(continuing the "number of..." mantra from last post)
Number of actual seminars attended: one
Number of hours spent reading for that one class: 12 (this sounds bad—I guess to my defense, I have been reading really easy fiction for the last six months and my break from academic reading shows.I assume this will get better. :flexing intellectual muscles:)
Number of classes that I haven’t been to yet of which there is bound to be much more complicated, theoretical, reading to muddle through: 2
Number of class periods taught: two (so far so good!—I amazed myself and rattled off each of their names on the second day.)
Number of times attempted to get over to gym to figure out swim schedule: 0 :( (this week!)
Number of really cool, outdoor social or community events that I have attended and enjoyed with my family in the last week: 3 (this is significant because is surpasses the number of events comfortably attended in August during our YEARS in Arizona)
One little side thing to mention:I am wondering when meeting with and talking to the professors that I admire in our department will feel less like hanging out with rock stars.I hope it doesn’t fade too quickly.Since they are also so nice, hanging out with them makes me feel like I am FRIENDS with rock stars.Pretty much my boyhood dream realized.
We have been in Champaign now for 16 days. In those days, 3 is the number of times we have gone out to eat at Chipotle as a family (I've been one more time than that)--shout out "thanks!" to Wendy here. 3 is also the number of times that we have patronized a certain custard shop right down the street from us for 1 and 2 dollar ice cream waffle-cones. 3 is also the number of times that Seth has watched Star Wars in the last few days. He has decided that he is over his fear or the live action movies and is especially into "A New Hope" because it has both the Millennium Falcon and the X-wing in it.
The last four days for me have been spent in a new grad student orientation. One of those days it was just a general session (this is how many years you can expect to be here before receiving the PhD, this is how we support our students, this is what grad student life is like, etc.). The last three days have been teacher training days. I am teaching one section of Rhetoric 103 (basically Writing or English 101--maybe later I will go into the details of how they run freshman composition here). It has been good. My particular session has been with four other incoming grad students who, like me, have already had some teaching experience. So I am currently thinking a lot about the syllabus and class expectations documents that I am going to have to have ready when my class begins on Wednesday. Overall, I would have to say that I am very pleased with the people, the program, and the particulars of the department and campus. I have office space wherewith I can commiserate/share ideas with other students who are teaching the same material as I am. I am excited to being teaching and hope to have some fun experiences to share.
One of the things that was said numerous times at our first day of orientation was that a graduate student's first obligation is to their coursework and second to their teaching. There was some talk about how it is easy to let teaching be the thing that gets a lion's share of the time and resources devoted to it, because it is the thing that provides immediate rewards. Also, when you are teaching, there is no hiding if you are under prepared. You can hide out in a class that you haven't prepared for as much. This seems very true, and will be difficult to balance. I am much more confident (duh!) about my abilities in the classroom as a teacher than I am in my abilities in the ever-scary graduate seminar (class). I picked up several of the books for some of the classes that I am taking, but really had to rethink whether I wanted to take one of them merely by the materials that were required for it. This one class had more books (and tough materials at that!) required for it than all of my other classes put together! So, I am dealing with those kinds of anxieties.
I have been walking a lot. The institute parking lot that I have been parking at is clear on the other side of campus from the English building. My shin muscles especially (maybe because of all the stair climbing?) are sore. Either next week or the following, I will be making frequent visits to the gym. Maybe then I will stop feeling so out of shape and round. :)
There have been a few frustrating moments this week that have added a bit to the already stressful nature of beginning at the University. The picture below is a representation of one of those frustrations. At the beginning of the week, my old, indestructible Powerbook started giving me trouble. Basically, the little female adapter started coming loose so that it wouldn't recognize the male adapter when it was plugged in. Since the battery is already shot, this little problem caused it to completely loose its charge, eventually making it impossible to power up. I thought that maybe I could fix it (if you are laughing right now, don't worry, you're not alone. Somebody else seems to think that I am the antithesis of "handy"). I went to Home Depot and bought my first soldering iron.
After what had to be an hour I finally got it to the state that you see below. Getting that little chip out and accessible was nearly impossible. You can see the little thing that I needed to fix sticking out in the middle. Sure enough, it had come unsoldered from the circuit board. I did what I could to reattach it and thought that I had been successful, but when I put it all back together, it still wouldn't work. Mat thinks I may have fried it with the soldering iron being too hot. I can imagine that happening because everything is so close together on the board. But still it stinks. Having that computer was super useful (and I am ever-so gracious to Mat for hooking me up with it in the first place). A new laptop, while it will happen eventually, is a little ways down on the list of current necessities, so I'm gonna have to make do without one for now.
Here, however, is a Home Depot success story. While we were there looking for the soldering iron, I came across several wall-hanging devices that I thought might work for my guitars. Space is limited here, so i thought it would be cool to get a few of them up on the wall. I found these broom/outdoor appliance hangers for 6 bucks and they do the trick quite nicely, I think. The acoustic guitar body is too deep to work, so I've got a little tribute to Fender going on instead.
We have done most of the picture hanging in the house by now. I am particularly pleased with how these pieces look--thanks, Mom, for the perfect IKEA frames.
Finally, one of the very best things about being here is that fresh produce is super-accessible. Yesterday we went to the Farmer's Market in Urbana and got some fresh tomatoes, cucumbers (small like the should be!), corn and onions. The tomatoes especially are delicious. We are looking forward to growing some of our own next year.
I had a proud moment at lunch when I made what was already destined to be a delicious BLT all that much better. We used spinach instead of lettuce, added red onion, two kinds of tomato, and right before eating it, Tina was cutting a pear and I thought, "ah-ha! that would be so awesome on it too!" And it was. Here is my first (hopefully of many) food pic. We were trying to figure out what to call it. B-Stop? (bacon, spinach, tomato, onion, pear).
p.s. I am not the biggest fan of the band "the Fray." I have kind of played them off because of their huge commercial success. I don't know. Maybe it's the dude's haircut. But I don't know that I can diss/resist too much longer. A few weeks ago when I was driving the huge Penske truck back to the Penske place, their song "Over My Head" came on the radio. There have been moments lately when I feel this same way.
I had a little visitor today while I was beginning to read the text that I will be using in the class I am teaching this fall. I hoped for a better, front-view shot, but this was as good as I could get. The color is brilliant though, isn't it?
Seth loves eggs. He especially loves eggs that have a runny yolk. When we first started feeding them to him, I coined the name "egg volcano" to get him excited about the yummy yellow ooze that would come out of the egg when poked.
Since then, we have a ritual for eating them--a song really. Everyone in our family knows it. It's to the tune of "Woody's Roundup" from Toy Story 2:
Egg Volcanoes Come on and eat some eggs Egg Volcanoes They're so good for your legs Oh well, it's time for egg volcanoes They're the very best They're the rootin'-est tootin'-est 'canoes In the Wild Wild West Egg Volcanoooes.
It's a cute song. We all love to sing it. We've noticed, actually, that Maryn likes to sing it as well. We'll be driving along in the car and we'll hear her little voice in the back singing "egg bolcanoes..." it's cute.
There is this Ben Folds song on his most recent album titled “Sentimental Guy.”The chorus is actually a lament that he used to be a sentimental guy.Though the rest of the song isn’t really applicable to my own life, I would say that that one line is very much true for me.I used to be a sentimental guy.If there is one thing that re-reading those old letters that I sent to Tina while I was on the mission has reminded me, it is that once upon a time, I was a real sweetie.Not only that—I could also write one serious love letter.I’m afraid that I’m just not as heart-on-my-sleeve as I used to be.I’ll admit—living in this new world is less of an emotional roller coaster, but some of that old sweetness sure would come in handy on a day like today:My sweet wife’s birthday.So without many bells or whistles, let me just say this:
My wife is still, after 7 years of marriage and 11 years of togetherness the perfect girl for me. And more now than ever before, I am in love with her.
She is a wonderful mother.Our children are better people because of her love and patience.They will turn out alright, mostly because of their mom.
She has a sense of humor that is both smart and keen.
She is beautiful.Have you seen her?Good grief.
She is patient with my daily bouts of selfishness.
And most poignant of all right now, she followed me halfway across the country in order for me to pursue my dreams.
I know that some of you (Mom) have been waiting all week for some pictures, so here are some (finally). Last night we got the remainder of the stuff put away, and now it's just a matter of getting pictures hung and that kind of stuff.
There is an update on the status of the jonstone.com purchase. The "other" Jon Stone finally has the cash together, so the site's days are numbered. It has been a good run. I am thinking that rather than mirror what is on the current site in a new domain, I am just going to start an online Picassa page with new pictures. I will send out a link to that site as soon as jonstone.com goes black (here's to hoping that whatever www.jonstone.com is about to become is not a naughty site that people will go to expecting to see our kids!)
Front Door
Front Room
Kitchen
Basement Playroom
Computer Area
Back Door
Backyard Area (thumbs up from Seth)
As you can see, the backyard isn't really that grassy, but the kids should have some fun exploring back there (that is, if Seth can overcome his fear of bugs!). I know that there aren't any pictures here of the upstairs rooms. I will get those up eventually. For now, just imagine three very small rooms.
We made it. And not only did we make it, but we made it without any serious incident or occurrence and even managed to have a little fun along the way. I assume we will get some pictures up soon--my internet has only been working for about 4 hours.
Champaign is lovely. It reminds me a little of Logan and Cache Valley but without the mountains. The homes here are nice and many of them are older but very well kept. The town has almost everything that Tina could want by way of shopping. And the University, of course, is beautiful.
I don't have to do anything school related until next Wednesday, so the next week can be spent organizing our home and exploring the town.
We are in the process of switching our phone numbers and stuff...when I get all that worked out, I will send a mass email.
When we first arrived on Friday night we went out into our little backyard area and were greeted with little flame-like flashes of light. Fireflies. None of us had ever seen them before and their tiny beauty was a calming welcome to us.
