Finding Myself Corrected...and Quite Grateful

I have to be really honest in this post, so bear with me...

When I first realized that we had to create a blog for this course, I was not in the least bit thrilled. I've always kept a distance from things like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, blogging and even emailing. Maybe it's the old fashioned side of me that believes if we lived without it for thousands of years, then there's no real need for it today! It was actually funny when my students found out that I have to keep a blog for this course, especially because I'm always yelling ( in a joking tone) that "the Internet is the plague!" (Although they know I'm exaggerating when I say this, they also realize that part of me means it!). As some of you may have noticed, a few of my followers are not fellow classmates, but my students who were determined to find this thing of mine, floating around cyberspace! (I still don't totally know how they found it, but they did!)

But now that we've been required to post and respond for the past several weeks, I'm finding that (a) it's not as bad as I had thought, and (b) it's actually incredibly informative. Not only have I been able to get to know my UNE classmates for the first time, through pictures, personal confessions and stories, but I've also found this a cathartic experience. I've had the opportunity to share things about myself that I normally wouldn't share in any online (or live) classroom setting, and I've also been able to gain feedback and encouragement through the response from peers. Moreover, (I can't believe I've gotten to this point) I have found and joined other people's blogs (besides our UNE ones) that pertain to some of my interests. For example, this morning I was doing a bit of online research for rug hooking sites, and one of the URL addresses that popped up was a blog. Prior to this course, I would have totally avoided such a site, but now that I know what a blog is and how are helpful and informative one can be, I went to this particular blog and found some of the greatest information on rug hooking thus far! And once on this blog, I found links and other related blogs that proved to be helpful as well. What a great community building device.

So for all my previous bashing and "poo-poo"ing of all things Internet, I stand corrected and truly grateful for an experience that has benefited me in so many ways!

Beyond Reading and Writing

I think it's probably obvious that I spend a lot of my free time either reading or writing, whether for school or pleasure. However, I do have other pastimes! From the time a was a young girl, my grandmother said I have an "old soul", as I am attracted to more "mature" (this might be a nice way of putting it!) hobbies that most people my age would never consider fun. I picked up knitting and crocheting at 7 or 8, started a really intense cottage garden at my parents' house when I was 10, began tatting (or old fashioned lace-making) when I was 13, calligraphy at 15, and "sampling" at 18.
My husband has always joked that I'm a 60-year old trapped in a 26-year old body (or whatever age I am on that particular day!). Many of these hobbies I still have, especially gardening, now that I have my own house, but I've just picked up a new one as of yesterday- rug hooking. This is not the plastic back panel that you weave little pieces of brightly colored yarn through to form a cheesy portrait of a lion or a still life scene (any girl my age or older will know what I'm talking about!). Real rug hooking is a very interesting hobby that is far more prevalent that I realized. There are local clubs and regional competitions across the nation, and there are craft stores (mostly online) that specialize in selling rug hooking equipment, supplies and patterns. My dad and I are actually in the process of drwing up plans to build me my own Puritan style hooking frame, as I don't want to have to custom order one. My husband is so funny though, as he seems to have immediate financial headaches every time I tell him that I want to start a new hobby. He always asks, "And how much is this going to cost me?" (He's definitely the practical saver between the two of us!) But the nice part of this hobby is that it can be as cheap or expensive of a hobby as you'd like...or so I'm told! I guess we'll just have to see about that.
Love picking up something new- keeps life interesting!

Poem for Week 8

I wrote this poem a few Saturdays ago; hesitated to share, but think that I would like to workshop it for the Week 8 final piece. Bit of background... While I was drinking my coffee and reading Mary Oliver's New & Selected Poems Volume 2 on a bright spring morning, I heard the familiar sound of my husband shouting at our dog to "leave it." I immediately knew what Ollie had gotten a hold of- one of my husband's dirty socks. For the past 3 years, Ollie has formed an obsessive behavior of literally digging in my husband's laundry bin for the stinkiest, dirtiest socks he can find, and then he parades them around the house. We have the worst time catching him, and he has ruined dozens of socks in just the past year. It's so bad that we've got our trainer working with him on it! (Ridiculous, I know!) Anyways, I wrote this poem in response to the match that was beginning upstairs that day, and I allude to a poem- "Jabberwocky", by Lewis Carroll- that I happened to be teaching that week. Hope you enjoy and please feel free to rip it apart so I can make improvements for Week 8! Thank you!

(Thought I'd include a video clip of Ollie as a puppy to test out a new aspect of blogging!)

Socks

"Leave it!" he scolds-

the fraudulent stern master.

My lips tighten,

cannot expose the grin creeping in.

But I'm rooting for Ollie,

"Get it!"

"Get it!"

He dares to snatch,

grippens tightly,

bounds away,

delivers it to me with a heroic

whipping of the prize,

back and forth

in his proud muzzle.

Then I remember-

he's like the boy from Carroll's piece

[What's his name?

Are we ever told?]

who bravely defeats the

Jabberwock.

So I'll cheer him

on at his domestic victory,

"Callooh! Callay!"

And remind our own homely

monster- scruffed chin,

twisted pajama man- that

one

day

our brave, curious boy

will cease

to be

obnoxious by stealing socks

from loaded laundry bins.

And on the sterile, white, hard

table, one day,

we'll grip his white paws, smooth

the thinning, grey hairs about his mouth and

wish for bander-snatching days.

And then we'll both gird him

with the courage required

for his next feat

into the tovey woods,

so unknown to us.