Presentations and Power

I've emerged from last week slightly sleep deprived and over caffeinated. Last week went much better than I expected on most accounts. I have to thank my professors for a couple class-wide extended due dates.

I gave my longest academic presentation on Wednesday. Thirty minutes! I definitely could have gone for forty though. I managed to weave the history of "textbooks/curriculum" spanning from Hornbooks to McGuffey Readers (briefly touching on the Dick and Jane Basal Readers) with how they perpetuated the social norms and contributed to national stability and unity. Webster's desire for a national identity was an important part as well as the shift from oral literacy to written literacy. We sped through the Puritanism, Presbyterian/Calvinism, Protestantism and Victorian morality. Year II of Worldviews of the Western World came back with a vengance as I explained who Cromwell was, spoke about "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", defined creed vs. catechism and gave a brief overview of the Calvinist beliefs. Thanks, Mom and Dad! I even had a little hornbook and recitation activity. I was out of breath by the end trying to cover all the material. Dr. W. had that goofy grin on his face for most of my presentation that means he's pleased (either that or he was stunned). :) He only stopped me once to emphasize something so I think it went well. I'm not trying to sound my own praises but this was one of the most notable and exciting things this week.

Well, that and the electricity issues, we've had.

We had half of the breakers in the kitchen, laundry room and my room go out. We switched the breakers and nothing happened, so we put a work order in. A couple hours later, I looked at the breakers and realized that one whole bank of breakers were off. We had flipped them on and back off not realizing which direction they should go. We canceled the work order. ;)

Today, when I came home from church, I went into the kitchen and turned on the lights. The incandescent lights were really dim. I went into the bathroom where the lights are really bright, but they were dim too! I thought I was going blind... either that or my eyes were taking way too long to adjust from coming inside. Then the florescent tubes went out. My roommate lost power at that point and we watched appliances and lights turn off one by one. It's a little creepy. I called the management company who referred me to the electric company. Turns out there was an equipment failure. We got power back around 2:30.

This Day

Today was... amusing. I started the day composing a blog post in my head which disappeared about noon. At least a computer would have saved it.

I dropped my stainless steel water bottle in the library on the hard floor so the sound of it dropping and rolling reverberated up to the third floor. Oops! Thankfully, the librarians don't shush on the first floor.

In my first class, the principal from one of our partner schools was visiting. She was on call though from the school as she had a 2nd grader pummel her this morning (mom and the school psychologist were involved in the situataion) but she was going to be needed back soon. She's a really awesome principal with some great strategies and believes in her teachers! I'm looking forward to when she comes back just for in the trenches story day. She was there today to explain how her school was working to fulfill No Child Left Behind.

I discovered that my physics professor left our final exams in a box in the hallway during break for us to pick up but the box has gone missing and with it my exam! Not happy about that! Other than my work and amazing grade ;) there isn't much information to be gleaned but still...

I need to give a 3 minute speech this week on a current event for my touchy feely argumentation class. You mean I have to be nice and argue at the same time? ;)

Next week, I get to teach a 30 minute section of my history of education class. My topic? The Blue Back Speller, McGuffey Readers, Horn books and New England Primer as a source of stability/standards in education! I'm loosely affiliated with the Noah Webster group. I'm actually really excited about this but nervous about getting the research done in time. Especially since my first teaching test is Saturday!!! I grew up reading the McGuffey Readers (the fourth one is my favorite). I'm such a book nerd!

Once next week is over, I should be able to breathe a little more but until then:
LIVE as Jesus would
LAUGH just because
LOVE like God commanded us

Random musings

The following are random collections of thought that have little connection between them.

My brain was a week ahead last week. Somehow the 22nd was the weekend before the 4th, 5th and 6th. Wishful (?) thinking.

After replacing most of the power steering stuff on my car, we now are mysteriously losing power steering fluid. hmmm.

Classes started today. I couldn't sleep last night. I wish it was because I was excited or because The Horse and His Boy was that exciting. But no. I was in worried mode. I need to find a summer job. My roommate is going to steal my olive oil because I couldn't communicate my thoughts well. My W2s are missing from two of my employers. My textbooks I ordered online are going to be late and I'll fall behind. Do I need to buy turbo tax? What if the apartment burns down because my roommate is cooking? Yeah.

I'm a dealer. Book dealer that is. I spent this morning giving people books, buying books from friends and figuring out how to make the most out of our literary financial investments. Wall Street has nothing on the buying, selling and trading that happens on a college campus.

My Car

My car celebrated it's 23rd year on the road as of January. I was two that year but I didn't meet the Blue Buckaroo until 7 years ago. We've celebrated in a grand style... with a trip to our favorite repair shop! I was hoping the birthday visit would just be a quick, cheap (haha) fix. Knowing my car, I had a slight hope that the problem would disappear when we pulled in like the random temperature gauge fluctuations that never seems to show up at the repair shop.

No such luck.

My car has other special "features" too. Ever seen the Bill Nye: The Science Guy grass car?
It looked something like this:

Photo curtesy of: http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2548389&page=2

Well, my car likes that look! Only on the inside...

Every winter, the wheel well in the trunk becomes Lake Sparetire. When the car warms in the sun, the water condenses on the trunk roof and then it "rains".

Yes, ladies and gentlemen there you have it... the complete water cycle! TADA!

I could grow a tropical rain forest if I had lights back there.

For a while, I had a waterfall feature in the front seat passenger side: courtesy of the sunroof. My sister still ducks when she gets in the car during rainy weather.

This winter, I had a marsh spring up on the driver's side front and back carpets. I'm thinking at this rate, I should look into rice farming. Or at the very least, growing sprouts in there.

My car: the new urban growing space!?!

New Beginnings

I feel a slight obligation to post some synopsis of the last year and reflect on all the changes that have happened.

Well, here is 2010 in one word: change.
Good change.
Hard change.
Sad change.
All of it God changed.

But God himself doesn't change!

Odd happenings

I promised (hinted) before leaving for the land of Spare Oom that I would share the not so quiet night before leaving to come home.

That night, I went to bed around 11:00 (so much for that routine) and dropped off about midnight. At 2:30 a.m., one of my roommates came into the house talking on her cell phone. After going in and out of her room a couple times, she settled in and the house was quiet again.

At 5:30, I was wakened by the sound of someone (male) banging on our front door and calling loudly "RAAAYBEEEE!" I waited a little bit thinking someone knew this person was coming and was expecting him. No one answered the door and he kept calling out: "RAAAYYBEEE! I'm heerre RAAYBBEE!" Then he tried the door knob! Don't worry, we keep our doors locked.

At this point, I became my mother when we disturb her sleep; I poked my head out my door (I can see the window out onto the porch from my door so I could see a young man with a backpack standing at the door) and said, "Excuse me, but some people are trying to sleep around here"! You have to say it in a very short, clipped, firm manner to get the full effect. He bent to peer in the window (which was open, thus he could hear me) and apologized while asking if Ray lived here. My response: "Unfortunately, he does not!" Once again in a short, clipped and now slightly exasperated manner. He apologized again and left. I went and closed the window, dropped the blinds all the way and double checked the door.

It was such a weird experience. I'm just so thankful it turned out the way it did. I actually find it funny and laughable! I wonder if he found RAYYBEEE!

P.S. I know I haven't posted pictures from my garden lately but I was a little embarrassed as my easy to grow, never had trouble before, beautiful peas have died off or are in the process of dying. I don't know what happened exactly but I've never had trouble with gardening and to admit failure doesn't come easy to me. My garden also is looking neglected as finals and going home left them a little abandoned. Pics will come "soon". ;)

I want a t-shirt that says: I Survived Finals at ____ University!

I survived finals. Not that many of them resembled traditional finals. I had two exams, two presentations and two letters to write. Prior to all that madness, was the week(s) of the paper.

I think that everything came off well. I did my best. I didn't obsess though. The hardest part of finals for me is letting go of my expectations and perfectionism. I think I did well this time. I went to the Christian club Christmas Party. I celebrated a friend's birthday by going out to eat. Basically, I didn't hibernate with my books while biting my nails. I watched a Lord Peter Wimsey DVD and fell in love with his chair:

It's not the best picture but I really like the pattern and colors. I also sprinkled my studying with Lord Peter short stories.

Back to finals... (the thought process here is representative of finals week) :)

My exam on Monday for Learning and Teaching was straight forward but I think I write too much! The physics exam was straight forward. There were a couple of points I could have studied better but over all it was a good straight forward test. It helps when the TEN point extra credit portion came straight from the review session the day before. I am so glad I didn't skip!

The group presentation for culture went well. The professor brought pizza since we were the last and only group to present that day. How to ensure an audience: food. The presentation went well; my closing was inspired by God since none of us had prepared a closing. I had a lovely chat after class with the professor regarding adoption outside of one's ethnicity and culture. Adoption is near and dear to my heart and I was curious as to what I could/should do as a someday mother of children that may not look like me or be of the same culture.

I spent most of my study time working on a narrated power point presentation on national education standards. It worked out but was super time consuming.

For my major pro seminar class, I had to turn in an action piece for my critical issue. I ended up writing to my senators and representative regarding national education standards. The second half of the project was justifying my reasoning.

The last letter, was to the president of the university regarding student support of the climate change initiative. That was ridiculous as our lab data was totally flawed and not useful. It was nice though to write the letter with new friends.

To round out the finals week experience, I had my post-final dream. I always have a dream after finals where I'm late to class, forgot something or missed the final. This time I was there for the physics final but was too distracted to write! I was approached by another student in the dream to take their test for them. The teacher caught on to what happened (I said no) and the other student turned in their paper with my name written all over it. The dream ended with me trying to convince the professor that I should be allowed to finish my test. He was being non-committal (just like in real life). He finally asks me to explain what I studied. I blank, and when I start to give a really good explanation of what nuclear fission is: I wake up. At that point I have to give myself a reality check of what is real and that I did finish all my finals!

Friday I was car-less as the alternator went out Thursday resulting in a tow, finding a new auto shop and a fun evening out with friends culminating in a Trader Joes run. On Friday, I went to the graduating senior project/thesis presentations. I am now really excited about the possibilities for my project! I got my car back yesterday after a introduction to the local bus system and enjoyed a quiet evening. At least until I went to bed! But that is a story for another day.

I am off to the land of Spare Oom.
Enjoy the Holiday!