Mountains Made Low

I spent the weekend in Ohio with Dad and the extended family. It was a really good time, and I think a lot of people were surprised that it went as well as it did. And here the whole story:

This is the fifth year that the extended family (Dad’s mom and his brothers and sisters, all the cousins and cousins’ kids) has celebrated Thanksgiving with a summer reunion, because we thought that it made sense to get together once in the summer and once in December, rather than once at the end of November and once in the middle of December. At the same time, we started saying that one of the siblings’ families would plan these two events every year (there are six of them, so it’s not real onerous on anyone—we’re not even through one whole rotation yet, and I won’t be involved in it again until 2013). So this year, it was our turn. And we planned it pretty well in advance: Dad reserved a pavilion at a local park, with playground equipment handy for the small kids (my sister is the youngest of the cousins, and she’s 30, but my cousins have kids as young as 1). We planned the food we were taking (planners bring the meat), and Dad got a lot of stuff planned for decorations, even bought a vinyl sign that says “Kapper” that can be reused for these events in the future. We were ready.

But then my sister had her sleep apnea surgery. And had a harder time recovering from that than she thought she would (it’s been three weeks, and she’s still not 100%). Last week was really hard for her; she ended up in the emergency room on Monday, and Mom went down to take care of her/help her with the kids on Tuesday. Neither of them was there on Saturday. This is why I think people were surprised—it was, after all, just Bob and Mike organizing this thing, cooking turkey, and hosting the event. But it worked out and went well.

I came home on Sunday, and as I was driving back to NC, Mom was driving back from TN. If my sister lived near Knoxville rather than Nashville, Mom and I would have passed on the road. So on Sunday, Mom and I drove two legs of that 400-mile triangle that my immediate family now forms.

And when I got home, I found that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had come in the mail (from amazon.co.uk) while I was gone. So I spent the rest of Sunday and until a little afternoon on Monday reading the last Harry book. And then rereading the last three chapters in the afternoon.

And today I went to get my new trial contacts, and found out that this whole process might actually require four—count ‘em: four— more trips to the eye doctor. Not lovin’ that. I have to pick up my new glasses; they should be in tomorrow. I have to pick up my prescription sunglasses; they should be in Friday or Monday. I have to have a one-week follow up on the trial contacts; that’ll be the middle of next week. And then I have to pick up the contacts after I order them; who knows when that will be…. Not lovin’ that at all.

And then I got to put on my counselor hat today (well, I went to the bank, the grocery store, and Wal*Mart while I was in Boone, too, but I don’t want to turn this into too much of a laundry list of my life—apparently some people hate that about blogs). My best friend from high school mentioned that she was having some issues with restlessness in her life, mostly surrounding career issues (well, that’s my spin, but it’s pretty accurate). She mentioned it off-handedly, but I asked her what she meant. I got a long email from her explaining—though not nearly as long as some of the ranting I’ve subjected her to over the past year or so. And I wrote a longer reply telling her what I thought about her situation. It’s good to have old friends who know you well and have for years (we’ve been friends for 17+ years now) to fall back on, to get advice from, and to just listen to and be listened to by. I tried hard to be on the giving end of that sort of relationship today. I hope I succeeded.

And then a former student (read: protegée) contacted me today wanting some advice about making her career (grad school at this point) “fit” with her relationship and her fiancé’s career (nursing school). They thought they had it all figured out with her finishing her MA before the wedding and him finishing school at about the same time, but some things have come up. I tried to answer her questions and put her mind at ease as much as I could, and I didn’t remind her that I’m hardly the person to ask about dovetailing relationships with careers—freshly divorced and all, with career being a big part of the reason why (not as big as I thought at first, but big enough nonetheless). And, honestly, questioning my ability to make a relationship work on its own, let alone in consideration of any other aspect of life…. But, again, I did my best. Mainly assured her that delaying PhD school for a year is not as big a deal as it seems when you’re 23. A year off might not be a bad thing—if it’s what she wants to do, if it’s what her fiancé wants her to do, if it will make their first year of married life easier. So, yeah, I tried to do my best with that—didn’t even razz her about her use of the the Ohio State academic term terminology: “autumn” instead of “fall” like the rest of us call the first term. So high-falutin’ over there at OSU (guess it’s up there at OSU now…).

So anyway. The reunion was a success, and I got to be all kinds of a counselor today. Which is funny, because I spend a lot of time thinking that my life is a freakin’ mess; yet others still trust me enough with theirs to at least ask for my advice. Maybe that’s what it’s all about…muddling through your own stuff, getting help from others when you need it, and giving others whatever help you can along the way…. Or maybe I’m just glad for some evidence that some people don’t think I’m as screwed up as I think I am most of the time….

Can you imagine how long this would be if it were all one, multi-purpose post?

I would hate to jinx things by speaking out loud, so assume that I’m knocking on any wooden surface I can find the whole way through this post. But for about the past week, in addition to the housing payment that’s down $135 a month since I moved (not to mention the fact that I didn’t have to make a housing payment in July), I seem to be basically crapping money.

Well, not exactly (overstatement is another way to ward off jinxing, right?). But I was able to make very favorable financial arrangements for fixing the roof on my house. I had a problem with my truck that was either a $100 fix or a $500 fix, and it turned out to be the $100 thing. I’m getting reimbursed for my moving expenses (which is, at least, better than having to pay them myself). And, to top it all off: on Saturday, I got a check from the management folks at the old apartment. I don’t know how I managed it, but I got about $300 back from them. I expected a bill (which I might or might not have payed). There is stuff in their assessment of the apartment that I disagree with, but since I expected a wheelbarrow load of bupkis from them, I’ll be happy with my $277, and get on with my life. Also, I’m getting a $55 refund from the old cable company, too (someday).

Mom says to enjoy it now, because it will go the other way at some point. And, I guess she’s probably right. But for now, yes, I’m enjoying it (and putting the money in the bank, thank you very much).

The baseball diamond, that is.

Well, the top four teams in the AL are still better than the best NL teams. But on the NL side, the Dodgers are gone from the top, and the Brewers and the Mets are tied for the best record, but both teams would be fifth in the AL; they have, however, managed to slip past the Mariners.

The AL-leading Tigers (.604 win percent) are statistically tied with the BoSox (.602) in terms of games back, with the Indians one game behind them, and the Angels 1/2 game behind the Tribe. Since the Tigers lead the Central Division, though, that means that the Indians are still the Wild Card, though with the #3 record in the AL, over all. The Mariners are 2.5 behind the Indians in the wild card. And there are still more than two months of baseball to play. If no one collapses—and especially if the Yankees get even hotter (they’re 7.5 games behind Boston right now, 6.5 back in the wild card, in 3rd in the WC race)—the AL is going to be wild down the stretch, because not only are these races tight, but the teams involved are good, too. No one’s played 100 games yet, and there are 6 teams in the AL with 50+ wins. At the rate the BoSox and Tigers are going, they’ll have 60 or 61 wins when they get to 100 games, the Tribe 59 or 60. Of course the Indians and Red Sox are starting a series with each other tonight, and both teams will cross the 100-game threshold during that series. It’s possible that they’ll both have 60 wins when they’ve played 100, but that requires the Indians winning two of the next three, and the Sox winning one of the next two. Possible; likely, even. And certainly fun to watch.

The AL still rocks. And—though my numbers game here might be sort of geeky—baseball is always fun to watch, by the numbers.

As a final note, here’s the “if the playoffs started today” picture:
Cleveland vs. Boston
LA Angels vs. Detroit
San Diego vs. NY Mets
LA Dodgers vs. Milwaukee
(The Mets and the Brewers are tied, though, so maybe they would play the opposite California representatives, hard to say).

Some interesting notes here: New York has had its Subway Series, maybe LA could do something with the MetroRail. Or the whole shebang could end up in Michigan and Wisconsin. Nice to see some small- and medium-market teams competing yet again. And though I’m pretty much always an AL fan come series time (unless the Reds are in it), I must also note (with barely concealed glee) that there’s nary a Yankee in sight.

This takes a little background. Shortly after I moved, I ordered some magazine subscriptions. The New Yorker I ordered because I’ve always wanted it and had a “special professional subscription” offer. I’ll let the good folks at the USPS and Condé Nast sort out the fact that there was no way to change the address on the offer, and it was for the old address. Nothing strange there.

I also ordered Cooking Light because I like the recipes, they’re healthy, and I like the new, reduced-fat (can’t quite say low-fat, yet) me… a lot. I used to get recycled issues, but lost my access to them in the divorce. So I ordered it. $18 for the year, I thought, was not too shabby.

So today, I get a “Welcome” from the Cooking Light folks (along with 5 million—okay, three, but still—pieces of mail about my shiny new mortgage). It was a nice letter, except for one glaring typo. But the typo was not only glaring, it was also funny. Here’s what the Cooking Light people had to say to me (I’ll only quote the sentence with the error in it—it’s about the only thing in this post that doesn’t require context): “Your first issue is on tits way and will arrive in a few short weeks.”

I would find this less funny if I thought it was an intentional joke, like if I had subscribed to Penthouse or something (though I just almost typed “somethong” there….). But for a cooking magazine, c’mon…. Just funny. Glad I have something to brighten my day.

So I spent a good bit of time on Tuesday working out the financial details on the new roof for the house. Then I found out yesterday that my roofer pretty much works on a shoestring, and can’t order the materials until my deposit check actually clears. It’s not enough that I gave it to him and it will clear, but the money actually needs to be in his account—he doesn’t have the money to pay for the materials until my check clears and his supplier demands COD from him… no credit, either. Now, it’s not like my check won’t clear, but I’ve just moved, and my bank is not local, so it’s not like the money will be in his account today (I gave him the check yesterday). Long story short, we’re going to have to wait probably one more week to get this work going. Instead of showing up to do my roof on Wednesday the 25th, it’ll probably be more like Wednesday the 1st. Getting closer to my insurance-company-imposed deadline, but still okay, I hope—I have until the 13th (45 days from June 29th).

In other news, I’ve got my first meeting at the new job this afternoon at 1. I’m meeting with the First Year Experience folks (FYE) to discuss integration between the FYE course and the Rhetoric course. This is a good thing, and makes a lot of sense, because FYE and Rhetoric I are already paired sections: if you’re in this FYE section, you’ll be in this Rhetoric I; the same 22 students are in both sections together. So it really makes a lot of sense to integrate them. On the other hand, I’m going into this meeting pretty much blind. I don’t know how integrated they already are, and—with the exception of the Rhetoric sections I’m actually teaching—it’s probably too late to do much about further integration for this year. The other thing that has me a little bit apprehensive is that when a course that “all content”, like FYE, is paired with a course like the Rhetoric sequence, the thought is usually that the Rhetoric course is all skills with no content, and thus in need of content, like the stuff FYE does. I fought that notion for three years at Capital, so maybe I’m just a bit jumpy, and I’m trying to go in with an open mind. Really I am.

See, whether it’s composition or speech or both (both at Lees-McRae) a rhetoric/writing/communication course draws on a body of content knowledge that has a history longer than most things we think of as “content-heavy” disciplines. Rhetoric is as old as mathematics, as old a philosophy, as old as music. Having been practiced, studied, and taught in the Western Tradition since about 500 BC, Rhetoric is much older as an academic discipline than Engineering (being generous, since about 100 BC), Literature (since about 1750), or psychology (since about 1880). The serious study of how we make meaning and persuade others has been part of education since (at least) Gorgias, Protagoras, Isocrates, and the other “Elder Sophists” (see, their theoretical perspective was even named, like Freudian or Jungian psychology) set up shop teaching Athenian citizens to make their points more clearly and more persuasively.

The confusion sets in, I think, because when we’re doing this—communicating or persuading others—we’re doing it about something else. We make a point about psychology or literature, and the subject matter of the product becomes confused with the content of the discipline. If we’re not writing/speaking/communicating about the content of the discipline, the discipline must, then, have no content; it must, then be the skills involved in writing/speaking/communicating. This more than anything, I believe, is leading many of my disciplinary colleague to move their writing courses, even their first-year courses, to an “Introduction to Writing Studies” model. Which may not be a bad idea. It certainly hasn’t been my style up to now, but maybe if students are looking at what rhetoric has meant through the years, how it has been practiced and what it’s major figures have had to say about it, we could duck some of these “content/skill” questions. Maybe.

So, anyway, I’m trying to go in with an open mind. Hopefully, I’m worried about all of this for nothing!

Yesterday was a very good day for me, financially speaking.

The truck, in fact, did not turn out to be a money pit. I got what was wrong with it fixed and the oil changed for about 8 bucks more than the lowest estimate they gave me. Call it an oil change for 8 bucks. I learned that I will need to have the brake rotors replaced the next time I need pads, but that probably won’t be until after the first of the year, and as these are probably the original rotors—8 years old, 112,000 miles—I’m not too worried about that.

Also, while I’ll spare all the grisly details, I got the money for the roof figured out, too, and in a way that is working out better for me than I would have imagined possible.

So in terms of money, not a bad day all around. It’s like all the little Tetris blocks just came in the right order and fit together perfectly. At least in terms of money.

It’s been an ugly few days for those at the top of the American league—which sorta proves my point…. The Indians lost 2 of 3 to the White Sox, the BoSox have lost 2 in a row and the Angels 3. The Tigers, though, are on a tear. But the top five teams in the AL are still better than the NL leading Dodgers.

1. Detroit 56-36, 0 GB
2. Boston 56-38, 1 GB
3. LA Angels 55-38, 1.5 GB
4. Cleveland 55-39, 2 GB
5. Seattle 53-39, 3 GB
6. LA Dodgers, 54-41, 3.5 GB

And the Tribe still leads the AL wildcard by 1 game over Seattle. AL wildcard race:

1. Cleveland 55-39, 0 GB
2. Seattle 53-39, 1 GB
3. NY Yankees, 48-44, 6 GB
3. Minnesota 49-45, 6 GB
5. Toronto 45-49, 10 GB
6. Oakland 45-50, 10.5 GB

And the Mariners are nearly as close in their division as they are in WC race (1.5 behind the Angels). And only four of those five teams within three games of each other can make the playoffs, with something like 68 games left to play. On their current paces, the Tigers will win 98 games and the Mariner’s 93, with the BoSox, the Angels, and the Tribe in the middle. If no one falls apart, at least one 90+ win team in the AL will stay home in October. And that’s just sad.

It’s tight at the top!