Today I go to my first-ever walkout at work! Some people might say strike, but over here we call it a walkout. Because it is not a strike. Except for UPTE.  Follow us on twitter, hashtag #ucwalkout.

Can't hardly wait!  Because University administrators wouldn't be able to make any money at all (much less $800K, yes, I am talking to you Mark Yudof) if it weren't for us teachers and staff on the ground, actually making education possible -- and they need to know it!!

Stop cutting our pay, our classes and our opportunities!!

See you on the quad at UCD -- noon!

1. Was your first pregnancy planned? Yes. We knew we wanted to have a baby, and so just left off with the pesky bc, then whoa-howdy, baby on the way!

2. Were you married at the time? Yes.

3. What were your reactions? Delighted. Impatient. Nervous. Proud. A little scared. Deliriously happy.

4. Was abortion an option for you? Uh, no. See #s 1, 2 and 3 above.

5. How old were you? 27 when she was born.

6. How did you find out you were pregnant? I did an otc drop-a-drop-of-pee-on-this-little dot test. I still have the test someplace, isn't that sick?

7. Who did you tell first? Carl, natch.

8. Did you want to find out the sex? Nope. At that time I was willing to live with uncertainty.

9. Due date? Oct. 2, 1996.

10. Did you have morning sickness? Some.

11. What did you crave? scrambled eggs. baby carrots. raisins. french fries, but any kind of potatoes would work.

12. Who/what irritated you the most? The subway, esp. the crosstowns, which were really deep underground. The problem with the subway was twofold: one, the air deep underground sucks, and I was already full of baby (esp. toward the end) and had little room for air, so my breathing was really shallow. Bad air + shallow breathing = dizzy yukkiness. Second, the crouds sometimes got to me, especially as I got larger. One good thing about the subway in NYC, though: people ALWAYS got up and let me sit. ALWAYS. the PATH to NJ? Never. No one EVER got up for me on the PATH. So, while I was irritated by the subway because of the two problems mentioned, I was hoppin' mad about the PATH trains. Stupid, inconsiderate PATH riders! Shame on you.

13. What was your first child's sex? Girl, girly girl girl! Yay!

14. Did you wish you had the opposite sex of what you were getting? No. I grew up with two brothers, one of whom regularly performed a pee-gyser move with me whenever I tried to change his diaper, so I was releaved to learn I had a baby girl. Plus, my maternal grandmother had recently passed away, and I REALLY wanted a girl to name after her.

15. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 22. It was the first time I'd ever broken 100 pounds.

16. Did you have a baby shower? One, at my Mom's house in Cali. I am not big on parties.

18. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? None. It was easy-peasy!

19. Where did you give birth? At Englewood hospital in NJ (rather than St. Vincents in NYC)

20. How many hours were you in labor? I was in hard labor for about five hours, then the pushing began. I pushed three times, and there you go.

21. Who drove you to the hospital? Carl, who also drove my best friend, Beth.

22. Who watched you give birth? Carl and Beth, along with the nurses. I hardly saw the doctor, since the last part of my labor went so fast.

23. Was it natural or c-section? "Natural?" Ummm, I did have an epidural, but otherwise it was a normal, vaginal delivery.

24. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? I went with the epidural. The story behind that is funny, and worthy of its own post... someday.

27. How much did your child weigh? 6 lbs. 15 1/2 oz.

28. When was your child actually born? Sept. 18, 1996

30. What did you name the child? Lillian (after my grandmother) Alisha (Carl came up with it).

31. How old is your first born today? 12 years old.

Well, we knew it was coming, and Saturday the day finally came. I took Dog (aka Meow, Chair(wo)man Mao, Old Lady, Stinky and plenty more I can't think of right now but will probably remember as soon as I post this) to the vet. They were very nice, they suggested several things we could do to prolong her life through the holidays, but in the end, we kind of knew. Everyone said their goodbyes before LAW and I left, and so... She weighed just 5 pounds. She wasn't eating enough, her eye, her teeth, her claws, her fur... everything seemed to be falling apart for her, and at almost 19, she really was the Old Lady around here.

We sure will miss that voice. How are we going to know it's dinnertime without it?

Goodbye, Dog. We love you and will always miss you.

Why oh why?  Carl got the stomach flu last night, and now LAW has it, too! Ugh. (I've already had it, as did RJ and AJ)

And, to add insult to injury, HH's friend MnM came by today looking for her and said, in response to my saying people were sick was, "Oh, I had that last week, and still came over to play at your house. I hope I didn't give it to you!"  Just between me and you, there was a nanosecond when I thought I might actually murder my daughter's friend right on my own doorstep. But, then I thought, "If they come and take me away, who will care for my sick husband?" And, as I was fighting this little internal war, MnM skated away, back to her own house, saving me from myself.

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope you have a great day with your family and friends!

So today my family had Thanksgiving.  For various reasons not everyone could be here on Thursday, and though it is a bit unorthodox, we went ahead with the whole 9 yards. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries... you know, the whole Thanksgiving thing.

Anyway, it has been such a great day, and I am so happy we were able to be here without all the pain of traveling across country.

So, keeping with the theme of Thanksgiving here, I will list a few things I am thankful for, and you can feel free to add if you'd like.
This year, I am thankful for the following (in random order):

1. finding out about Hannah's hyperthyroid condition and treating it successfully (so far)
2. having a job that I really enjoy doing
3. my four beautiful, loving, incredible children
4. DPNS
5. being able to afford a very fine cello for Lillian this year
6. horseback riding so close to home
7. being able to ride my bike to work
8. nabbing excellent babysitters from UCD
9. summer break and the annual visit to Panama City's beaches
10. great in-laws
11. my incredible and brilliant husband
12. the honda odyssey (man, that thing is a genius invention)
13. pie
14. Scruffy

I am sure there is plenty more, and I am sure I will think of them at some point, but this is all I got for now.

Oh and of course I thought of something else:

15. Our second Thanksgiving in Davis! I love Davis so much. I can't believe how lucky we are to live here.

Part of what I teach in my classes revolves around criticism. In the classroom, we call criticism "peer review." Isn't that a nice way of putting it?

Let's face it, though... we're really criticizing and correcting each other, and that can be hard. So I make a point of teaching criticism in my writing classes. That is, I provide my students with some rules and vocabulary so they can effectively critique their peers' writing. How do I get critique moving in my classes? I begin with a few questions:

1. How many of you have performed a peer review before? (after this, about 95% of the class has raised hands)
2. How many of you found it useful? (after this, about 5-10% of the class has raised hands)
3. How many of you knew that there are rules that can help you perform a more useful peer review? (now there may be one or two hands up)

This short series of questions gives me all the momentum I need to launch into a discussion of why peer review has failed them in the past and what we can do to improve it as we go forward.

But, you may be asking, what does this have to do with life in general? Why is this a good skill to teach people while they're learning business writing (or science writing, or any kind of writing)? Why should I care now, since I'm not in school anymore and will never again be faced with the dreaded Peer Review?

Too tired to finish this tonight. Must go to sleep. I promise, though, I won't leave you hanging for long!

So I have been pondering the question, "What is the value of practice?" And you, you may be asking yourself why I am pondering this question. Well, wonder no more. I am pondering questions about the value (and by extension the meaning) of practice because I am teaching writing a lot lately to people who have trouble with it. Why do people have trouble with writing? I think it comes down to practice.

Why is it we consider writing (or shall we go with the more universal "communication"?) a talent some people have and others lack? Can it be true that a person simply "lacks communication skills" and therefore should be exempted from tasks that involve writing? I don't buy it (for most of the population, including most scientists, engineers and various other techie types)! I believe this idea about writing talent represents a destructive myth that teachers, friends, mentors and parents perpetuate with abandon throughout a student's career. "Oh, dear. You just don't have much of a knack for writing. Perhaps you should go into the sciences or mathematics instead." Good Lard! What if my flute teacher, upon hearing me play for the first time said, "Oh, dear, Shannah, you simply don't have much talent on the flute. Perhaps you should consider theater instead?" Maybe my life would've been different (but that we can address in another post!).

I guess what I am trying to get at with the examples above is that writing does not come naturally to many of us, perhaps because we are criticized so much when we do it. Think about it. Did our parents criticize us every time we tried to speak as young children? Not really. No. I don't remember telling any of my four offspring to "stop talking like a baby" when they were babies, to use different syntax or words to express themselves. What I remember doing was getting really excited when they'd try to communicate with me, to show them an encouraging face, to help them practice speaking whenever they wanted to engage me in conversation. The point is, I encouraged their practice, and now my house is filled with the sound of voices sharing thoughts, excitements, disappointments and important information all day long! My kids are communicators. At least, out loud.

Aaaaand... I am sure you heard the but coming... BUT... do we do the same thing with writing? How do we encourage young writers? Mostly, it seems, we don't. We start by picking at neatness, handwriting, then spelling, then grammar, rules and more rules and the criticism for breaking those rules just keeps on coming. Encouragement is rare, just writing for the sake of writing is rare, creativity flies out the window as children get bogged down in the morass of critical feedback. People are told they simply don't have "talent" (whatever that means!), and perhaps should think of other avenues for expressing themselves. Then they come to University. And, holy crap! They have to take writing courses to graduate! And again with the cursing and shaking of little fists. And they file into my classroom with resentment oozing from every pore asking, "Why, God, why must you test my faith in humanity this way again??!!"

I am calm in the face of this challenge. I accept it. Why? Because I believe in the value of practice. Just like with talking, playing the flute, or hitting a ball, the extent to which you become a proficient writer hinges on the amount of time you are willing to practice the skill. Just saying that does not take away from the fact that certain people are gifted writers, just like certain people are gifted mathematicians, flautists or baseball players. I may never be Rampal, because I just don't have his talent, but that doesn't mean I can't play the darn flute pretty darn well if I practice!

So, what is the value of practice? The value of practice equals the skills you acquire through the action it implies. Practice only means as much as the time you are willing to cede to it over the course of your life.

Writing is no different from any other skill, any other task. To learn how to do it well requires practice.

Sigh.

I so wish everyone could have the chance to do what I did Saturday.

I went to watch my daughter learn cello technique from a virtuoso cellist, Ruslan Biryukov. You can see some of his amazing playing here.

I am still... glowing after sitting through over 5 1/2 hours of his teaching and playing. There were seven cellists in the class.  LAW was one of two youngsters (12-13 yr. olds) -- everyone else was either in high school or college.  I gave rides to two young ladies attending UCD, so I know 2/3 of our carload was 18 or over.

Watching someone like Ruslan teaching technique in such a personal setting was nothing short of breathtaking. I could hardly take my eyes off the process, even though I came with a good book, and figuring I'd leave and go to Trader Joe's partway through (after LAW had her turn). Well, the book gathered dust and Trader Joe's...sorry to say, I just plain forgot about shopping, Joe.  That's right. Me. I FORGOT about SHOPPING. At TRADER JOE'S. The only place for fresh Kosher meat in a 100 mile radius. Well, guess what, folks? We have no Kosher meat. Why? Because watching Ruslan transform these cellists, one by one, was like nothing I had ever seen before, and I wanted to soak up every minute.

Earlier today, when chatting with a friend, I compared the lessons Ruslan taught about technique to watching, say, Houdini teaching a young apprentice his secrets.  I had no idea a bow could do those things to a cello. No idea! I sit here thinking that, had I been able to experience this kind of close contact with a virtuoso flautist, that I could've learned the difference between merely playing a piece of music and feeling it. I might've thought about music entirely differently, treated my experience with the flute entirely differently.  The intimacy between musician and music that he displayed, that he revealed to us as we sat, gape-mouthed and spellbound... I simply can't reproduce for you in words.

Tonight LAW took out the piece and PLAYED. Played for the first time in her life. She sounded amazing.  It was like someone pumped her full of talent.  And she sat with Ruslan for 30 minutes. Just 30 minutes.  The bow is like a magic wand to her now, and she is starting to do... TRICKS!!

I feel so inspired by it all. 

My flute has not seen the light of day in several years. Perhaps it is time for her to come out and play.

I wish I had the energy to post something really witty and fun to read here right now. But I don't.

With three classes and papers flying in every direction, sometimes twice, I haven't the time to be clever and amusing.

Hey, the farmer's market is tomorrow, though. You can't beat that with a stick. Maybe they'll have pumpkins!

Find out how to make a pumpkin cake and bring one to me!  Can you make it a chocolate chip cake?

OK, so maybe I am a little disappointed with my afternoon. Or maybe I am a lot disappointed.

I wanted to go hear the Band-Uh. I wanted to go to the block party downtown. I wanted to kick off UCD's Centennial Celebration. I wanted to go get a pumpkin. But nooo.

Not at all.  First, LAW had rehearsal.  Now I totally understand that stupid bumper sticker I see all over town. Gah.  Carl took her to rehearsal and took his laptop too, so he could work and was promptly gone for several hours.  I stayed home with the small fry.  At 2, RJ fell asleep (which is generally a good thing) and stayed asleep until Carl got home around 4.  Me? Bummed out.  Why? Because RJ slept through the party dag nabbit! And I couldn't go because I was the only freakin' adult in the house.  AJ was up and raring to go, but we couldn't really do anything but sit around and stare at each other.  (Actually, that is not true.  I bought him a two-pack of truck videos and he stared at those while I stared at my computer and graded papers. Instead of going to the celebration. Or to the pumpkin patch. Sigh.)

The upshot of all these non-shenanigans is that we neither went to the celebration nor the pumpkin patch. Though, in all honesty, I would've been hard-pressed to get both of the small fry downtown since Carl took LAW in the minivan.

Plus!!  Yes, Plus!!!  I went on a Costco run this morning -- I sacrificed my morning at the alter of Costco and what did I get in return? A trip to the pumpkin patch?  A fun party in the streets of Davis?  No.  I got an afternoon of grading and putting away 1000 rolls of toilet paper.

One bright spot, Han-Banan and MnM decided to play at her house all afternoon and I was spared having that mess in my house on top of everything else.  I should be grateful and go to bed now.

http://www.oldfashionhalloween.com/ -- check out the Nicolas Caesar paintings.  You have to ignore the fact that the title of this website should be, naturally, old fashionED, but is in fact old fashion. Sigh.

So pretty! So earth-friendly!  These solar globes...  what a great idea for the succah or any place outdoors!  Must have the Soji Solar Lantern!

Oh how I hate this time of year.

People die this time of year in my family. I miss those people who are gone so bad, sometimes, and when the High Holidays come around, the liturgy just serves as a constant reminder of the pain of loss.  I find myself in services crying.  And sometimes the tears come even when the liturgy is light, happy, and hopeful.  Even though this happens every year, I somehow never seem to bring enough tissues. Still.

So, for those reasons (loss and lack of tissues) I hate the High Holidays.  I wish they'd never come.

COMMENT HERE AND I WILL:

a) Tell you why I friended you.

b) Associate you with something -- a fandom, song, colour, photo, etc.

c) Tell you something I like about you.

d) Tell you a memory I have of you.

e) Ask you something I've wanted to know about you

f) Tell you my favourite userpic from your list

g) In return, you need to post this on your own journal

So, I got this from my friend 7deadlycyns and I am doing it because I think it bears repeating that most of us aren't "liberal elitists" or "down-home conservatives" but instead come from diverse backgrounds to the same conclusion: we don't like people who take advantage of our fears and dreams to rule over us and do stupid shit to our country without our consent.

I grew up in the deep South. My family is Jewish and relatively religious (we went to synagogue every weekend, Sunday school, Hebrew school you name it.

My parents always believed in conservative fiscal policy, and liberal social policy because they always put others first, and that's what we kids were taught at home.  I got married to my college sweetheart in a synagogue with all the trappings.  We've been married for 14 years.

I have four kids, but not because I don't believe in birth control or women's right to choose.  It is part of my religious upbringing to be fruitful and multiply if we can afford to do so.  I don't believe in having kids you can't afford to support (hello Palen, supporter of teen pregnancies!). That, to me, is criminal.

Meat is served in my kitchen (kosher of course). I inherited a beautiful set of china from my Orthodox Aunt because we're the only ones of our generation to keep a kosher home.  We bought a flat screen TV recently, and a dvd player to go with it. We watch a lot of videos on said TV and play PS2.  We consume with gusto (but we're not always proud of it) and buy American when we can. I drive a minivan and own a station wagon. My son loves to play racecars and watch them on TV.

I know lots of religious people and I love them very much. My husband and I both teach, but my father worked (and I benefited from it) for large corporations all his life.  Even though Carl and I both work for the academy, we still believe in America and love it.  I wouldn't trade living here for anything, even if I don't agree with all US policies (disagreement is actually patriotism, folks!).

My husband and I are both very educated, and our children go to excellent public schools, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying life in a country town, surrounded by farms and livestock (mmm, cows!).  I've lived in rural NC (mmm, cows AND pigs!), CT, Austin, NYC, Southeastern VA, and now a small town in Northern California.  I've seen it all, and I love it all. 

God bless this place, its people and its Constitution.  Vote in November!!