Sollee won me over in 2008 with Learning to Bend and I found his 2010 collaboration with Daniel Martin Moore, Dear Companion, to be equally lovely. His new album Inclusions is due to hit May 10th and if Embrace is any indication, it's going to be another exquisite collection of songs.

I love it that Local Yarn Stores are making it work - 11% increase in sales last year.

OMG. I all sorts of want. I will restrain because I already have too many unfinished projects lying around, but I think this solidifies my obsession with cuckoo clocks as I want to make this as soon as I can.

I'm ignoring the gender and just declaring this inspiring. After Chicago, of course.

I didn't quite plan on retiring anyway, so this is good news.

I've been fascinated with NPR's series on cultural fragmentation and enjoyed their insights into iCarly, particularly the gendered findings re: audience.

Jesse Brown is a bit of an intellectual badass and he is raising some very interesting issues regarding technology and entertainment regulation in our neighbor to the north.

RIP, Zune. I'm not surprised.

Oh, Japan. You make my heart hurt. This is the where I've sent money, should you be interested.

More Color

A bit more color. I'm finding myself drawn to some pretty retro combinations. Strangeness abounds. 

Thrifty Finds: Embroidery

I've had some decent luck finding some really adorable pieces of embroidery at the antique malls and flea markets lately. I found the above last weekend, which is ridiculously adorable and earmarked to be a holiday gift for a friend. There's something about the cheerful flowers that just makes me smile - hopefully, it will make the recipient smile as well. 

This is a slightly older find. I think I found this at one of the antique markets in Coldwater, MI when I was traveling over the holidays. I originally bought it for my Aunt, who collects samplers, but have been second guessing this as I find myself wanting to add it to my repertoire of wall hangings. It was a ridiculous $2.00 with 60% off, bringing it down to an unbelievable $.80. Obviously, it needs to be cleaned, a task I will take on once I figure out how to remove it from the professional framing with the least amount of damage. But those colors... seriously awesome. 

Come to think of it, I picked up another embroidery piece at an auction over the holidays, although this was Christmas-related and is already packed away with the holiday things. Part of me thinks I'm on the look out for these since I'm making no progress on my own cross stitch projects... 

Color Combinations

I'm still crocheting, although I did have a bit of a snaffu as I continued to work on the original project. After looking through a few You Tube clips, I came to the horrifying conclusion that I had been double crocheting incorrectly. Oh, the shame! So when I went to continue making those previous squares, I found I couldn't duplicate what I was doing previously. Seriously. I couldn't make the mistake on purpose. 

It's possibly a case of running before walking. I tend to do those things. Regardless, I've started making granny squares of a simpler sort, following this tutorial. I don't quite know what I will be doing with them, but it's an interesting exercise in combining colors and thinking through what I have in my stash. Selecting three colors and laying out the various ways they play together color-wise. It's definitely too much fun. 

Just in Case You Needed a Reminder:

Walking the Walk

Oh, Blogger. Why are you not letting me know there is a comment on my blog. There usually aren't many. You can at least let me know when there is one... or two.

Regardless: I'm teaching a class on literacy assessment for preservice elementary teachers this spring and we noticed an interesting disconnect the first day of class. When I asked students about how they would create readers in their classrooms, there was an overarching number of students who said that it was all about connecting readers to books, a la The Book Whisperer. Yet when I asked them about what they were reading, they admitted they weren't reading anything other than what they had to for class (and I sometimes doubt that). So however were they to connect readers to books if they have no idea what is out there?

Then I realized that I do very little reading outside of my own coursework / academic interests... And thus, I began forcing myself to walk the walk I was expecting of my students, reading at least one non-academic book a week and sharing those readings with them during the announcements portion of class. It's been lovely to leave the laptop downstairs and curl up with a book before bed... sometimes tricky, but rather lovely.

Some of the greatest hits recently:

Tinsel :: This book, written by a journalist, seeks to understand the contemporary meaning of the rituals that comprise Christmas as we know it. It's a narrative journey through the 2006 season in Frisco, Texas, and an enjoyable read at that.

Random Family :: I don't know how I haven't written about this one yet. This is a journalistic narrative following a group of teenagers growing up in the Bronx beginning in the early 1980's. LeBlanc follows these people through jail sentences, child birth, geographical moves, relationships, failures... it's breathtaking in the way that it captures the experience of people who are born into certain circumstances and work toward changing those circumstances. Brilliant book.

Before I Fall :: Oh, my. This YA novel had me from the moment I started the first page. I literally tore through this 400+ page book in a little over four hours. While Samantha, the protagonist, tries to think through her life and death, is sometimes frustrating and the prose, at times, sugary-sweet, it was a fully satisfying read.

I just picked up Cinderella Ate My Daughter from the library, which has been making the round on the news sources. While somewhat connected to my research interests, I'm counting it as a pleasure read.

Seven Up

I was in Madison, Wisconsin for a conference a few weeks ago and, in between periods of protesting at the Wisconsin capital, happened to sit in on a session with Dr. Nicholas Hitchon, a physicist. Seeing as the conference was about the intersections of space, time, and literacy, I was a little confused as to why he was presenting, but was excited at the prospect of science goodness within a literacy framework. It turns out that Dr. Hitchon had been one of fourteen British children who had been featured in the 1964 documentary 7 Up, a movie that sought to explore the idea the adult a person is to become is fully seen in the seven-year-old. Michael Apted has followed up with as many of the children as possible every seven years since, following them through some awkward adolescent periods into adulthood. The original program, in some very heavy-handed ways, sought to establish that particular ways of rearing children were more valuable than others. There are some children, particularly Nick, who are painted as childhood tragedies, but life isn't always so predictive.

It's a fascinating study in how our lives are shaped by a strange combination of educational experiences, the circumstances of our birth, our own biologies, and our inner drive. It's also a fascinating look at the ways in which chaos comes into play as we live, while also highlighting just how quickly life moves. I haven't been able to look away, pushing through six of the currently-available seven documentaries.

The Facebook Effect

Yesterday, possibly insane from the euphoria of teaching, I changed my relationship status on Facebook. He of the Hopeful Yarn and I have been together for six months and this was apparently cause enough to make the according changes on his own Facebook page. I think it is somewhat hilarious to point out that I completely missed this action – my housemate had to point it out over breakfast one day – “So you’re official now, huh? You know you’re official when it’s on Facebook.” I immediately grabbed my coffee and went upstairs to confirm for myself, chugging caffeinated liquid life with one hand, typing in the web address with the other. And there it was: he’s now in a relationship. I hoped it was me he was talking about, but kept this thought to myself.

So, three days later, I changed my own relationship status. It was a new thing, really. I’ve been in relationships since joining Facebook in 2003, but never had I declared such. There was certain perlocution in this particular situation: he had validated our unit and it was only proper to do the same.  Right?

In the last twenty-four hours, friends and family have been a-flurry in a massive amount of liking and commenting. I love my friends and family for being happy for me, but it all seems a little strange. I really haven’t accomplished anything other than fooling some poor fool into thinking I was worth hanging around for longer than a week. Furthermore, the core of who I am hasn’t changed all that much. The way I parse my time? Sure, although I think that is more due to the ever-looming dissertation than the relationship.

I continue to fail to get what the big deal is. I happened to be lucky enough to find someone I’m compatible with, with whom I may be with for a while. There are no guarantees that this status will last. Do I hope? Of course I do, but I also hope my friends and family are prepared for the chance of my status reverting back to single. Will they see that as a tragedy, as some of them have seen this as a triumph?

Such questions. 

Things of Interest

Valentine's Day. It's almost upon us. It's also, apparently, overwhelmingly imported from Columbia. 


The American Dream used to include owning one's house; in the increasingly global economy, is that realistic anymore? 


I find myself in this loop more than I would like. 


"Consider this a warning to new mothers: Fourteen years ago, I 'opted out' to focus on my family. Now I'm broke"


I wonder what they are planning on doing with all those soul-less Kindles? Resell them on Amazon? 

Etsy: Valentine's Day Cards

I'm unsure where January went, but here's February with Valentine's Day bearing down on us. I love Valentine's Day if only for the cards. I, in general, adore stationary so any holiday that encourages the use of such stuff makes me ridiculously happy. I spent a ton of time wandering through etsy, so I present some of my favorite Valentine's-inspired cards. 

I love Krank Press and this delightfully simple card is bright and cheery and I all sorts of want it. 

Smock Paper is new to me, but I love their sophisticated, retro designs. The color combo on this card sold me. 

Blackbird Letterpress was a lovely surprise when I visited Baton Rouge this last fall. Their series of die cuts are adorable and this bee is a perfect holder for a love note. 

I am such a huge fan of PaperMichelle and her style. It is bright and whimsical and I love this cuckoo clock card. It makes my toes tingle. 

Parasol Press was another find when I went to the Renegrade Craft Fair this December. I'm totally digging the retro look of this card (available through their main website, but I'm sure coming to their etsy store soon...) 

I bought a few of these... It's always good to have a few back-ups. 

And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down...

It's raining here rather than snowing, covering everything is a layer of ice. The day has been spent inside, emailing in fellowship applications and following the city as it shut down on Twitter. By one this afternoon, the majority of the city and businesses therein where shuttered for the day. It's been raining steadily since two this afternoon; I'm not hopeful for much of anything tomorrow, which would be just fine by me. I would love a day to catch up on it all. 

The freezing rain does make for some beautiful pictures, though. 

The number grows

Crochet progress. Not much progress anywhere else, though.

At least that is how it feels.

Crochet Crazy

And the crocheting continues. I pulled together a few colors at the yarn store a week ago and have been working on a square here and there while finishing holiday gifts. (Yes, still.) I will admit that I'm a bit addicted, even as I question whether that green (chartreuse, how could you go wrong?) belongs with the other colors. It will all come together, I guess. It's come together a bit more quickly thanks to the BBC shows on hulu - I'm finishing up the first series of Kingdom now and want to move to the English seaside. Now, please. 

I'm still not convinced that I will abandon all knitting for the crochet hook - doing so would fly in the face of my "both/and" attempts at navigating my own life, but there are a few bits of inspiration that tempt me: 

Attic24 is ridiculously amazing - and she lives in northern England! Her crochet tutorial for a granny stripe might make it into my list of things to make soon... The brilliant photography doesn't hurt either... 

Pinterest user marybethburrell has collected the most amazing images of crocheted items. They leave me a little antsy, not going to lie... Antsy in a good way, involving a hook and yarn... 

The Royal Sisters is also tempting me with this star granny... 

But first: the last episode in the first season of Kingdom. Then bed. I definitely will not start series 2 tonight... right?