Wyoming in Photos

Just a few photos from the early days of my visit out west!!

Happy Christmas

I hope that everyone has a beautiful Christmas full of happiness and joy, friends and family, food and fun! May you find your stockings full of the good things in life today and all through the year.

Resolutions...

As the end of the year approaches, I've been bugging my teammates to come up with New Year's Resolutions.  It's not going well.  I understand that...resolutions kind of suck.  I mean, you make a promise to yourself, that you know you're unlikely to keep, and then you end up forgetting what it was that you promised by the end of January anyway.

I've kept one resolution in my life - it was the year that I swore I wouldn't go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink.  It worked - I never got lazy and said...oh, I'll just do those tomorrow!!

This year, I'm thinking that the following are some good choices:

1.  Swear less - I'm thinking that putting $$ into a Swear Jar might be a good way to stop this - and I can probably save enough in one year to fund my second resolution.

2.  Travel to Europe - I've wanted to travel around for years - assuming that I don't get the Fellowship that I applied for, my Swear Jar funds should be sufficient by January of 2013 to easily pay for a flight overseas!

3.  Care Less - Allow me to explain.  I've realized lately that there are people whose outlook on life and what's important is radically different from mine.  I'd always thought that I was surrounding myself with people who were similar to me.  This isn't the case.  And, it's not a bad thing, necessarily.  But, what is a bad thing is me caring so much about what they think or say.  In other words, I have to stop letting negativity affect me.  I shall be just like Charlie the Penguin and let it roll right off my back...

So, that's it.  I think that I am setting some pretty tough resolutions for myself - but, I also think that they are doable.  And...I can't wait to start putting money in my swear jar...shit, I think I'll start right now!  ;)

Who Would You Invite?

OK - in the spirit of Christmas wishes...here is a list of 10 living people that I would invite to Holiday Dinner.  I should note that regardless of how much of a jerk-wad these folks might be in real life, they would be well-behaved, loquacious, and friendly at my dinner party!!

The Blogess - she's just waaay too awesome to not invite.  Plus, her blog post inspired this blog post...it's the least that I can do!

Haruki Murakami - I'd probably have to invite an interpreter - but I'm just going to count them as one person.

Bernie Eisel - he rides a bike (very fast) and is a lover of art and literature...how could I NOT invite him?

Jasper Johns - he is one of my favorite artists and one of the last surviving members of the Abstract Expressionist movement.

John Cleese - there must be some humor at the event...other than my crappy jokes.

The Edge - he just seems like a very intriguing individual...

Michelle Obama - she's hip, she's classy, she's awesome!

Simon Tofield - we're the crazy cat people...he simply MUST get an invitation!!

Mary T. Meagher - one of the most amazing butterflyers of all time.

Matthew Gray Gubler - he just rocks...

That's it.  Okay, so, who is bringing the dip?

Team of the Year!

I am so proud to post this!!!

CAWES wins the 2011 Women's Team of the Year!!

I am so proud of my friends and teammates.  

The last two years have been so incredibly fantastic and I can't wait for many more to come!  

Thanks to all of our sponsors, friends, families, and (dare I say it?) fans who made 2011 an amazing year.  I hope you're all sticking around to see what the Wasabi Warriors accomplish in 2012!!

RAWR!!!

Go Forth and Grade

A dear friend sent this to me in the post today.  Hehe...I warned him that this was not likely to end well.  I can't decide if the first should go to him for being such a sweet Englishman or to Chuck for today's thorough cleaning of the bathroom...decisions, decisions....

Just a sample of one page - I thought that most of you would be most intrigued by how one might grade a lover...rather than how one might grade their boss...

Belief

Many people remember, or at least talk about, the moment when they realized that there wasn't a Santa Claus.  I mean, it's a fundamental element of childhood - believing in things like the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the Tooth Fairy.  And, then...we get to that point where we are all grown up and things like that seem clearly unrealistic.

I have a different memory.  I have the memory of the time when I truly believed that Santa existed.  I mean, with these events in my memory, how could he not?

Growing up, we had an interesting relationship with Santa and the Christmas holiday.  In all of my years growing up, I only remember once or twice actually waking up on December 25th and having Christmas ON Christmas morning.  It may have happened more often than that, but I don't really remember.  We typically traveled to Cincinnati to visit family on Christmas, so we tended to celebrate the actual present-opening part of the holiday on a different day.  As you can imagine, this made things a tad difficult for my parents, who wanted their children to believe in Santa.  But, how do you explain why Santa doesn't come to our house on the 25th??

So, we grew up knowing that my parents had a good deal with the big, red guy.  He was more than happy to visit our house on a day other than the 25th!  We were very lucky.  Sometimes, we would come home from school to gifts under the tree.  Sometimes, we would wake up on the 22nd and TA-DA!  Christmas!  But, there was one particular year that I will NEVER forget.

It was a Sunday morning just a few days before Christmas and we were leaving later that day or the next morning (that bit of the story is a blur) and we hadn't had Christmas yet.  I was getting nervous.  I was afraid that Santa had forgotten our deal or that he was too busy to get to our house BEFORE Christmas and we were going to have to wait until we got back from Cincinnati to have our holiday.

We had gone to church that morning.  I remember saying to my mom on the way there that maybe, just maybe, Santa would come while we were at church.  I mean, that was more than an hour - that was PLENTY of time for him to get the job done, right?  My mom told me that it was unlikely, but wouldn't that be nice.  I sat through the entire service thinking about this.  OK, I admit it, I think that I was pouting.  I was pretty young and wanted to have Christmas!!  But, my mom just kept telling me that there was no way it would happen.

When we got home from church...I slowly plodded into the house.  Everything looked normal at first glance and then, I realized...SANTA HAD COME!!  The tree was lit, there were beautifully wrapped gifts under it's branches - each topped with a brightly colored bow.

Now, by this time, I think that I was old enough to begin to question the existence of the big guy...and had begun to suspect my parents of impersonation.  But, they had been with me at church.  So, CLEARLY, they couldn't be Santa!!  Right?

It was then that I truly believed.  The big guy does exist.  Just so you all know.

YAY for Modern American Art!!

Last year, my favorite course to teach, got canceled.  I was so bummed.  It was a truly sad day and I think that I even cried at little bit.  It's my Modern American Art class.  This course was gently placed into my then-incapable hands by my mentor Madeleine Cohen.  She entrusted this course to me when she was ill and unable to teach and I stumbled through it for the first couple of semesters.  It was hard.  It was a tough change from the standard survey course...and I'm talking about teaching it!!

But, within a few years, I had my rhythm.  I had made the course mine and was going along pretty well with relatively full classes and excited students.  And then, in 2011, the unthinkable happened.  The course was under enrolled and it was canceled.  I was devastated.  But, there was nothing that I could do...the students weren't there to take it...

But, this year, it's back!!  I'm very excited that I have a nice crew of students (quite a few of whom are currently taking a class with me) and I'm really looking forward to the semester!  I have a bit of work in front of me...between now and January...to get all of my materials ready.  But, I will do it with a huge grin and much excitement...

It's going to be a GREAT Spring semester!

And the positive mojo continues to flow....