Three Beautiful Things 05/22/13: Back to Working Class Lit, Rare Pepsi Jones, Helping Out with a Meal and Delivering It

1.  I got to return to MB's "Working Class Literature" course today and read my paper "On Needing Richard Hugo".  Yes, I enjoyed that the students were attentive and that there were some good questions and comments.  But, most of all I enjoyed the feeling that I was back team-teaching with M again and that we fell back into the easy relationship we had when we were two teachers, working together in the classroom to help students learn about the literature and learn to write better.

2.  It's not very often that I long for Pepsi, but today I did.  When I do have this longing, it's accompanied by a longing for Chinese food, so I went to Jade Palace and gulped down three or four small glasses of Pepsi and enjoyed my go to meal:  Combination #4.

3.  I volunteered to fix dinner for the Wirth family.  They have a new baby and so signed up at church for some help with food and dinners.  I got out the electric fry pan and fixed steak strips combined with onion, red pepper, mushrooms, corn, and brown rice.  I grated cheese in case the Wirths wanted to put cheese over the meal.  It's one of our favorites here at home and I hope it worked for the Wirths as well. 

Three Beautiful Things 05/21/13: Getting Rose's Point, Resilient, Superb Soup and Whiskey and Beer

1.  I think maybe my students are beginning to see Mike Rose's point that the intelligence required to do blue collar and service work is often underestimated and what the consequences of this belittling of such work is, especially for those who do it.  I don't know, yet, what they think of his point, but I think they are getting it. 

2.   I don't know what problems external to school have beset one of my students, but we sat down today to work out how she can get caught up and finish the course.  I admire students like her.  She never asked for any special treatment, let me know things had temporarily gone to hell, and we worked on how she can make up for missing class and assigned work.  I have every confidence she'll finish, but, if not, we have a contingency plan in place.  I hope the difficulties don't swoop in on her again.

3.  Wow.  That Florentine tomato soup at Billy Mac's was superb.  So was the Jameson.  At home, so was the Full Sail LTD Vienna Lager.  I wish the Vienna Lager wasn't a limited release.  I want it to be unlimited.  For what I want in a beer, it's nearly perfect. 

Breakfast at Cornucopia, 05-20-13

Three Beautiful Things 05/20/13: Morning Walk, Kevin the Photographer, Charting the Years

1.  I needed to buy some stove top cleaner and decided a hearty walk to Safeway was the ticket.  After all, this is why I gave my car to charity:  so I'd walk more.  I grabbed my camera and took some pictures of foliage between the house and Cornucopia, where I interrupted my walk, near its end, for an excellent plate of bacon and eggs. 

2.  Kevin, today's breakfast server, inquired about my camera and we got to talking about taking pictures and he told me about shooting snowboarding friends in the backwoods and off 60 foot cliffs near Willamette Pass.  My jaw dropped.  This kind of daredevil subject matter is way out of  my league!  Kevin has a couple of pictures on posts inside Cornucopia and he showed them to me.  My only response:  management ought to replace some of the much less interesting pictures they have on display with more of Kevin's stuff. 

3.  When I came home from the Bier Stein yesterday and figured out when Jolene had been my student, I realized how the last several years of teaching were a blur, largely because of fatigue.  I spent time today sorting out when I taught WR 121 and when I taught WR 122 and with the help of emails and grade sheets, sorted out when I taught what sections.  Somehow it was good for me to remember as many of those students as I could, to remember the classrooms, to align what was going on in my work with what was going on in life away from work.  Because I'm feeling so much better these days, I'm also trying to chart the ups and downs of my mental health, trying to see and remember what was going on and what I was doing at school, especially in the time leading up to the two hospitalizations in April and May,  2009 when I contracted pneumonia and c-diff.  It came back to me how much the trouble with depression was in many ways less a struggle with mood and much more a struggle with fatigue.  I always fought through the fatigue at school and gave my all to my teaching and to my students.  Away from school, though, I was on my back a lot, resting, sleeping, often isolated at home.  It was good for me today to sort this out, to give myself an even clearer picture of the last five or six years.  I'm going to keep going back, sorting out, examining:  so much of this is related to the aftermath of contracting bacterial meningitis in 1999 and the many years of recovery and the many years of its everlasting damage to my health. 

Morning Walk, 05-20-13

Three Beautiful Things 05/19/13: Pentecost Lector, Beef and Pilsner, Looking Back at WR 122

1.  It was really fun being this morning's lector and getting to read Acts 2: 1-21 at the Solemn High Eucharist today, a celebration of Pentecost Sunday.   The most fun was reading the prophecy from the Book of Joel that Peter delivers to the throng, after assuring the crowd that it was too early in the morning for the strangeness of the moment to be a result of too much wine, of drunkenness.  It was also fun to prepare this reading and look up all those names of places and to pronounce them correctly, to be true to their poetry. 

2.  The Senior Warden and I sat together during the service and afterward decided a little lunch would be nice, so headed up to the Bier Stein.  I savored my roast beef dip sandwich and beer cheese soup. I brought half of it home for the Deke.  I drank some really tasty EKU Pilsner from Germany with the sandwich.  Jolene and I tried to place what class she took from me at LCC and I succeeded in figuring it out when I got home.  I hope to see her at the Bier Stein again to tell her.

3.  I got to thinking about the section of WR 122 that Jolene was in and it occurred to me that it was nearly the last time I taught WR 122 exactly the way I wanted to, without the intrusion of (please forgive these next two words) Information Literacy.  The class wrote about personal work experiences, read (I think) Thich Nhat Hanh as a way of enhancing critical thinking through the concept of non-duality, played with the idea of copia by reading Robert Grudin, and then read Mike Rose and Hickam's Sky of Stone, and watched the documentary Harlan County, USA.  I enjoyed future WR 122 students and enjoyed discussions we had, but shoehorning research into the course always felt forced, always felt like trying to put twelve pounds of flour in a ten pound bag.  Dealing with databases, MLA format, secondary sources:  it was too much for a single course, especially the one I enjoyed teaching.   I felt the same way about WR 121.  So, today, in looking back at that last time I taught WR 122 the way I not only wanted to, but most believed in, I had a specific pleasure in teaching writing rekindled that I hadn't felt for a while.  I never lost the pleasure of teaching writing, but it was never the same, or as good, once I did my best to conform my course to the dictates of powers outside my classroom, and integrated (sorry, here these words come again) Information Literacy into my syllabus.  (I should note that I loved the WR 122 class I taught with Working Class Lit. alongside M. Bayless in W09...it was in a league of its own.)

Three Beautiful Things 05/18/13: Kellogg Reunion, Quiet Beer, Harshing NY's Melo

1.  This magnificent day featured one of my favorite things in my life to do:  get together with friends from Kellogg.  Today, Roger, Terry, Byrdman and I congregated in Salem at Boon's Treasury for a four hour gabfest, some fine beer, solid food, and a ton of laughs.  There was even some sage advice given.   When I have times like this with my lifelong friends, I can't believe how good my life is.  I'm sure happy that my Kellogg friends and I make the modest effort it takes to see each other as often as we can.  It bolsters every aspect of my life.

2.  When the Deke and I returned to Eugene, we decided to talk over her trip to Portland and my visit to Salem and had a beer together at the nearly empty, blissfully quiet, High Street Pub.  We enjoy it when we find quiet places to have a beer and talk things over.

3.  The Pacers sent the Knicks packing.  Ha!  The Pacers harshed the Knicks' Melo.

Three Beautiful Things 05/17/13: Zinnia Ready, Grantland Gab, The Multi-Tasking Deke

1.  There's triangle that looks like a skinny Trivial Pursuits wedge, by our driveway and I used to grow flowers in it.  Today I got the weeds out and with a little added soil and compost, that space is ready for some zinnias. 

2.  I took a mid-afternoon stroll to Sixteen Tons to gab with Jesse some more.  I enjoyed a pint of Deschutes Pine Mountain Pilsner and Jesse had some time to gab about the NBA playoffs and some reading we'd been doing over at grantland.com.

3.  That was round 1. Round 2 took place down the street at Falling Sky where I met up with the Deke and the Troxstar for a pint of Das Bitter and some more yakking.  The Deke skillfully multi-tasked:  she sipped on a Falling Sky Pourter (that's how the joint spells it), worked on the online class she is taking, and dished out wise cracks and sound advice to me and the Troxstar who were focused on one task:  drinking a beer. 

Three Beautiful Things 05/16/13: Introducing Richard Hugo, Dropping in on a Friend, Scratching the Popcorn Itch

1.  My copy of Richard Hugo's Making Certain it Goes On, the one I took notes in when I was on Richard Hugo tour back in 1992, is just beginning to fall apart.  I wanted to ease up on it, so I bought another copy.  I didn't realize it had been reissued several years ago with in introduction by William Kittredge.  I read that introduction today and it did just what I hoped it would:  it reflected upon the kind of guy Richard Hugo was.  It told anecdotes. Kittredge didn't  try to place Hugo in some phony baloney category of poetry.  He mentioned Hugo was a Northwest poet.  Okay.  He mentioned that Hugo thought of himself as a modernist.  Fine.  But the rest was given over to Hugo's story as a guy, a talented, but always regular guy, who grew up in the humblest of circumstances, flew fighter planes in WWII, studied with Roethke at the U. of W.,  loved taverns, drank too much booze and cheap beer, suffered a breakdown, quit drinking, went on long drives, loved to fish, lost one marriage, moved easily between laughter and sobbing, was sentimental, even maudlin, succeeded in a second marriage, loved being a stepdad, and succumbed to lung cancer and leukemia.  Kittredge wrote one of my favorite books ever, Hole in the Sky, about growing up in Eastern Oregon.  He also wrote one of my favorite essays ever, "Drinking and Driving".  Now he's written my favorite introduction to Richard Hugo.

2.  I got off the bus at Patterson and 13th, dropped by Dairy Queen and dropped a buck nineteen on an original burger (more like a slider) and, thinking Jesse might be working at Sixteen Tons, strolled on down there.  I was right.  I enjoyed a pint and a half of The Commons Holden and Jesse and I unraveled the knotty NBA playoffs and played a couple quick rounds of "What Year Did He Get Drafted?".

3.  After we had a flatiron steak, mushrooms, and cabbage salad, the Deke asked me to go out and get some beer.  I did, but I didn't stop there.  Going against the grain of my long practice not to buy junk food, I bought a bag of white cheddar popcorn.  The Deke was astonished and delighted (that was fun) and I scratched a popcorn itch I'd had for several months.  I drank sparkling water with my popcorn.  I let the beer chill for another time.

Three Beautiful Things 05/15/13: My Day with the Car, Planting Flowers, Jade Palace at Its Best!

1.  I took the Deke to work today and used the car to go to the grocery store, drive to Wednesday Eucharist (and pay tribute to the life and ministry of Episcopalian public servant Frances Perkins), make a major drop off at St. Vincent's, and buy flowers for the front garden bed and for containers.  I also had the car serviced.  It's a rare day when I keep the car for myself and I made the most of it.

2.  In the meantime, I finished the preparation of two flower beds out front and planted flowers in them with the hope for more variety and brightness and put geraniums in containers for the backyard.  It's coming along, slowly.  There's more to do:  more weeds, more bed preparation, more flowers or shrubs to plant, but each improvement motivates me a little more.

3.  With all the new planting done and the transplants watered, I strolled to Jade Palace.  I don't know exactly why, but my combination plate of fried shrimp, pork fried rice, and Kung Pao chicken tasted perfect.  The pork fried rice was perfectly oiled, not greasy, not dry.  The shrimp was perfectly,lightly breaded and I love it with hot mustard.  The Kung Pao chicken was also tender and a little hotter than than the medium I ordered and that was just what I wanted.  It was a perfect way to conclude of day of driving, shopping, worshiping, pulling, digging, and planting. 

Three Beautiful Things 05/14/13: As if it Were Carnegie Hall, Deep Connection, The Serious and the Absurd

1.  Attendance in WR 115 was down today.  I responded with jollity.  One of my students said, "Wow!  Not many people here today."  And I said, "Yeah.  And you know what?  You'll get my best instruction no matter what the turnout for class."  Then I impressed her and the others with a Glenn Exum story about when he went to see a jazz combo at the Cd'A Athletic Round Table and only few people showed up because of a snowstorm and, in Exum's words, the combo, "Played for us as if we were in Carnegie Hall."  He emphasized again and again that when performing or teaching or preaching in church, you never put out less effort or slack off because of a poor turnout.  And, so, today, I gave the handful of students who attended class my best energy and my best instruction.  I never once mentioned the absent students and I dealt with each student who came individually, joked with them, encouraged them, and sent them home, ready to finish Thursday's project.  It was as if class occurred in Carnegie Hall.  Ha!

2.  The Deke and I went out on the town tonight.  First we each had a bowl of soup at Billy Mac's and we shot the breeze with John, witnessed Amber's bunny rabbit drama, got to see and talk and laugh with Pam and Michael, and visited with Eileen.   Something huge happened when we saw Brian.  When he lived in Texas and did a little DJ work, Brian knew the woman who, when she lived in Glen Ellyn, was like a mother to the Deke.  When the Deke realized that Brian knew this hugely important person in her life, she was staggered, nearly speechless, almost in tears:  in short, deeply moved. 

3.  We gathered ourselves in the Billy Mac's parking lot and went downtown to the First National Taphouse and met up with the Senior Troxstar Warden and yakked away, moving adroitly between the serious and the absurd and had a grand time.

Three Beautiful Things 05/13/13: Water, Weeds, Kale

1.  Whoa.  The plumber ran that grinder thing for about an hour, it seemed, but finally the kitchen drain is all clear again.  He fixed that leak under the sink, too.  Oh!  Now the basement toilet works.  Water.  Water. Water.

2.  Fertilize the lawn.  Weeds.  Weeds.  Weeds.  Blackberry vines. Dig.  Pull. Pile. Clear out. Slowly.  Improvement.

3.  I agree with the Deke.  That kale salad she built was mighty good.