Thoughts for Thursday: 5 Things Keeping Me Sane

 1. Walks

I try to go for a walk in the park every weekday morning, before I start work. I found that unless I get myself out of the door right after breakfast (and before I log into my work computer), I just loose track of time and it neve happens. I just stay at my desk all day long, barely moving.

Work has been busy, so some mornings, it is very tempting to "get a head start" on things, because there is a never-ending list of tasks that I must get through (posters, papers, projects to review from other writers, meetings, meeting notes to send out... ). That's what I did on Monday - I had a couple of projects that I wanted to finish up that day, so I figured, I'd start early, get things done while my brain is still fresh, and then go for a walk during lunch break or in the afternoon... Guess what happenned? I never went for that walk. And I didn't manage to finish the projects - I had a hard time focusing, and kept getting interrupted, and my head was just not in the right place (brain not braining, I believe some would say).

So... the moral of the story... I should just get out and go on that pre-work walk! Even if it means starting work at 9 instead of first-thing-in-the-morning (which ended up being 8:45, anyway, because somehow I end up doing dishes, or get distracted by the news, or just wonder around in circles...)

2. Tea. 

My husband stopped drinking coffee last spring, so he stopped making coffee. I don't love coffee enough to make my own. I'll drink it if someone else makes it - and I enjoy it - but I don't miss it. I do love having a warm mug of flavorful tea, especially now that the weather is starting to get cool. I've been alternating black and green loose-leaf tea. And, occasionally, chai tea or some berry flavor that my kids like. I should try some new teas. Recommendations?

3. PBS

Their shows are well-made and don't stress me out. I watched the first episode of Marble Hall Murders, but I'm going to save the rest of it for later... I didn't love that last book as much as the first two, but I have a feeling I'm going to have a blast watching this season. 

NOVA documentaries are great. I should probably try some of their historic documentaries, too. 

4. Free lectures on youtube. 

I've been watching MIT lectures on immunology. I haven't taken an immunology class since 1999. I remember some stuff, especially on innate immunity, because I did some work on monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells when I was in grad school. I also did a bit of cell staining and flow cytometry... But I remember almost nothing on adaptive immunity, T cells, B cells... I'm doing quite a bit of writing on mRNA-based therapies, including cancer immunotherapies, and the field of immunoogy has developed so much in the recent decades. I need to go back to the basics before I can hope to understand the background and methodologies I need for writing papers.

5. Community

I was sitting in my synagogue on Yom Kippur, and I kept thinking - I need more of this. I don't necessary need to actively participate, but I do need this spiritual component to keep me grounded and provide nourishment for the parts of me that usually get ignored. Concerts do the same thing for me - they feed my soul and make me feel like part of something. 

Dear Reader: what's keeping you sane these days?

Weekend Report

Friday

• Celebrated our 21 anniversary (went out for a nice meal, just my husband and I)
• E was having dinner with cross-country friends
• The girls were fending for themselves
• Started watching Stranger Things season 5

Saturday:

• Cleaned the kitchen (including scrubbing the oven! so proud of myself!)
• Piles, piles, and piles of laundry
• Watched random documentaries while folding laundry (there was one on cistic fibrosis - very interesting)
• Watched the whole first season of The Marlow Murder Club
• C's soccer was cancelled because of rain/wind
• Cooked summer squash soup
• Probably did some other chores/errands, but can't remember now
• Watched more Stranger Things with kids

Sunday:

• Took H to Hebrew School
• Did laundry and random tasks around the house
• Went to celebrate Sukkot in the Sukkah at Hebrew School (except the lunch had to be inside instead of in the sukkah because of rain and wind...) - chatted with some friends
• Back home to change and do a few more errands
• Went to see Philly Chamber Orchestra: Mozart 40th Symphony, JC Bach Symphony in G minor, and Schubert. It was wonderful. E was bummed he couldn't come (he was working), H did not want to go, my dad did not want to go, but the rest of us really ejoyed it. C brought a friend. 
• In the middle of the concert, the conductor talked about the program and why he chose these specific pieces, and brought up some parallels in the music and how Mozart was influenced by JC Bach (they hung out!!!) and then Schubert was influenced by Mozart. He specifically mentioned the use of half-steps and chromatic scales by the composers, and I nearly fell out of my chair. I asked C about it later and she rolled her eyes - "He sounds just like David!" (David is her cello teacher and he's been working wiht Claire on chromatic scales and - yes- half-steps.)
• We got home kind of late, and made supper, and talked. 

Dear Reader: how was your weekend? Do you have any exciting concerts or performances coming up that you are looking forward to?

Really loving right now:

The Marble Ball Murders on PBS

Random documentaries

Free MIT lectures on immunology

Thoughts for Thursday

 

***

The girls and I started watching Marble Hall Murders on PBS. I love this show so much. I told C that I want to be Susan Ryeland when I grow up. C said I was already a grown up (and looked disapprovingly at me).

I just hope that I will, at some point, sprout a greater sense of adventure and a better sense of style.

***

I have not been reading any fiction books for some weeks. I'm finishing up "Shocking Paris: Soutine, Chagall, and the outsiders of Montparnasse" by Stanley Meisler. I happenned upon Soutine when I was at Barnes, and wanted to learn more about him. It is good to have historical context for the artists and their work. I rarely enjoy biographies, but this was not exactly a biography - more of an overview of that time, both in terms of the art scene and political landscape.

***

On one hand, there is so much information out there: books, free lectures available on youtube, documentaries... the opportunites to learn are endless. On the other hand... there is so much information that it becomes useless because you have to spend so much time sifting through it all to find something good.

***

I'd love to find something about Alfred Schnittke (he composed some truly haunting music.. and he wrote scores for movies and animation films that were so good, Hollywood directors would be crying in a corner if they knew of him). I don't think I want a traditional biography. Maybe I can find a lecture...

***

If you had 2-3 hours this weekend, what would you want to learn about?

Weekend Report: Big Birthday and Yom Kippur

Time is such a scarcity right now. I constantly have to choose: do I spend time working? Or should I cook? Clean? Read The Three Muskeeteers with my youngest? Go for a walk? Talk to my oldest about his plans for college applications? Take my middle kid shopping? How about read for fun? Or spend time with my husband? Go visit my parents? Take care of the garden? Go to one of the kids' meets? Help them practice music? I feel like I only have enough time to do a tenth of thing things I need and want to do.

I feel pulled into a hundred different directions all at once. Every day. 

I am constantly catching up on things, only to fall behind on something else. I feel stressed, I get angry, I snap at the kids...

Most of the weekend was spent cleaning, cooking, food-shopping... I read a little bit and worked for a couple of hours. The girls and I watched movies in the evening. I reorganized a couple of kitchen cabinets, managed to go on a couple of walks, and watched a documentary on cistic fibrosis and another documentary on black holes. C had an orchestra retreat. H had a dive practice and a babysitting job. E was out of town.

E turned 18. He was away for his actual birthday (school adventure club camping trip) - so we celebrated a day late. I made his favorite carrot cake. My parents came over and we had an early dinner. E was exhausted and could barely stay awake. We'll hopefully do a more "official" party a bit later, with cousins and friends... 

On Monday, I took a day off. I went to the Yom Kippur morning services, and I just sat there and let my brain do what it wanted. Which was - nothing. I felt so much better after . I have a complicated relationship with religion, but I like being part of the community, and I love the traditional melodies (our synagogue likes to "switch things up" and use more contemporary melodies for some of the prayers, which aggravates me... but Yom Kippur is mostly all traditional and therefore familiar). 

How do you organize your time on weekends? If you like to have unsctructured "down" time, how do you end up spending it? 

Meet the Teachers

I missed last year's Back-to-Shool event for C because of a conflict with other activities. She wouldn't let me hear the end of it. Didn't I want to meet her teachers? Didn't I care? Was she less important than he oder siblings?

I made sure to go to C's 7th grade Back-to-School Night this year. I also attended the athletics info session. There were no earth-shattering revelations, but I'm glad I went. It was good to have a refresh on the sports stuff. It was definitely nice to see the teachers. There were a few teachers I knew from the previous years - the big kids had the same French and STEM teachers and loved them, H had the same science teacher, and E had the same orchestra teacher. It was interesting to meet the Math, Social Studies and English teachers, after hearing C talk about them ("Math teacher is so hyper!" "English teacher is weird"). I liked the English teacher (he said they were going to read Poe!!!). C's Orchestra, French, and STEM teachers are excellent. Math teacher has math background from college (it's always good when the person teaching the subject actually likes the subject!). 

For math, our district got rid of accelerated levels for elementary and early middle school. In 8th grade, there still is an option of maybe pacing into Algebra I instead of Pre-algebra, but I've been told the requirements are more difficult than before.  The older 2 kids did accelerated math starting in 3rd grade, and were automatically placed in Pre-algebra in 7th and Algebra in 8th. There even used to be an option for more advanced kids to take both algebra and geometry in middle school! Why our school is trying to hold kids back from algebra until high school - I have no idea. C was bored to tears in math last year. She said her 5th grade teacher (who loved math) taught them more and gave them more challenging problems than what she saw in 6th grade. I'm really hoping this year will be better.

Anyway... we shall see.

Overall, I like the school and the teachers. It was nice to see a few friends, too, whose kids go to the same school.

Do you remember your favorite teacher in middle school, around grades 6-8? 

Labor Weekend Report Plus Fall Activities Recap

We had a couple of beautiful days here - the humidity has dropped and the temperature was comfortable. I didn't quite get outside as much as I wanted to, because I had some work things to finish up, my dad's 80th birthday to get ready for, and random household tasks to take care of.

Saturday: E had a cross-country meet that was an hour away. Jim and I decided to attend, because this is E's senior year and only so many races left that we'll be able to cheer him on... Girls decided to spend that time at a mall, shopping for dresses (H got a dress for Homecoming dance). The rest of the day, I worked on work and dad's slide show for his birthday, kids did homework and chores, E worked on his college applications. We watched a couple of episodes of Stranger Things.

Sunday: We went to the pool for a couple of hours, where I thought I would read, but ended up just hanging out in the water with husban and kids. C's friend came over. I worked some more. Husband and E made a delicious dinner. 

Monday: we went over to my parents' place, had cake, watched dad's birthday slide show (kids and I worked on it for weeks, so glad he liked it!). 

I spent weeks (months?) agonizing and trying to figure out what to do for dad's birthday. I wanted it to be special, memorable, with good food, not too stressful, and something that he would enjoy. In the end, we did what he wanted - he wanted to go to his favorite park. We had a beautiful walk, stopped by a mini-zoo, talked. It was so, so nice. And then we went to a steakhouse that my parents already scouted out a week earlier and that my dad really liked. It was perfect. He knew exactly what he wanted, and it was great. (One time, when we took my parents to a restaurant for some kebabs, my dad complained about his meat in a very heavy Russian accent: this cow is very old!)

Note to self - for people's birthday celebrations, don't try to surprise them with something new - do what they want! It works out much better (at least with my parents).

Now we are almost back to our fall activities. Kids started school last week. We already had a back-to-school night for C (it was great to meet her teachers!). 

On top of school, E's cross-country and orchestra are in full swing. He also has a job at a running store.

H stopped piano lessons. E and C still take violin and cello lesson, respectively.

C auditioned and got into the junior county orchestra (aka, Young Musician Orchestra, or YMO). E is in the more advanced orchestra (DCYO) for older kids - he auditioned well last spring and now he is just a couple of chairs away from the concert master - he is pretty happy about that!

H was supposed to start dive training yesterday, but her coach cancelled the practice. She started her baby-sitting job (watching 2 kids for a family in the neighborhood once a week).

C is planning to join the middle school cross-country team (and we bought her new shoes at the store where E works, with a nice family discount! and it was fun to see E working and recommending her different running shoes)

Dear Reader - how is your fall going? Are you trying anythign new?

Paris Notes

Things we did in Paris, in no particular order. 

• Museum of music. See the octobass below. They also had a piano that Chopin played, Stradivarius violins, Guarneri cello, and a multitude of harpsichords. There was an audio guide provided at the entrance that could be used to listen to all the instruments.

• Sainte-Chapelle (so much stained glass!)
• Science museum (Neuroscience exhibit was great) 
• Opera house. Chagall ceiling was out of this world. Planning to come back there for a concert! Also, there was a library - how cool is that? 
• Notre Dame (the gargoyles all had different faces!)
• Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis (there were giant clam shells used for holy water, donated by Victor Hugo; plus, a hundreds-year-old graffiti "republic or death")
• Louvre 
• Musee de l'Armee (Napoleon's Tomb was... overwhelming. Also, Napoleon's horse was there. Maps of Borodin battle - I was on-site as a kid. Also, rabbits.)
• Jardin du Luxembourg (kids sailed toy sailboats in the fountain)
• Stravinsky Fountain (wild)
• The Defenders of Time clock (Le Defenseour du Temps)
• Musee D'Orsay 
  
• Eiffel Tower
• Pantheon 
• Montmartre (and Montmartre Cemetary)
• Marais neighborhood (we did a tour)

Food that we had in Paris and I want to try and make at home: galettes. I just need to find buckwheat flour.

I still need to sort through all the photos and videos on my camera...

How do you organize your travel photos?