2018: Here we go!

1 January 2018: As I alluded to yesterday, I haven't decided on a blog theme this year. I've been thinking about it for awhile and nothing really came to mind. So instead, I am simply going to aim to post something every day. That's enough. And I have a feeling that the previous three themes that I've done--"a year of thanks," "one good thing," and "listening"--will provide some guidance, almost like templates.

So here we go...my first post of 2018 is a combo "one good thing"/"thanks" post. I am so thankful for these amazing friends who helped me welcome the New Year.

Now she tells me...

11 June 2017: "Yeah. And I am afraid of heights." --my friend Amy, about 8 feet in the air on a precarious ladder, helping me clean a bird's nest out of my dryer vent. This encapsulates pretty darn well what kind of person she is: waiting until she's up there to admit that she wishes she weren't. She's just so kind...it's astounding.

But it also reminds me that I need to ask more questions and listen a bit better for clues before my friends go out of their way to help me. After all, I am so very blessed to have amazing friends and I ought to be mindful not to take them or their generosity for granted.

We did get the nest out (not much a nest--made mostly out of dryer lint, we think and no eggs or baby birds) and get the vent cover back on, though the bird keeps coming back and trying to get through the duct tape we used to seal it the edges. (I voted for efficiency over aesthetics, at least for now.) But for most of the rest of our work, I tried to be the one on the ladder.

Road Trip: Downton costumes and Hamlet!

19 July 2014: Saturday was a nearly perfect summer day. My friends Anna, Hannah, and I took a mini-road trip to Delaware to see the Downton Abbey costume exhibit at Winterthur. In planning the trip, I realized that the Delaware Shakespeare Festival was putting on Hamlet that evening--outdoors, picnicking encouraged. What more could three English-minded folks ask for?

The trip up was fun and traffic-free. The exhibit was fun and interesting. The play was great. The weather was perfect. I mean, picnicking outdoors in July sounds like a risky proposition, but it was pleasant and breezy and lovely. Before the show started, the stage manager came out and made some general announcements. He mentioned that although the forecast called for a 0% chance of rain, if it did rain, the policy is to continue in light rain and, if it gets heavy, stop for twenty minutes and reassess. But again...0% chance of rain, right?

...Until Act 4, Scene 7 (really close to the end). And a light rain started. And the actor playing Laertes, in the really dramatic and sad scene where he learns of his sister's drowning, says the line" Too much of water has thou, poor Ophelia." And the whole crowd cracked up. The actor, God bless him, broke just a bit, briefly smiling and suppressing a chuckle before recovering quite well. It was a terrific moment. You could feel everyone--the actors, the crew, the audience--just hoping and pulling for the show to finish before the rain picked up. It actually ended (more or less) by the sword fight in the final scene. Anyway, a great night and a great day!

Oh--and I won the drawing for a free t-shirt!

Some pictures:

Cora's outfit from Baby Sybil's christening. 

Mary and Matthew's outfits from the cricket match.

Daisy and Mrs. Patmore's dresses.

Sigh! Mary and Matthew's outfits from their engagement scene. The scene itself was playing on a large scene in the background, with snowfall projected all along the wall. Very emotional!

One of Matthew's suits.

Sybil's shocking pants!

Sybil and Mary's dresses from Edith's (canceled) wedding. Edith's dress was there, too, but my picture didn't come out.

The exhibit had memorable lines of dialogue on the walls. This one made me laugh.

 

 Anna and Hannah picnicking before the show.

"Hey!"

18 July 2014: After the successful end of the final A&R session, I had dinner with my some of my favorite people from work. We had a great time, laughing and being a bit silly, especially after sharing and watching this ridiculous video.



You know you are lucky when you have friends you can laugh with like this.

A toddler's birthday party...

16 July 2014: Today my friends' daughter turned one and they had a little party for her. I actually haven't hung out with these friends in a while, so it was lovely to catch up with them, see their kids, see some other friends and their kids, and just relax a bit. And it was a gorgeous day today: low 80s, no humidity. A perfect afternoon/evening!

Catching up with a good friend...

8 July 2014: Liz W. ("Wilkie"), one of my dearest grad school friends, now lives all the way in Minnesota, so we don't get to see each other very often. Especially frustrating are those times when she's back on the East Coast, visiting her family in Northern Virginia and we still can't work out a get-together. Such is the case with her most recent visit. She's flies back to Minnesota tomorrow and we didn't get a chance to hang out. But we did manage to have a great phone conversation just a little while ago. Talking with her always makes me smile. And laugh my butt off. Example? I told her about my dental issues (sigh...) and, at the end of our conversation, she said, "Good luck with all things oral." I am still laughing at that sign-off.

The perfect relaxed dinner...

28 May 2014: Today wore me the heck out. I think part of it is that I didn't sleep all that well last night (and the night before). Then, after a long-ish day at school (for the summer, anyway), I rushed home to get the lawn mowed before the rain started. (I am a bit pathological about this--about getting the whole thing done in one shot.) And that meant hurriedly mowing the lawn in hot, gross, and humid weather. But I did it--and beat the rain (and it still hasn't rained, which is kind of annoying). I took a shower, did some other work, and then went to meet my friend Anna for dinner.

I found myself a bit worried that I wouldn't be a good dinner companion--I was feeling so tired and mellow and chill. But it was actually a lovely time--the perfect way to spend an evening that I would have otherwise spent vegging out on the couch or something. We went to a pretty mellow restaurant, which helped. More than that, though, I am grateful for a friend with whom I can just be kind of tired and yawn-y (new word?) and still have a good time.

Phone date...

4 February 2014: (A couple of days late with this one!) Got to catch up with my dear friend Heather on Tuesday night. She's all the way in Arkansas and we don't see each other very often, but each time we talk, it's like no time has passed. At the same time, I find myself so impressed at the person she has become as the years have gone by. I mean, she was always terrific, but she seems to get better every year. Her family is dealing with some challenges, but she handles them with such grace and humor. How lucky I am to have her in my life!

Christmas 2012: Stop in Philadelphia

This holiday season was a good one for me. I started my break with a stop in Philadelphia and visited with Vogel and David. Fun times!

The first day I was there, David and I visited the Eastern State Penitentiary, something I have wanted to do for a long time. It was really interesting. The different parts of the prison really tell the story of how attitudes about human nature, crime, and rehabilitation have changed over the centuries. I was most interested in the nineteenth-century stuff, of course, but there's lots to be learned about the twentieth century. Al Capone spent time here, after all.

Standing in one of the shower rooms. As I was posing, David said something inappropriate like, "Imagine yourself surrounded by all those men."

David standing in the "center center," the place in the original structure where a guard could see down each corridor. Foucault would be impressed.

A tree growing out of the top of the old wall.

The death row cells.

Buttons for the death-row cells. These were the only cells with electric locks.

Later, we met up with Vogel and had dinner in the city. Very yummy!

Me and Vogel at dinner. 

All in all, a great way to start my holiday break!

Visiting the National Tree

Jane and I visited the National Tree in DC this past weekend. It was cold and crowded, but fun!

 The New York Tree. I found myself feeling loyalty for a lot of the trees (NC, VA, NY, WV), but ultimately chose 2: NY and WV.

 
The West Virginia Tree.

Jane, the Washington Monument, and the tree.

After Jane took a picture for some nice people, they took one for us.

The tree with just a few of the 57 others that surrounded it.

Jane's arm and the Virginia Tree. It was really crowded down there and hard to get photo ops. Jane said this was okay.

The White House.

Also, we saw this Peep Mobile parked downtown. Random.

One more quick link...

Check out this Greensboro News & Record story about the happy ending for my grad-school friend, John, and his family, who brought their baby son home from Ethiopia earlier this week. (Non-Greensboro friends: You might remember John, Sarah, and Emma from this post.)

Fall wrap-up

Now that I am catching my breath, here are some photo highlights (?) from this past semester...

First, there were the conferences...


Vogel and I at SSAWW in Philadelphia in October. This is the one decent photo I have from that conference.


Aaron and David at SAMLA in Atlanta in November. A couple of hotties, right?


Gretchen was at SAMLA, too, and we totally geeked out over her presence at the book displays. The above photo is a blurb she has on the back of this book.


And of course we had to get a photo of her just happening to notice her own book on sale.

Of course, it wasn't all about glamourous conferences and travel this semester. There was also, as I've complained about a lot on this blog, tons of freakin' work to do!


Not everyone was happy about all that work. Here are Bing and Wes doing their best to talk me into taking a break one night. This was in the middle of advising, as evidenced by the spring course schedule and catalog in the picture.


Bing's tactics got increasingly desparate that night. "If she won't stop, I'll just throw myself on the papers and look cute."

Again, it was a long semester!

But there were some fun moments, like the one below, from Allison's Halloween party.


Why yes, that is Little Red Riding Hood, Marie Antoinette, and a poor imitation of the Octomom.

Jane is back! (And I am so bad at taking pictures...)

Seriously, how often do I post something like, "I didn't take too many pictures"? What is up with that? You would think that I would have taken a ton of pictures to mark the momentous return of the fabulous Jane and my visit with her on Saturday, but I failed once again. I mean, I didn't even get a picture of the two of us, which really bugs me.

I did take a few, though, on our shopping trip. Jane, Kara (Jane's super-cool sister) and I hit Kohl's to get some essential clothing items for Jane, whose wardrobe took a real beating during her two years in Azerbaijan.

Lord knows why anyone thought I would be good at helping her find clothes (have you seen what I wear?), but she was very lucky to have Kara's help. Seriously--Kara could do this professionally. Watch out, Stacy and Clinton. I, on the other hand, did some very good putting things back on the racks and saying, "I like that a lot!"

Every once in a while, I would pretend to be a camera person from "What Not to Wear" and snap a picture.


Jane, arms overflowing with clothes. I know it's blurry, but doesn't she look thrilled to be back in the good old US of A?

Jane is always a good sport when I get a bit silly, so here she is posing for me in her possible "job interview outfit."



I told her that she looked like she doing the pregnant lady "this is my baby" pose, so we should try again.

She said, "Okay, I'll make 'serious face' now."



I think someone spent a bit too much time in a former Soviet state, because this looks like something out of a USSR propaganda poster--and I love it.

Nice outfit, though, right? And it must have worked, because word on the street is that the girl already has two job offers. Not bad after only 4 days back in the country. She rocks like that.

Meeting Ainsley

On the last Friday in June, I got to do something I've been waiting to do since September: meet Rita's baby girl, Ainsley. Rita and company were down in the DC area visiting family, so we met up in Frederick (and visited Wonder Book, which was also super fun).

Some pictures from that day:


Check out the red hair and blue eyes. What a cutie she is! And she was so sweet and friendly. Within minutes of meeting her, I was carrying her all over the store and listening to her baby talk (which was mostly laughter and squeals of delight).


Mommy and baby. Mikey (aka "Daddy") was there, too, but I didn't get any pictures of him. Sorry, dude.


Yet another baby-napping in progress? It was hard to let her go and say good-bye to her, Rita, and Mikey again. I need to get myself up to MA for a nice, long visit.

Baby Abigail

Check out this amazing little baby. Congrats to Mike and Amber. Amber, I spent some of today looking through old letters and cards from my college days (getting ready for the big move), and they reminded me how much your friendship has always meant to me. (And also how freakin' funny you are.)

And now you are a mom--wow! Abigail is a lucky little girl to have you as her mother--and I am lucky to have you as a friend.

[end of sappy post]

Greensboro Visit: Aaron's Graduation Party

The main reason for my visit was, of course, Aaron's graduation party, hosted by David. Some pictures from that night...and yes, there was karaoke.


Will (who refuses to smile normally in pictures), Vogel, and John. John is the father of one of the coolest and cutest kids in the world, Emma. Emma was at the party too (along with Sarah, her mom and John's wife). When Sarah told us that Emma loved to sing and dance, we decided that we needed to do a number for her. Unfortunately, the karaoke machine did not have her current favorite song (Beyonce's "Single Ladies"), but we learned that she also loves Abba. So....


Vogel, me, and Will singing "Take a Chance on Me" for Emma.


Emma and her mom watching us sing. Emma, we would learn, though, is no mere observer.


Soon, she joined in, singing along with us. Folks, if you want people to actually enjoy your karaoke singing, having a baby join you is a surefire way to make that happen. Well, that and having a good singing voice. We went with the baby option.


Vogel and Deirdre. Notice the orange object on the bottom of the picture. David threw a carrot. We don't know why.


David and Craig.


David and I dueting. I think this was when we did "A Whole New World" (from Alladin). David didn't really know the words and it was way out of my range, so I don't think it was that pleasant for anyone listening. But it was fun.


Courtney and I bringing some Latin flavor to the night, doing a bit of Enrique Iglesias. "Bailamos!"


Cameron, Kenny, and Aaron. (Cameron and Kenny are Aaron's friends from way back...)


Another shot of Aaron and his friends, this time joined by Jason.

A very fun night!