It's May, and I'm turning the corner from another spring semester to the summer season: one of the best perks of my academic job! I realized I hadn't posted here in a while, so I wanted to capture a few of the things that have happened since fall.
Over winter break, we celebrated Christmas (here in BG, the two of us). We're figuring out some nice traditions together, and also thankful for how easy it is to stay connected with family from a distance with phone and video chats.
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| Lights Before Christmas at the Toledo Zoo |
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Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village
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| new Christmas tree (bought on Black Friday) |
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| Mark & me at the Toledo Zoo Christmas lights again |
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| selfie with Mark and the tree on Christmas |
After Christmas, Mark went to a bowl game with the BGSU marching band, then straight to California for the Parade of Roses with the New England Honor band (skip ahead to 2:00-2:10 to see Mark). This was another opportunity that came up because of Mark's connection with Jon (BGSU's marching band director), who put together this group of mostly high school students from the New England area to participate. Mark taught the drumline.
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| pic of Mark with the drumline (downloaded from FB) |
While he was gone, I hosted a New Year's Day open house! This worked out really well for me because I had something fun to plan and got to see a lot of friends who stopped by.
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| food on the table: tea sandwiches, chex mix, sweets, etc. |
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| dessert bread & cookies |
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| sugar cookies & scones |
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| two pots of tea, keeping warm under Mom's tea cozies |
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| chips & hot dip |
BGSU's spring semester started in mid-January. I had 3 online sections of the first-year writing course I've been teaching (online) for the last few spring semesters, plus 1 section of a grad writing class. This was the 3rd time I've taught that grad writing class, which I really like, but for various reasons, we ended up offering it online instead of in person. I was actually pretty excited to have the all online (asynchronous) schedule after what felt like a very demanding fall! I have a list of things to change for next time in both classes, but most of the students were great, and I do enjoy working from home. I also figured out, though, that I need to get myself out of the house and make sure I'm seeing people regularly, so I made more of an effort to work on campus about once a week. That was a good idea!
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| my little home office with a view |
Meanwhile, Mark's spring was unusually full because of the FMB's trip to Ireland to march in the St. Patrick's Day parade! This involved weekly evening rehearsals leading up to the trip, and quite a bit more logistical work for Mark than he expected. In the end, though, a group of about 300 students and staff made the trip. They were there for about a week, so they got to do quite a few cool touristy things before marching in two parades on St. Patrick's Day. Here are videos: Dublin (watch from :36 to :42) and Celbridge (starting at :49).
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| group photo of the band (downloaded from FB) |
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a picture of the Dublin parade, which I watched
live on TV (it was broadcast on PBS Create) |
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social media pic
from the snare section |
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another social media
pic from the snares |
Those are the biggest updates, but here are more pictures of some of the other things we've been up to.
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| winter break outing with friends to Marblehead |
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| me by the water...it was quite cold and blustery! |
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a hockey game while Mark was out of town;
two former students of mine are on the ice! |
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| visiting Angela in Ann Arbor |
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| selfie with Angela in the graffiti alley |
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the beginning of a gas line replacement
project in the alley by our house |
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gymnastics meet
(I still have one former student on the team) |
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| celebrating Mark's birthday with chocolate cake |
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selfie with Mark at a hockey game, this time with
the athletic band (the drumline is in the background) |
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| the Beetlejuice musical in Toledo |
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| more gas line work, this time in our yard |
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| with friends, trying a tea place in the Toledo area |
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my plate: soup and a sandwich
(they also offer proper tea, which I want to try sometime) |
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about to watch Mark perform with the
Lima Symphony Orchestra |
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| Mark and others warming up on stage |
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catching a free Korean movie
in Ann Arbor with Angela |
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followed by a University of Michigan
gymnastics meet (very fancy arena!) |
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we also saw Stomp! this season...which
we saw together back when we were dating! |
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kept in touch with the ABQ niece & nephew
through weekly video chats and lots of pics from Julie |
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| another musical: Pretty Woman |
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| the bluebells at Wintergarden preserve |
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| the bluebells at our house! |
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went to the Charlie & the Chocolate factory musical
at a local high school. My student was Willy Wonka!
(photo downloaded from the school FB page) |
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celebrated the end of the semester with Mark at
United Way's Chocolate Crawl in Downtown BG |
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