Keep up with us!

Ok, so I may have completely abandoned this lovely blog in favor of tumblr (follow me there at Wearing Sunlight), but if you're still here and you still want to keep up with our escapades as we move to the big Windy City of Chicago, follow my new moving-specific blog, The Best Way to Learn: Adventures in ChiCity. Stay in touch, friends!

Our New Hometown

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Help me win a $3,000 college scholarship. Vote for my essay!

Day 18 - plans/dreams/goals you have

As of now, all of my plans/dreams/goals are wrapped up in one essential worry...

I must get a job in Chicago. I must I must I must.

It's a tad (well, more than a tad) frustrating to be doing so well here and then have to start all over again in this painstaking job hunt process.

Today, our assistant superintendent told me that "good teachers are gems" and that he "thought they would have a very hard time trying to replace me." It's hard to go from that kind of encouragement to the the oh-so-insecure world of resume-submitting and endless applications.

day 17 - someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

I should really pick someone inspirational...like, what would it be like to switch days with the incomparable Archbishop Desmond Tutu? I admire him immensely, and I think that perhaps if the prompt were "switch a month" or even a week with someone, I would pick someone like that who I truly look up to. Or perhaps I would pick one of my favorite actors.

For just a day though, I have no doubts who I would want to be - even if it is kind of superficial.

I would soooo switch lives with Scarlett Johansson. Not only is she a glamorous movie star, but also...so hot. I would have to spend at least an hour just looking in the mirror :) I just think she's a classic beauty - she can work pretty much work any look, and I will willingly admit that at heart I'm still a little bit of the insecure teenager sometimes. So yes, I would trade days with Scarlett Johansson for the chance to be the prettiest girl in the world. It may be shallow, but I'm pretty sure it'd be an awesome day!

Day 16 - a picure of you

Summer 2006 - July 25

So, I debated long and hard about what picture to post for this post. That's excuse #1 I have for completely abandoning this blog for about two weeks after being so faithful. Excuse #2 comes from the insane amount of work I've been putting in at school trying to run (it seems like) everything. Excuse #3 is I've recently been introduced to tumblr, which is painlessly awesome. I like it quite thoroughly. However, I do want to keep this up at least through the 30 Days posts.

I picked this picture because out of all 920 (that's right) photos of me on my facebook account, I've always thought this picture truly captured me in an almost unposed, genuinely happy moment. Andrew always fusses at me for posing in pictures - but hey, if I don't I end up with a nasty case of double-chin. Anyway though, I love this picture. We have a whole series of photos taken on that day - it was the summer that I worked as a lifeguard at the pool, and Andrew had mono for the majority of the summer. However, at this point he was better and we were finally just enjoying the summer. I had a nice tan and my eyes were super blue in this picture :) Beyond that, though, is the fact that I can see how newly-in-love we were. I love it! Andrew is wearing that goofy look I think is so cute, and I can see how much I love us together in this picture. It just captures a moment for me - we've had so many more since, but this one definitely stands out.

This is just priceless. I have had pretty much ZERO time for blogging lately, but this too great.

Day 15 - put your ipod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play

First of all, this was a difficult task becauase Andrew and I share the itunes, which meant I had to sort out the 500+ classical tracks that would not reflect my musical taste accurately. Secondly, I don't use itunes that much at all - mostly I do Pandora. So again, mostly accurate, but I also listen to a bunch of music that's not on my itunes. However, I do think this came out fairly well.

1. We're both in Love with a Sexy Lady - Flight of the Concords
2. Letter to a Pretty Girl - The Avett Brothers
3. The Lazy Song - Bruno Mars
4. Pretty Girl from Raleigh - The Avett Brothers
5. Do You Love Him - The Avett Brothers
6. We are Mice - Azure Ray
7. The Chain - Ingrid Michaelson
8. Air Traffic - Owl City
9. The Curse - Josh Ritter
10. You Picked Me - A Fine Frenzy
    

That's right. At least 30% of my playlist is The Avett Brothers.

Fill in the blank Friday

1. I am currently obsessed with The tv show "Criminal Minds." I freaking love that show.

2. Today I am a little less stressed because, my presentation at KCTE is over with. However, I am also a LITTLE MORE STRESSED by the fact that my Linguistics midterm exam is due Monday, and my professor SPECIFICALLY SAID she would post it on Friday, so I paid $15 for rip-off hotel internet so I could work on it tonight, and she HAS NOT POSTED IT. This means that I won't get to work on it probably until Sunday, when my day will already be jam packed with all the stuff I didn't get to do while here at the conference.

3. The age I am is 23 and the age I feel is dependent on the day. Unfortunately, I think most days a feel about 10 years older due to all the school stress. Sometimes when I'm just playing around with Andrew though I still feel 17 :)

4. My favorite place is my bed. Recently, all I've wanted to do is get one decent full night's sleep.

5. Something I have been procrastinating is grading the independent reading projects. I figure they took a month and a half to finish them - well, those that got them in on time - so I can take a while to get them back. It's only fair.

6. The last thing I purchased was a pizza. Half pepperoni for Andrew, half black Olives for me. Andrew swears this place, Donatos, is amazing...we'll see when it gets here.

7. The thing I love most about my home is My wonderful husband and my cat. And the bookshelf.

Day 14 - a picture of you and your family

On our wedding - it's pretty much the only time the whole family has been together in quite a while. Plus, it's one of the few pictures where we're all still with Nana, who passed away the winter before last.

This one has absolutely everyone - all grandparents on both sides of the family included.

Here we have friends and extended family seeing us off...they shook out birdseed from these little silk roses Nan had made.

Day 13 - your 5 favorite books and why

So, this list is never a permanent list - it fluctuates so frequently I can't really keep up (honestly, it's not that I read that much, just that my tastes change). Here goes - I'll try to keep to five. Might have to do two lists...yes, I think that may be the best option.

Favorite All-Time (mostly):

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - out of any book, this is the one I can pick up at any point and find something in it that speaks to me. It changes every time I read it, and even though there are some things I don't like (ahem...St.John?) it's still just so lovely.
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - tragic love story, raging gothic elements, desire, hatred, redemption, ghostly hands reaching out from the past - what's not to love? I will have to admit that my love for this book is deeply tied to Kate Bush's classic eighties ballad.
3. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood- I promise it's not just that I've studied it in like a billion classes with Dr. Dawkins. I really think this is my favorite dystopian novel - and I do love that genre.
4. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - simply put, this never ever fails to make me laugh. So very witty, Mr. Wilde.
5. The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antione de Saint-Exupery - this book has more wisdom in it than perhaps any other novel I have ever read. I have loved it ever since I was very little and it never ceases to give me that pleasurable sense of beauty in its effortless grace...draw me a sheep!

My favorite quote: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." I wished this was graffitied on my wall.

And now, my list of current favs: (sans descriptions, because I'm getting sleepy - you'll have to guess as to why I like them!)

1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
2. Beloved by Toni Morrison
3. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
   
4. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhyss
   
5. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
   

Life as a so-called teacher...

Some times, you are just in a good place. Like today, even though I'm super stressed about the fact that I'm behind in my grading, I have a book to finish for Monday, a midterm in Linguistics over the weekend, and a conference to present at on Friday, I was doing pretty darn swell. At least optimistic. Had some good conversations with students, felt like I was making headway, etc etc. Most of all, I was excited about teaching what was my absolute favorite story from high school, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." I still vividly remember Mrs. Kaye darting about the room like the mad narrator, pretending to leave smudges on the beige (not yellow) walls of our classroom. Maybe I just have a skewed memory because I actually liked...no, make that loved English. On the other hand, though, I remember others being at least slightly amused. It's such an awesome story, and it's not even hard. It's not like it's in some crazy old language - pretty plain and simple. I was re-reading it tonight and loving it all over again...seriously, I've been waiting to teach this story ever since I started in the education program. It has everything there for those stupid little unappreciative *words of frustrations* to enjoy if they would actually freaking do it. I even took time out from all the work I have to do (which means I'll be up well past midnight catching up) to make a cool poster thing so maybe you would all get into it a little more, in case you didn't read:



However, due to the fact that in an effort to actually help them out and send reminders I am in fact facebook friends with many of my students (only the ones that added ME, btw...I'm not a creeper), I had the lovely experience of reading a lovely post about how I'm such an unreasonable teacher for (gasp!) assigning them one story to read while they're simultaneously working on a novel. And we do essays in class too? And other daily assignments? OH MY GOD WHEN WILL THE HORROR THAT IS AP LITERATURE NEVER CEASE.

So, here's one out to all the haters that resent a class they signed up for because there is actually challenging work involved: you suck. Thanks for ruining my day.

I'm not talking to the ones who were forcibly pushed into the class - they know I try to help them as much as possible, and goodness knows I cut A LOT of slack. I'm talking about the super smart, the high achievers, the always-made- an A+ on-everything-I've-ever-done kids...the ones who think they're too good to actually work hard and feel the driving need to complain about every living thing. The ones who waste their potential by sitting silently during discussion instead of contributing what they and I both know they have to offer. The ones who are brilliant and useless. Guess what - class could actually be fun for you. It's called intellectual stimulation - you could actually experience it if you gave a crap. If not just you, but all students were a little less worried about your grades and a little more worried about being involved in learning, maybe the whole educational system wouldn't be the pathetic waste that it so often is. Because the bottom line is, you don't have to care - if you're semi-intelligent you'll go to college and hopefully find some occupation that keeps you entertained all day long. Good luck with that.

It's stupid that little things like this set me off so badly - I know teaching has so many rewards. Sometimes though - I just want to knock some heads and say screw it all.

Day 12 - write a poem to someone you love

Is it cheating to write a haiku? I'll try for a longer poem at a later date.

your large laugh booming

shoots smiling shivers through me

wrap me in your love.

Us playing in the snow during the great snow week 2011.

Day 11 - the bucket list

Not necessarily in order of importance...mostly just as I think of them.

1. Get sealed in the temple
   
2. Live in a big city
3. Live in another country
4. Get to my goal weight
5. Learn to speak another language at least a little bit
6. Keep up a garden
7. Teach in a magnet school for Literature (these exist - so awesome!)
8. Have a family and keep it from becoming crazy
9. Write an original literary analysis that will get published
10. Earn my masters/maybe even doctorate degree
    
11. Find a good group of friends wherever we move
12. Actually finish a scrapbook
13. Do some more community theatre
14. Read all the books on my enormous reading list
15. Be a good housekeeper...I'm getting better at this!

So, I'm sure these will probably change as I do.

Listen to The Avett Brothers

Day 10 - songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad

No matter what mood I am in, The Avett Brothers fit it. They are my single favorite musical experience of all time. Not only do I love (and have) all of their recorded music, but they are even better live.

Me and Andrew with Seth Avett after their concert in Murray - best concert ever!

Fill in the blank Friday

1. I am a wife, a teacher, and a friend. I am a whimsical realist.

2. The bravest thing I've ever done was maybe zip-lining over the jungle in Belize?

3. I feel prettiest when I try, but not too hard...usually this will happen late at night when I'm trying out an outfit/hairstyle that somehow can never actually be replicated for the intended day.

4. Something that keeps me awake at night is thinking of stuff that I either didn't get done today or can't forget to do tomorrow .

5. My favorite meal in the entire world is beef and noodles, like my Nan used to make.

6. The way to my heart is through a good book and Blistex.

7. I would like to visit another country with my husband.

Want to fill in the blanks?

Day 9 - something you're proud of in the past few days

Today, I was especially proud of my seniors (and the one sophomore and one junior that went). They really represented the school well on our field trip to the MSU Shakespeare Festival. For the most part, they were really respectful and mature throughout the whole process, and I think they even had fun...at the very least, I know they did in lunch and on the bus! Really and truly though, they were very good as a whole. As I looked out at all the students I saw in there talking or sleeping or texting or listening to music (mental scream) from other schools, I was supremely grateful for my students, who at least mostly kept their phones put up :) There was of course that one group of boys who talked through 90% of the play, and I really just wish I had followed my gut and not let the ringleader go on the trip. His promises to behave himself were of course meaningless - as was his apology - "Hey, I wasn't as bad as I could have been." Overall though, it was definitely a good experience all around.

Although it was fun, I hate to say it, but I didn't love the performance. I think I've just seen too many fantastic performances of Macbeth to be satisfied with a pretty good performance. The show I saw at Louisville's "Shakespeare in the Park" a few years ago completely blew this one away, with the gothic tartan costumes, the intensely evil witches and murderers, and the brutal beheading of Macbeth. The horrific scene of the Macduff family's slaughter in that version still gives me chills, whereas in this one it was slightly confusing and almost laughable rather than creepy like I think it was intended to be.

Then there's the new PBS film version. This production is just phenomenal. The World War-esque interpretation and the witches as nurses was simply inspired. You can watch the entire movie here:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/macbeth/watch-the-full-program/1030/

There were just some interpretations I really didn't care for in the ASC performance...Hecate? Really? It was way too over-the-top for me. I understand how having a guy play Hecate could have worked, but it just seemed like a joke. It took away from the witches' creepiness, and I thought they were pretty good up til then. I did like the apparitions out of the bloody cloth - just not the stupid Hecate voice. Seriously, it was too far...instead of seeming odd and sinister, it honestly seemed like Hecate was mentally challenged. That was the worst bit. In other places though, I just got a little bored. There wasn't much new or exciting about this interpretation to me - one of the most amazing things about Shakespeare is that he is timeless, and his work can be interpreted in so many ways. I love to see a performance where the actors and the audience are part of the creative process - where the language and themes of Shakespeare's work can be viewed through a thought-provoking and relevant new lens. This one just didn't do it for me.

Also, I'm very proud of Andrew for finishing all his auditions and doing such a good job! :)

Day 8 - short term goals for this month and why

1. Get seniors to turn in freakin' work.
2. Put on a great performance of our play in drama class.
3. Arrange all the remaining vertical team meetings and the Super Saturday session.
4. Present at KCTE.
5. Catch up on linguistics work and actually try to understand it.
6. Work out at least 4 times a week.
7. Keep writing on my blog.

And why? Because school runs my life.

day 7 - a picture of someone/something that has had the biggest impact on you.

That's right, it's Shakespeare. I promise this is not a cop-out...Shakespeare seriously has had a huge impact on my life. I remember vividly reading my first Shakespearean play. It was Measure for Measure, one of Nan's old blue cloth-bound copies, and I was in sixth grade. Of course, I didn't quite grasp the finer (or coarser) points of the language yet, but I knew there was something magical there. I continued to read through his comedies through middle school, and in I think 7th (or maybe 8th) grade I asked Mom to let me do a Shakespeare course for school - you can do that when you're homeschooled. Accordingly, she bought me a book called Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide to Six Shakespeare Plays...again, we were homeschooled. Even though now I'm pretty sure there wasn't an evangelical Christian agenda behind all of Shakespeare's plays, working through the book did two things for me; it opened up a new world of close reading for me, and it made me decide to be an English teacher. I remember my twelve-year-old-self sitting at my wooden desk/dresser drawer and deciding that I wanted to teach English - I never changed my mind. So yep, Shakespeare had a pretty big impact on me - I'm excited to go see Macbeth on Thursday!

Impossibilities?

Russian author Anton Chekhov once stated:

"You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible."

Here's the thing...I think that lately, I've been making life more and more impossible. It's not necessarily that I don't trust anyone, it's just that sometimes I am so completely cynical. I try to rationalize any trust issues away under the guise of independence - after all, I am at my core a staunchly independent person. Although I do pride myself sometimes on my ability to take on whatever I need to do and generally succeed, I often wonder if I really have to do so much on my own. At school, I know that half of the time I take things on myself just so that I know it will be done how I want it - but in all actually, there are generally other people I could share that process with, I just don't take advantage of it. Of course, as always, talking about school is kind of my superficial cover-up for the real issue - school is really never a problem. The problem is that I'm so afraid of depending on someone and then being let down that I'd rather just not depend on anyone for anything. And I know that that's not completely healthy. I know we're supposed to want to put it all out there and take those risks, but I've just had my expectations shattered at so many points that honestly, other than Andrew, I can't think of one soul who I could really say I could truly count on. I want to believe that people are trustworthy and reliable, but it just hasn't been my experience.

Sometimes I wish I could be "teacher" me all the time. The side of me that is a teacher is seriously so hopeful and so willing to believe the best of everybody, and generally all around positive. But at the same time, that's the same side of me that some no longer trust because it comes with that representation of the dreaded "authority figure." I just know that I'm generally happier working...and while I am lucky to be in a career I love, it saddens me that it's sometimes so hard to take that home with me. Because I do have a life and a personality outside of teaching, even when I'd rather forget about it. I just wish everything in life was that simple - when things are going great, you get great meaningful discussion and everybody gets an A because life is awesome - when they're disappointing, just enter that F in the gradebook and be done with it.

I've been doing some fairly serious musing for Valentine's Day. I love this holiday and always have, but for some reason tonight I just haven't been able to get into that loving spirit, despite the pretty flowers my wonderful husband sent me or his sweet understanding. I'm honestly just ready to leave everything here behind and start over. I know that's probably not the best way to deal, but that's where I'm at right now.

The stupid thing? This isn't really even about anything. There wasn't some trigger that set me off or anything like that. It's just been this whole year or so. Despite how much I love my job, I'm pretty sure I'd be ok with fastforwarding to the end of this era.

Day 6 - favorite super hero and why

I thought I'd get a head start on Day 6 since I know tomorrow will be crazy busy and I really cannot afford to procrastinate on my linguistics paper any more after today. My favorite is and always has Superman. My whole family has had a long-standing love affair with the Man of Steel - ever since I was little I can remember watching Christopher Reeves morph into a superhero with a single swipe of glasses from his chiseled face. We've made many a trip to the Superman Museum in Metropolis, IL, and I remember gazing with awe not only at the giant Superman statue out in front, but also at all the wonderful memorabilia collected inside, especially from the movies and TV shows. We loved "The New Adventures of Lois and Clark" in its time, but no TV memory holds stronger for me than the weekly ritual of "Smallville" in high school. We lived for that show every week, waiting with baited breath until we could belt out "Somebody saaaaaaavvvveeeeee mmmmmeeeeee!" in glorious cacophony together. Of course, since the Tom Welling version of Clark Kent started high school (hah - when he was 20-something) in the same year as I did, I felt a special connection to him and particularly Lana Lang, who Mom always claimed reminded her of me. I seriously took all of my fashion sense from Kristen Kreuk in high school...Andrew and I recently started watching the early episodes on DVD, and he takes great pleasure in pointing out the hairstyles and accessories that I used to emulate.

I'm not sure why Superman has always been so attractive to me...the premise is full of holes, to say the least. I mean, seriously - glasses and a hair part? That's your disguise? But maybe it is this willing suspension of disbelief that I love so much...that, and the fact that Superman will always stand for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. You just can't beat that. Plus, Tom Welling. Superhot.

Day 5 - a picture of somewhere you've been

Outside shot of Canterbury Cathedral

I've been to many places that have been beautiful and meaningful to me...the woods behind my house where I played as a child, the snow-covered hills of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky and the magnificent Ukranian Orthodox cathedrals of Kiev, the ancient ruins in Belize and the beaches in San Pedro and the Bahamas, the mountains in Virginia and the river at Jamestown...even the countryside around my house now. However, the most beautiful and serene place I have ever been was Canterbury. During my sophomore year in college, I went on my first study abroad trip to London for a theatre program. Overall, the trip was fantastic - we went to see plays on the West End almost every day and visited many of the great sites in England - Stratford-on-Avon, Stonehenge, the cliffs of Dover, Bath, and Buckingham palace. Out of everything, our trip to Canterbury was by far my favorite. The blend of history, architecture, nature, literature, and just a sense of the divine was overpowering. I actually started crying when I entered the Cathedral, it was so beautiful. Every time I need to think of a peaceful place, I go back in my mind to that vivid green courtyard in Canterbury and just imagine myself lying down in that green and staring up at the clear blue sky framed by the stone arches of the cathedral.

Me in the courtyard

One of my favorite views - I love how you can see the Cathedral through those darling street lights

Outside the Cathedral - I'm the little person in the white coat.

Day 4 - a habit that you wish you didn’t have

My bad habit is tearing up my cuticles.

Okay, so let me preface this by saying that the reason my hand looks like it belongs to an 80-year-old is because I have been deep cleaning in the bathrooms and kitchen today and couldn't find my gloves. Generally, my hands are quite nice...except for my bad habit. It's a stress thing that's gotten considerably worse since the end of college to now. I don't bite my fingernails and never have, but I tear up the cuticles around my nails. On particularly stressful days, I will sometimes pick at them until they bleed, which is horrible and does not make for pretty hands. My mom always made such a big deal about my "pretty hands" when I was growing up - she had this thing where she said I should be a hand model in commercials, like for lotion and stuff. I don't think there's actually too much hope for that. Andrew HATES HATES HATES this habit. Any time he sees me picking at my cuticles, he either fusses mightily or smacks my hand :) I know it's a bad habit, but I'm not quite sure how to break it. The longest I have gone without messing with my nails was one month before my wedding, since I knew I would have pictures taken of my hands.

Not technically a picture just of hands, but I love it. Our cake was amazing!

It's a silly habit, and one that I really don't have an excuse for, unless you count the excuse that there could be many worse ways to relieve stress.

Day 3: a piture of yourself as a...teenager.

14-year old Andrew and me in Florida freshman year

So, this is the oldest photo I currently have of myself digitally. I'll work on getting another one of me actually as a child - but hey, I do think we look kind of like babies here! This photo has a lot of good memories for me. It was my first school trip during my first year of public school - it was a very exciting time for me. Out of all my high school experience, freshman year was pretty much the best, which is kind of the opposite of what most people say. By my senior year, I was a constant whirl of stress; I was literally president of 5 different clubs, as well as playing in the orchestra and being the editor of our very competitive newspaper. It just wasn't as fun any more; everything I did was focused on getting those scholarships, and I'd already been more than a little jaded by high school "love." However, freshman year I was carefree. School was easy and I excelled in my classes; I was new and therefore automatically held a certain degree of popularity; I made good friends easily was excited by each new crush. I loved being in orchestra with all of my new-found friends, and I had never been to Florida before this trip to Orlando. This is also the first picture I have with Andrew, who at that point was just a good friend. He claims that he had a crush on me, but I was completely oblivious to this - although looking at the picture now, I do see it a little :) But no, our story wouldn't start for a few more years. We didn't even go to the same theme park on the second day of that trip - he went to Universal and I went to Islands of Adventure. And I had a crush on this guy:

Mike Trew, freshman Dara, and Charlene Siza after getting drenched on a water ride. Check out that swimsuit, circa 2001!

HE was a sophomore, and also he wore spiky bracelets and had spiky hair. This made him very cool. Unfortunately, I also had a new boyfriend at home at the time. Oh, the agony of school trips! Remembering those times always puts a smile on my face - everything was so deliciously complicated. That's also the trip where I got sun poisoning - we decided it was a good idea to go to Cocoa beach at noon and stay splashing around for a few hours. I had disturbing purple blotches spreading all across my shoulders by the time we stopped for dinner at McDonald's on our way home. And then their was the bus ride - I'm pretty sure that as long as I live, I will never forget the pain of that bus ride. Due to a lack of funds, we had taken a school bus all the way to Florida (every trip after that in HS we always took a charter bus) and there was no way possible to sit without sticking tortuously to the brown vinyl seats. It was agony.

I'm behind the goofy guy, pre-sunpoisoned. By the way, the goofy guy is now my cousin-in-law.

Reflecting on my freshman makes me nostalgic for all the good parts of high school. Of course there were some pretty nasty times as well, but those magical parts of the teenage years still stand out when I think of high school. I remember all my different style changes as I tried to figure out which group I fit into, sitting at lunch in a booth with my group of girl friends every day until our group grew big enough to expand to a long table, meeting up to goof off in the library before school started, hanging out in the orchestra room after school, crazy shenanigans during forensics team practices and trips, singing karaoke in downtown Paducah with my newspaper friends...so many fun memories. Now, I'm not trying to say that high school was the golden era of my life or anything like that, because hands down I'd rather be where I am now than back there. I do think though, that if you make it your focus, you can always remember the good times. It's so easy to let the crappy things that happen in life overshadow entire time periods in your memory. As one of my favorite authors, Aldous Huxley, once said,

"Every man's memory is his own private literature."

However, I believe that whether our own personal literature reads like a tragedy or an adventure depends on our perspective.

Day 2 - the meaning behind your blog name

My blog name is "Wearing Sunlight." It's part of a quote from one of my favorite e.e.cummings poems, "unlove's the heavenless hell and homeless home."

unlove's the heavenless hell and homeless home

of knowledgeable shadows (quick to seize each other
which all soulless wraiths proclaim
substance; all heartless spectres, happiness)

lovers alone wear sunlight. The whole truth
not hid by matter; not by mind revealed
(more than all dying life, all living death)
and never which has been or will be told

sings only - and all lovers are the song

Here(only here) is freedom always here
no then of winter equals now of spring;
but april's day transcends november's year

(eternity being so sans until
twice I have lived forever in a smile)

I love this poem because of its depth and passion of feeling - I love the thought of "lovers alone wear sunlight - all lovers are the song." Over anything else, I am wife to my amazing husband. This has been our year to "wear sunlight," and I know our love is going to keep singing us through whatever happens in the years to come. e.e. cummings, for me, captures all the complexities and delights of love - he knows that without love, we are no more than those "soulless wraiths," wandering the earth in search of ourselves. My name on here represents the love I have in my life and the hope I have for our future.

Poetic Musings on Winter

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called snowflakes "the poem of the air," and although that particular poem takes a turn for the melancholy, I have been considering the poetry in the winter scene outside all day. This morning, I awoke around dawn in order to take Andrew to the airport, and despite the incredibly scary roads out of home and into Nashville, I still noticed (in between bouts of terror whenever a semi would sweep past me and drown my windshield in vision-defying sludge) the beauty of the snow in the countryside. The vast expanses of field that stretch out on either side of the road glittered in the early morning sun, and the trees were all softly laced in white. I just kept thinking - this is how winter should look, even though it might not make for the best driving conditions. When I finally arrived home (35 minutes longer than it normally would have taken me), I wasn't quite ready to stay inside just yet, so I strapped on my snowboots and went out exploring behind house with the camera. I was looking particularly for one certain type of tree that I had seen from the roadside, but unfortunately I never found one. I did, however, have an excellent time tramping through the snow like a little girl. Apparently the forested little area behind my house sees high critter traffic - there were little animal footprints everywhere! Anyway, I tried to capture some of the beauty of my little adventure, but of course my dinky camera didn't really do it justice. My frolic in the snow got me thinking again about poetry, though, so I thought I'd include some favorites.


This one captures the prettiness I was feeling outside...most poets seem to want to focus on the doom and gloom aspect of winter, but ol' Lucy Maud was a positive lady.

A Winter Day by Lucy Maud Montgomery
I

The air is silent save where stirs
A bugling breeze among the firs;
The virgin world in white array
Waits for the bridegroom kiss of day;
All heaven blooms rarely in the east
Where skies are silvery and fleeced,
And o'er the orient hills made glad
The morning comes in wonder clad;
Oh, 'tis a time most fit to see
How beautiful the dawn can be!



II

Wide, sparkling fields snow-vestured lie
Beneath a blue, unshadowed sky;
A glistening splendor crowns the woods
And bosky, whistling solitudes;
In hemlock glen and reedy mere
The tang of frost is sharp and clear;
Life hath a jollity and zest,
A poignancy made manifest;
Laughter and courage have their way
At noontide of a winter's day.


III

Faint music rings in wold and dell,
The tinkling of a distant bell,
Where homestead lights with friendly glow
Glimmer across the drifted snow;
Beyond a valley dim and far
Lit by an occidental star,
Tall pines the marge of day beset
Like many a slender minaret,
Whence priest-like winds on crystal air
Summon the reverent world to prayer.






I love the thought of the "whistling solitude." For once, the depiction of solitude here is not negative...it is peaceful and joyful even.


Here's on that's a little more typically morose/thought-provoking:

Lines for Winter by Mark Strand

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself --
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are.

And finally, one that is just nice. I love WCW.

Winter Trees by William Carlos Williams

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

Day 1: A recent photo of you with 15 interesting facts about yourself

1. I have every single song ever recorded by the Avett Brothers on my ipod.

2. Dill pickles are my absolute favorite food. Bread and Butter pickles and Sweet pickles are an abomination of nature.

3. In the wintertime when it is cold and dreary, I almost exclusively wear shades of black/gray. I just recently noticed this.

4. I told myself that 2011 would be the year I broke back into wearing contacts, but as you can see I still am not regularly following through on this one.

5. The left side of my hair always looks better than the right. Always.

6. My cat, Gobble, only likes me when Andrew isn't home.

7. Technically, I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Also, I haven't used these skills in about 5 years now.

8. My favorite work of literature is Jane Eyre. I can literally read it over and over again and get something new every time.

9. Nothing thrills me more than a student asking if than can have extra discussion group sessions about their novels. (This happened recently!)

10. My second biggest fear is falling off the bed. I have no idea of the underlying psychological meaning behind that. My biggest fear is too embarrassing to mention.

11. I'm obsessed with the TV show "Criminal Minds," even though the first time I saw it I thought the acting was horrible. I still hate Garcia a little, but the stories are so fascinating! The only problem is that now I sort of play out serial-killer scenarios everywhere I go - though I'm the analyst, not the killer, mind you.

12. I always put away leftovers with every intention of eating them tomorrow.

13. e.e. cummings is my absolute favorite poet because he nonsensically makes perfect sense.

14. One of the most moving moments of my life was when a friend and I got lost in a small town in the Ukraine and accidentally witnessed a traditional funeral procession. The profound beauty of it will never leave me.

15. I met the love of my life when we were fourteen and I didn't know it until he had been my friend for almost five years.