Camp Report, Part II

David Mura, poet and novelist, spoke to our group last night. He ended with this:

"Because the journey was great, the person who started it could not be the one who finished it."

I like that.

Camp Report

Wireless access: $9.99 for 24 hours; no thanks
Hook up for laptop: Free and no one waiting to use this spot
Time to blog: Limited; breaks here and there, but reading assignments to complete
Food: Holy crap -- it's like a cruise and there's no one to stop me
Exercise: 3 miles around the lake; must run this at 6:30 every morning due to food situation
People: Devoted educators; very inspiring
Workshop: Long days; important work

Overall status: Miss friends and free time; glad to be here, nonetheless

Blogged Down

Sadly, I'll be taking a short break from blogging in the next few days and possibly longer. Happily, the Chickenchops, three of my very best friends from college, will be here to celebrate the imminent nuptials of one Ms. Pookie Stupidhead (nicknames have been used to protect identities, but the nicknames are real, I assure you. Please, god, let us have grown clever over the years). Nothing huge planned for the weekend except some wine drinking and laughing, but that's what we do best.

Then, I'll return briefly to unwind and repack, and it's off to camp I go. Well, training to be a diversity instructor, but since I have to stay in a hotel in the burbs and attend sessions from 8am to 10pm daily, it feels a little campish. I do expect to learn a ton and to meet great people, but if I'm lucky, there will also be horseback riding and swimming lessons. Or at least a good camp prank. What I'm hoping for most, however, is wireless service, so stay tuned just in case.

Get the Lead Out

I shouldn't take this out on the pencil, but it was the common denominator during each challenging moment of my tutoring session.

Do you have a pencil? Where can we find a pencil? Can you sharpen that pencil? Does that pencil have lead? Can you erase with that pencil? Stop throwing the pencil at your brother. No, the lead from that pencil won't poison you. Pick up the pencil. Put the pencil in the other hand -- the one you write with. Bring your brother's pencil back; he needs it.

I get paid good money to tutor a couple of brothers in handwriting (they are actually delightfully cute and smart), but wouldn't it be nice if I were teaching dance or sign language or naptime?

Celebrating Summer

I received a text message from best girlfriend today that read: “Happy solstice! Be bad 2Nite!”

Don't know what she had in mind, but the oreo ice cream at Sebastian Joe's should qualify.

In fact, I plan to be bad in a similar way at least once a week this season.

Why I Love Coffee Shops, Part I

You don't hear this everyday:

"I'm working on my dissertation in musicology. My focus is pop music and I'm researching in Minneapolis for the summer because Prince has really given me a way into my topic."

Turns out it's a fascinating argument having to do with African-American music and identity; it just sounds a bit odd at first.

A Ride Up Yonder

I had the great good fortune to pick up Newbery award winning author, Richard Peck, at the airport today. He's in town for the Chase Lecture and all the university bigwigs associated with it were busy with Father's Day events. Seeing as I have only a semblance of a life, I stepped up for the job. Plus, it'll be fun to convince my students that I often hang out with famous authors -- if only authors counted as famous to them. Sometimes, though, if I act excited enough, one of them will muster up an "Oh, that's cool," spoken with only a hint of sarcasm.

Quite a friendly man, RP. He was much more interested in learning about my dull life than talking about his own. In our short ride from the airport to his hotel, he learned of my upraising in Nodak, my college years in Northfield, the topic of my thesis, what everyone in my family does for a living, and that I know very little about the buildings in downtown Minneapolis. He also gives advice and recommends that I visit Chicago, that I thank my kind parents for letting me go to Carleton (thanks M & D), and that I encourage my young sister to move to New York soon or she'll never do it (which is what I keep saying too).

Here's what I learned about him: he's been to Minnesota before, he live in Manhattan’s Upper East Side near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his first publisher also went to Carleton (that connection never fails me).

Having gotten most of the attention, I felt pretty special by the end of our ride together. I appreciate that he found my life so interesting, even if I don't. Who knows, maybe I'll turn up in one of his upcoming novels.

Good Stuff

I'm addicted to a new blog that The Savvy Mom turned me onto yesterday: Dooce. The author was fired for the things she had written, so how can it not be good. I recommend the entry entitled: A Story About Someone Else's Ass in the Poop archives (also TSM endorsed).

I'm addicted as well to Arrested Development and managed to watch twenty-two episodes between 8pm last night and 3pm today with breaks only for food. Which means that there were many breaks, but twenty-two episodes is still impressive, I think.

And despite the 80 degrees and sunshine outside my window, I think I better learn more about Tom's engagement to Katie before I shutdown this laptop. Ah. Summer. It feels good to not waste the day.