Thanksgiving

Well, it was a quiet and nice Thanksgiving with my parents. My sister was in Tennessee with her boyfriend, so it was just us. Dad fixed Mom and I blueberry pancakes for breakfast and Mom and I set to work preparing. We made this delicious apple pie while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We also made stuffing with dried cranberries, and prepared the turkey. Jennifer called and we also talked to other family members in New York. We got the turkey in the oven by 1pm and then fixed snacks - I made my delicious crab dip. We watched the movie WALL-E, which we agreed was a cross between the movie Short Circuit and an Inconvenient Truth. We ate a moist, tender, and scrumptous turkey (this guy was not pardoned!). It was a great day, full of Thanks and Giving.

On a similar but different note, I wanted to share an update about what is going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I get regular email updates about this catastrophe from Oxfam. Below is a video that was recently taken. Please go to oxfamamerica.org or this link to learn more. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/emergencies/congo

Capitol Steps

Last Sunday I went with my parents to a fundraiser for our local community activist group called "The Arc" that helps developmentally disabled people in our area. For the past couple of years, they bring the Capitol Steps from Washington DC. The Capitol Steps is a group of actor/musicians who mock Washington using humor, music and theatrics. They are hilarious! It was very fun, and I recommend seeing them if you have the chance!

oh brother! (said like Charlie Brown)

Well, it's that time of year again. The doldrums. But not in the sense that nothing is happening, rather in the fact that it is the lowest of the low pressure, with little wind, and very little hope of weather patterns that move things along, coming by any time soon.

Last Friday (a week ago) I seemed to develop an awful cold. I pushed through on Saturday because I took my mom out for her birthday to Gettysburg, PA where we lunched at the historic Farnsworth House Inn and then went to movies. It was a great day, just the two of us. On Sunday I thought I was going to die. :-) It was horrible. Needless to say, I took the day off of work on Monday. This led to my department chair cancelling the conference we had planned to go to on Wednesday because she didn't want me missing two of my classes in a row (I see my students every other day). I was really frustrated by this because I had been longing to hear the keynote speaker - Edward O. Wilson speak.
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Anyway, the rest of the week was spent catching up, sleeping, or grading.

I must say too, that I am not the only one feeling the doldrums. My students are not exactly feeling the great optimism that is the beginning of the year. They have entered what is the adolescent girl "snotty mode" and sometimes (especially when not feeling well myself) I have very little patience. I pray for patience and the will to continue to see their faces everyday. Ah, the joy of teaching 16 year old children.

Currently on tap for the weekend, I have 48 lab reports (5 inches of paper) to read, evaluate and make comments about. Ah, Thanksgiving break couldn't come soon enough.

Canvassing in Pennsylvania

Yesterday I spent the day in Harrisburg Pennsylvania walking door to door in a Get Out The Vote effort for Barack Obama. I took two of my friends from work with me. None of us had ever done anything like that before, and it was awesome! We really felt like a part of something. We met some Obama supporters, some of which were just as excited as we were, and then we "met" some McCain supporters who treated us pretty badly actually. I got yelled at by a mother in front of her 12 year old daugher - "I'm so upset, I'm not voting at all!" - well, isn't that a great message to send.

In the end, we knocked on 204 doors, talked with 50 people, 40 of which were Obama supporters. There were Republican volunteers walking around too, the only way I knew was there were bags saying, "Vote Republican" on the door. My friend took them off the doors. :-) I didn't have courage to do that, but he said, "we're at war!"

After the long day, we drove back to Maryland feeling satisfied in doing something little to make a change.

By the way, last night I saw the movie, the Secret Life of Bees. I had read the book a long time ago, and that was probably a good thing, but I will say, that this was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. You know I am a sentimental and cheesy person, but it was a very moving movie with lots of layers. I highly recommend it!