for my trip to India.  Had passport pictures taken, filled out the form, called Vidya to give me the address of someone in India as a reference put my new battery in my camera and it started acting weird and making a funny noise... it has been a little weird for a while... so now I am looking at buying a new camera before I leave... I am looking at a Canon Proshot 12 zoom 8GB hmmmm.  I would really like the 12 zoom to take to India.  I just put a new disk in the old camera and it seems to be working, although it made a funny noise when I turned it off.. 

 

Now I am going to work on my applications to school... Hope your Holloween is a good one... Love and kisses, Marilyn

After my meeting, I met Cee for dinner at the Out-back.  We had a delightful time.  She is just what I thought she would be like, friendly, funny and beautiful.  Her burn happened almost exactily like my accident with bacon grease last year, but where my fire shoot four foot high in the kitchen sink... their grease and fire came up her husbands arm and hit near her elbow as they were trying to get the flaming pan outside.  while my fire was in my kitchen sink and only brused my ego and made me feel dumb her's ended up with skin graphs... I cannot believe how lucky I was... we both agreed how quickly a fire can harm you or your house...

 

If you have a fire on you stove, cover it with a pan lid or salt and move it off the burner  DO NOT LIFT IT UP... DO NOT PUT WATER ON IT!  For smart woman we can make dumb mistakes. 

 

Cee has a black belt in Karati (I cannot spell it).  I thought that was cool.  It is cool how amazing she is.  She works full time, goes to school full time and has a husband, two grown boys (21 and 16), and a dog.  I don't know how she does it.  Keep it up Cee... We both are revitalized by going to school. 

 

Relaxed most of the day... moved my porch furniture to the basement and made Chicken stew... and tapioca pudding for dessert.  Began packing my bag for India.  I go two and a half weeks.

 

I got my blood work back... I have been on a low carb high fat diet.. for six years and kept off about 30 lbs of the 40 I lost six years ago... but now my colesteral (sp?  Boy I wish I could spell) is 201... so I guess I need to find a new kind of diet where I don't eat bacon and eggs and butter so much.  It was a nice diet cause I could pig out for one hour a day... but not anymore... hmmmm 

 

Hope you have a great week.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Here is Sunday morning and I am sitting on my sofa watching Sunday morning and drinking coffee... and my blogg.... mmmm it is hard to get better than this. 

 

I spent the last three days at a conference of interior design educators... Conference are designed to pass on information to colleagues at other unversities, networking and meeting with people with similar concerns... One of the things about graduate education is that you find out that there is a tension between conflicting concerns that are all valid although contradictory in nature... For example, students and parents demand that students be told exactly what the expectations of a class are, (what do I need to do to get an A is a very common question from students today). These expectations are laid out in a syllabus and finely detailed assignments (some of my assignments run two pages)....

 

But the goal of a university education (really it should be any education) is to get the student to think independently.  How does that happen if you are telling the student what to do with an assignment, they do not have to think about what the might communicate the assignment... Students too often try to figure out what a teacher wants verses what an I trying to learn from the information.  I think our high school education system of teaching to pass a standardizied test has exerzabated this.   

 

So this causes a tension, how much do I tell my students to do and how much do I let them struggle... so that they can learn to think about how they communicate.  It seems that the more educated I become the less directions I want to give my students, so they have to think about what they are doing and make them think as much as possible as part of the process of being educated... but students and unfortunately even parents really resist this... Some parents don't seem to understand that the stuggle to figure out how to communicate is skill that really needs to be developed for thier child to survive in life... and is a larning process in itself.  Then add on top of this pressure the professionals who hire our graduates and need to have people who are trained enough to be billable as soon as they graducate, puts unbelievable stress on how to teach our students to think for themselves while still giving them the skills to get good jobs...   

 

Higher edcation conferences are frought with this balancing act of strssors and needs.  This conference seemed to be espically valuable for me because they were discussing some of these issue that have been raised since I have been back in school as a student.  When I taught as an adjunct instructor everything was pretty black and white... this is what student needs to know to get a job... now, I have changed.

 

 It really seemed to be exceptionable conference because there was information that I was interested in and could apply. 

 

They had a panel about classes that people were teaching.. new subject (sort of or in a new way) which also was really interesting.. One of the presentation (I had breakfast with her, too which was great).  She talked about interviews she did in relation to the presentation of her research ...and gave me information that I can apply directly to my interviews... She is a few months in front of me the process.  Her study was facinating because it conflicted with commonly held opinion and was great...  

 

In addition, this is my fifth conference and so I knew a lot of the people and it was like seeing old friends who share my interests. 

 

Hmmmm... In addition there were at least five universities who were looking for employees in the next year, so I got to visit with people in a casual manner that I may be interviewing with this spring.  Let me see where I might want to go and not want to go, except they need to choose me first... but ....  Generally I find interior design faculty very friendly and supportive.   soooo

 

I had fun, was informed, and a couple of times I was laughing so hard I was crying...   For example, we were touring around Greenboro in vans... except it was raining and I was sitting in the back of the van with the National President of ID-EC (that has always said that the southeastern group is a fun group)... so there was a student in the front seat telling us what we are seeing but spoke very softly, four rows back we could not hear what she was saying...  and becasue the van was full and it was raining so the windows fogged up... we couldn't hear and couldn't see a thing... and Eric says... this is the Hel-en Kel-ler tour...  And that set me off... I laughed so hard... I was crying... (I was really glad I had used the facilities before we got into the van because I would have wet my pants I was laughing so hard)... No booze and I laughed histarically for about ten minutes.... because it of course he didn't stop there, but went on for a another few mintues.  In addition, every time someone wiped down the windows I would set off again... I think that the laughing also relieved all of my tension over the last few weeks about my dissertation and internship and other pressures...  so anyway... And the hariliatity continued in the bar later on that night as he and Hannah exchanged repartee.  I was crying again... they are so funny.  (usually I an the one getting people laughing, but with those two all I could so is laugh and laugh.)  Eric said the next morning, his sides were sore from laughing so much... 

 

On top of all of this, I was able to sandwich an interview with Eric (between laughing bouts) about the state of interior design edcation for my dissertation... hmmmm  Multi tasking..

 

All in all it was a great conference, although I came home more tired than I left... Love and kisses, Mairlyn 

 

More about my visit with my blogging friend Cee later...

Just got home from having dinner in Greensboro with Cee... we had a great time... I got home safely although the drive was very windy... more on my trip and conference later ...

Well Saturday Cee and I are going to get together for dinner after six months of blogging back and forth... Anyone who wants to join us? ... can by blog or in your mind.  

 

I am amazed how close we can get by reading our daily lives on MSN Spaces... Carole, Cee, Fabiola, Lakota Clay and Jamie seem close even though I don't really know where they live... Tao is in the same town and she and Elizabeth read me every day and maybe Kristine in Latvia too... I look forward to people who blog every day... it was like having a phone call everyday from these friends.  

 

My old boyfriend from tenth grade cancelled dinner... It was going to rain and he didn't want to drive three hours in the rain and the traffic leaving Charlotte, NC.  Maybe we can get together at holiday break, then I can meet the rest of his family. 

 

I graded some today... have half the tests left to finish. Hopefully I can finish tomorrow before I leave, then I will  relax as much as I can at the conference.  Two days of meetings... but evening relaxing.  Had problems sleeping the last two nights... and was really ditzy in class to day.  Hope you have a great day tomorrow... I think my hotel has high speed internet so I should be able to update.  Love and kisses, Marilyn 

Not exactly what I feel like... had problems getting to sleep last night... so I am kind of in a fog today.  Graded most of the day yesterday.  Got the projects done by noon and then started on the tests.  Only have ten done, another five I have graded the quick answer... so I still have twenty three whole ones and some part ones to do.  Hmmmm

 

Mowed the lawn for the last time of the year... Had a hard time starting the mower because is was so cold outside... took into the basement for twenty minutes then brought it out into the sun ... Because it was the last mow of the season I had to run the mower out of gas... I didn't fill the tank full, but it took a long time to run the thing dry.  I think since I got it tuned up last year it runs much better and gets better gas milage...  I mowed half of my neighbors lawn trying to get it empty... then when I was too tired I held the on thingie with a rope until it stopped running.  Even then, it took twenty minutes to run it dry. 

 

My old high school boyfriend called yesterday and cancelled our dinner on Thursday night... worried about driving three hours in the rain on Thursday night.  I totally understand.  We will try to get together after school gets out in December.  

 

Hope your day went well.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

We are expecting so snow tonight... probably not any accumilation, but white stuff coming down.  Hmmmmm It was really cold today, I actually wore my winter coat today, it was windy and that cold. 

 

Gave another test at Radf-ord today.  So I have to grade tomorrow a project and test.  My students at V-T presented Friday and today.  So things are progressing on that front... I gave them two projects at one time so that they multi task... seems students today who can listen to their ipods, messanger, watch tv and do home work don't know how to work on multiple projects at one time.  As interior designers you can work on ten to fifteen projects at one time so multi tasking is important.  Hmmmmm We are half way through the term.  Hope your day was good.  Love and kisses, Marilyn   

Well I got the glossary good enough to go to my supervisor... for comments. And some kind of direction. I wrote a letter I need to revise one more time before I send it off tomorrow.  I didn't grade today.  I was too burned out from "finishing" my glossary.  So I corrected three sections of my dissertation.  Lots of typos...

 

Was going to go to Diwali (Indian New Year) at school tonight... but I was too tired.  So I did the mindless typo correction until my mind totally left me..  and then I walked two miles and reheated some speghetti for dinner...  

Hope you have a great day... I am going to cut my hair and take a bath... Love and kisses, Marilyn  

My on line friend Carole just lost her computer this week and I think I need to remind everyone to back up your computer... I give this lecture to my college students... We always have two or three juniors or seniors that have their computer die each term... I think Carole only lost some photographs... that is bad enough, but it could be worse... I have gone through seven computers... lost two hard drives, one mother board, two ethernet connections... Luckily a friend told me about backing up before I lost my first computer... so I only lost the files I was working on... Five years back, I spent six months is technology h*ll when my printer did not like my new CPU and would drop hardware every other day, usually it would not acknowledge the CD Rom burner...  great when you are having computer problems.  I took it to the doctor seven times before someone really listened to my problem and had me bring in the printer with the computer... we updated the printer driver and that seemed to take care of my problems. 

 

Back to the lesson... Everyone should back up their computer at least once a month... if you are writing a lot, as I am, I back it up every week...if not every couple of days.  Years ago, they told you to do three back up copies.... date them of course...  when you have backed up on the third disk start again on the first disk... (so you have a couple of days or a couple of months copied... so I you delete something by accident or need it back you can just go back and get what you lost)...

 

Now CD's are so cheap that I just do a new CD or I do back up periodically on the same disk alternating dates... I also store a couple of disks off site... away from where my computer is... if there were a fire in my house and I had all my copies in my house I would be in deep doo doo... I keep a copy in the car and in my office at school. I switch them out probably every month.  Otherwise, if I had a fire in my house I could hast lost a years worth of writing and three years worth of research... 

 

Now that disks are so big... (I started on 64K floppy disks) I copy "my documents" on one disk after deleting some of the larger files such as photographs and po-wer point presentations... I have recently reorganized my files.  I have  my photographs split into units that are small enough to copy on one CD, I think right now I have two or three photo files... Then I have a file for all of my dissertation info... and my teaching files. and my application to schools... (including large files po-wer point presentations and photos of my and student's work).  Then when I need to copy my dissertation I just flag one file and all fifty files get copies at once.   

 

Hope this makes sense... Also we all need to keep our anti virus protection updated, and optimize our disk regularily, keeps the computer fast.  Opps I need to do that... I back everything up before I optimize... Every once in a while check the back up disks to make sure that they copied the files correctly.   

 

Hope this helps remind people to back stuff up and good maintanence of their computer.  Have a great day.. Love and kisses, Marilyn

 

There are lots of typos and small corrections but I am very relieved that the format and content seems to be acceptable... envision on big sigh of relief.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

but I still got most of the stuff on my list for today to get done... done... shots done, Mad CAUS done, rewrite test done, work on glossary I almost finished it.  Maybe tomorrow I can get enough done on the glossary to send it on to my supervisor. 

 

Still need to list students topics fpr their papers, and apply for my visa for India and my application to University of Minnesota.  

 

I spent a couple of hours yesterday looking for my grade book for Radford.  I sorted and organized about eight inches of papers draped around my living and even my dining room.. I cleaned up for my party over the weekend and it could have been any where.  I finally found it in a bag on the back seat of my car... what a relief... I searched my office at Radford, at VT and then my house and couldn't find it I was near panic... (except I had run copies of my grading sheets so I could  redo it if I needed too)... but it was really nice to find it intact. 

 

So anyway... I was able to make progress on stuff that I needed to and still could get other things done, like Mad CAUS which is really important for my sanity.  Had a nice talk with Sarah... It was great to visit with her in the car as I dropped her off.  She is stuck where she is starting her own research... she just needs to dive in but that is so hard.  Taking that first step is really difficult... Her daughter is due on the same day as her son was born last year... Don't think that nursing can give you immunity to getting pregnent again.

 

I love my friends, they are so supportive and feed my soul.   Hope you have a great day.  Love and kisses, Marilyn 

   

Got my shots for India first thing this morning... Met with my Ph.D. colleagues about our work.  Paid bills, and ate lunch, now I have to get back on the glossary... worked on it for about three hours yesterday... accessed the web to get mission statement of the companys and organizations we refer too. such as IFOAM for organic farming practiecs... I will try to write more tonight... Love and kisses, Marilyn

I think that I almost have it ready to go to my supervisor to review.  I found a glossary of green terms that the Lee's representative gave my students, so I am using that as much as I can to define terminology, since my supervisor has not sent me his glossary.  I think one more writing day and I will read it over and forward it to him for review.  He asked if I wanted to do anything else, but I think this will do me.  I don't really know enough of the technical stuff to differenciate the accuracy of web sites...

 

I also need to get back on my client's stuff.  She sent three emails yesterday before she left for a prolonged trip to Europe.  Her son lives in Germany with her daughter in law and two grandkids, so she is going there.  Then she is taking a saffari tour of Africa for eleven days, I would love to do that, but she is doing it about the time I am going to India, so I can't be envious ... then her  daughter in law is from Sweden, so they are all heading to Sweden for Christmas... cool. 

 

I got my teeth cleaned today and made an appointment to get my shots for India... so I am progressing... Need to file for the visa next.  Think I have to mail my passport to DC, don't want to drive there to get it myself.  They would still have to mail it back... even if I drove there.  Four hours or more there and four hours or more back on a Tuedsay or Thursday... too tired to do that.     

 

Hope your day was great.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Monday evening and I am still tired after sleeping alot over the weekend.  Hmmm sometimes I prove that I am no longer young... most of my friends went out on Saturday night and got home between 4 and 5 AM.  I was in bed at 10:00 PM and slept throught to 9:30... then got ten hours again last night... Yet this afternoon I was so tired (maybe it was the non caffinated tea didn't get my battery charged). 

 

Saw Dr. C today rushing across the lobby of C. Hall ... Her body language was don't even talk to me... and she would not even look at me in the eye.  All she said was she had to get to a meeting... I checked to see if Chriss was there and came back into the lobby and Dr. C was putting on her coat... she said that she just got out of the women in archtecture meeting...  and was rushing off to another meeting.  I was totally civil to her, I commented that she was back from her presentation, and did not even ask if she received my dissertation.  I was pretty upset about how she treated me, but Kristin calmed me down.  After talking to Kristin, I don't think that she has looked at my dissertation and felt guilty about it... but it was really weird.  Made my stomach quesey and jumpy.  I really don't doubt the work that I have done.  But I have written a huge amount without someone interacting with it... (becasue she was too busy over the summer). So it is nerve racking until someone looks at it and says this stinks or this is okay, but needs these revisions... I do think ithey will say this is okay and it will need some revisions.  Hmmm

 

Hope that your day was wonderful.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Last night we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner with Kristin to celebrate her birthday.  I am glad that I planned something here... because we had a wonderful time with the chef/showman (he could really juggle those knives and shot shrimp in our mouths at the end of the evening)... the younger ones went out.. I went home and collapsed on the sofa... But the fans at the restaurant were so noisy that it was hard to talk.   So today we can talk...

 

I dragged myself to bed at 10:00 when I couldn't stay awake to watch TV and slept through to 9:30 this morning... Well I woke up at 5:00 and my back was aching so I came down to the sofa and the heating pad... and slept through to 9:30 this morning.  Vidya and Arul came over at 10:30 to plan my trip in India...   

 

Yesterday I took a three hour nap in the afternoon... and today I still do not feel like working... so I cleaned up for the party... and baked some cup cakes... and made salsa and gaucomolie... and creamed cheese with hot jelly... sounds really good... yum yum... Kristin and I talked about fried chicken and Elizabeth will pick it up... Kristin is making one of her famous dips... Noelle is bringing red wine to finish the Sagreia.  Tao is bringing shrip and cashews... Nicole will probably bring a salad...

 

Hope your day is great...  Love and kisses, Marilyn  

I decided to copy this an move it here cause I am going to remove it from my lists.  This way when I copy the whole month of my blogging and put it on my computer as a journal of my journey I will have this list...

 

Thank you Lakota Clay
for the idea of this list.
Friends:
My friends feed me on a emotional level. As much as I depend on them they depend on me. Thank you everyone for enriching my life so much!
To be one with nature:
By taking walks, photographing what I see. To see the changes each week that mother nature has blessed this small earth with.
To help others:
Through my teaching, coaching, and profession, helping make a difference in peoples lifes is so important to me.
Acceptance of myself:
I am so special and it took me 54 years to realize how special I am. Thank you again my friends in Michigan, Virginia and other places for demonstrating that to me.
Challenges:
As if life weren't hard enough, I need challenges to strive to enrich and improve myself.
Books:
There is nothing as good as a good book. The total escape of flying with dragons or solving crimes.
Peace:
Peace in the world and peace in my life. If only strife and dispare could be banished from the world.
Interior Design:
I love every aspect of my chosen career.
Swimming:
How could I forget swimming, my sport, exercise of choice, my escape, my sanity... What keep this old brain well oiled and functioning. And it has given me such big guns!
Music:
Good music can change us, I am working to expand my horizon from Classic Rock of my childhood and Classical music to newer music. Five years ago I only had five DCs, now I have at least 40... A lot of those Dave Matthews Band :-).
Laughter:
I forgot laughter... I love to laugh and be funny... I am told that have a great belly laugh and that I always smile... not true, but a good smile will lift anyones day... including mine...

and here I am sitting on the sofa without a cup of coffee.  Ellen has me signed up to get a health screening blood test this morning for $30.00 so I can't eat until I get back.  No tea either... See I actually said tea and not coffee... I am sort of getting used to not having coffee... sort of...  I think I dreamed last night about drinking coffee....  hmmm

 

Thursday night, I sent an email to my internship supervisor asking that I be allowed to finish my work on the glossary in the next month.  He said okay.  I think I will not call in on the conference calls and just work on the definitions.   So I guess I saved my being fired from a volunteer job.  I worked on it for about 2.5 hours yesterday and it really began to come together... Once I get it colated I will send it to my and ask him to edit the list to things that can be defined... and then ask him for the glossary.  I am thinking I will have that to him by next week.  As I said earlier, I was just at the point to still be in disarray, but so close (2.5 hours) to being organized and ready for review.

 

We are going to a Japanese restaurant tonight for Kristin's Birthday... Should be fun.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

 

   

a different feeling.  Been kind a of a strange day today... Worked on my business taxes this morning... this afternoon I found a transcriber who is interested in helping me with  my interview (from the lady I met at the airport). 

 

I am not sure what is happening with my internship.  Seems weird.  I have not worked on it a lot this summer because of my writing, but now my supervisor wants to know what I have done, no interaction with him most of the summer.  I emailed him tonight that I hope he will let me finish the glossary... Well I really won't be able to totally finish it because there is a lot of scientific verbiage that I don't know where to get definitions.  It feels weird to have him question my work because usually I do more than is necessary... with waiting for response to my dissertation and other insecurities... I feel disconnected tonight...

 

Made a thank you cake for my neighbor who mowed my lawn while I was away.  Coconut cake... He seemed thrilled.  

 

Took at walk with Elizabeth and Katya... we interacted in our usual vosiserous manner... Katya at one point put her hands over her ears and started singing.   Hmmm think I was a little loud.  Swam and then got my feet cracked... came home to a dinner of salad and tapioca pudding... Well hopefully tomorrow will be better.  Love and Kisses, Marilyn   

Good day at school today... Joan had done the whole lecture on paint on Monday, so I did a lecture on the fly... I talked about color theory, design principles and elements of interior design in relation to selecting materials.  I still had twenty minutes so I talked about my trip this weekend to my clients and combining the elements and precilples in relation to the selection of materials in an actual product with an actual client....  I don't usually do that (talk about my clients) it seems bragadocious... but it worked with the off the cuff lecture... I think that it was a pretty good class. 

 

My students at VT who went to New Yor-k City over the long weekend, shared what they discovered on their trip.  The visited high end stores and shared their discoveries.  So that class also went well.  I did my internship call the last hour of class...

 

I checked to be sure that Dr. R and C picked up my work... so I hopefully will be hearing from them in the last few weeks... Hope your day was good.  Love and kisses, Marilyn  

Carole commented last week that she just wrote everyday things on her blog... I do the same... I don't want to discuss politics, religion, or other earth shaking stuff on my blog... first of all politics is so depressing to me right now.. and so polarized that why bother... you are either red or blue... there is no room for nuances of believe, which I believe is what life is about.. life is subtleties of multiple colors (not talking about race here) not black and white of right and wrong... patroit or terrorist... I even have no patience any more to read other peoples blogs about politics either.. which amazes me...

 

I have a hard time leven istening to the news partly because it is so bleak, but also because it is so full of ads and promotion embeded into the news that we no longer know what is news and what is Hollywood promotion or worse political promotion with talking points and photo ops, such as someone flying into an aircraft carrier... everything is controled and structured for a public that is not thinking...    

 

Religion is another optic that has totally been polarized... I find it totally interesting that I have friends here at school who are Luthe-rn, Catholic, Hin-di, Mus-lum, non believes, and unknown believers... We don't need to talk about our believes because we all treat each other with civility and loving acceptance... is that not what religion is about?!?!  We have found our differences are so small as women... Our religion does not need to be discussed because we are not trying to prostilcise and convert each other but asscept our assests and our similarities as women.

 

It is the same with other controversies... why jump in ... the blogs I love to read have to do with our existance on this earthly plane... how we deal with losses, and illness... how painful every day life can be... and also how absolutely joyful.  Two or three of my blogging friends are going through the illness and loss of loved ones and even marriages... we all face that... it is what makes us human... I don't need to dictate or pontificate my beliefs in my blog... you will get them if you read long enough... when life happens political or my belief system will come up as part of every day living.. For those of you that read me regularily... thank you ... I think that you are also interested in the things of life and not the hog wash of our differences.  I am blessed with many wonderful friends and know that my openness to my suffering creats connections... Hmmm  Carole got me going here... Cee sometimes our choices are so hard but taking care of you and your immediate family is not something to be compromised... Fabiola and Jamie hang in there... continue to reach out in your loss and in your pain.

 

Love you all, Marilyn