Bearshorty's musings

First a meme taken from pretty much everyone:

( 2016 Meme )

Today is the first day of the new semester for me, so I'm at work. My Dad dropped off my Mom very early (6:20am) and drove me to work. He will pick me up at 5 today. I already printed everything I needed to print from Syllabi to first day Writing Samples to my rosters, so now I just have time to kill. My classes are from 1:40 to 4:40 this semester (an hour 20 minutes for each class) and I technically have office hours from 12:30 to 1:30. So I'm now I'm just catching up on books and emails and blogs and commenting.

Before the offices opened and I could print and use a computer, I was looking forward to sitting on the new comfy couches close to the offices. But they replaced them with these modern looking armchairs, which are not nearly as comfortable! Sometimes, new things are not better.

I also wrote an official "intent to move" letter to our apartment's management company. They have no problem in our breaking our lease, as long as they get 30 days notice. They won't have any issues renting the place and for a higher rent pretty quickly. So we will officially move on February 28. Renovations are going well so far, and they should be done by mid February hopefully. As long as they are done enough for us to move our furniture, that should be fine. I definitely don't want to be paying double rent after February.

I watched the first episode of "Victoria" on Monday, which I really enjoyed. This is not a surpise as I generally like historical dramas and English TV series. And while I was neurtal on Jenna Colman on Doctor Who, I do like her in this role. And yesterday, I brought myself to watch the final episode of "Sherlock" for Season 4. I was a bit bored with it and a lot of the plot didn't make sense. I wish they just had a normal mystery and not a convoluted conspiracy/family soap opera drama. I did like where it all ended and I'm happy if it is the end of the show. If it's not, I hope they get back to fun mysteries again.

Something I want to write down so I don't forget later: this last week, Tanya started playing by pretending to be a character and assigning us roles. She is Cookie Monster, Bear is Elmo (somethimes its vice versa) and I'm the Cat in the Hat. It's pretty cute and an interesting stage in her play development.

We finally have the date for the closing for the apartment we are buying! November 10. Finally.

I got so tired and frustrated with the paperwork. We had a mortgage commitment but it felt like we were applying all over again. It was one thing after another. At one point, after the bank did a lien search, our mortgage broker tells us that Bear has judgment liens and he must pay it by closing. Which sent me in the confusion because, no he doesn't. I know his financial history and I've seen both our credit reports. I get the broker to send us the liens and, of course, they just searched for Bear's fairly common name in Brooklyn and found three guys at the addresses he never lived in and two bankruptcies of the guys with the same general name but with a different middle name and social security numbers. So obviously not Bear. But we had to prove it was not Bear. After back and forth with the broker and the lawyer the solution was for Bear to write a letter to this effect and notarize it. Just so much useless paperwork. I'm very glad it is almost done.

I haven't been feeling well lately, especially in the evenings, (I know why and it's a problem that will solve itself hopefully by the end of the semester) but that means I try to go to sleep when Tanya does and I'm usually in bed by 9. I don't have too much time or inclination to write or post, although I read all the entries, usually around 5am. Forgive me for the lack of entries for the next month. I will try. Early morning is great to catch up on TV.

I finished Season 2 of Flash, which I enjoyed and managed to catch up to current episodes of Season 3. I don't know if I will like watching the season in real time, I tend to prefer a whole complete season, but I will give it a shot. I don't know if I like the new timeline idea yet but we'll see. It might grow on me.

I finished "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr today. It was really hard not to cry for the last 60 pages. He weaves all the narratives together so well and his prose is just so beautiful. I really enjoyed this book. I loved the two protagonists and I felt all the characters were fairly complex, even the villain. I'm glad I picked it to give to my Dad last year for his birthday.

Today was a regular day for the most part. Bear was at work. We did playground. I cooked fish and broccoli and some hard boiled eggs.

But in the evening we went (finally!) to our board interview for the co-op apartment we are buying. Bear came home from work early, we had an early dinner and then we drove over there. It was half an hour long, only two people. Mostly we got the work questions and various discussion of extra fees that come up in a co-op. Everything went well. So now in couple of weeks we can have closing. Then it will be renovation time. I'm just finally glad the process is coming to an end, although the prospect of moving and mortgage is a little overwhelming.

Book Meme
4. Ereaders versus physical books is such a false dichotomy. Instead, tell me what other formats (phone apps, tumblr fiction, twitter haikus) you read in

The only thing I read on my phone and/or my computer is fanfiction. I mostly read on AO3. For books it's either a Kindle or a physical book. Kindle is more convenient for me, whether for commute or when I have to read quietly during Tanya's nap or bedtime (under my covers with a flash light). I also absolutely love using the library to borrow Kindle books - If I want a book, I can often get it in two minutes. And my Dad can get me a lot of books from whatever online resources he uses. It's convenient! And lately, I don't have physical space for books. I wish I could have one of those big house with a whole library room. That would be heaven.

Thursday was my first day of classes. Since I'm staying at my parents' this week, my Dad drove me to work on his way to work. We had to leave early so I was there by 7am. The offices don't usually open until 8:30am but there are comfortable couches on the second floor by the offices, so I sat there, ate my bagel with cream cheese, drank my tea, and read my book. Grace, one of the secretaries, actually came in early by 8am, so she opened all the offices and, most importantly the printer/copier room. And since it was the first day of class for me, there was a lot of printing (which is one of the reasons Grace came early - there is usually lots of teachers who need to print a lot. I was first and got it all done fast.)

After printing and photocopying everything I needed - syllabi, my semester class breakdown schedule, first day writing sample, reading guide, reading homework for Monday - I also printed two potential essays to choose from to teach as the second essay in a few weeks. Our textbook is being updated next year and the department wants us to pilot a few readings to see how they work and what readings to keep in the old textbook, since after essay 2 the students need to connect two different essays.

The theme of the first half of the semester (first 3 readings) is activism. I'm starting with the intro to Kristof and WuDunn's book Half the Sky about how essential it is to help women all over the world and how that help will elevate not just women but the countries and whole of society. There are a lot of heartbreaking and inspiring stories of women in this book. I love that book; I read it in 2009, and I've taught this intro before. I usually try to introduce the concept of "agency" to my students with this essay. And for the 3rd essay I'm teaching Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted". . He raises concerns with the long term impact of social media "weak tie" activism and questions the ability of this kind of activism to actually change policy. It's a great article to argue with and will lead to second half of the semester about the impact of social media and tech on individuals and the impact of the new communication style.

What I needed is the bridge between these two essay. I was torn between the intro from We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian author, and
"The Matter of Black Lives" by Jelani Cobb, New Yorker from March 14, 2016. So I printed both essays and read them before my classes started at 10:20. And "The Matter of Black Lives" is the clear winner for my sequence. It concerns itself with US activism, social media activism and its impact, and about marginalized groups, which would fit really well with both Kristof and WuDunn and with Gladwell and will build with each essay assignment. And for me it was an educational article since it tries to organize how the movement grew and to give it context. I felt hesitant about teaching this before since I feel like I've only known enough about Black Lives Matter from the periphery and the internet but not the essential things about it. But this essay is good for that and I like the idea of giving my 18 years olds some background too so they can follow the news. I felt like I learned a lot just by reading it. And I'm still thinking about the questions it raised. The feminist essay is good too, but it feels a little too basic to me (I did study women and gender history at a graduate level at one of the best universities in the world for women and gender, so this is probably just my bias, and my students would find good ideas there, but I also want to challenge them a little more).

It felt really good to read though, to read deeply, to take notes while reading, like I was clearing cobwebs from my brain. After being home all summer with my toddler, my brain certainly needed it. I'm read many fiction books but I really needed to get back into work mode.

Classes themselves went well. It was 20 minutes of intro, going over the syllabus pretty much, and then the students had to write a writing sample for me for an hour. So easy day. During the first class I actually worked on my fanfic story for RS Games. I printed what I had so far from Google docs and wrote about Remus and Sirius in longhand. I wrote two full big pages and I felt so incredibly productive. It's due in two weeks so I really need to just finish it. I have the bones, I just need to write it. But it was flowing well, I know where I want it to go and the characters are almost writing themselves, so it's just the matter of finding the time. And during my second class I read the writing samples from the first class. I found two students who had very weak samples, so I brought those over to the director as they should be moved to a section with extra reading help.

My classes were done at 1:20 but I had to wait until 5 for my Dad to pick me up. I tried career center as they were having a workshop at 3 but as I thought it was full. So I decided to go get my school ID updated. It was very, very hot and the school buses between different campuses were very full so it was a bit of the wait. The faculty HR office where they do IDs is a the furthest possible location, so it took a while to get there for about 2 minutes of "here sit for a pic, here is your id". But I got it done and most of the rest of the writing samples so I don't have to think about it anymore.

Yesterday, was very very hot again, but Tanya and I went to the playground in the morning anyway. She being very 2 lately with a lot of not listening and complaining. I think it is a little worse because I went to work. She's definitely having a little more trouble falling asleep. She is staying with my parents tonight while I go back to Brooklyn for Yeva's birthday party at the Russian restaurant. Bear is good with bedtime routine but not actual going to sleep part - she usually wants me or my Mom for that. So we figured she should stay here and my parents would drive her back in the morning. I'm not looking forward to leaving her overnight - I only done it a few times before, and only once when we were not on vacation in Florida with her just a couple of rooms away - I know I'm going to be worried and will miss her a lot. And I'm just not looking forward to this party. But I have to go since there was a whole drama about it.

We still didn't get the Recognition Agreement. I keep calling the mortgage broker, he keeps blaming the bank's attorneys - it is really frustrating at this point. Fingers crossed that this would finally resolve itself next week and we can submit it all to the board.

It's Labor Day weekend(3 day weekend) and I'm spending about 7 hours at home before traveling again. Tanya and I went to my parents this past week and just got back at 9am. And around 4pm, Bear, Tanya and I will travel to his parents' house in Long Island to stay until Monday. And then Tuesday morning, Tanya and I will go back to my parents for one more week. I just have to keep careful track of packing and what goes where.

My first day of teaching is this coming Thursday, September 8. But this past Thursday, September 1, I had my teacher orientation. It was just an hour and a half to catch up on new policies and anything new, and to get back into the teaching mindset. So I feel school has already started (and my first ever day of school was Sept 1, 1986 when I went to 1st grade - the first year Soviet school started taking students at 6 years old. I can't believe it was 30 years ago). On the morning of Sept 1, I worked on my syllabi, figured out the schedule (on Thanksgiving week, due to schedule changes I will have to teach Monday and Tuesday, but I didn't want my students to write a draft in a day, so I shifted things around), picked my reading sequences, picked my first day writing sample for the students to do, and set up the class internet site. And since then I re-read the first reading and my brain is now trying to come up with a new assignment question. It's quite nice to reorient my brain back to teaching - I do love my job very much and I'm looking forward to meeting my students on Thursday. I also like teaching Basic Composition and Fall semester in general. It's a little less work too, with no mandatory comments of drafts 1 and 4 and with first two papers only 4 pages long.

The other thing I've been dealing with is the board application for the co-op apartment we are buying. The mortgage commitment finally came through last week, after a very long time, because the bank was taking its sweet time to investigate the building. When that came through I just had to get bank checks and the last documents regarding the bank commitment for the board application (the rest of the board application was ready a month ago). But then the mortgage broker and the attorney were giving me the run-around about the Recognition Agreement, one of the documents. The attorney' secretary told me after a day that they never give that original document until the board interview and to apply without it, even though I told her it was on the list of required doc. She was all, "well, you are buying for the first time, and they do this a lot, and they know better." I got together with my apartment broker, got her all the rest of the documents and checks, and the broker turned it in. Of course, on Tuesday, we got an email that we did need that document in addition to a few others relating to an estate sale (although the attorney's office told me it was not an estate sale since the daughter who is selling is a joint owner). And I needed to pay more fees since apparently the board application was outdated and there had to be more fees (apparently it was updated May 2015, and yet we got the application from their website just this summer). Anyway, this time mortgage broker did speak to the bank's attorneys, and next Tuesday we should finally get the Recognition Agreement. And I got more bank checks and all the other documents they asked for from the attorney. I just was to get this done. It's annoying. It's just taking forever.

In more fun things, I finished "Stranger Things", which I really enjoyed. I'm glad there will be a second season. And I'm really liking "Ancillary Justice" - I'm about half way through. Grimm announced that the next season is the last - 13 episodes, and I'm ok with that. I think the show ran its course but it's good that they know it's the last season and can wrap everything up. I just want Monroe and Rosalee super happy at the end.