Summer Done List

Last summer, I wrote a similar post and really enjoyed it, so I think it ought to become a tradition. Although I enjoy my job and do look forward to a fresh start each fall, there's always a bit of longing for more summer time...it's such a lovely season that it's hard to see it go. It also feels like there's never enough time to do all the things I thought I'd do at the beginning of the summer, so it's nice to reflect on what actually did happen. We've actually been back in school for two weeks now, so this post is a bit delayed, but it still seemed worth it to put together. So, here's what I did this summer:

• Travel: I love that over the last few years Mark and I have been able to find both time and money to do more travelling. This summer was no exception (plus, each set of parents funded one trip, so that was a huge blessing!). 
• Cedar Point: we debated getting season passes, but ultimately decided to go for just one day. We went back in May, the week after school was out, which was nice because the crowds were pretty small, but the weather was unseasonably cold. Still, we had a good time and got to ride all the major rides we wanted to.

• Mark's family in Missouri: in June, we met up with Mark's parents, siblings, and grandpa for time at Bunker Hill. We also had cold, rainy weather there, but good quality time together. 

• Alaska: also in June, my parents hosted an incredible land-and-sea adventure in Alaska. If you read the blog regularly, you'll have heard all the details already :-). 

• Kentucky: see my previous post about visiting my good friend Angela. :-)

• Professional: I think having a summer break is one of the great perks of teaching, and I generally try to use most of my summer break as a break. Still, I usually try to do some professional development during the summer, and I'm open to some teaching.
• I keep a running list of things I'd like to read for professional development. This summer, I read a book that was used to develop a lot of the standard materials for the Writing Program at the University of Arizona, and will be useful to me as I continue to refine my teaching in the first-year writing program here. I also tried to catch up on newsletters and other things that had been piling up in my inbox (probably since last summer). 
• For the second year, I reviewed proposals for TESOL 2016. This consists of reading proposals and scoring them on a rubric as well as writing comments. The scores from 2-3 readers are averaged, then used by the conference planning committee to design the program. It's really interesting to see what people submit!
• For 6 weeks, starting the last week of June, I taught a summer session of ESOL 5010, one of our graduate level writing classes. Since the class was under-enrolled (I ended up with only 4 students), I only made 50% of the regular summer pay rate. Partially for that reason, I was especially diligent about tracking my time so that this class didn't take over my life. It worked! Which also made me want to rethink some of my practices during the semester. Basically, I found that I could do a good job while having more clearly defined boundaries, and I'd like to apply that approach now, too. It was a good experiment, and the paycheck was helpful, of course. :-)
• In addition to participating in ESOL Placement testing for the fall, I was also asked to design the calibration sets for the written essay placement process. This was a unique opportunity for me (plus it paid by the hour!). 
• Finally, I served on a search committee for a GSW teaching job in China, which gave me my first inside view on an academic job search. 
• Social: It probably doesn't come as a surprise that socializing isn't necessarily high on my priority list in the summer, but I do try to see people and get out of the house a bit. 
• Early in the summer, I organized two two final visits to the lovely Swan House for proper tea before it closed. 

• Around the middle of the summer, I had one pool visit with Heather and her son Emerson (I only went to the pool twice this whole summer--still kind of shocking to me, but that's just the way it went this year!)
• We also had one of Mark's colleagues and her twin 4-year-old daughters over for pizza night--we talked Disney movies with the girls pretty well!
• And I threw myself a 30th birthday party, which was a great excuse to make a bunch of food and spend time with people. Heather, Ethan, and Emerson helped with some food and went above and beyond with fun decorations, even though they were fighting a stomach bug and couldn't stay for the party! Apparently,  I don't have any pictures with people, just food...

• Global Connections: this is the local non-profit that coordinates outreach to internationals in BG. I keep up with what's going on with them year round, but most of my actual volunteering happens in the summer. For pics from these events, you can find GC on Facebook.
• For the second or third year, I served on their welcome bag committee, which organizes the distribution/collection/giving away of welcome bags for new international students and for international seasonal workers and their families. This group also plans the Welcome Picnic for the seasonal workers.
• In addition to volunteering at that picnic, I also joined in 3 of the 4 "family fun nights" for the kids of the seasonal workers. Now that I've been doing this for about four years, it's really amazing to see the kids growing up year by year. It's also really fun to have them recognize me and be exited to spend time together again. 
• Finally, in August, I gave an Academic Adjustment seminar as part of the Welcome Night event for new international students. My friend Angela did this until she moved, so this is my second year giving the presentation. It's a neat opportunity to make a positive impression on these students on behalf of GC and BGSU.
• Around the house: I always have a list of projects that ought to be done around the house, but I don't seem to make time for during the year. I never make as much time for them during the summer as I think I will, but usually there's some progress. 
• Obviously, one goal is usually cleaning out, getting rid of, and organizing stuff. Back in the spring, I read the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, which was rather inspiring, but I didn't really follow up with trying to apply her method in full swing. Still, I think I picked up some helpful strategies and am doing a bit better at not hanging on to stuff for silly reasons. I've been selling some clothes at the cute consignment shop downtown, and Mark helped me go through our kitchen stuff and linens, so we had a nice donation to give to Global Connections. Mark actually did a ton of cleaning out, and he made some serious money selling some of his video games on eBay.
• I also usually have some cooking projects in mind, sometimes specific recipes, sometimes just wanting to try some new things. I think I did attempt homemade turkey breakfast sausage once, but never got around to trying it again to perfect it. We did also try a few new recipes from magazines and websites, but not all that many...
• Miscellaneous Stuff
• While I wasn't getting things done around the house, I was usually reading! My main goal was to reread the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and to read the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. My mom got me started on Outlander years ago, and the Mercy Thompson books were Mark's suggestion. In between, I read a few other novels and non-fiction books, too. I sure love reading on my Kindle, and it's so easy to get library books that I can read to my heart's content without ever leaving the house!
• I also watched plenty of stuff on Netflix. I finished Parenthood and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Within the last month or so, I also got into the Grand Hotel (a Spanish-language drama that I absolutely love!)
• Mark and I also went back to the drive-in for a double-feature early in the summer when we were having cool weather. We saw The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Tomorrowland. It was fun, and we've been checking for another good pair of movies ever since, but haven't made it back. 
• For our anniversary in July, we went ice-skating at the BGSU hockey arena. It's not a new hobby for us, but we had fun.
• Also in July, Mark's sister Katie and one of her friends stopped by for a night on their way home from Cedar Point, so we got to see Katie twice this summer! 
• I enjoy going to the Farmer's Market in downtown BG through the summer. I was able to go most weeks through June and July (when we were in town, anyway), but I haven't been able to go for the last several weeks. Thankfully, it runs through October, so I imagine I'll get to go a few more times. 
• In July, I also went to the annual Downtown Car Show, which I've wanted to do in the past, but never actually done. This year, I found out some friends were going, and they let me tag along. There were over 400 cars, I think!

• On our road trips recently, Mark and I have experimented with books on tape and podcasts in the car. (Traditionally, we always listened to music). He has been listening to podcasts while he works out for a while, but the ones we'd tried together hadn't really been working for me. The books on tape didn't seem to work either, partly because they made me sleepy instead of keeping me alert. Still, I liked the idea of podcasts, so I continued exploring, and I finally found a few I really like. It seems like the ones with multiple voices are the most engaging to me, and I think I didn't realize before how much variety there is out in the podcast world. If anyone's interested, these are some that I've been getting into:
• Happier with Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft
• TED Radio Hour by NPR
• Gastropod
• Reading Lives
• After 11 years, we decided it was past time to get a new mattress. We did a bit of research on line and spent one Sunday afternoon in early August shopping around, then we bought the first one we'd liked at the second store we visited. It's taken a while to adjust to having a much firmer mattress, but I think we're both happy with it now (and the shop, Perrysburg Mattress, was great to work with!).
• Finally, I was able to get my hands on fresh roasted Hatch green chile again! The roasting closest to us this year was in Perrysburg, only a 20 minute drive away. It happened to be on one of the two Saturdays Mark spent in Defiance for their college marching band camp. but my friend Chad, who also loves food, was happy to take me up to get some (and buy some for himself, too!). While we were out, he introduced me to Mr Freeze ice cream, which was a great surprise treat.
• Health: Unfortunately, the last month has been peppered with some weird health issues for me, starting with the stomach flu during the last week of summer school, and continuing until now with some pain issues in my neck, back, and knee. There have been a lot of doctor's visits, and several firsts: my first x-ray, ER visit, orthopedic surgeon visit, and next week, my first physical therapy.  Not fun stuff, but it has been a blessing to see the support I have from Mark as well as my friends in BG and family back in ABQ. I am hopeful that my recovery will continue, and I'll be able to get back to life as usual soon. What this all means in terms of my summer, though, was just that the last two weeks or so didn't go according to my plans/hopes, but I was really forced to rest and relax. I'm also feeling very appreciative for the good health I've had up til now, and looking forward to not taking simple things (like being able to walk, exercise, etc.) for granted. 

Well! This is why I enjoy writing a summer done post--now I feel like, wow--I had a great summer! Maybe this should be a tradition for every season...

Kentucky Trip: Visiting Angela

I didn't intend to neglect this blog for so long, but the last few weeks have been very different from what I expected, and I wasn't feeling particularly motivated. A few moments ago, inspiration struck, though, so I thought I'd try to start catching up on what I've missed!

Probably the most exciting thing last month was a visit to my good friend Angela in Lexington, KY. She moved there about a year ago and just bought a house this summer. She's been inviting me to go down and visit, and earlier this summer we decided to make sure it happened! So the weekend before my last week of summer school (when the students were very busy working, but I was all caught up on grading), I drove down to Lexington on Friday morning and headed back to BG on Sunday afternoon. The only thing that was a bummer about the trip was that what would normally be a 4.5 hour drive took over 5 going and nearly 6 returning home, due to the excessive construction and traffic.

Anyway, once I got there, I had a great time! Angela's home is beautiful, and I got to sleep in a proper guest room on the lovely, newly refinished bedroom set she got from her grandmother. (This in contrast to the top notch Aerobed she's slept on at my place, crammed into Mark's practice room :-). She'd already put in new floors, painted all the walls, and set up furniture in all the rooms. Really, her house looked more put together than our apartment (where we've now been for 3 years...).

Upon arriving rather late on Friday afternoon, Angela took me to one of her favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants where we had very tasty tamales. I also splurged and got a pineapple Jarritos soda.

Later, we met up with some colleagues of hers for a happy hour gathering organized by someone who was leaving the area soon. It was nice to meet some folks Angela works with now, and we were right next door to the university, so Angela also took me for a quick tour of her building. Her office is on a high floor, so she's got great views looking out over the city!

That evening, we went to one of the city parks for an outdoor ballet performance. Everyone brought blankets and lawn chairs, and for just $10 each, we got to see some professional ballet! It was a pretty neat event, and the weather was decent, too.

On Saturday, we spent the morning on a scenic drive through horse pastures. It may not sound particularly special, but it really was impressive seeing the massive estates and pastures used for horse breeding and racing. And the horses, of course! Angela taught me that the fences have curves instead of corners because if a horse were running along the fence and came to a right angle, he'd jump it, but he'd just follow along a curve. Interesting, right?! My pictures don't do it justice, so if you are ever in the area, take some time to see it for yourself.

a tobacco field

we saw some deer here

On the way back into town...a partially finished castle...random, huh?

That afternoon, Angela took me to this lovely place called Shakespeare and Co. It's hard to describe, but it's like a cafe/tea room with over-the-top decor (in the most pleasant way). Apparently it's a whole chain, with most of their locations in the Middle East. She says the food isn't her favorite, though I enjoyed what we ate that day. She brings people just to see the atmosphere, which I definitely understand. Again, if you find yourself near one of their locations, check it out.

carrot juice & strawberry juice

On Sunday, we explored the Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, visiting the nature center, then walking one of the trails. It was a lovely area, and one where there would be plenty to explore on another visit. We were glad we went in the morning, or it would have been very hot and sticky. We had a quick lunch at her place, then I got back on the road to head home.

Overall, it was such a nice trip! I realized I've never actually traveled somewhere on my own for the specific purpose of visiting a friend, so this was a first for me in that respect, as well as being my first time actually exploring a city in Kentucky (Mark and I have spent the night in Louisville, but just passing through). I hope I'll get a chance to go back and see Angela another time (ideally with a less annoying drive!), and it was fun that she ended up coming through BG on the two following weekends, so we saw a lot of each other in August. I think now I'm having withdrawals, especially since the new children's literature professor in the English department has moved into Angela's old office (which sat empty for a year). I find myself noticing the light on and thinking, "Angela's here!" before I remember that she's not...anyway, the good thing is that I know we'll keep in touch. :-)

Angela, if you're reading--thanks for your hospitality and friendship!

Alaska Trip: Miscellaneous

Well, by now perhaps you've heard (more than) enough about Alaska. If you already know more than you ever wanted to know about this trip, I promise to move on to another topic next time. For anyone else, here are a few miscellaneous thoughts about things I haven't written about yet.

First, I haven't said much about the cruise ship itself. We sailed on the Grand Princess. It's clearly not a new ship, but it is extremely well maintained. Everyday, we saw a variety of crew members around the ship working, cleaning, painting, etc. to keep everything in good shape. We also had a very attentive room steward (though ours didn't make any towel animals--we heard the other rooms got some!). I've already mentioned the dining venues on board, but there are also different lounge areas, as well as two theater spaces, plus outdoor areas on deck, including the promenade deck which could be used basically as a track to walk laps around the ship. There were also a few shops: one selling princess merchandise, and several upscale boutiques (perfume, jewelry, etc.). Here are some pictures from around the ship.

our stateroom

Mark in front of the bridge

a map of our cruise

the indoor pool area, called the Conservatory

outdoor pool and movie screen

one of the bathrooms--they always had fresh flowers

in port somewhere

There were activities going on all the time, ranging from lectures and port talks to dance lessons to demonstrations to evening shows and so on. The evening entertainment included shows from the ship's singers/dancers, a magician, and a comedian. There was also a movie screen on the top deck by the pool where they showed "Movies Under the Stars." Mark and I stayed up late one night to watch The Imitation Game, which I enjoyed more than he did. The outdoor movie is a great concept, but we did get pretty cold with the wind blowing. The complimentary blankets made it bearable.

cooking demonstration

food displayed during the galley tour

chefs at work!

Mark, Julie, and I went to an origami lesson

Julie and Mom learned napkin folding
(this is a joke; it's meant to look like a rubber chicken)

a passenger chorus performing--how cute is that little girl?!

When we were in the ports, we spent most of our time on excursions, but in Skagway and Ketchikan, we also had some time to explore the downtown areas. (In Juneau, our excursions used up our entire time at port, but we did drive through downtown on the bus.) As you can imagine, all the ports had lots of shopping, including an abundance of typical souvenir stuff (t-shirts, hats, mugs, key chains), made in Alaska products (local jewelry, artwork, food, etc), and lots and lots of high-end jewelry stores. Of the two ports we explored a bit on foot, Skagway was definitely my favorite. It seemed a bit more old-fashioned and had the shops I enjoyed the most.

Skagway:

Ketchikan:

Well, there you have it! We had such a great time, and it's been really fun going through photos and writing these posts to share our memories with you. Thanks again to Mom and Dad for making this amazing vacation happen!