Totally Unmotivated Friday
Here I sit on Friday at noon. I promised students I'd stay in the office until 2:00. All I really want to do is go home, put on sweats, bake cookies for "book club" tonight, and veg. I have some brainless work to do at the office that I'll start as soon as I finish blogging and eating lunch...
I played Bunco last night for the first time. (See Sarah's blog a few weeks back.) I enjoyed it, and I won!!!! ($20 gift certificate to the movies...) Beginner’s luck I guess. I had a few flashes to my future life in the "home." I think I'll be a better Bunco player than Bingo player. I like the fact that we had to get up and move around the room. You stay too stationary playing Bingo! At least I hope when I hit the "home" I'm still mobile enough to want to get up and move around the room while playing Bunco...
We went to teacher conferences at Alex's school last night. I adore his tutor. She clearly sees his potential, knows him well, knows all his tricks, and works her backside off to get him to do the best work he can. I can't say the same for his reading teacher. The first nine weeks of school are over, and it appears Alex has put forth no effort in reading class. As frustrating as that is, I'm even more upset by the fact that the teacher has put forth no effort in the first nine weeks to teach Alex. No indication that he knows anything at all about him. No indication that he has tried. My rule for Alex in all he does is that he must try his best. I don't expect right answers all the time. I expect effort. I expect the same from the teachers. They don't have to be successful, 'cause I know both my kids are difficult. But they have to try... We gave the teacher some suggestions, and we will see how it goes. We may end up moving him back to an easier reading class just to get a teacher that cares about him, and cares about teaching. So "Bravo," A+, to both Mrs. W's and "Boo, Hiss," F, for Mr. G. There is my report card... and I feel better for venting. (I can give the teacher a tiny bit of credit in that he spoke to Dave briefly a few weeks ago to tell him that Alex wasn't doing very well, but... Dave certainly didn't get the impression that Mr. G was alarmed!)
Okay, now I'm ready to spend a few hours entering data into an excel file...
Go Bucks
Friday, November 17, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Mozart and Football
Football insanity is upon us, Go Bucks!!!
The tension has been building all autumn—and now the game is here. #1 Ohio State vs. #2 Michigan. Dave and I will be there. I’m hoping there are no terrible riots on campus afterwards.
After the national championship game a few years ago, when Ohio State beat Miami in three overtimes, I spent about fifteen minutes in class the next morning discussing the similarities between sports and music. I’m led to ramble on about the topic yet again. I told my class that that game was as close to Mozart as football ever gets.
Some of the similarities concern the vocabulary we use to talk about the activities. What do we practice? At least two things: sports, and music. Medical doctors are also practicing—but that makes me nervous—so I prefer to think of the medical doctor as a practitioner. There are team sports and individual sports. There are musical ensembles and solos. Sports teams have coaches. Musical ensembles have conductors.
Some of the similarities are deeper. There is a tension in the air during Michigan week that is palpable. The entire football season, from the beginning of practice during the summer to the game this week, has been building and leading up to this game, and the next game. It’s a multi-movement symphony, or maybe an opera, being played by a very talented group of college athletes/musicians. Read the morning paper, walk across campus and see the student activity group tables set up to promote Michigan week activities. It feels like what a music theorist calls “dominant prolongation.” We go about our daily business, but the underlying tension is there.
Music sets up clear expectations in the listener. The pattern of expectation and fulfillment or consequence, the delay of the consequence, or the substitution of an unexpected consequence, creates an emotional response in the musical listener. (See Leonard B. Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956) a book as old as I am!) In the same way a football game (or baseball game, or soccer game) sets up expectations. When the other team has the ball for a first and goal on the 1-yard line, you expect to be disappointed. When your team picks up a fumble and runs 99 yards for a touchdown, you are even more elated because that consequence is so unexpected, unlikely, improbable.
How does music set up these expectations? Each note, and each chord has a particular job to do. The notes or the chords work together to define a key. Particular patterns of notes and chords are common, and thus set up expectations. Almost every time I hear a particular sequence of chords, the next chord is predictable. So I expect the chord I usually hear completing the pattern. The composer can delay the expected chord, or might write a different chord, and my ears will prick up… What is going on now??? Why don’t I hear the chord I expect? Why did I hear this unexpected, unpredicted chord? And the music continues until all the tensions are resolved.
How does football set up these expectations? Troy Smith throws a long pass. We expect Ted Ginn to catch it. What? Who was that? Oh, Anthony Gonzalez caught the pass. That wasn’t what I expected, but it is great, and I cheer. Or, Ginn catches the pass, but he was out of bounds, and we must try again. The emotions are closer to the surface during a football game, and the fans react—loudly—during the game. The performers on stage during a symphony concert would probably be distracted if the audience burst into spontaneous cheers or boos or groans after every cadence, but the audience is feeling the same things, just not reacting in quite the same way.
Musical compositions have standard forms. For example, a simple rounded binary movement uses a predictable pattern of harmony and melody, but each rounded binary composition is unique. The patterns are predictable, but the particular execution is not. Likewise football plays have a predictable pattern, and football games contain many predictable patterns put together in a unique and often unexpected way. That is why we listen to different compositions, all in the same form, over and over again without being bored. We watch football games every autumn, even every week, without becoming bored.
I could go on and on…
Football insanity is upon us, Go Bucks!!!
The tension has been building all autumn—and now the game is here. #1 Ohio State vs. #2 Michigan. Dave and I will be there. I’m hoping there are no terrible riots on campus afterwards.
After the national championship game a few years ago, when Ohio State beat Miami in three overtimes, I spent about fifteen minutes in class the next morning discussing the similarities between sports and music. I’m led to ramble on about the topic yet again. I told my class that that game was as close to Mozart as football ever gets.
Some of the similarities concern the vocabulary we use to talk about the activities. What do we practice? At least two things: sports, and music. Medical doctors are also practicing—but that makes me nervous—so I prefer to think of the medical doctor as a practitioner. There are team sports and individual sports. There are musical ensembles and solos. Sports teams have coaches. Musical ensembles have conductors.
Some of the similarities are deeper. There is a tension in the air during Michigan week that is palpable. The entire football season, from the beginning of practice during the summer to the game this week, has been building and leading up to this game, and the next game. It’s a multi-movement symphony, or maybe an opera, being played by a very talented group of college athletes/musicians. Read the morning paper, walk across campus and see the student activity group tables set up to promote Michigan week activities. It feels like what a music theorist calls “dominant prolongation.” We go about our daily business, but the underlying tension is there.
Music sets up clear expectations in the listener. The pattern of expectation and fulfillment or consequence, the delay of the consequence, or the substitution of an unexpected consequence, creates an emotional response in the musical listener. (See Leonard B. Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956) a book as old as I am!) In the same way a football game (or baseball game, or soccer game) sets up expectations. When the other team has the ball for a first and goal on the 1-yard line, you expect to be disappointed. When your team picks up a fumble and runs 99 yards for a touchdown, you are even more elated because that consequence is so unexpected, unlikely, improbable.
How does music set up these expectations? Each note, and each chord has a particular job to do. The notes or the chords work together to define a key. Particular patterns of notes and chords are common, and thus set up expectations. Almost every time I hear a particular sequence of chords, the next chord is predictable. So I expect the chord I usually hear completing the pattern. The composer can delay the expected chord, or might write a different chord, and my ears will prick up… What is going on now??? Why don’t I hear the chord I expect? Why did I hear this unexpected, unpredicted chord? And the music continues until all the tensions are resolved.
How does football set up these expectations? Troy Smith throws a long pass. We expect Ted Ginn to catch it. What? Who was that? Oh, Anthony Gonzalez caught the pass. That wasn’t what I expected, but it is great, and I cheer. Or, Ginn catches the pass, but he was out of bounds, and we must try again. The emotions are closer to the surface during a football game, and the fans react—loudly—during the game. The performers on stage during a symphony concert would probably be distracted if the audience burst into spontaneous cheers or boos or groans after every cadence, but the audience is feeling the same things, just not reacting in quite the same way.
Musical compositions have standard forms. For example, a simple rounded binary movement uses a predictable pattern of harmony and melody, but each rounded binary composition is unique. The patterns are predictable, but the particular execution is not. Likewise football plays have a predictable pattern, and football games contain many predictable patterns put together in a unique and often unexpected way. That is why we listen to different compositions, all in the same form, over and over again without being bored. We watch football games every autumn, even every week, without becoming bored.
I could go on and on…
Friday, November 10, 2006
Neighborhood Card Night/Kids Book Club
Four families from our neighborhood, all with children about the same ages, have been gathering about once a month for a potluck dinner, kids book club and adult card night. We let the kids run wild and the adults play cards. It has been great fun. We are very lucky to have neighbors that we enjoy. We have been playing a game called contract rummy. The game mostly involves luck, but Dave seems very lucky most nights, so he may be paying better attention than the rest of us!
Here are the rules: (With eight players we use 3 decks)
Four families from our neighborhood, all with children about the same ages, have been gathering about once a month for a potluck dinner, kids book club and adult card night. We let the kids run wild and the adults play cards. It has been great fun. We are very lucky to have neighbors that we enjoy. We have been playing a game called contract rummy. The game mostly involves luck, but Dave seems very lucky most nights, so he may be paying better attention than the rest of us!
Here are the rules: (With eight players we use 3 decks)
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Happy Birthday Mary Ann
I don't have the right day, but I'm thinking of you sister!
When writing about birthdays, I liked the way Sarah asked "when else is there a day to celebrate you, how special you are and what a gift your individual life is to your family?" We try to make our children feel that--so let's make our sisters feel it, too.
I know you read my blog at least once, so now I'm checking to see if you are still reading! I hope you had a fun birthday dinner with Mom and Steve. Where did you go? I wish you could come over for a cup of coffee to celebrate.
I don't have the right day, but I'm thinking of you sister!
When writing about birthdays, I liked the way Sarah asked "when else is there a day to celebrate you, how special you are and what a gift your individual life is to your family?" We try to make our children feel that--so let's make our sisters feel it, too.
I know you read my blog at least once, so now I'm checking to see if you are still reading! I hope you had a fun birthday dinner with Mom and Steve. Where did you go? I wish you could come over for a cup of coffee to celebrate.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
In Memorium
Our dear sweet Fannie-Kitty didn't make it. She seemed worse and worse on Thursday, and after my last blog I took her to the vet. She was having trouble breathing, and the vet took x-rays to confirm pnemonia. She made it through the first night at the kitty hospital, but after I talked with the vet in the morning, she died. Dave called me during my meeting on Friday afternoon to tell me. I had trouble concentrating the rest of the day. I went to Gallipolis for a concert weekend, and just returned late last night. I told Alex this morning. He seemed ok about it, but Alex holds everything inside and it is always hard to tell what he is feeling. We will get Fanny's ashes back, and I'll probably have Alex help me spread them in the bushes outside the screened porch that Fanny loved.
The vet doesn't know why she contracted pnemonia. He said it was not my sips of water, or if it was, it could just as easily have been the antibiotics we were giving her for the surgery. He thinks she may have had an undetected heart defect that made it hard for her during and after the surgery... and the pnemonia found her when she was weak. I was full of a lot of tough farm girl talk on Thursday, but now I'm having a hard time. If we had known she had a weak heart would we have skipped the surgery? Well, I don't want a cat in heat in the house... But??? Anyway, the vet feels terrible, I feel terrible, and she is gone.
The vet has a cat up for adoption. An 11-month old male. A BIG cat. Already neutered. Black and while like Fanny, but with lots more white than Fanny. White boots rather than white toes. White on his face. His name is "Toes" or "Dedos" in Spanish. Dedos Dobos? Felix and Dedos? Dedos and Felix? The name seems to have good Karma. Fanny had many names in her short six months. Her birth family named her "Frenchy" because she had white toes like a French manicure. Alex and his freind Owen called the cats White Paws and Black Paws. So if I bring Dedos home he will be another White Paws, which may simplify it for the little boys... We also called Fanny "Star" "Moonbeam" and "Inky" at various times before we settled on Fanny. But back to Dedos... Do I really want to live with a house full of boys??? Fanny was my Fanny girl, my sister kitty, the other female in this house of males... But some folks tell me male cats are friendlier than females... And then again, neutered males have a tendency to have urinary tract problems... So, what's a domestic disaster to do???
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Update on Fanny
Well, Felix has bounced back from his surgery and seems almost back to normal. However, Fanny is struggling. I talked to the vet this morning and he said I could bring her in for him to look at if I wanted... no charge. He said as long as she is eating and drinking, she will be okay. Now I'm torn. She hasn't been drinking or eating. I'm pretty sure taking her in will be free, but I'm also pretty sure the vet will suggest I leave her with them for IV fluids and nutrition. I've just spent too much money on the surgery. I can't justify spending more money on a cat when there are human beings in distress all over the world... So, I'm giving fanny sips of water from a syringe every hour or so all day. Luckily, I'm working from home today. I sure hope this works. I hope you all don't think I'm cruel. I guess I have a bit too much farm mentality about animals.
Well, Felix has bounced back from his surgery and seems almost back to normal. However, Fanny is struggling. I talked to the vet this morning and he said I could bring her in for him to look at if I wanted... no charge. He said as long as she is eating and drinking, she will be okay. Now I'm torn. She hasn't been drinking or eating. I'm pretty sure taking her in will be free, but I'm also pretty sure the vet will suggest I leave her with them for IV fluids and nutrition. I've just spent too much money on the surgery. I can't justify spending more money on a cat when there are human beings in distress all over the world... So, I'm giving fanny sips of water from a syringe every hour or so all day. Luckily, I'm working from home today. I sure hope this works. I hope you all don't think I'm cruel. I guess I have a bit too much farm mentality about animals.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Sad Kittens
Amid a hectic Halloween, I took our kittens Felix and Fanny to the vet to be spayed and neutered. They are not happy. Fanny had trouble with the anesthesia and had to have an IV and a shot of epinephrine. I guess she almost died on the table. She was very lethargic all evening, and it took me about a half hour to find her this morning. I was very worried that she crawled away in the night and died in some corner remote corner. I found her, and she is doing much better. Now I am trying to figure out how to give them oral medicines without spilling half of it. I've read all about it online, and I'm doing okay, but I can't wait 'till I don't have to do that twice a day. The vet gave us plastic head collars to put on the kittens so they couldn't mess with the incisions... Now, it has been 15 or 20 years since I last had a cat go through this, but I don't remember the plastic collars. I felt so sorry for the kittens this morning I took them off. They couldn’t easily get to the food bowl, they couldn’t clean themselves up after using the box, and they couldn’t get into all the favorite hiding places. I hope I don’t go home and find that one or both have torn open the surgery site. I guess this is one reason to adopt an older cat! But we have sure had fun with the kittens.
Amid a hectic Halloween, I took our kittens Felix and Fanny to the vet to be spayed and neutered. They are not happy. Fanny had trouble with the anesthesia and had to have an IV and a shot of epinephrine. I guess she almost died on the table. She was very lethargic all evening, and it took me about a half hour to find her this morning. I was very worried that she crawled away in the night and died in some corner remote corner. I found her, and she is doing much better. Now I am trying to figure out how to give them oral medicines without spilling half of it. I've read all about it online, and I'm doing okay, but I can't wait 'till I don't have to do that twice a day. The vet gave us plastic head collars to put on the kittens so they couldn't mess with the incisions... Now, it has been 15 or 20 years since I last had a cat go through this, but I don't remember the plastic collars. I felt so sorry for the kittens this morning I took them off. They couldn’t easily get to the food bowl, they couldn’t clean themselves up after using the box, and they couldn’t get into all the favorite hiding places. I hope I don’t go home and find that one or both have torn open the surgery site. I guess this is one reason to adopt an older cat! But we have sure had fun with the kittens.
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