Thanksbirthday

Every eleven years or so, my birthday falls on Thanksgiving. I've heard that people whose birthdays fall on or near Christmas often hate it because their birthday celebration is dwarfed by the excitement of the holiday, but that isn't the case with Thanksgiving. I always love it, probably because it feels a little like a big birthday party, complete with parades and a family reunion. This year was Thanksbirthday, so I headed north for the family celebration.

As I have for the last several years, I walked the Turkey trot 5K while my brother-in-law, nephew, and niece ran. My 54th Thanksgiving was a gorgeous, sunny day this year, so it was the perfect morning to be out at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pa.



And there were a ton of people out this year: over 4,000!


I've had some back problems this year, so I was nervous about my ability to walk the race. I know it's only a 5K, but I needed to feel a little competition to get me to the finish line. That's when I saw her: the woman to beat.



If she could do it, I could do it. Some guys on stilts did it, too.



I was a full four minutes slower than last year, but I made it, and so did my family. I don't know what became of the old lady. I left her in the dust.






We headed back to the house for my Thanksbirthday celebration. Except for my oldest brother, all of my siblings were there.



All 15 of us crammed in my sister's dining room.


There was even a birthday pie, baked by my sister Nancy!


And after dinner, a little musical entertainment.


At age 54, I certainly can't claim the birthdays are a new thing, but I can certainly claim that being 54 is. I'm thankful to have had such a fabulous celebration!

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One City, One Symphony

Saturday night was lovely. I went to One City, One Symphony, a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concert that "encourages our entire community to come together through music." Or so their PR campaign said. In the weeks preceding the concert, the CSO held free "listening parties" in which either a symphony musician or--if you were really lucky--the brand spanking new conductor himself--would introduce you to the two pieces that would be played at the concert and lead a discussion about the music. Cool idea, but I never made it to one of those, so that's the extent of my knowledge on that piece of the event. I can talk about the concert, though. A little warning first. I don't know a darned thing about music. True to form, though, that won't keep me from talking about it here.

First, the home of the CSO is the magnificent Music Hall, built in 1878. I love this building, but this was the very first time I was there that I didn't have the symphonic equivalent of nose bleed seats. My friend, Wanda, and I sat on the main floor. Here's a link to some lovely Music Hall photos: http://cincinnatiarts.org/musichall/photos

The highlight of the evening, of course, was the music. The CSO played two pieces without an intermission: Arnold Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw, Opus 46 and Ludwig Van Beethoven's Symphony Number 9 in D Minor, Opus 125, Choral. Wow! The Schoenberg piece is only seven minutes long, but, man, is it powerful. Schoenberg was a Jew who got out of Germany before the Holocaust. After the war, as stories of the horrors emerged, he was moved to write the the work about the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. Here's a link to the powerful lyrics to the choral portion of the work: http://www.lyrics59.com/ARNOLD-SCHOENBERG-A-SURVIVOR-FROM-WARSAW-LYRICS/70909/

The second work was Beethoven's 9th, also a stunner. This symphony was completed in 1824, and it includes the vey well known Ode to Joy, an interesting contrast to Schoenberg's work. The lyrics were written by Friedrich Von Schiller, and as the CSO says, "the sentiments of Schiller's lines may seem quaint to a world that has known Hitler and Stalin, that has seen Auschwitz, Bosnia and Rwanda, but Beethoven's interpretation of those words remains a beacon of hope." I'm just finishing up my Holocaust lit class, so I was especially moved by the night's program.

Of course, my favorite parts of things are frequently a little "off topic." I loved watching the new CSO conductor, a Frenchman named Louis Langree. He was in perpetual motion, as conductors are, but there was something about being so close to him that made his fluid movements mesmerizing. That man never needs to go to the gym, I can tell you that. His in-show aerobics are workout enough. Another part of the fun of going to an event like the symphony is to do some fancy (or dumpy) people watching. I saw women in furs and jewels and men in tee-shirts and jeans, so it was a mixed bag of interesting! Afterwards, Wanda and I headed to the Hilton Netherlands for a drink in their fancy Art Deco bar before heading home. It was a nice night--one that was way more cultured than my usual fare.

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Book Update

Quite a while back, I wrote a post about the book that my friend, Robin, and I are co-editing. The project was challenging and a ton of work, but it was also one of the most enjoyable scholarly projects of my academic career. I just loved working with Robin--and with the many authors who contributed to the book. Here we are on the day we signed the book contract a little less than a year ago.






It turns out that editing a book is WAY more work that I'd every anticipated. I had this idea that editing a volume is a little like throwing a house party. You announce the event, invite people to come, provide some drinks and snacks, and count on the partygoers to make the night fabulous. I forgot some things: sometimes guests say they're going to come and then stand you up or arrive late; sometimes they don't bring the things they promised they would; sometimes they show up in crummy moods and and seem determined to poop on your party; and no matter what, you always have to clean up their messes--and your own. Of course, there are fabulous party guest, too. They make the event feel effortless, and in that way, they save the day.

It turns out that our party of an edited volume was a wonderful mixed bag. Robin and I wrote or co-wrote several chapters ourselves, but neither of us had ever edited a book before, so this was brand new to both of us. We worked with a wonderful collection of writers, so that was great. We sent the finished manuscript to our publisher last spring. A couple of weeks ago, the production editor sent us the "redline changes," the things the copyeditor recommended we edit or add. We were thrilled to find that the changes were all really small things--that made our many, many hours of editing back in the spring feel like time well spent. On Thursday, we sent the edited manuscript back. We're told we'll get proofs in early December and that the book will come out in March. Last week, after several rejected versions, they sent us the final cover design! We're getting really close now. I'm guessing that the next time I mention this book on my blog will be the day it's published! Pretty exciting stuff in my little world.

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Blue Skies and Birthdays

I drove down to Kentucky yesterday to visit my friends, Dwight and Cindy. I hadn't seen them since summer, sometime just after our trip to Scandinavia, so it was time for a teeny road trip. Besides, Cindy and I have November birthdays, so we needed to celebrate. Well, celebrating might be overstating what we did yesterday, but it was a great outing--with a new thing twist.

Cindy and I wandered through a fabulous farmers market two block from their house. Even in early November, the place was hopping. Vendors still had plenty of fall veggies: winter squash, turnips, kale, and other greens. A couple of restaurants were selling lunch, and there were a few arts and crafts types selling things like wooden toys and homemade soap. We were in search of picnic food. That's right. It was 70 plus degrees yesterday, so we did something I'd never done before: we had a November picnic.

We scrapped the market and went to a deli for some carry out, and then we headed to a park to eat and talk and hang around in the sun. This was the view from our blanket.






After lunch, we stretched out for awhile and enjoyed what's likely to be the last picnic either of us will have this birthday month.






There was still plenty of fall color in Kentucky. In Cincy, the trees are nearly bare thanks to the tail end of Hurricane Sandy. Here's the gorgeous Sycamore that towered over us.



After lunch, we drove to a street market and poked around, then we had a little frozen yogurt before calling it a day. So it turns out that November picnics are pretty great. If we get another warm spell, set out for a park!

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Football and Family

Sometimes new things come in orange packages. Syracuse Orange, that is. My nephew, Andy, is a sophomore at SU, where he majors in journalism and IT. He's a serious sports fan, and he dreams of becoming a sports journalist of some kind when he graduates. Andy has a way of making things happen, so I suspect this is a dream that will come true if he has anything to do with it. He already writes a sports blog and co-hosts a sports radio show on the school station, after all. While he's a big sports fan, he is not an athlete. Leave it to Andy to find a way to change that. Before I go any further, let me post a photo of my sports loving nephew:



That's right: my nephew is one of a select group of Syracuse students who step into costume and become the SU mascot, Otto the Orange! Much to Andy's delight, this qualifies him as a Division One athlete and allows him to travel with the team from time to time. Last weekend, he and the SU football team traveled right here to Cincinnati to play the UC Bearcats. Of course, Aunt Sue was in attendance.

Where's the new thing in this, you ask? Well, aside from having a relative prance around a football field in a giant orange costume, this was my very first college football game. I didn't want to go alone, so I invited my friend, John, to come along. He met Andy when we were traveling in Scotland in 2011. Here's a picture of them from that dinner in Edinburgh.



John and I arrived separately, so it was up to me to find the Will Call window near the stadium to pick up the tickets. My usual navigation system in place, I asked approximately five passersby to help me find it--and here's the best part--I told every single one of them some version of this story: "This is my first UC football game! I'm a UC professor! My nephew is the Syracuse mascot!" Those exclamation points don't fully convey how much I enjoyed telling this tiny story to strangers. They all indulged me and helped me find my way to the ticket window.

Not only was this my first college game, but it was also the first time I'd been on campus on a game day. Wow. The music, tailgating, and vendors were everywhere, and everyone but me and a handful of SU fans were in red and black.



I found John and we made our way into the stadium. When I asked John to join me, I told him I wanted to sit in the Syracuse section, since the only reason I was there was to see Andy--did I mention that I hate sports? John agreed to go, but he refused to be a traitor to UC, so we sat near the SU section, secure in Bearcat territory. For a while, at least. Here are some shots from our section. First, a couple of tubas relaxing before the game:






Before the game,there was an amazing skydiving show!


Here's Otto's nemesis, the UC Bearcat.


Here I am with John. As you can see, I am in non-partisan blue.


This might be one of the only photo I have of football players!


Look at that sea of red and black!


After the first quarter, John relented and followed me to the Syracuse section so that I could get close to the sidelines and get a better view of Otto--and have my picture taken with him. Andy did a great job! He was in perpetual motion, cheering his team on, getting into antics with the cheerleaders, greeting little kids who came down to see him, and posing for photos.















Now for my favorites! Do you think the university will dock my pay for this?









It's a good thing John and I moved closer to Otto when we did, because after halftime, a cold rain started to fall, and the orange had to hit the locker room. Apparently, rain isn't good for that furry costume.

I love Andy, but I have to say that I was kind of happy when UC won. Honestly, though, I was only happy because I had taken this photo after eating a little mid-game snack. After Syracuse lost, I sent it to Andy with a nah-nah-na-nah-nah note. That's the kind of aunt I am!



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