Blogging on the Powwow

Many people know that with the exception of the five months that I played the oboe in 2000 or 2001 while I was writing my dissertation, I took 19 years off from playing the oboe. Many people have been supportive of my return to the oboe, but no one has been more supportive than my husband, Neil, who is a professional oboist. You might think that it would be intimidating to have to practice while he is at home, but actually it is quite helpful and I ask him many questions. There have been times, too, when he has practiced my community band music with me, playing the first part, while I struggled along playing second. It was hugely reassuring for me, especially since I have never been very good about intonation. But, Neil assured me that I was playing well and I shouldn't worry about playing in public with others. I confessed to a young oboist in my community band that my husband is a professional oboist, to which he replied, "Wow. I guess that you can have a lesson any time you...

Disclaimer: I write this post not to reveal personal medical information, but rather to present information in case it is helpful to other runners.  Anyone who has been following my blog or following me on Facebook knows that I have been battling a 6-month running injury. It probably was a stress fracture at first, but something else has been going on more recently and on Friday I received a diagnosis: neuropathy , which is an inflammation of the nerves. For me, this presents as a very minor dull ache in the forefront of the foot, right below the toes, which is sometimes followed by a burning sensation after exercise or wearing heels. I actually have these symptoms in both feet. So, I will be treated with medication and carry on.  The good news? I've been given permission to run again . I did have to assure everyone in my life that I would not start with a 13 mile run, even though I might want to do so. Instead, I've been good...start with 3 and 4 mile runs.  All of...

I'm not sure if other people use this phrase, but I definitely use it and I like it. The phrase just like magic  is reserved for events and happenings which yank me away from my present state of mine, which take all of my troubles and cast them aside, and grab me by the collar and hurl me into the present...to observe, enjoy, and breathe easy. Community band; our home when the wind is blowing the leaves on the maple trees over the Powwow; miles of corn crops in Nebraska; an abandoned home in North Dakota, ducks soaring down the Powwow -- these are the experiences that take my breath away and cause me to declare, Wow. It's just like magic. I ask you, is this not magic or what?  

The end of the semester comes with enormous stresses, primary in the form of workload (grading), more celebrations than any sane person could want to attend, and fatigue. But, in truth, what I find most exhausting is repeatedly bouncing from one extreme emotion to another. The anticipation of being almost done... The reality of how much work is in front of me. Thrilled with a student's learning... Disappointed that a student missed the mark. The excitement of launching a new group of MSW graduates into the world... Disappointment about the students who didn't make it Thrilled to finish grading... Exhausted by students who challenge their grades. Proud of my students... Concerned about students who plagiarize.  Excited to watch students walk across the stage... Knowing that we have to get another group ready next year. Celebrating the completion of another academic year... Daunted by the coming year, revisions to syllabi, launching new initiatives East... West North...

For those of you who have been following me on Facebook, you know that the promise and hope that my stress fracture was healed was false. Stress fractures normally take 6-8 weeks to heal. This Thursday marks week 26 for me. Other than the obvious, which is that I miss running, I also really miss my daily dose of sunshine. For about the past nine years, I've exercised about an hour a day outside. Sure, there have been some injuries here and there which kept me in the gym, but overall, I've been able to run outside the vast majority of the time.  The past six months, I've been exercising indoors every day, since even speed walking is too much for my fractured metatarsal. I can't say how much I have been missing the sunshine. Today was the worst, I think. I had to leave for campus early this morning, so in my usual tradition for when this happens, I got up at 5am, threw on my workout clothes, grabbed my gym bag, and hit the road. I was on campus by 7am. The pool is close...

I have written before about our wonderful neighbor, Bob . He's the neighbor who is endlessly patient with his great-granddaughter, and the neighbor who does all of that gardening, in his yard, on the street, and in the Amesbury community garden. He shares his produce with his neighbors and plants special crops when he hears that someone likes a particular vegetable. Just ask Neil, who easy received 10 pounds of beets from Bob last summer, because of a casual comment that he made in Bob's presence, about how he likes pickled beets. Last summer Bob had a few herbs growing in containers at the end of his driveway. His basil was like a sapling and it would reach out and slap you as you walked by, grabbing you, drawing you into its leaves. Bob said that he didn't even really know what basil was... It's just there. No one's using it. Get some whenever you like.  So, I did. Come late summer, I would often find myself in the middle of dinner preparations, realize that the...

I know that other people are busy with truly important care-taking tasks, such as who will provide after-school care, figuring out how to care for a sick child and still maintain a job, or how to sneak away to see your child's soccer game...I ended my parenting duties relatively early in my adulthood and my primary concern now is our black Labrador Retriever, Drake. I usually pride myself on thinking things through before jumping - weighing the consequences, seeing the potential pitfalls, etc. I didn't do that before we got Drake. Perhaps it's because we had been dog owners for the nine years leading up to when we got Drake and I assumed that everything would "run fine" like before. Or, maybe I just missed our previous black Lab, Blackberry, so much and wanted a "replacement dog" so quickly that I didn't see the one major flaw in my thinking: Neil and I are both 90 minutes away from our jobs and although we don't have to "go to the office...