Living in the Past

I've been living in the past lately. Given my recent off-the-charts busyness, it's been hard not to think this thought, what was I doing this time last year? This morning, I actually looked back on my electronic calendar to this week in 2011, and I was right at the start of one of my fun new things for that year: a trip to Phoenix with my brother and sister-in-law.

Tom and Kathy are retired, and they love to travel. They have a time share in Phoenix where they vacation each year, and last year they invited me to join them for a week. The timing was perfect given my sabbatical, so off I went. That trip gave me my first look at desert landscapes; more importantly, it was the first time on my sabbatical that I let myself slow down a little. Since I'm currently new thingless, I thought I'd reminisce a little by posting some pictures from one year ago today.













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Chicken McKnee Joints

My orthopedist wants to inject rooster combs into my knee. That's right: he tells me I'm a good candidate for "chicken shots." I have arthritis and a couple of other chronic knee problems that he swears this will help: in fact, he tells me he gets them himself. He explained that good, healthy knees joints have have a fluid that acts as a kind of shock absorber and lubricant, so that the joint operates smoothly. Over time, and with arthritis, this fluid does't work so well. I'm not sure I have that entirely right, but I guess it's close enough. So, some scientist somewhere came up with the idea of using liquified rooster combs to do the job that your knees synovial fluid used to do before the arthritis set in. Who in the world thinks of this stuff? The relief is temporary, but my doctor says that a series of three shots should produce pain relief that lasts for several months. In fact, he says he has one patient who found relief for three years from one round of injections.

So I'm considering it. I see the irony of this entry coming just after one on veganism, but I'm mighty sick of knee pain. I'm going to hang out with my physical therapist for a bit longer to see if I can exercise my way out of this. If I can't, I'll let my cockadoodle-doctor give this crazy treatment a try.

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The Traveling Vegan

I did some new things this week, thanks to The Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy in Blacksburg, Virginia--and thanks to my friend, Angie, a vegan who took me on a brief vegan culinary tour of West Virginia and southwest Virginia. I'd never thought very much about how hard it must be for vegans traveling to find a meal. We set out for the conference on Wednesday afternoon, and by 7pm, we were nearing Charleston, WV. Thanks to my iPad and a website called Happy Cow, we finally tracked down a restaurant near the gold domed state capital that had some vegan items on the menu. Veggie burgers and fries: delicious.

In Blacksburg, we followed the recommendation of our friend and colleague, Debbie, and had lunch and breakfast at a fabulous place called Gillie's. http://www.blacksburg.net/gbhome/index.html
I have to be honest--I ate vegetarian, not vegan. I can't seem to let go of cheese, so veganism is not likely in my future. For lunch on Thursday, I had a cup of the most amazing tomato parsnip soup--spicy and rich--and a tempeh and cheese quesadilla. So good. The next morning, I had this stupendous breakfast: a plate of potatoes covered with scrambled eggs and cheese and a biscuit the size of my head. Nobody said vegetarian means low calorie, I guess. Oh, on Thursday night, we had Indian, and I had a vegetarian combo platter that was full of mysterious and delicious things. Finally, on our drive out of Blacksburg, we stopped at a chocolate shop that sells vegan chocolate. The place is called The Chocolate Spike, and it sells non-vegan chocolate, too. I got a piece of dark chocolate bark with some kind of toffee and sea salt in it. Divine. I had no idea that crunchy salt complimented chocolate so well.

Our final food stop was in Huntington, WV last night, and it was more difficult. After searching for a vegan friendly place, we went to The Pita Pit. Let me say that the girls behind the counter were intent on finding something to feed Angie. They brought out a tub of hummus so she could read the ingredients, then a box of black bean burgers so she could do the same. When she chose the latter, they offered to scrub down the grill to fry the burger without risk of meat residue, and then they made her a nice bed of greens for the burger, since the bread wasn't vegan. The food wasn't the best, but the people were wonderful. High marks for Huntington!

On a non-food related note, the conference was good and our presentation went well. Clearly, though, I was way more interested in eating. That, ladies and gentlemen, is most definitely not a new thing.


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Winter Funk and Audio

My professor friends might agree with me on this: the winter quarter blues are tough. Students can become sluggish, and I think that we can get that way, too. I'm on my third straight week without a day off now, and I'm sluggish and cranky. I'm really looking forward to getting some work done this weekend, though. I know that once I plow through about 45 student papers, I will feel much better.

Since about 1990, I've used audio feedback on student writing: I make MP3 files for each of them where I talk them through the strengths and weaknesses in their writing. It works well, and the best part on a day like today is that if is energizing for me. Writing comments on a pile of papers drives me straight to chocolate or Facebook or, worse yet, the couch. Audio is active: I imagine the student listening to me, so I have a little one-sided conversation with him or her, and that keeps me on task.

Having said that, I must admit that I'm still sitting here in my PJs. No matter what grading method you use, there's still the problem of getting started. For that, I'll rely on deadline pressure, just like my students do. I've promised them audio this weekend, so off I go!


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