Sorry. I've been a slacker.

So since I made the big announcement that I was back in the game and ready to start posting regularly again, I've barely posted at all. My sister has reminded me of this on a few occasions and I know I need to get with it. So, here goes...

I am really starting to delve into my comp exams. Finally. I am working on the first paper focused on gender roles and the social construction of gender, gender roles, and gender identity. At first glance, it feel s pretty easy, right? This is what is expected as a "man/boy" and here is what is expected a "woman/girl." Not so easy. Once you start to think about subordinate masculinity versus hegemonic masculinity, the water starts to get a little muddy. Or when you think about jocks vs. band geeks or theater rats or any other sub-schools that exist in schools and society, things get even more dense. Who is to say that one form of masculinity is better than another? Who is to say it's right? And what of androgyny? Other cultures have three (sometimes more) gender roles in their societies, but not the good ole U. S. of A. No. It's either male or female with little acceptance for cross-over or questioning. This leaves people - particularly young people - in a precarious position. Are they male? Are they female? What if they are sexed as a male, but identify more with female characteristics and traits? Then what? Anyway, these are the issues, challenges, and conundrums with which I am dealing with in order to complete this final degree. Well, actually, I am dealing with them when I am not at pottery class or in open studio...

And that brings us to pottery class. Last week I was absent since I attended the Dave Matthews concert at Darien Lake. Since I was pelted in the eardrum with freezing cold rain and wind, I would have much rather been working some clay at the Genesee Center. So, where am I at with this emerging "talent"? Well....

It's been an adventure. I am learning to cope with and appreciate centrifugal force much more than I ever have. I am finally starting to remember to not put a soaking wet sponge on a moving wheel. Said sponge flies off wheel. Same with a ball of clay, as evidenced by the night that one of mine flew off to hit my instructor (Ezra) in the kneecap. Man down. I am also learning to appreciate the effects that too much water has on a very smooth and pliable clay. It sinks my battleship every time. When I add too much water, I almost never produce anything that even looks like a piece of art....not even abstract art. But, overall it's good.

Two weeks ago we glazed our first pieces and I am anxious to see how they turn out. Rest assured I will post pictures when they emerge from the kiln magically colored and 15% smaller than they were when I first put them in the kiln room.

As a person who has significant weaknesses in spatial ordering and understanding how the world all fits together mechanically and socially (there's a reason I am in social sciences), this has been really challenging for me. Almost always, I have to have Ezra show me exactly how my hands should be when throwing a piece or when removing the slip from the outside. I always thought I was a kinestetic learner, but apparently, not so much. It makes me feel a little dense and slow, but I am coming around. Sometimes when I am just going about my every day routines, I remember a hand position or something will click and it hits me. Like, "OH! THAT's what I need to do in order to not put a gigantic hole in the side." Right. I ruined two pieces this weekend when trimming because I dug too deep and put mammoth holes in both items. So not cool.

Anyway, that's where I am at with the pottery thing. I am successfully making things that look like cylinders and although they are not huge, they are symmetrical and nicely shaped. I hope everyone in my family likes oddly shaped pottery because it's what's for Christmas this year!

Mud Physics!

I am in love.

Last night was my first pottery class at Genesee Center for Arts & Education. I was greeted by 25 pounds of clay, a tool kit, and Ezra, my instructor. After a quick building tour we pretty much jumped right in, learning to wedge clay in using the ram's head technique to prepare and unify the clay. We grabbed a wheel, got some water, put on our splash guards and away we went!

Islapped my ball of clay on the wheel and began slapping it to center it on the wheel. This already felt good! Centering te clay means getting it ready to make it into a nice little flan shape on the wheel. Grab the sponge. Wet the hands. Turn on the wheel and watch the clay spin. As soon as I put my wet hand on that ball of clay, I realized that this was going to be the equivalent of playing with mud for 3 hours every Wednesday night! YES! As a kid, my favorite pastime was making mud pies and seeing how dirty I could come home. It was fab.

So, after centering and mounding we began to open up the piece. It's all about pressure. speed, and focus; being sure to push with a certain part of your hand and not the other. Pushing with the top part of the hand creates a ridge that throw the whole piece off. Okay. So the clay is opened some. Then you open it MORE. At a certain point the clay just opens. You see it right before your eyes uniformly spread. Then it's time to pull it up.

This is where things went horribly wrong for me. My cylinders kept becoming bowls. I couldn't figure out the pressure of the lift to make it come straight up, applying too much pressure to the inside. I made some beautiful bowls that eventually turned too thin and wobbled off the wheel, resulting in the return of the clay to it's original ball.

If nothing else, this is going to be a cool experience. Like anything else, it takes practice and diligence, which means regular trips to open studio. That's not going to be easy, but I think it is going to become a place t refocus.

Learning to throw pottery is going to teach me so many important lessons and it's fairly parallel to life....learning to center. Opening up just enough. Learning to not apply too much pressure before it all becomes too weak and you have to start all over. Life is pliable; sometimes it starts one way, but with motion, water, and pressure it becomes something else completely... It's all a balance. It's all about learning to balance. Learning to find the right combination to make something beautiful. Until I can translate these lessons into my own life, my life will continue to be a giant ball of out of control mud that warps into a bowl because I apply too much pressure at the bottom.

Okay. I'm seeing it.

Good morning, world!

Every day is an adventure...or so they say. Mine seems to be increasingly so.

I'm not even sure how to face a day like this, so I've decided that I am going to try an experiment in self-esteem. For today I am going to be hyper vigilant about negative self-talk, negative thoughts, negative emotions. I am not necessarily going to love my job, but I am going to be proud of the families I help. I am not going to be absolutely in love with my body, but I am going to be thankful for the health it has given me; for the muscles that move me and the heart and lungs that keep me going and the brain that seems to never turn off. I am going to try.

Don't call it a come back!

I've been here for years, however, I haven't been actively blogging. Sure. I've tried other blogs, but none of them seem to fly. This blog chronicles some really difficult, funny, poignant, and pathetic times in my life and it's really like a comfortable blanket to come home too.

So much has happened since my last post about Salazar. First and foremost, I no longer live in Geneva. That apartment was great, but the drunken Hobart William Smith College kids kind of ruined the experience for me. Constant fire trucks, sirens, people peeing in the lawn... It had to to end. Okay, I would probably still be in in Geneva had we not lost funding for the after school program. This was a HUGE blow to me and to the Surge staff (who I miss every day). We had a good thing going, but funding was tight and competitive. We missed funding by one point. One point. One lousy point changed my entire life.

So, here I am in Rochester now. Living in Corn Hill with Scout, Nala, and Belle. Have really gotten into spinning (indoor cycling) and am trying my best to keep a positive outlook on life. I am feeling a lot of pressure lately to be where society "says" I should be, but I have so much to do before then.

I am a late stage Ph.D. student. The world of academia call me an "advanced doc student," but to me it feels more like late stage. It has been a long, arduous process that is definitely not for the faint of heart. I am at thee most difficult stage now, which is preparing and writing my comprehensive exams. It is easy to go to class twice a week and hand in assignments. It is much, much harder to stay motivated to write papers, three of which I need to do to complete my comps. I've decided to explore gender role expression in adolescent romantic relationships, so I am knee deep in gender theory and gender construction. Next will be the development of adolescent romantic relationships, followed by a research methods paper. They should be completed by the end of the summer at which point I will prepare my dissertation proposal. I am so close and still a gazillion miles away.

So why am I brining back the blog? I've decided that I need to get a life. I am going to try at least one new thing each week. Might be a skill. Might be a food. Might be a new place or activity, but I am going to start getting out there. This week's new activity will be pottery class on Wednesday night. Yes! I am starting a ten-week class to learn to throw pottery! Should be interesting.

So, are you willing to come along on the journey to see where life leads me as a result of where I have been?

Welcome back, readers!

Have I mentioned how lucky I am lately?

Living in Geneva is proving to be a nice experience. Each morning I get to walk along the lake and some mornings are definitely better than others. This morning was outstanding. There was a perfect breeze that was cool and warm at the same time, but the colors on the horizon over the lake were stunning. There is no better word to describe what I experienced this morning. It was just gorgeous. Blues. Purples. Red and pinks. And the orange. Just colors that are so hard to create, but come so naturally in nature. Belle and I walk a loop every morning that starts and ends our walk around the lake. We are lucky, lucky creatures.

Did I happen to mention there are oodles of wineries here, too? Not a bad perk.

Man bit by rabbid BAT!

Hell, yes I said it! "Man bitten by RABID bat!" Okay. There are a few things that go along with this little story, but first I should give you the story as emailed by C. Elizabeth Cameron, Director of Environmental Health for Tompkins County. Please read the following then direct your attention back to me....

"A bat captured on Sunday, August 24, in the small City park across North Cayuga Street from Northside Kinney Pharmacy and across Cascadilla Street from Gimme Coffee, tested positive for rabies.

The man we seek was definitely bitten by the bat while he picked it up. He stated that the bat bit him and exclaimed at the pain it caused. He is described as 20 to 25 years old, white, approximately 6 ft tall with brown hair longer in the back and on the sides and dark eyes. His arms and hands are tattooed with particularly noticeable tattoos on his knuckles. He was with a young woman with blonde dread-locks. They had a medium dog that was not on a leash.

This man must begin the rabies post-exposure regimen immediately. Without rabies shots, this man could incubate rabies, become rabid and die.

Please contact Frank Chase or Skip Parr at the Health Department, 274-6688, if you can assist in locating this man.

Thank you.

C. Elizabeth Cameron, P.E.

Director of Environmental Health

Tompkins County Health Department"

I am soooooo not making fun of this man. At all. I'm really not, but if you remember I had a little bat episode in my apartment three days after moving in. I had to go take little Salazar to be tested after he bunked with me for two days. Unfortunately, it all ended badly for Sal, but good for me. He tested NOT positive for rabies, but imagine if he had...

If you remember, I posted a blog regarding the book "Rant" where the man contracts rabies, becomes rabid, and spreads it across the world. It becomes a badge of honor for people to contract rabies and be able to track it back to Rant. So....what if this guy becomes Rant and the world all gets rabies and weird? I'm just saying.... So, please....I beg of you if you see anything resembling this coming towards you call public safety or the EMT's or Batman or whoever it is you call. This is what a rabid person looks like:

Know the signs!

It could have been me, kids. I have narrowly escaped the claws of death. Or at least a series of really, really horrible shots. Oy vay!

Extreme Home Makeover is a product. They aren't a charity. They aren't doing all of this out of the goodness of their hearts. It's a business with sponsors and a budget and a bottom line. This is what I have been reminded of as I've wandered down to the site of the project in the middle of Geneva. Literally in a middle class neighborhood in Geneva. The march of the volunteers coming down the street took five takes. It's a production. Not to mention that I've gotten in trouble for something every time I go over there. Last night I boycotted, but may try it one more time tonight.

And another thing? They aren't using local businesses. The contractors are from something like an hour or two away. The volunteers aren't local because you had to sign up to volunteer like a month ago or something like that. The excavators aren't local. They weren't even asked. That's not okay with me, by the way. The neighborhood is completely taken over. There are trailers in the parking lot of a funeral home on the street. The work doesn't stop, even though there is a funeral at that home today. Where is the community in that? Can you imagine having to listen to Ty's big gob as you are trying to respect and remember a loved one? I don't think so.

Anyway, that's my assessment of the project. They can go away now, please.

On the other hand, I am supporting commercialism and hype by going on the Mayercraft II. Yes. I am. I am rooming with two girls from London and one from California. I've never met them and hadn't even known these people existed until I looked into finding a roomie for the cruise. I wasn't going to go. I said that I wouldn't. The cruise is almost twice as expensive this time around, both for the boat and the airfare since it leaves out of California. Last year I was on the first to the last deck in the bottom of the ship. This year? Not even close to that. We are on the Verandah deck with a balcony. How sweet is that? Not only that, but I will be in California AND Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The cruise is in March this year, rather than February and is a day longer. We are spending two days at sea this time around. That means two days of jam packed music onboard the ship. The line-up is incredible; John Mayer, OAR, Guster, Ryan Shaw, Jessie Baylin...they are mixing up some pop sounds with some great new blues artists. YES! I am pretty excited.

Speaking of excited. Tomorrow night is John Mayer at Darien Lake and Saturday is my great Aunt Alice's 80th birthday party! I can't believe she is 80! You would never know. She is an incredible woman that I used to be scared to death of when I was little. I have since grown to love and respect her and realize that she pretty much just says it like it is - a trait a few more people could use and that a few more other people could tone down a little.

Okay. Off I go. Keep on rockin' in the free world.