Cows on Parade

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This was the 9th year of our annual Strolling of the Heifers.  We have been to every one, except the year of the thunderstorm, even I am not dedicated enough for that.  It may sound like the silliest parade ever, but it sure is popular.  Our town fills up with locals and out-of-towners, all to see over 60 heifers, plus dozens of goats, mules, sheep, oxen, Highland Cows, tons of school kids, dance groups, bands, jump ropers, local businesses, non-profit groups, theater companies, and a man in a ballgown.  I love the small town-ness of it all.  I don’t mind the traffic and the crowd.  It is something that makes Brattleboro different.  I know there are places that use the slogan “Keep Blankity-blank Weird”, but non of these places have anything on us.

Weekend plans

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Friday

  • Gallery Walk tonight
  • dinner out
  • no bath for baby!

Saturday

  • Strolling of the Heifers!!!!
  • Dairy Fest and Green Expo
  • early to bed after a long day

Sunday

  • Sunday School (last day, after 3 years of teaching the same girls)
  • Church
  • long drive to Bradford
  • lunch with Bee
  • long drive home
  • early to bed

What’s your favorite poem?

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If I Could Tell You

Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose all the lions get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know.

W.H. Auden

When I was a senior in high school (1994) I went on a trip to London with my school.  I was in awe pretty much the whole time.  Not that I hadn’t traveled, I was just so in love with London I could hardly believe I was really there.  If I had had a digital camera I would have run out of space on my memory card the first day.  I especially loved riding the Underground.  After all I grew up in a town with a handful of elevators, a crappy bus system, and no escalators.

On the Underground I started to notice poetry in some of the ad spaces.  I didn’t know until way later (enter the advent of the internet) that this was a culture thing.

Poems on the Underground was launched in 1986. The programme was the brainchild of American writer Judith Chernaik, whose aim was to bring poetry to the wide ranging audience of passengers on the Underground.

All I knew was, I was seeing poems I hadn’t read before.  There was one that caught my eye and I wrote it in my journal.  I don’t know what it was that spoke to me in Auden’s words.  Maybe it was the repetition, maybe the odd rhyme scheme, maybe the message, but whatever it was I came home wanting to know more poetry by W.H. Auden.  It was a librarian friend who explained villanelle style poetry to me.  I tried to write poems in the same style, but I am a hopeless writer.  I got a book of his poetry and devoured it.  Four Weddings and a Funeral came out that same summer and featured another Auden poem that just about broke my heart.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

continued

The connections just keep coming.  The college I went to, Sweet Briar College, actually has an Auden collection in the library.  I don’t actually know what that means, because I was never brave enough to ask about it.

Looking back I wish my senior quote in my high school yearbook had been from another Auden poem, Leap Before You Look.

A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep
Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear;
Although I love you, you will have to leap;
Our dream of safety has to disappear.

I would have just quoted the last line, but I put the whole final stanza here to give context.  I was so afraid to leave the safety of my hometown, my friends, the only house I ever really remembered (there had been an apartment until I was 3), my parents and my sister.  Virginia is a long way from Vermont in so many different ways.  And I really had to leap before I looked, or I might not have gone.  I am so glad I did.

I had no idea what I was going to experience in college or how it would shape my life.  I wanted all the answers up front, but they weren’t there for me.  To be trite, I had to let time be the one to tell me so.

If I could tell you, I would let you know

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

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When I was 8, if you had asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I would have told you I wanted to be a teacher.  I don’t think I ever thought I would be anything else.  I mean, sometimes I thought about owning a store, or a cafe.  I might have dreamed of being a dancer or an actor.  But for sure the only thing I ever really wanted to be was a teacher.

In October of my senior year of college several of my friends and I went on a trip.  I was sitting at dinner with one of the girls I didn’t know as well and was asking her questions.  I asked what she was going to do after college.  She had no idea.  She chose her major because it was something that she was pretty good at.  Until then it had never occurred to me that anyone was going to graduate from college without knowing what they wanted to do.  I thought that’s what college was, the gateway to what you were going to be when you grew up.  Looking back most of my friends are not working in fields related to their majors, but then, that would have never occurred to me.

When I was a kid if you asked me what my favorite things were I would have said reading and playing on my computer.  This may not be so strange now (the computer part), but I grew up in the 1980s.  I’ve had a computer since I was 2 or 3.  I don’t remember not having a computer.  My memory of my first computer is that it was a CBM, but the screen on that one looks too big.  I also had a Commodore 64 and a Tandy.  I had all sorts of learning games, including the original Math Blaster and something called a Koala Pad.  All the images on my first computer were green on black and created by ASCII text.

Here I am now.  34 years old and wrapping up my 11th year of teaching.  11 years of running a computer lab in an elementary school and 10 years teaching reading, too.  A job that didn’t even exist in my elementary school days, hopefully leading kids to jobs that don’t even exist now.

Looking up

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This month’s NaBloPoMo theme is “looking up”. Here are some things that are “looking up” in my life right now.
It is only 2 weeks until my birthday.
It is only 2 weeks until my son’s birthday.
School is nearly over for the year.
The weather is getting better.
I am feeling pretty good.
My son is starting to walk.
My house looks good, on the outside.
I am feeling very confident at work.

I am not even going to list the things that are “looking down”.

It’s a process

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The Organizing Junkie has some pretty good ideas about how to organize.  I am going to use many of her hints and suggestions for tackling my project.  First I looked at her PROCESS.

I have created a simple acronym to allow you to break down your organizing project into simple, straightforward steps that will help you stick to your plan and achieve optimal organizing results.

By following the PROCESS steps below anyone can conquer any space of any size. The steps allow you to do one or all at a time depending on the time you have available for the task.

Each letter of PROCESS is a step in organizing.  Hopefully I will see results with this PROCESS and be encouraged to do it again.

First up is P:

Plan of attack – plan your project – which area(s) do you want to address – make a list – evaluate present system, what is working, what isn’t working, devise new system – determine budget – develop timeline

To get this part started she suggests asking the following questions that she found in an article on About.com written by Sarah Aquirre.

1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?

A bedroom for my son, born May 16, 2009, who has been sleeping in a cradle in our room since birth.  I want it to be a place for him to sleep, play, and keep his books, toys, and clothes.

2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?

Crib, dressers, toy storage, book storage, rug, lights.

3. What can I remove from the room?

All our crap.  CDs, books, luggage, electronics, tools, old linoleum.

4. What problems do I see with the room?

Not enough plugs, no window dressings, ugly wallpaper, holes in the walls, old leak on the ceiling, mess, mess, mess.

5. What organizational tools might solve those problems?

Add more plugs, get room darkening blinds, bookcases, storage boxes, hanging shelves.

6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems?

everything

7. What kind of a budget do I have to work with right now for storage solutions?

Not much of one.  We really only still need paint and repair materials for the walls, a rug, a ceiling fan/light, blinds, and bookcases.

8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room? (28 days!)

We are getting a little bit of a late start in the month, but I hope to have the room cleared out enough to move my little guy’s crib in by the beginning of March.

9. What is my plan of action?

Spend a few days emptying the room.  Sort through the items in the room and make keep, store, donate, and trash piles.

10. Who can I ask to help me with this?  (working with a friend can be fun, productive and encouraging)

My husband will be helping me, but I know my mom and my sister will help me too.

28 Day Organizing Challenge

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I’m participating in Org Junkie’s 28 Day Organizing Challenge with @orgjunkie during the month of Feb.  Wish me luck!  http://tiny.cc/KYtro

My little boy is finally growing too big for his cradle.  Okay, he has been too big for the cradle since Christmas, but you should see “his” room!  It is full of 7 years of our junk.  We have started to hoe it out, but it just gets worse.  So this month we are going to get all our crap out of there and start to work on the walls and ceiling.  Hopefully when we return from our vacation at the end of the month we will be able to move him into his room even if it isn’t done.

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