On road trips, and girlfriends, and old people....

Last week, Kelly and I made a little road trip to Oxford, Ohio to visit Kelly's friend Catherine Wagner, who is a poetry professor at Miami University of Ohio. The drive there was hair-raising in what we dubbed the "corridor of death". I'70 on that stretch is FULL of semi-trucks, and they are big and mean. We also saw a full house being moved--on the interstate--and when people tried to pass it, it just moved into the middle of two lanes to insure that no one took off a shutter or something. The experience was absolutely nerve-wracking. My response was to drive slower, but when Kelly drove, her response was to drive faster. She drove the entire way back, and I just sat there white knuckled clutching what Megan calls the "oh sh--" handles.

Oh yes, and we are currently experiencing a monsoon season.

That said, we had a nice one-night visit. Cathy also had a poet friend visiting from Cleveland, and he was really interesting and nice. We visited about community farms and sustainable agriculture. He motivated me to find out about CSA's in my area, so I'm now on the waiting list for a CSA next summer. Some of Cathy's co-workers came over later, and I found myself embroiled in a full-blown poetry party with British professors and Liberal Arts Deans, et al.... I've noticed that academics love to argue. They also love to bad-mouth their peers. Maybe this is a microcosm for the entire universe? Regardless, Kelly (never one to back down from a good fight) got fully engaged in their little spats. This is a good thing; this is how you earn respect in an academic war. I, on the other hand, kept my mouth shut and tried to let the bullets fly over my head. My hope was that I would seem circumspect rather than ignorant, but I'm not sure that's how the evening panned out.

At one point, it came out that I write nonfiction, and then British guy tried to engage me on the discussion of whether creative nonfiction is really just "fiction". Well, this is a big discussion that is currently taking place in the literary world, and I didn't really feel ready to tackle it over wine and cheese. Also, I couldn't discern British guy's motivations, and I was afraid that he was really just trying to slaughter me intellectually in front of all of his peers, so I avoided the question. Luckily, community farming poet intervened and talked about how he taught his students at Vanderbilt that nonfiction could be embellished a little bit to make it more interesting but that doesn't take away from the integrity of the genre. I'm pretty sure that he could see that British guy (who is his buddy) wanted a throw-down. Later, Kelly mentioned that I should have told him about my study of linguistics--and how memory is inaccurate, that we can never really remember what has been said; it's always biased by our perceptions--but I was glad just to have avoided the confrontation.

In other news, the Liberal Arts Dean used to know the head of the nonfiction MFA here at WVU, so the dean gave me permission to "name-drop" that I met him. How kind of him.

The evenining was actually pretty fun though and hopefully prepared me for what I have to look forward to in academia, and the next day, Cathy took us for a tour of Miami University, which has a lovely campus. It was monsooning though, and I got soaked. I also got chigger bites in my pants. Oxford, Ohio is very woodsy.

Cathy also took us out for lunch. I LOVE being taken out for lunch. If you ever want to win the way into my heart, then just take me out for lunch.

For the rest of the week, Kelly and I just relaxed. We went to antiques stores in Morgantown and had sandwiches at my favorite coffee shop, Jay's, where all of the sandwiches (including chips and pickle) are less than $5. Yep, that's right--$5. We also went to see the movie "Away We Go". I didn't know what to expect, because I had read some terrible reviews, but I thought that, all-in-all, it was an earnest and sincere film with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. It did have some flaws--mainly that the main characters were perfect and everyone around them was flawed, which leads me to wonder if that is how Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, the screenwriters, perceived themselves when they were pregnant. Also, my initial feeling (as was Kelly's) was that they were a cute portrayal of a pregnant couple, but in rethinking the issue, I've decided that they were incredibly idealized. That said, the movie made me laugh, and I would rate it as high as I did Juno--which, frankly, was also incredibly idealized. Kelly and I then went to get gelato, and we were walking downtown at 10:30pm, which I have only done once or twice in the entire time that we've lived in Morgantown, and for a moment, I remembered what it was like to have a girlfriend. I have yet to make a good girlfriend in Morgantown, but I'm currently staking out claims. I love my husband, and he's a great friend, but he's just not a girlfriend.

We then went to Pittsburgh for a night, and we walked the Strip District, which is a wonderful ethnic shopping and food district. I would like to go back when I actually have some expendable income. We had coffee at a super hip coffee shop in South Side, we went to a cute used bookstore where I bought a Ron Hansen book for Caleb, and we ate Thai food and drank Bubble Tea in Squirrel Hill, so we toured 3 neighborhoods for little $ in one day! When Kelly left the next morning, I felt so lonely. I've decided that I don't like moving. It takes so long to make really good friends that I find it to be a difficult task. I used to think moving was exciting, but now, I think it is lonely.

Despite a lack of close friends, we have plenty of nosy neighbors, so I guess I should be thankful for what I have. Last night, we had a Jerome Park Neighborhood Association potluck at our neighborhood Methodist church, and we went with Reed. Reed was really good, but some of the other kids....well, not so much. One little girl kept running outside, and Reed would follow her, because they were playing hide and seek. I told Reed that I needed him to stay inside, because there was a busy street outside. I said "If you need to get your friend, then you can peek outside, but don't GO outside." Well, I thought that would last for about five minutes, but I kept an eye on him, and instead of going outside, he would just stop and wait in the doorway. I couldn't believe it! I was overflowing with pride that I have such a great listener for a kid. The other kids were in and out the doors, and Reed actually managed to control himself in the midst of that. Despite his good behavior, the other kids were being rowdy, and many of the older folks in the crowd (we do live in an older neighborhood after all) were sending not-so-subtle dirty looks in their direction, so we packed up Reed and left. We didn't want to be guilty by implication.

So now I'm just going to say something that might seem controversial; many older folks do not seem to like kids, and this whole "well, my kids didn't do that at that age...." They are just deluding themselves. I'm writing this down for posterity in the hopes that I won't forget what it's like to be a young parent and have to endure withering stares from elderly neighbors who think your kid won't shut up (even though he's only 3).

Well, that's my opus for the day. Maybe now I can actually get some real writing finished, because on Monday, I start my Graduate Teaching Assistantship seminar where, in a mere two weeks, I will learn how to teach college, and the next day, I will actually be teaching college, so I don't know when I'm going to have time for my thesis!

A long and boring post that only the closest of friends and family will care about....

Sundberg-Winters' Family Update:



1. I sorted through Reed's toys and took out all of the toys that no longer seemed age-appropriate to donate to the Salvation Army. I tried to keep all of the pieces together, so that some poor volunteer wouldn't have to sort through bags of toys. One toy was a little music and drum set that we gave him when he was 1. Well, he's nearly 4 now. I couldn't find the drum sticks, so I put everything together, and then set aside until I found the drum sticks. Reed got home from preschool and immediately saw the drum set. He shouted "Thanks Mommy! You found my toys!" He then proceeded to play with that stinking drum set all night. Fortunately, I was clever and hid the rest of the toys before he saw them.



2. We have termites in our crawl space. Fortunately, we have a contract with Orkin where we pay them a ton of money every year, and in return, they fix any termite problems. The only problem is that we didn't have them check the crawl space last year (I didn't even know we had a crawl space!) Here's fingers crossed that no major damage has been done.



3. We have weevils in our cupboard. We've been fighting them for weeks. We had to throw out huge $ worth of food, and the little moth-like things keep showing up. I'm certain we got them from organic pumpkin seeds. Stinking organic food that brings weevils in my house. Harumph. West Virginia is very buggy.



4. I cleaned all day yesterday, and my house still looks like a disaster.



5. I was assigned my classes for the fall, and I have an 8:30 class. I HATE mornings! Caleb is so mean. He laughed and danced all over the kitchen when I told him. He was actually excited about my distress.



6. On my class roster, there is an option where I can look at my student's schedules. Drunk with power, I entered the first student on my list in the system. Her schedule came up, and I saw that she is in Caleb's Freshman Seminar. He's teaching a one credit freshman seminar class to dorm students where he mentors them and lends an ear to all of their complaints. Yikes, I hope that student doesn't complain about me. I asked Caleb what he would do if say....a student complains that her English 101 teacher is mean and ugly and stinks of cheese. He said nothing.



Well, I hope he tells her that he's married to that teacher. I swear that Caleb teaches 80% of the freshman. Fortunately, everyone loves him, so I don't have to worry about them complaing about him.



7. I've tested positive for insulin resistance, and I'm taking medicine for it. I've likely had this issue for years, so I'm actually relieved that it's finally being treated. I do NOT have diabetes. I'm not even pre-diabetic. It's related to a different issue, but I am trying to follow a low-carb diet. Well, that is really, really hard. I miss pasta. I miss whole grains. I used to eat carbs with every meal, and I didn't even realize it. Now I eat carbs with only one meal a day. It's a bummer. I was also advised to exercise one hour a day. I've actually been enjoying that, but we'll see what happens when the school year rolls around.



8. My friend Kelly Morse is coming to visit on Monday. I'm SO excited. We're going to drive to Ohio and visit her friend Catherine Wagner for a day. We're also either going to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water or go to the art museum The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. It's going to be a total vacation. Caleb doesn't mind. He says that he owes me, because he went to Greece for 10 days in March. He also goes hunting every fall, so this is MY chance for girl's time!



9. Hank dug himself under the deck again and couldn't get out. It's a good thing that Caleb is skinny, because that deck has about 6 inches of room underneath it.



Well, that about sums it up. I guess I should get back to cleaning.

I love hardwood floors.

After Reed told me at Ikea that "YELLOW is my favorite color!", I decided that it was fair game to pull executive privilege on the color of the floor, so beige it is.... Here are some pictures of the new room. I should have taken before and after pics, because the carpet was nasty, but we're pretty pleased with the end result.

Happy Weekend

We're officially really, really done with the semester. Somehow, I kept expecting bells and whistles, but it doesn't really feel any different than any other semester. I'm looking forward to some time to relax, but we've already started tackling another project. We're ripping the carpet out of the upstairs and painting the hardwood floors. Reed's asthma dictates that we shouldn't have carpet, and I'm glad to have an excuse to remove it. After pulling this carpet out, I'm officially grossed out by carpet. There were PILES of dust and dirt underneath the carpet, and lots of strange hairs (we do not allow Hank upstairs because of the asthma issue, so I don't know WHAT kind of hair that was).



Also, there was kitty litter. We don't even have a cat. Yuck.



I asked Reed what color he wanted his floors, but he said red. Now, I don't know what to do, because his walls are bright yellow, so if we paint the floors red, then we'll have to paint the walls, which I don't want to do. So I think I'm going to pull executive privilege and paint his floors beige or green. Luckily, he's an amicable little fellow, but he keeps repeating "I want red. Red is my favorite color. I LOVE red." Uh oh.



This weekend, we're going to Pittsburgh to get him an official big bed. Actually, it will be a twin, but he's in a toddler bed now, so I think he'll be pretty excited to have a bigger bed. He slept in our room last night, because we cleaned everything out of his room to pull the carpets out, and we put all of the stuff from HIS room into the GUEST room--not a lot of foresight there.



Well unfortunately, Reed talks in his sleep. He kept Caleb and I both up all night. Finally, because I had a big paper due today along with a final this afternoon, Caleb took Reed downstairs to sleep at 3am. Reed stretched out and made himself comfortable, and Caleb slept on the couch sitting up.



Poor Caleb. I guess that I owe him now.



Have I mentioned how excited I am for summer? We're going to Salmon and Jackson Hole, WY during June, and in July, I'm joining a book club with my favorite professor. Besides that, I'm just going to try and get some writing done, so I'm ready when my grad program starts, and at the beginning of August, I'm going to attend a 2 week seminar on how to teach English 101.



Summer is going to be AWESOME. At least, until, as the head of the deparment wrote recently on the English Department blog, "August becomes the month of diminished expectations."

Remember When I Used to Write Blogs?

I have to confess that I'm not a very good blogger. Caleb keeps promising to post some blogs, but he sits down, tries to figure out the pictures, says some fake cuss words, and then gives up.

I will say that we have been very busy, and we're all looking forward to spending 3 weeks in Idaho this summer, although I'm not sure how excited my parents are to have us visit for that long. We haven't been to Idaho in a year and a half, so I felt like we needed to have as long of a visit as we could. Hopefully, we won't all drive each other crazy. But our lives have been very crazy lately, so that wouldn't be unusual.

After many, many years, I have finally graduated. So here's a big WOO-HOO to me. After I had Reed, there were many days that everyone (myself included) thought it wouldn't happen, and I'm glad to be able to prove us all wrong.

In the fall, I will be going to graduate school to get my MFA in Creative Nonfiction at West Virginia University. I was initially very euphoric as I was awarded a full teaching assistantship and told by the director on the phone that I was their "top candidate," but now that the reality that this is really happening has sunk in, I'm terrified. If I'm the top candidate, then doesn't that mean that I can only go down from here?

I'm working on lots of positive self-talk here, but I'm really, really nervous.

Caleb, as usual, is working far too hard. I won't even write here how many classes he's teaching, but let's just say that it's far too many. Hopefully, I can share some of that burden now that I'll be teaching, so he can have more time to write.

And Reed, as usual, is just a joy. His language problems from his ear infections are almost fully resolved, and he says the funniest things now. He's really into counting and math, so he likes to add everything. The other night, I put him to bed, and I went into the bathroom across the hall to brush my teeth.

Reed heard me, and he peeked out the door and said "Mommy, I have to go to the potty." Well, he had just pottied about 10 minutes prior to that, so I said, "No you don't; you're just stalling." To this, he replied:

"Well, I went potty once, and now I have to potty again, so that's 2 potties!"

We also discovered, quite by accident, that Reed knows how to wipe his own bum. We've been earnestly doing that for him for some time now--only to discover that his excellent preschool had already taught him how to do that on his own.

Life just keeps getting better and better.

His favorite phrase is "Remember when?" He frequently says "Remember when you, and me, and Mama Kathy went up in the High Tower? That was fun!" (The High Tower was a hotel in Pittsburgh when my mom came to visit over spring break, and he mentions it at least once a day).

Sometimes, he says "Remember when we ate lunch?--right after we've finished lunch.

He also says "Remember when Randy ate a DOG BONE?" This refers to when Caleb's friend Randy stayed with us for a while and ate a dog bone on a dare (it's a long story).

Reed thinks that's so funny. Today, he said "That's gross! DOGS eat those." Then he chuckled and said "We all laughed at him."

Greek Frappe

When Caleb and I were in Greece, we had a hard time finding good coffee. Greece is not like Italy with little coffee shops on every corner where old men in felt hats swig cappucinno at corner bars. In fact, we were surprised to discover that the national coffee of Greece is Nescafe. Yep, that's right--Nescafe.

Even at the Athens Hilton, in our $300/night room (paid for by the university, not us), there was an exquisite assortment of craft teas, a hot water carafe, and packets of Nescafe.

The coffee shops actually did have great cappuccinos, but the counters were fast-paced, and the menus were in Greek, and Caleb and I would get flustered and order the first thing we saw, which was usually a Frappe with milk and sugar. And I have to admit that it was really good--in the same way that ketchup is good--as in, you know you shouldn't like it, but you do.

My favorite memory of the trip is a particularly long day that involved lots of ruins, hiking to a hill at the top of Athens, and then ending up lost in a public park looking for the cave where Socrates was held prisoner--but instead, witnessing a drug deal--then hurriedly rushing away and trying not to look too conspicuously touristy, and....finally, relaxing in a coffee shop in a quiet little neighborhood with ahhh....Frappe.

I found this recipe on the Nescafe website for Greek Frappe, and it's pretty authentic. I made it in a Margarita shaker. It's a kind of tacky treat that should probably be reserved for particularly bad days, but I highly recommend it.


Greek Frappé
Preparation Time: 2 minutes Serves: 1Ingredients2 tsp NESCAFÉ Classic 2 tsp sugar Ice cubesPreparation:
•
Pour 10-15ml of water in the shaker (preferably not chilled, but chilled will still do)
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Add two tea-spoonfuls of Nescafe Classic and one tea-spoonful of sugar, or more if desired.
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Shake strongly until all the water becomes foam. Potential use of an electric hand mixer, instead of a shaker, will make a more nice, shiny and creamy foam.
•
Pour into a glass of 250ml, add 3-4 ice cubes and chilled water to fill the glass for black NESCAFÉ Frappé. For white NESCAFÉ Frappé, add 20-30ml chilled milk. Ideal serving temperature 10 degrees Celsius.
•
Enjoy your NESCAFÉ Frappé!
Hint :The quantity of water in step 1 plays important role in creating qualitative foam. Very small quantity will not produce enough foam while large quantity will produce soapy foam.If you desire different dosages of coffee and/or sugar, the exact quantity of water in step 1 should vary accordingly.Milk should always be put after stirring otherwise the foam loses all its stability.

Operation Kitchen

Everybody who knows me knows that I hate our kitchen. Caleb and I love to cook, and I mean, love to cook. We're what you might call "foodies." Unfortunately, our kitchen is not a foodie's kitchen. It's more like a "college student who lives off of ramen noodles" kitchen.

The counters and cabinets are all made of matching off-white melamine, which Jenny just informed me is the poisonous substance in Chinese kitty food.

The counter space is minimal, at best, and made worse by the fact that there is a long window in the middle of it that means one counter only comes up to a tall person's knees.

The sink is one bowl, and it has this crazy trash trap in it that harbors all kinds of liquid and bacteria and begins to stink if not cleaned regularly.

And there's more, but I won't bore you with the details.

I love the rest of the house, but the kitchen drives me crazy, and for the next few years (at least), a remodel is not anywhere near our budget. So in an effort to make our kitchen more livable, we're slowly taking on little projects.

For a Christmas gift this year, both sets of our parents donated towards our kitchen project, so this week, we tore out some of our old cabinets and installed open shelves. Besides being ugly, these cabinets were located in a deep corner, and it was nearly impossible to access 90% of the space in them. Because they were so hard to reach, they had turned into a nasty catch-all where we threw dishes in whichever spot we could reach at the time.

Here is a picture of our cabinets in a different corner. You can see how ugly and sterile the doors are.

Here is a picture of the cabinets we tore out. Caleb had already removed the doors, but you can see how mish-mash the clutter was in them.

And here is a picture of our new open shelves. They are organized and lovely. Hopefully, they will stay that way.