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April 27, 2006

All My Little Chickens

It's come to the end of another semester. I just finished giving a final to one of my students who needed extra time, while the rest of the TAs give the final to the large class of students. Sigh, I realized partly through that I won't have the chance to say goodbye to all of my students, as I usually do after the final. I always feel a little melancholy at the end of the semester, after investing for months in students, and not knowing whether I'll ever see any of them again.

But as I sat outside earlier in the finally sunshiney Pittsburgh weather, one of my old students passed by and smiled at me. She was my Bouncy Ballet Girl, always cheerful and talkative, sometimes painfully so. We even caught her dancing to her seat in front of a couple hundred students. Now she wants to be a lawyer, and she plays her music appreciation CDs for her friends, trying to get them to like classical music, too. Well, in my nostalgic mood, here's a short "hall of fame" of my favorite (or most memorable!) students.

*Concussion Boy: Earlier in the semester, someone punched him in the head, and he's been struggling with post-concussion syndrome all semester. At first, he seemed a little flakey, but he's worked sooo hard for the past couple of months, meeting with me almost every week. I think he made an A on the final. *proud*

*Love Birds: I always seem to have a pair of these. My pair this year are quiet and sweet, I don't think they know that I see them holding hands and occasionally giving each other a quick peck. I had one pair another year that didn't turn out so well, breaking up in the middle of the semester, with one of them requesting to be moved to another class. Drama!

*I Won't, Won't, Won't Fail This Class Indian Boy: I loved this kid. He failed the midterm, which steeled his determination to pass the class. Always respectful, and incredibly determined, he met with me several times, and the professor, and sent lots of e-mails. And pulled off a big old A in the class! He has become our motivational example for nervous students. And he wrote neat papers about Indian classical music, very cool.

*Pot Head Boy: Okay, we don't know for *sure* that he was taking illegal substances, but sometimes he would be so spaced out, none of us knew what to do with him. He was really smart at the same time, so sometimes his questions or answers would be random, disconnected, but brilliant sounding. Like synapses in his brain had been fried on something.

*I Work Full-Time So I Can Put Myself Through School, So I Take Every Assignment Seriously Italian Boy: Enough said, he was an example to every one. And fun, too!

*My Mom is in Prison, My Grandma Raised Me, But I Know That God's Going To Bring Something Good Out of This Girl: Okay, I get choked up just thinking about her. It was years ago, but I wish I could see her one more time and give her a big hug. She was always so cheerful and upbeat, and even when she was crying in my office, she still had so much hope.

...oh, no...another sad one!

*Both My Parents Died Last Year, But That Hasn't Shaken My Faith in God Boy: I hope someone's taking care of him. Again, years ago, but I still think about him and hope he's getting through life okay. So much suffering.

Time to grade finals. Maybe I can add more later.

Posted by Tim and Jo at 5:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 24, 2006

B-Ball in da Neighborhood

Today was the official beginning of basketball season for Tim and Joanna. Each spring--after Pittsburgh has thawed out--we go down to the local park for a little one-on-one. Basketball brings out an aggressive side in Joanna that she doesn't like anyone to know exists. Poor Tim gets the smack-down if he blocks too many of her shots. In extreme circumstances, Joanna employs her "Grrrrrrrrr! and shoot" technique, using Chewbacca like gutteral noises to terrify and distract Tim as he shoots.

Today, it became two-on-two as adorable little black identical twins (maybe 5 years old?) joined us on the court. They conned their way into joining our game, looking up at us with their big eyes, and sweetly asking if they could join us. Too much cuteness to resist.

One of them turned out to be very accident prone, skinning his arm along with various other body parts. It was difficult to contain them on the court--on the other side of the basketball court, very big guys were playing rough ball, and they kept on running over into the aggressive game. Wait, when did we become babysitters?

Finally, we decided that it was time to get back to our own game, so we told them that they each could have one more throw. After getting some looks of dismay, and some extra throws, one of them played the identical twin card. Looking up with his big eyes and a pitiful expression,

"I didn't get any turns! My brother got two turns!"

Joanna--always mistaken for a sucker--got wise, hehehe, you thought we couldn't tell you two apart, didn't you?

"Yes, you did. You have a skinned arm and your brother doesn't!"

After a little more discussion, he realized that we really had gotten wise to him, and he and his brother went to play with another one of their friends. We continued with our game. Joanna beat Tim at horse. Tim beat Joanna at one-on-one. We're all winners here. Yay for life!

Posted by Tim and Jo at 10:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 21, 2006

Not good at being girly

Tomorrow, I'm in my friend Leslie's wedding. It's been a crazy week--next week is finals week at school, I got my little announcement from my advisor (see last post), and I've had tons of grading, etc. to do. Here's the dress. It's really pretty! I hemmed it myself, which was a monumental task (long story behind it).

Today, I went with Leslie and some of her family to get my nails done. I haven't had my nails done since my own wedding. At that time, I desparately tried to stop biting my nails so that my nails would be pretty. Alas, this time I didn't have enough foresight to do that.

I felt a dread in my stomach on the way to the nail place, like a miniature version of the going-to-the-dentist feeling. I'm just not very girly! I'm more comfortable in academia, where my girly quotient doesn't have to be very high to get by. Being neat and knowing when, where and how much to dress up works just fine. Plus, I suspected that some commentary would ensue from the person doing my nails. Which did show some foresight on my part--as I sat down, the man doing my nails immediately said, "You don't have any fingernails!" Thank you, sir, for sharing that with me.

I picked out a color to match the dress, hoping that it wouldn't be too bold or garish. I went through the motions of getting painted, knowing that my noviceness would be showing through. He said to dry them for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, Leslie's nephew started crying as his mom was right in the middle of having her nails painted. My sympathy-for-babies-crying instinct far outweighs my girly instincts, so I immediately went over and put his pacifier back in his mouth, thereby injuring my freshly painted purple thumbnail, and ergo, irritating the nail-guy who had to repaint it, who clearly delineated to me my disobedience to his direct orders. Yes, drill sergeant sir. Whatever you say, drill sergeant sir. Actually, at the time, I almost cried (my "not liking to make people angry" sense is way over the top), and I think he felt bad.

Sigh...if only I was better at being girly...in any case, it was fun hanging out with Leslie and the family.

Posted by Tim and Jo at 1:39 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 20, 2006

Overheard conversation

Overhearing someone say on their cell phone, "He swallowed a viper and then his eyes caught on fire!" I hoped they were referring to a fictional event.

Posted by Tim and Jo at 4:12 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

April 11, 2006

Mysterious Adventures in a Small Town Neighborhood

A fire truck and two police cars came to our tiny little neighborhood and parked by our tiny little house. Not something that happens every day in our mostly quiet suburb of Pittsburgh. We stood outside for awhile, trying to figure out what was going on, but soon felt self-conscious for our voyeurism (even thought it seemed like much of the neighborhood was doing the same thing). Plus, we found out that we had the best seat in the house right in front of our kitchen window. So, snacking on brownies, we watched the ensuing commotion and made up our own theories about what was going on. All of the action seemed to focus on one little car parked beside our backyard.

Tim: "Maybe something tragic happened."

Joanna (disturbed at first, but quickly regaining her poise): "I don't think it can be too bad because the firemen are grinning."

Tim: "Maybe it's a car fire...I hope it doesn't get to our woods in the backyard, it could get really dangerous."

Joanna: "That's funny. It looks like they're changing the oil. Do you have to have a whole squad of firemen to change the oil in your car? Maybe the engine overheated."

Watching firemen change the oil in a car wasn't quite the adventure we were looking for, so our attention drifted for awhile. But wait!!

Joanna (excitedly): "Look! They're cutting the glass on the driver's side of the car. That's really weird, because the doors of the car are open. Why would they need to cut the glass if the doors are open?"

New theories ensued:

*Hidden Stash of Drug Theory (but why would they be spraying water in the car through the hole they made?)

*Trapped Cat or Other Wildlife in the Car Theory (still, the water problem, unless they were trying to wet the animal to scare it out)

*Bomb Theory (okay, so I knew this one was a little outlandish when I proposed it)

*Car Fire under the Dashboard that Couldn't Be Put Out at Any Other Angle than That Which Could Be Reached by Cutting through the Glass Theory

Probably the last one is the most realistic, but it was still bizarre, especially since all of the doors were open. Looking out our vantage point this morning, it does look like there was some kind of fire in the car, as the windshield was fairly dark and smoky looking.

Posted by Tim and Jo at 10:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 7, 2006

Playing with Picasa

Google has a free photo editing software called Picasa that I just discovered. It can do all kinds of fun nifty things!

Posted by Tim and Jo at 2:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 4, 2006

Computer literacy vs. book literacy

Joanna: After visiting a local library (in quest of one of the only extant video copies of Madame Butterfly in the Pittsburgh area, at least ones available to desperate TA's!), I mused on the room layout. Multiple computer terminals occupied the center of the rooms. The books for the most part were along the edges of the rooms. I was one of the only patrons looking at books, most of the others were sitting at computers. A few entries ago DiBer mused on the differences between manuscript and print cultures in the 17th century. I wonder how people several hundred years from now will view computer vs. book literacy.

Posted by Tim and Jo at 8:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack