Here Comes the Sun

This was less than a week ago, 

when everyone was mocking me 

"Sucker's Spring" + "Fake Spring."

But I feel that we're really and truly 

on our way to bliss now... 

Huckie knows how I feel:

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Coming Together

Coffee date with JH @The Broad; there's a lot of anti-Trump stuff everywhere.

She: Maybe we needed Trump so we could join together...

Me: Maybe we needed Trump so we could get together

--book club happened because you were mad after the election.

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Big-Kid-Bed

Nu is ready to say goodbye to her old 'big-kid-bed',

she's building herself a full-size tween bed.

With a twin on top and a trundle underneath

she's so ready for sleepovers.

I'm invited tonight;

Scout's on every night.

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Honors' Day

I had five students present research this Honors' Day.

Also, today, AC (class of 2015) came to visit, and gave me this:

I love students.

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Tax TIme

'Overhearing' Big A and At go on about receipts for college books and meal plans and so on and  whatnot on the family group chat.

I'm so over hearing them on this, so I posted:

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Spring Break "travel"

Nu's spring break doesn't coincide with ours, 

and the poor love has had a tame week of it.

She's been to Ann Arbor with Big A 

and tagged along to Alma with me

The highlight was having lunch

with her big sib two days in a row...

Here they are "being so cute" by 

not letting me take their picture.

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Toolbox Chronicles

A long time ago, when At was a kindergartner, he earned a nickname. One of his classmates was describing him to her mom as her new best friend and thought his name was "Toolbox." We laughed and thought it was cute. We've called him that on and off, and he claims it as his YouTube channel name, etc.

So when I saw this cool cooler that shaped like a toolbox, I got it so we could ferry him food  from home. Imagine my dismay when I found it was liberally plastered with references to beer. So Nu and I set to work obscuring all the references to beer. I got a Rosie-the-Riveter fan art for feminist cred, Nu blocked out "beer" on another patch so it now reads "I love puppies." Then I filled it with treats and sent it off via grandparents for his Boss Day treat.

Delivery was accomplished and they even took him out for lunch at the pub.

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Only Easter

When you're the only child at home,

people may forget that you probably want an Easter egg hunt.

But you may get multiple Easter baskets from parents and grandparents

and may even find a blouse that matches your mama's.

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The Future is Looming

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Earlier this week...

I'm still getting used to just three of us at dinner since At went away to college this year. Well, technically five since we always count Scout and Huck, but they don't sit AT the table, just under it : ). We've had to rearrange our places at the table: Nu now sits at the head with Big A and I on either side. Big A and I used to sit on the same side before.

And sometimes the other side of the table is just too far.

We were sitting across plates of felafel, pita, and sliced salad (the pita was from the store, but I made everything else) and Big A just got this look on his face. "Look at you," he said. "You just take care of everyone. You made Nu breakfast and lunch, then went to teach all day, stopped to take care of your CASA kid before you came home, and then made us all dinner."

And then, Big A and Nu came around to my chair and hugged and kissed me over and over. Puppies too, because they're always one second away from celebrating. I feel incredibly lucky to do what I do with the people I love so much.

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Symposium #4

I am amazed and charmed by what my students get up to every year.

(We were a bit bummed that we were assigned the lobby,

but then, the traffic turned out to be way better.)

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First Dance!

She said: "It's not the kind where you ask people to dance with you..."

So I guess it must have been the fun kind where everyone got to dance.

I got this picture after Nu came from school...

It reminds me so much of the Nirma ad...

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"Last Dance with Gorgeous George"

KB's title when she posted this to FB.

I'm lucky to have colleague-friends who crack me up.

And the original.

(My student had dropped her project mannequin off in KB's office 

as I was in class. I was moving him to my office, but I didn't realize 

that his pants were falling off and thus making me look extra perv.)

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Bougainvillea

And now the bougainvillea is at it too

I want to ask them to take it a little easy

because I want them to last all summer long!

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Together

Somehow I managed to get Big A to agree to go to UU with me

and he signed up for his own name tag even!

Miracle!

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Books not Bullets

And then the four of us went to see

the Tomb Raider movie

where Nu proceeded to fall asleep...

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Miranda Night

When you take the biggest Hamilton nerds you know to

the 'other' Miranda play...

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Jasmine's blooming

There's still snow outside, but in here

it smells like the Madras Marina 

'cos the jasmine's a-bloomin'

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TFW

That picture of yourself in academic drag you took when people were consistently mistaking you for an undergraduate (because genes, but also gender, and also race) surfaces and you realize that your fake glasses looked like fake glasses.

Troppo, Lansing, College Admissions event.

Reaching Across the Aisle #Enough

Stood in front of the impromptu installation "Reaching Across the Aisle"  that students had put up.

Just 17 chairs with the names and ages of the Parkland students on them... 

(the two in front are for the parents in the CMU shooting from two weeks ago).

I walked through and began to cry--I was part of a chorus. 

They could have been my students someday. 

They could be my kids any day.

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On this 13th Day

I couldn't find a black cat to ride with me today, 

but I did give Kat Blaque a ride back to her hotel.

It wasn't bad--just a bit awkward after I disagreed with her.

And 15-hour workdays are no fun.

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Choice

Faster than a speeding train/star

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Sushi 'Stache

NuNu's Boss Day @ Sansu

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Mixed

Nu was at her first serious vocal concert yesterday; At was at his first academic conference yesterday. I didn't see either of them in action since I had five students presenting at the Michigan Academy conference and I was trying to be a supportive mentor.

I'm happy my students did such an awesome job and that I was able to be there for them in whatever capacity that made sense in the moment, but I'm a bit blue about missing the kids' big days.

I cannot say enough about how supportive my loves were though.
Nu: You were working, mama. That's important.
At: P (student) is graduating this year, there'll be lots of opportunities to see me give a paper again.

Also, mixed--it was a bit weird being at CMU exactly a week after this happened.


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Concert Gear

5th grade choir.

My dress + my shoes.

This is happening

way too fast.

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A Wrinkle...

So, I tried to use my scarf to explain the physics of A Wrinkle in Time to Nu.

Nu: So isn't it actually a wrinkle in space?

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Puppies + Pasta

The Greatest Gift of Aaaallllllll...

Getting the kids to take a photo with me!

Birthday Brunch with the fam, then we dropped At off at college and Nu and I got into pajamas at AT LUNCH TIME and watched Zindagi Milegi Na Dobaara on Amazon Prime (recommended!) while Aaron and the puppies took naps. 

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And so it Begins... Birthday gifts from afar come a-tricklin' in

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Up the road from us...

Even people faraway--in India (dad) and the people who sold us their house (WA) have been calling and emailing to ask if we're ok... We are. (As much as one can be under what feels like circumstances of constant siege.)


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O no, not again!

 

 I was beginning to get used to temperatures in the 40's. And I guess it wasn't just me. Both Z and I were late to our coffee date this morning because  we didn't have our coats on us at school drop off and had to go home to grab them.

And I arrived at Chapelure mad as hell mad as well, after I received some intense criticism feedback from Big A on a piece I'd written... I didn't realize until I read it again that--in my hurry--I'd skipped over the supportive and constructive parts to focus on the corrective comments. There's a message in there. Somewhere.

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#ProudScot

Synchronicity

They're both wearing their "kind" shirts!

(unplanned, apparently)

_

All the little sibs fell asleep

(all of them *on* me) before 

At got home for Spring Break

(after Model UN-ing it in the Lou).

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Cresting

Red Cedar River, East Lansing

I started on a long walk, but the music (my phone) died
and too many roads were blocked off,
so I headed back home.

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Four years

...since we brought Huckleberry Abhaya D-L home.

She's still a baby puppy and still runs her sibs ragged. 

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#MeToo MMRP

MacCurdy House put on their production of MMRP, and I was a proud mama even though I hadn't actually done anything but sign the form for supplies and such. I love my young feminists a little more than I love all my students. The #MeToo cards are going up all around campus later this month.

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When people don't call me out on my whining...

It makes me think I actually have something to be worried about :/ 

3 hrs · 

This foggy, rainy day isn't helping my blues: (i) I'm home with a sick Nu (ii) At is about to board a plane wearing his beautiful brown skin and his proud beard and looking like Trump's nightmare (iii) the Parkland kids are making me cry/rage (iv) At is headed for St. Louis, so Michael Brown is on my mind a bit more than usual.

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When your new haircut looks so cute

the hairdresser needs pictures

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Heroes come to life

Emma Gonzalez is my hero.





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Collective Noun for Humans in the Wild

Parkland

After Sandyhook (Dec 14, 2012) , I kept the kids home for the next week, because I couldn't bear to drop them off at school. Then Christmas break happened, and it was the new year, and they had to go back, and I remember I kept lingering in the kindergarten hallway having random kids excitedly come up to tell me about their Christmas presents--I didn't know all of them, I just happened to be taller than them... and there. Kids are... my heart.

Anyway--the Parkland, FL shooting was yesterday and today I dropped Nu off at school as always with a quick hug and kiss and I love you... and that was that.

Even I have gotten inured to this nonsense.

And today I look at this reel of the victims, and it hits all over again.


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First Cake

 It's chocolate and raspberry--or as she put it,

"Two iconic valentine's day flavors."

First taste of cake. I want to eat those arms and fingers too. 

(Pic courtesy Cousin N on FB)

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Mixed Intentions

Big A: "I thought it was cute that Huckie made her own bed out of pillows. Then I realized she was probably just hoarding them to spite Scoutie."

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Winter's Fangs

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Michigan Mardi Gras

The bird float is made of Meijer's plastic bags:

State pride and earth love :) 

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Junk Food and Socio-economic Class

I may be crying a little after reading how junk food has different values and meanings dependent on families' socio-economic status.

"For parents raising their kids in poverty, having to say "no" was a part of daily life. Their financial circumstances forced them to deny their children's requests — for a new pair of Nikes, say, or a trip to Disneyland — all the time. This wasn't tough for the kids alone; it also left the poor parents feeling guilty and inadequate. 

Next to all the things poor parents truly couldn't afford, junk food was something they could often say "yes" to. Poor parents told me they could almost always scrounge up a dollar to buy their kids a can of soda or a bag of chips. So when poor parents could afford to oblige such requests, they did."

In the Valley

The valley is empty
but threaded with ice

our lives have opened
like wave upon wave

I pretend I am a mother
duck, swanning placid

kids, cubs, pups, chicks
follow me automatically

through the feathered clefts
of childish hunger and snow

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Intimacy and Teens

I already ruined advertisements for my students with Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly, and now I want everyone to read this story of porn educators and how they're attempting to unpack and expose the sad, porn-inspired performativity of  teenage sex. It's awful enough that we have no good sex ed, but worse that there's seemingly universal and facile access to bad porn:

"It’s not surprising, then, that some adolescents use porn as a how-to guide. In a study that Rothman carried out in 2016 of 72 high schoolers ages 16 and 17, teenagers reported that porn was their primary source for information about sex — more than friends, siblings, schools or parents."

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Nerd and Proud

The literature nerd in me sees the literature nerd in you.

Type in an author's name, and you can keep on finding others to follow. 

This must be what a rabbit hole feels like.

http://www.literature-map.com/ 

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#HamiltonNerds

Content

Your mouth bleeds curses,
nurses wandering silences

Technology's flashing ghost
in the turn and tap of keys

skimming the round
in-line like dancers

circling like sharks
inland, inaccessible

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A Study of Men Throwing

the man throws coffee

it snakes tendrils over her

the man throws acid

it pools pits across her skin

the man throws kerosene

under his gaze, she is afire

the man throws her off (the bus)

the man throws her out (the house)

the man throws away (her phone)

the man throws down (her kids) 

the man throws a ball

the man throws a party

the man throws bombs

the man throws his ire 

the man throws
throws it all away
the man throws
the man throws
the man throws
until overthrown

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The Shape of Water

I kinda liked The Shape of Water, but At made me chortle because he had a point when he termed it "Ponyo for adults."

And a bit Alf, I might add.
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