First off, a picture from home that I absolutely love. It captures our natural goofiness:

I didn’t feel like going out tonight. My roommates wanted to go bowling right after we got back from visiting our families for Thanksgiving. It was a 90-minute car ride while being stuck in the middle of a Volkswagen Sedan; NOT FUN! So I stayed behind to chow down some supper since I was hungry from forgetting to eat lunch today!

Speaking of food, I was relieved to come back to my apartment and see that I hadn’t gained any weight! I sure did jump on that scale as soon as I got back! Thanksgiving was lovely and we had so much food leftover! But with Thanksgiving gone, December is technically already here and I’m really excited for winter break. I don’t know what I’m gonna do yet, but I hope it’s adventurous! If I get a job, I might end up staying here, which isn’t so bad since I’ve been home every winter break since I started college.

I wonder what people have to do here during break though. I bet it’s a lot quieter and subtle, like the weekends when I’m on campus, but just more so since there’s gonna be snow and the winters in Wisconsin are crazy! But, I think I’ll like it since I love looking at big, open space and how people interact with society. I think I’d make a great Anthropologist! Too bad that’s not my first choice career!

Another late night, another blog update.  I feel like I do my best blogging during the “witching hours”.  I don’t know why I just said witching hours.  Now, I’ve just gone and freaked myself out a little bit.

The months go by and the seasons change, but we never fully realize how fast time has passed until the holidays.  It’s easy to become so consumed by our weekly goings-on that we fail to stop for just a second, and soak it all in.  Thanksgiving break was just that.  A break from the habitual routines and a chance to just be grateful.  Thankful for family, friends, and the things that we sometimes take for granted.  Satisfied stomachs and satisfied souls.

Yet, even Thanksgiving break can fly right on by.  Three more weeks until the end of the semester, and for those like myself who are graduating this upcoming year; it’s going to be our last Fall semester, our last Christmas break, and our last winter on campus.  Exams, projects, and finals can make these next few weeks some of the most grueling, but if there’s one thing that you can never get back – it’s time.  If you’re feeling overwhelmed (because I know I will), just listen to some Christmas music, breathe in that fresh cold air, and feel that soft powder under your feet.  Soak it all in.

Because it’s that time of year.

-I

P.S.  This has GOT to be sexiest rendition of “Winter Wonderland” ever created.  I’ll definitely have this on repeat with a big grin on my face for the entire winter. =D

To face unafraid
The plans that we’ve made
Walking in a winter wonderland.

The key to a successful reading list is to keep it manageable. I have five weeks of winter break to use. In addition, the following things are in need of accomplishment over winter break:

1. Moving a few blocks — This means several days of packing, cleaning, loading, unloading, cleaning, unpacking.

2. Holiday cheer — Maryssa and I will have our obligatory New Years Eve fight. Last year I was driving around town looking for her when she was back at the apartment the whole time. The year before that—well, never mind, seriously.

3. Revising my fiction pieces to the best of my ability and sending them to about forty journals.

4. Finishing the essay I started two days ago. I’m aiming it at Tin House.

5. Finding and proceeding to cook a duck.

So, given all of this excitement, what reading quests might I accomplish?

First priority is researching for the essay I plan to write in the spring. Second priority is reading some John McPhee, because I haven’t. Third priority is reading as many back issues of Harper’s as I can, because that’s where I’m aiming to publish the essay I’m writing in the spring. Crazy, I know.

The List:

1. Mormon Thunder: A Documentary History of Jedediah Morgan Grant, by Gene A Sessions.

Dr. Sessions has included photo copies of tons of original primary sources in this exhaustive book on my great great great grandfather, captain of one of the first waves of plains-crossing Mormon Pioneers, first mayor of Salt Lake City, aggressive preacher of Blood Atonement, husband of seven wives, and father to Mormon prophet Heber J. Grant. I can hardly wait.

2. Radical Origins: Early Mormon Converts and Their Colonial Ancestors, by Val D. Rust.

A look at the Puritan ancestors of early Mormon converts, like Jeddediah Morgan Grant. I’ll only need to read a few chapters.

3. The Founding Fish, by John McPhee.

McPhee has written so many books that I can hardly decide where to start. This is a recent one in which he tracks the historical significance of a particular fish he loves to fish for. That’s something I’d like to write; I’m curious to see how he makes this interesting.

4. Annals of the Former World, by John McPhee.

This is McPhee’s Pulitzer Prize wining compilation of his previous works on the geological history of the US. I’ll be reading a fraction of the 700 page compilation of four books and an essay. I want to see the way he deals with science and geology in literary nonfiction prose, because I have a specific interest in geology.

5. Harper’s.

The USU library has every edition 2005—present bound and available for two day checkout. I’m looking for the articles that strike me as non-current-event features. Last night I read two articles from 2008, one about a craps (gambling) course and the tendency for humans to want to control uncontrollables, and one about the Magic Olympics.

6. The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars, by Christopher Cokinos.

I started this book before the semester began and haven’t been able to get back to it. Chris is my friend and the professor who assigned the essay I won the Norman Mailer Award with. He’s also likely to be my thesis chair.

I think that’s all I’ll get to, if that. In the event that I accomplish these feats of reading, I’m going to read Gessner’s Sick of Nature and Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, which is one of those books I talk about like I’ve read but HAVEN’T!!

“It’s very Kafkesque.”

“Yeah, that’s because it’s written by Franz Kafka.”

—From The Squid and the Whale, when the main character is describing the end of the book he has not yet read.

Reading lists, anyone? And what book do you love to talk about despite the fact you’ve not ever actually read it?

While it’s true that the business world considers New Year’s Day as January 1, it is equally true that for anyone with children, the first day of the New School Year is really where it’s at!  And here in Arizona, that means sometime in the middle of August.  It can even mean July, if your teen has early walk-around.

“I know it’s time for school to begin when my calendar runs out of pages.”

Years ago I discovered the Academic/Collegiate Planner book, (it starts in August and ends in July). While my children were school age, it functioned as my lifeline.  Importantly, it didn’t end during Winter Break, like a traditional annual calendar does. It can get you through to the last day of school, all in one continuous calendar!

For families where ADHD plays a role, this can make the difference for starting off the school year better organized, and then helps in making a  smoother transition to the second half of the year (which gets here before you know it).

Winter Break in most Arizona school districts covers TWO monthly calendar pages and FOUR weekly pages (factor in the weeks that include the last day of 1st semester and the first day of 2nd semester.)

Calendar styles vary among Arizona’s school districts. Somebody somewhere in each district made a decision to design their calendars in a particular way that made sense to them, not necessarily to me. I won’t confuse you with the fabulous calendar from California that I accidently found when I googled PVUSD. Suffice it to say that I caught my hasty error and didn’t print it here! Whew, panic in the streets averted. Here are just a few examples of the variety of calendar styles:

• Paradise Valley prints a black & white straight list of dates.
• Scottsdale  prints a black & white list with accompanying monthly blocks along the sides.
• Washington and Peoria print a colorful block calendar with a list of dates at the bottom.
• Queen Creek has colorful block months divided down the middle with a list of dates.
• Roosevelt families can choose either English or Spanish versions.
• Some districts even have interactive web based alternatives.

Find your district’s link. There will be a tab for Calendar usually along the top or in the menu of pages. Save it to your home computer, office computer, laptop or netbook, your iPhone or BlackBerry. Keep a printed copy in the glove box of your car (I know we don’t use gloves here), and in your personal calendar book. At your first opportunity, sit down with highlighter markers and color-block your personal calendar.

Get ready before you get behind.

I carried a book version (big open boxes for each day) with me wherever I went, large enough to hold (clipped in!) the many colorful flyers that came home from school, the semester schedule with teacher training days, holidays, early dismissal, teacher conferences, special events, etc.

I added in printed schedules for sport practice/games, sport snacks, party invitations (while already in the car, inevitably I would wonder “Where is the party?!”), Hebrew School, Cub Scouts, Brownies and then regularly scheduled tutoring, music lessons, club meetings, and especially the days that the driving or non-driving babysitter could be available.

In addition to the book-size calendar that I carried around, the family relied on the MONTHLY DESK PAD CALENDAR, also available as “academic/collegiate,” kept on the hall table.  Kids and babysitters had to pass it at some point during the day.  Some years it was color-coded by CHILD, some years by ACTIVITY.   Sticky notes could be added, and white-out was handy.  I duplicated schedules of those I carried in my book version, and kept copies together with the desk-pad calendar at home.

When anyone asked about what was happening on a particular day, I just had to remember to tell them to ‘look at the hall calendar’.  If I tried to answer from memory, well let’s just say sometimes we were late or a day early.  Most times fortunately we arrived with the ‘whatever was needed accessory.”

When buying a monthly desk pad calendar, here’s what I found to be important: Size matters!

Get the biggest one that will fit on the identified table.

Get one that has lots of open white space. Forget about lines (they are limiting), and cute artwork (it just wastes precious space). If you can find one that has a side portion left open for notes, that is helpful.

And I do suggest keeping it on a flat surface, and not hung on the wall.  I know this is different from what so many organizers reccommend, but it worked better for me. This way you can slip flyers between the pages and they won’t fall out. You can direct your kids to place all flyers and parent notices there (along with the Scholastic book order forms, sign-up sheets and health notices from the nurse). It’s easier to write LEGIBLY on a flat surface. You can keep your supplies right there (colored markers, sticky notes, white-out, pen/pencil).  And, small/short kids don’t have to climb to reach it.

Whatever calendar you choose, the important thing is to USE IT  REGULARLY and CONSISTENTLY so that it becomes the first thing you do in the morning (do I need to pack a special lunch for the field trip?) and the last thing before retiring at night (is tomorrow soccer or scouts?)

Brush your teeth and check the calendar.

Pick up a calendar at any office supply store. Don’t wait to find the best method, or you may find that you don’t settle on any method at all. If you keep researching organizing books and websites for the best ideas, ultimately you waste time and then there are so many options to choose from, that you might just give up.  (I know you know what I mean.)

Judith Kolberg & Kathleen Nadeau wrote ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life in 2002. For me, it was not only life-changing, it was life-affirming.  More about the book another day, but do yourself a favor and buy it now. Chapter Five is titled “ADD Decision Dilemmas.” To avoid “Decision by Default,” they offer useful suggestions that cover many scenarios. Bottom line:  limit your choices to a number, a personal value, space, time or budget, and then “go with the best option.”

Reward yourself for making the decision. 

If chocolate isn’t your thing, the reward for selecting your calendar without undo angst, agita or gevalt might be permitting the impulse purchase of a cool new marker or white-out pen, something that will be fun for you and your kids to use on the new calendar.  “Rewards along the way can reduce the frustration of delayed gratification and are essential to keep you going on any long-term project.” (p. 53)

Being impacted by ADHD, doesn’t mean that you have to be scattered all of the time. If you didn’t set up your academic desk pad calendar before school started, don’t stress. It’s not too late. Stores will still have them for sale all year. Buy one now, even if you tear off the first few pages. (Release the torn-off pages, by recycling them, use as table cover for crafts, or tear into notepad size paper).

It will make such a difference in the transition after Winter Break.  I promise.

~~Debbie

P.S.

Dear Reader,

Have you found a calendar system that works?  Please share it.

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Did I mention I’m moving? I can’t remember and I’m too lazy to look through my past posts to check. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it because it’s only been on my mind since I started grad school. I know I’ve mentioned the four-year long distance relationship.

When I started grad school I promised my boyfriend that I would do the program as fast as I could. Immediately I asked my advisor if I could do my thesis hours away. When it was confirmed that I didn’t have to live in town and could write away from my university I was set. I ploughed through my courses and well, here we are at the end of my final semester of course work.

While my program is supposed to be three years, it can definitely be completed in two. With summers and loading up on classes, it’s doable. It’s not easy, but if it was easy then everyone would do it, right? The major issue I’m having this semester isn’t my classes, or teaching, or even the long distance. It’s my thesis.

I stupidly decided I wanted to write my first novel for my thesis. I also decided it would be a good idea to move, and hunt for jobs. My rough draft is due, the latest January 1st. I’m hoping I can bang it out before then, but with everything that is going on, I’m concerned. My goal is to graduate this spring, but I would be okay with myself if I had to push it to summer. Though, I didn’t graduate from undergrad in spring, and there is something magical about graduating in the spring, I think. All my friends graduated in spring and it’s so exciting, and everything is new, the leaves, the flowers, the moon. It’s fantastic. I’d like to participate in a spring graduation. Also, my youngest sister is graduating from high school this spring, and I think it would be so fun to have two spring graduates hanging out the house.

Okay, back to moving. Come mid-December I’ll no longer be in a long distance relationship. It’s crazy.

I was talking to my boyfriend about this recently and he pointed out that he won’t be excited until I’m living there. He reminded me that a few days after I move in I have to drive back home in order to attend a wedding and be with my family for Christmas. Then he’ll be excited because I’ll be back for New Years.

Oh, and he forgot to mention that I’ll hopefully be attending the MLA convention in Philadelphia for an interview. If you want incentive to finish a thesis and graduate apply for a job as a professor that requires a masters, so you have to finish it in order to work. HA!

I have to say the moving aspect of my life has taken over. I’m obsessed. I go on the Rooms to Go website daily and Ikea and Target just to see what furniture sales and options are available. I’m so eager to move I’ve already set up my electricity and have been browsing internet and cable packages.

While decorating is exciting that is not what I’m stoked about. It’s knowing that in roughly a month I’ll be able to see my boyfriend everyday if I want to. That I won’t have to have anymore lengthy phone conversations, that I’ll actually get to cook for him and and and and! go on dates! No more movies alone EVER AGAIN! ooooh we’ll even get to do normal couple things like hang out with friends together, and watch tv together. Hell, we’re just going to be together. I can’t wait. I can’t wait.

But I must focus. Thesis first. Excited second.

This upcoming weekend my boyfriend is coming for a visit and it’s the last visit we’re going to have as a long distance couple, and after four years of being apart, and many trips of meeting up in different places, and visiting each other. It feels so good to know it’s the last one. While we’ve had some great times, it’s feels really really really good to know it’s the last visit.

I must remember to focus. Think. Thesis.

Tonight at the library of my university, the MFA program will be holding a holiday reading. Last year around this time, the honors society and literary magazine hosted the reading and it was lovely. I’m obsessed with readings. I love going to them, and I love love love reading at them.

I’m currently enrolled in a course that focuses on Emerson and Thoreau and we are always talking about how they did readings around Concord. I have to say, I would totally have loved this. Reading your writing to a crowd is awesome. It allows you to perform your piece how you know it should be heard, and it helps you find places where improvements may be necessary. Also, you’re reaching people instantly.

I love it. I have a small theatre background and I look at every reading like a performance. While some of my peers do not feel the same way I find it important to know when to pause for laughs and when to raise your voice, and read softly. I love reading a piece that gets laughs where you want it. There is also the networking opportunities as with most departments professors tend to support their students.

It’s also very possible that I love the attention.

The thing is, I don’t just love reading at readings, I love hearing writers read their work the way they intend for the reader to hear it. Their work becomes alive and there is this supportive energy in the air. I love it. I love it. I love it.  Not to mention the holiday theme gets me fired up for the upcoming break. I love the holidays, and this readings is the perfect segue.

Okay, enough. I have to practice one or two more times and I’d like to squeeze a nap in.

Have a great weekend all. I’ll keep you posted on everything (the reading, the job hunt, the thesis, moving, and Frankenmommy).

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I applied for one job via the MLA job list. I worked on the cover letter and my cv for a week or two with help from my thesis chair. I had sent the letter to another professor of mine and didn’t receive criticism back until after I mailed it. The professor who emailed me back after I’d sent the letter was very very critical and after my thesis chair told me to stop working on it and send it already I was a bit worried. Oh well.

I’ve decided not to stress about it because on top of the other shit that is going on in my life stressing out about something I can’t control is not going to make the situation any better. Though, I will say, my heart was beating pretty hard when I handed it over to the post office worker.

The job doesn’t start until August 2010 so I need to chill out about it. I am also applying for jobs for December for when I move. No more GTAing (which I think could be both good and bad). That is also quite stressful. I applied for two language arts teacher positions (middle school). I will say while I would take any job right now, I’m not stoked about middle school. I’ve taught 9th grade and hated them. I would imagine 6th, 7th and 8th graders are not any more loveable.  I have faith that God is looking out for me and won’t let me get myself into a crappy situation. Regardless, teaching any grade will pay my rent so I’ll take what I can get. Who knows, I may love the little guys.

I’ll briefly update the “life” situation as soon as I have some time to construct the sentences.

Just got an e-mail from a Tufts ‘09 grad, who’s dividing his time post-Tufts between London and Afghanistan.  He taught last year’s by now rather famous counterinsurgency class (thanks to this nice little piece – and yes, that is me fighting insurgents ), and is looking for a research assistant for his next trip to Afghanistan from – where else? – Tufts.

Almost makes me rethink my winter break plans in Sri Lanka, where I’ll hopefully be interning with a local NGO.  Almost, but not quite…

The Afghanistan trip wouldn’t be Tufts sponsored, because of liability issues, but I still consider it a pretty awesome example of what globalism means at Tufts.  You meet people that do these cool things all over the world and you’re offered these opportunities that you – or at least I – never thought possible, especially in college. 

Thought that this deserved a shout-out.  Now back to preparing for the Intellectual Roundtable that starts Wednesday (which, incidentally, is where I’ll be presenting my summer research from Chile…)

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My dad is a softie. G-d bless him because he’s a wonderful father but he’s the farthest thing from a disciplinarian you are going to find. Growing up he rarely got mad at my brother, sister or I, meaning that when he did, you knew that you had really messed up and were forced to accept your fate.

My dad’s more laidback approach to parenthood placed the onus on my mom to dole out consequences for bad behavior. The main effect of my dad being extremely relaxed was that my mom appeared to be much more of a stickler than she actually was. As a result of this misconception about my mom’s parenting she was forced to endure a few nasty backlashes in opposition to her perceived oppression.

During winter break of my junior year in high school it snowed. It snowed a lot. Therefore, my mother deemed a significant amount of early morning shoveling necessary. She instructed my brother and I to shovel the night before her and my dad had work, and then wake up at the butt-crack of dawn the next morning in order to shovel the snow that had accumulated over night.

Even though this seems like a reasonable request for a mother to ask of her sons I immediately protested. I wasn’t disputing the fact that the snow needed to be shoveled or that I should participate it in its eradication. What I took issue with was the fact that my brother and I had been placed on snow removal duty while my sister was going to be given something else less wintery to do later.

After we debated the topic back and forth for some time my mom began to grow leery of the argument and lose her patience. As we both began to raise our voices, I became very animated since it was clear to me that our household was not a Representative Democracy and the power was not in the hands of the people.

Instead of letting the dispute die and heading outside with my brother to shovel, knowing I had “fought the good fight, I continued my onslaught. This was a mistake as I quickly lost my mind and ended up getting into a yelling match with my mom. Below is the short, but revealing account, of how I attempted to challenge my mom’s authority, through a brutal verbal uprising, only to have my rebellion quickly squashed by her punishing powers.

Me: “Mom this is fucking bullshit! Sarah should have to shovel just like Daniel and I!”

Mom: “Please don’t swear. I already told you that I was going to ask her to do something else.”

Me: “Yeah, but it’s not going to suck as much as having to wake up early and shovel!”

Mom: “Matthew it’s not your concern what I’m going to ask your sister to do. All that you need to worry about is what I asked you to do, and I asked you to shovel snow.”

Me: “Fuck you mom!”

Mom: “Matthew stop swearing, and you’ve now lost car privileges for a week.”

Me: “Fuck you!”

Mom: “Matthew that’s two weeks.”

Me: “Fuck you!”

Mom: “That’s a months, do you want to try for two?”

Me: “Why not, my answer is still going to be the same. Fuck you!”

Mom: “That’s two months without the car. I hope you’re happy.”

After this fiery exchange I receded to my room to cool off until the following morning when I profusely apologized for my behavior. She ended up reducing my time without the car to a month but her authority was not lost after this act of leniency.

Even though growing up my mom was viewed as being the ‘Bad Cop” this wasn’t a fair label because she was never cruel or unfair. She was just a parent who didn’t put up with unnecessary and disrespectful actions from her children, and as a result was challenged from time to time.

I don’t really remember thinking that my mom was too hard on us growing up. She really only got upset or punished us when we did something legitimately wrong. However, now that I am 25 I can’t honestly say that I’ve had a complete epiphany and looking back on my childhood believe that every time I lost the car, was grounded or had my curfew cut I deserved it, but me having that realization doesn’t really matter.

What’s most important to me now is that my mom and I are very close and get along exceedingly well. In the end I know things aren’t going to change and my still isn’t going to put up with any of my bullshit. The only solace I can take now, as an adult, is that at least she can’t send me to my room for swearing.

Just wanted to say thanks to my brother, Ivan and his wife Leeanne for giving up a little time on their Tiree holiday to attend to some minor maintenance at the Cottage. Lightbulbs replaced, garden tidied, boiler serviced, rain protection added to the lower front door and thanks of course for planting the many, many Spring bulbs (the flower kind) in the garden! Thanks to them, we’ll have a gorgeous garden in spring 2010 full of vibrant colour and interesting flora.

Hope you both enjoyed the rest of your Winter holiday and the Wave Classic. The email i got from Ivan (sent from the cottage using broadband!) suggested they certainly enjoyed their evenings in the Lodge Hotel although perhaps not the day after recovering! By the sounds of it, they had a wonderful time in and around the Cottage.  I’ll be up to Tiree myself in early December to do some further landscaping and take a few more things up to add to holidaymaker’s comfort. Thanks Ivan and Leeane for also sending me this photo of your Samoyed dog, “Kobi”, loving the comfort of the Struthan Cottage Livingroom.

BUT CHRISSY HAS REACHED HER GOAL OF 1000+ TOTAL BLOG VIEWS!

Over 1000 views. That’s just unbelievable.
I won’t be thanking you guys a gazzilion times like I already have, so don’t worry!
But I’m just really glad I ever started this blog and got such good feedback from it.

Unfortunately…

I made a deal with myself that after I reached 1000, I would stop blogging. Don’t get me wrong, I love to blog and entertain you guys with all my fucked up and random thoughts. It’s just as fun for me as it is for you.
But it’s a lot of pressure, to always try and blog about something that will be amusing and won’t let you down, and on a daily basis.

The reason I ever started my blog was because summer was ending, and I had the most boring summer ever, so I decided what the heck – blogging will probably keep me occupied and I can say I actually did a little something over the summer.
I never really intended to get so many readers, and for people to tell me they actually want me to blog more and more.

Not to mention with school and everything, it’s a bit hard to keep up.

But I won’t stop blogging FOREVER!
I’ll be back again sometime. I’ll probably be back during winter break, when I most likely will be doing nothing, again.
Plus, if anything crazy or big ever happens from now until then, of course I’ll be here to write an entry about how fucking fucked up it was!
So please don’t lose hope in me.

As for now though, I’ll be saying good bye to full time blogging.
I had a blast sharing my thoughts with you guys!

I know you’re all thinking that but…

I truly love you all, and blogging, and I’ll be back before you know it!

]]> http://westcoastconnection.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/escape-to-costa-rica-this-december/ Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:23:16 +0000 wcc360 http://westcoastconnection.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/escape-to-costa-rica-this-december/

What are you doing over winter break? Doesn’t an escape to Costa Rica sound awesome?

Even more details have been added to the 360° Family Tours website.  Check them out here.

The Westcoast Blogger

This was sent to me today and I wanted to share it with all of you.  I do not know who wrote it; but it is very clever, current and topical.

An Early Christmas Poem

 Twas the month before Christmas*

*When all through our land,*

*Not a Christian was praying*

*Nor taking a stand.*

*See the PC Police had taken away,*

*The reason for Christmas – no one could say.*

*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*

*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*

*It might hurt people’s feelings, the teachers would say*

* December 25th is just a ‘ Holiday ‘.*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*

*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*

*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*

*Something was changing, something quite odd! *

*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*

*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*

*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*

* At Lowe’s the word Christmas – was nowhere to be found.*

*At K-Mart and Staples and Penney’s and Sears*

*You won’t hear the word Christmas; it won’t touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*

*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*

*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*

*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*

*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*

*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*

*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*

* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*

*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*

*So as you celebrate ‘Winter Break’ under your ‘Dream Tree’*

*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*

*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*

*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,

not Happy Holiday !*

Please, all Christians join together and

wish everyone you meet during the holidays a

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

As Thanksgiving approaches so do the deadlines. I just finished leafing through my students final paper rough drafts and you know what kind of crap they are pulling. Sentences like, “I’m only writing this sentence so that she doesn’t say anything.” Really students? Really little freshman? You have got to be kidding me. 

As I stood at the front of the classroom reading the papers, I stopped to read this specific sentence aloud; a reminder– I’m not as dumb as I look. In the three years I’ve been teaching my students have done this a few times. I always catch them and I always call them out on it. I find it incredibly rude. Where do they get off? It is clearly their egos needing some stroking, look at how I pulled one over Ms. ,Mr., or Professor [insert name here]. Yes, aren’t you the slick little student.

Also, I noticed today as I stood in front of  the class, the large quantities of apathy taking up space in the classroom. I was briefly giving comments on the small errors and issues I noticed the class had on their papers and they ignored me. It was as if I wasn’t even standing up there. Really? Of course, your papers are perfect. How could I  have made such an error in suggesting some of your work needs improvement?  Oopsm my bad.

I reminded them that I could easily just stop, cancel my office hours, and not help them. It was fine with me. They aren’t the only ones who are “busy” and “have problems.”  No, we all do. We’re all students struggling to get to the end of the semester. Kiss my ass, Freshman.

This is the first time I’ve noticed my students not caring about my comments. Usually when I stand up to teach they are there with me. They hunger for my advice. They need more and more of it.  What is happening? Have they given up their goals of getting an A?  Frankly, I don’t really care if they don’t want A’s. What is it to me? If they don’t care, then hell, neither do I.

As much as I love teaching, and while I know I write a lot about students and how annoying they are, I really do love it. More times than not, I have a great time teaching. Both of my sections have great students who make me laugh and they take the time to show they care by attending my office hours. In general, they are good kids. The issue, I think, isn’t the actual students. It’s the month of November and all those damn Christmas commercials.

There is still a month and change for them to get through and all they are thinking about is the holidays. And, I hate to admit this, I’m guilty too. I’m ready to move, to eat lots of delicious Italian holiday food, and celebrate the new year. But, I’m still getting the work done, I’m focused.

Frankly, I wish the semester would come to an end already so I can get a new batch of students, a new job and start the new year.

I just can’t wait for winter break!
My friend Ethan and me are best friends forever.
I’ll blog for winter break.

I'm gonna be bald by the time I graduate.

Ok, I know it’s only the middle of the semester – the hump of the term – but I can’t lie … senior year is brutally kicking my ass. As I keep referring to my day-minder to see what is due next or what I need to worry about in the near future (For example, the GRE), I can’t help but think back to sweeter, less busier times such as my first year in college – which I swear feels like it just happened yesterday.

Seniors, doesn’t it feel like just last week were filling out college applications, picking where we would attend, and nervously packing up our rooms and moving into our dorm room for the first time? The last three years have flown by, and this year is no different, except instead of saying to yourself “I have ___ many years left” you hear the fast-paced ticking of the clock letting you know your time is dwindling.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Well, if you’re like me, you are hearing more than the ticking of the graduation clock.

Instead, you are hearing the voice of your professor asking you to revise your essay on Plato and Aristotle; all your friends talking about graduate, professional, and law school applications; the text from Kaplan prep-test books screaming at you off the page (it usually yells: YOU SHOULD HAVE STARTED STUDYING YEARS AGO); fellow majors asking you about your honors thesis and the advisor you are working with; your parents inquiring with “What’s next?” after graduation- and of course – in the midst of all this – you hear your own thoughts of: “Am I having a quarter-life crisis?” and “Why is it a Friday night and instead of dancing to Britney Spears across some dirty frat-basement floor am I reading about the importance of family in children’s literature?”

But perhaps, through all the insanity of senior year and its overflow of required responsibility, the most important voice you hear is the one in the back of your head asking after every turn of the page: Is it winter break yet?

Seriously, I’ve never needed it so badly in my life. And as much as it pains me to know it’s yet another sign that my college career is coming to an end, I really. need. an effing. break.

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We all have to admit that aside from the five days a week of partying, the sexy men, and the girl talk/Cheeto-fests that lass into the wee hours of the morning, there are those aspects of college life that aren’t so great. And we make sure everyone knows how much we hate ‘em when we whine to our friends over cafeteria slop/to our moms on the phone/to the rest of the world via our Facebook status updates.

And why not? Despite the stereotype that college students just eff around playing beer pong for four years straight, being a college student isn’t easy. (And, hello, we play flip cup, too!)

Over at US News, they documented some of the most commonly hated problems about being in college student. And we totally agree: getting closed out of the classes we need brings us to tears (and sends us into a pity binge of wine and nachos) and the boring professors make me want to rip the hair out my head.

But when I got to thinking about it, isn’t college really just one big love/ hate relationship? Sure we complain about a lot of things, but secretly deep down, we find the silver lining.

"The prof will never know I'm gone!"

Big Classes

Hate: Who hasn’t groaned when they walked into the first class of the semester to find 400 other people cramming their way into the lecture hall? How are you supposed to learn anything when you have to battle a sea of hands to ask a question? And your professor will never recognize how brilliant your paper is when he has hundreds of others to read.

Love: As the semester wears on and you decide to sleep though a couple of classes, you start to see the upside. The guy will never notice the empty seat, and attendance doesn’t affect your grade. And if you don’t get to the reading he assigned, it doesn’t really matter because it’s easy to hide out in the back and never get called on.

"Hopefully showing off my boobs will distract him from the fact that my ID says I'm 35."

The Liquor Store

Hate: You walk in and instantly all eyes are on you. They get a kick out of it, really. “Here’s another underage little kiddie coming to get some Mike’s Hard Lemonade for their party.” It’s insulting, and embarrassing. But it’s your turn in the rotation, so you really have no choice. When you get to the register he looks at your crappy ID, then at you, then at your crappy ID. Scared, you explain that you just dyed your hair brown last week and the nose ring is new. Then he scans the $12.99 price tag and asks for $25. He knows you won’t argue, because, let’s be real, he’s doing you the favor here. So you bask in the humiliation and fork it over.

Love: But the minute you step out of the liquor store, vodka in one hand, some wine coolers in the other, you feel the triumphant glow spread through your body. You have an armful of proof that you have successfully purchased booze, and you float back to your dorm. Nothing quite beats that feeling of success, even if it comes at a steep, inflated price.

"I need Jimmy Johns freaky good, freaky fast, freaky right now."

Midterms

Hate: We whine about midterms like it’s our job. Memorize everything we have learned in the last 3 months?! How dare they! We lose a week of our lives we can never get back holed up in the library, and all the flashcards are surely having an adverse affect on our eyesight.

Love: Midterms gives us the excuse to walk around in the sweatpant-Uggs-baggy sweater combo for a week and hold study sessions in Starbucks that inevitably turn into caffeine-fueled gossip hour. Not to mention that midterm snacking is the only time it is socially acceptable to gain five pounds from ordering in food every night. It’s not your fault that you don’t have time to cook and everyone knows that studying and the munchies go together like cheese and greasy breadsticks. Which you are currently eating. By yourself.

Plus, when they’re over you have an excuse to drink your face off for a week straight.

"Hey! Let's all pretend we split the work up evenly even though I'm doing it all!"

Group Projects

Hate: I freakin’ hate group projects. I always seem to end up in the slacker group with the pothead who can’t form complete sentences and the drama queen that has so many other important responsibilities she couldn’t possibly have time to meet up to make a PowerPoint. So what option do you really have? You stay up all night in the library making presentation slides alone, so that your whole group can bask in the glory of you’re A+ work. Yea, it’s annoying.

Love: Then again, it’s ten times easier to speak in front of room full of people when you have three other students by your side. Plus, group projects are usually jokes anyway, and they are never graded as hard as the solo ones. And if it gets me out of writing a paper, I will gladly take two hours to put some pictures and facts in a PowerPoint.

"Maybe rolling in just in time for dinner isn't such a bad idea."

The Final Final Exam

Hate: Life is so unfair! While everyone else in the world is curled up in front of a fire relaxing, buying Christmas gifts, and baking with their families, we get stuck with the last final on the last day of exam week. Again. And to add insult to injury, the dorm cafeteria closed three days ago and we’re forced to walk out in the bitter cold to the only caf that is still serving food. All the way across campus.

Love: But when you call mom to check in, you hear Aunt Ida screeching at Uncle Ed in the background and she’s ordering your little sister to get out the naked baby pictures to show her new boyfriend. Perhaps having to wait until December 23^rd to head home for winter break isn’t the worst thing after all. You get out of having to set the table (which your mom insists on doing a week ahead of time) and you aren’t forced to sit and listen to Grandpa Jack’s war stories for the hundredth time.