Coffee Flavored Kisses

Hello, my name is Rosary and I am addicted to reading and to books.

I’m reading two books right now with about 9000000000 more to go.  Okay that last bit is a small exaggeration.

I read and finished The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle.  I enjoyed it a great deal.  It helped that I read it in conjunction with the first two Holmes novels The Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. I also saw the Sherlock Holmes movie.  May I say that between those readings and that movie there are a number of things Guy Ritchie got right in the film.  Things like secret societies, action, Watson’s character, Holmes’s eccentricities. So snap to the critics who have never done more than read the short stories or watch Basil Rathbone.

Right there are three books I’ve read. Now, I am also reading The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte.  I haven’t read Perez-Reverte in a while, but I have found this book intriguing and fascinating. A thriller with a rather cynical priest/politician as the central hero the book deals as much with the thriller plot (who is trying to destroy the church? who hacked the pope’s computer?) as it does with the meaning of faith and the connections between place and faith.  I have his The Nautical Map to read.

I also started reading a book called Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole, and Oliver Reed. I’ve not made a decision about it, but it doesn’t really seem to be a book for those who disapprove of boozing.

I’ve got The Heart is a Lonely Hunter to read for the college’s Big Read project.  I lead the community book discussion on Feb 11 over the first part–I know what I’ll be focusing on.

The to read list is huge and includes one Jonathan Kellerman, 2 Lillith St Crow’s (schlock but fun), a book on the building of the Effiel Tower, a book on the history of coffee, and House of Mirth, and 2 books about teaching, and coming soon in the mail Queen Victoria, Demon Hunter which is actually on backorder. Yes, backorder. So my reading addiction is has enough to fill it, but you and I both know there will be more to come.

The semester has begun, and I expect to be in full swing next week.  Once I get over whatever has tied my digestive tract into knots.

I was scheduled for 6 classes, but only 5 have made.  Technically only 4 have made, but the 5th one will probably remain because I have to have 5 classes to make my course load.  This is the first time in I don’t know when that I have only had 5 classes.  I already feel some stress leaving me. (I am used to 6 or 7).  I don’t even have a night class, which feels so good.

I plan to read and exercise with this free time–once I get my body clock readjusted to school.I also hope to write more, but at the moment, the knots in my stomach are laughing at me so I shall run off.

With the lovely Arctic blast of cold hitting us, I made soup last night.  It was a bit more spicy than I normally make, but it was good.

I used:

two tbsps of canola oil

one roll (or one pound) of Italian seasoned ground turkey

1/2 bag of frozen seasoning mix (or onions, peppers, celery, and parsley)

1 can of Cannelloni beans

1 cup of rice

1 small can tomato sauce

1 box of Chicken broth

1 can corn

I browned the turkey in the canola oil, then added the frozen seasoning mix to that.  I let that mix sweat together for a bit.  Then I added the can of beans.  I let the mixture meld together.  The I added a cup of rice, and let it “toast” with the other ingredients.  Then I added the chicken stock and the tomato sauce.  I let that simmer until the rice was cooked through.  Then I added a can of corn. Yummy.  I used salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, and paprika.

and this was my present. I adore it!

So another year ends, and another one begins. some things that I would like to achieve in 2010:

more writing. I need to write more; I miss writing of all sorts. I may even have the time for it this year!

improve my teaching. I always need to keep working on this. The day I think I’ve perfected it is the day I better quit.

cook more. I love to cook. If I do nothing more than make soups all year, I will have done something healthier than usual

exercise more. I love my treadmill and should use it more.

read more. Then again, I read a lot now

have more fun. Wait, if I cook more, write more, and read more–won’t I be having more fun?

contribute more to my community.

I think mostly it boils down to the PBS motto: Be more!

I am being really lazy this break. I probably need it.

I am reading several things at once. The Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (darned Sherlock Holmes movie made me want to read it) as did, The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle (a bio of the man himself).  I’m also reading Stephen Fry’s America (companion book to a show he did for the BBC), and The Man Who Loved Books Too Much (about rare book collecting and book thievery. I’ve also started Sacred Scars, a YA book. I have a ton of books waiting my attention, and her I am typing, not reading–well then, off to read!

It’s Christmas Eve and I am watching it pour down rain.  It has rained enough to make this the wettest year ever in Arkansas. Bleh.

The rain sort of mirrors my Christmas mood. I’m in it, sort of, but not all in it. I think exhaustion simply wore out my cheer!

I turned 44 on Tuesday.  It was a nice day, nothing spectacular,  but then it’s just a birthday.

I read at the public library’s story hour. The weather was so awful that one kid turned up. Oh well, he was fun.

Other than that relaxation is the word of the day, so relax yourselves into the holiday.

The semester ended yesterday at noon for me, as I turned in final grades.

It was a rough semester on many ways.  One way that is was rough was simply the schedule.   My teaching schedule was rather like working split shifts.  I had three morning classes, and three evening classes.  This sort of schedule just exhausts me, and it swallows up huge amounts of my freetime.  The lack of freetime cuts down on the amount of grading time which then stresses me out as I lose sleep from working to 8:30 or 9pm, and then turning around to be back by 8 am.  It is also near impossible to come home from a night class and want to spend anytime grading–I simply cannot focus.

Then, I chose to mix an online learning component into my classes.  This was a very mixed response experiment.  This made it much easier for me to keep track of quizzes and tests.  However, the submission process for papers was horrible, and our online learning program doesn’t work well with IE 8 or Vista.  This meant my students with brand new computers would get thrown offline by the program.  Also, I clearly over-estimated my students’ ability to attach files to an email.  The most technologically savvy generation, my ass.

I also have to say my own bad habits didn’t help to make the semester better.  My tendency towards procrastination, my disorganized nature, and my much too generous attitude toward late work helped to sink me in many ways.

On the other hand, my NCTE conference was a nice break, and I gleaned some very cool ideas to try in class.  I also found some books that might help me.

And to steal from Linda Ellerbee–and so it goes.

This is true.  I have been bad about blogging, and as usual it’s work’s fault.  I have been kept too busy.  I tried hybridizing my classes this semester.  This means using our online program in face-to-face classes.  It has been a mixed success.  I don’t think I will give up the process, but I will want to rethink it over Christmas.

The hybridizing was stressful, but so was the great schedule fiasco.  For a while there, I was scheduled to teach 8 classes, but we managed to work that down to six.  This has left a lot of unhappy campers since one of those eight was a daytime philosophy section which would have been full, if we could have found a time for it that didn’t conflict with the required Nursing classes.  I shall try again.

Then there was the NCTE convention in Philadelphia.  Okay, I have to say Philadelphia was cool, and I didn’t see nearly as much of it as I wish I could have.  I need to get my pictures off my phone and into my blog and my facebook.  I found the conference itself rather interesting, and have gained some new ideas, bought some new books (one is about a “new” way to teach grammar–I can use all the help there that I can get!) I now have a desire to read an author called Lorene Cary. She was the speaker at the college section luncheon (with delicious food!!!).  I found her intriguing and fascinating.  I went with two co-workers, and we had great fun the day before the conference, but lost each other once the conference chaos began.  However, the absolute best part of my conference experience wasn’t at the conference.  I was having dinner in the hotel bar, and seated next to me was this woman–another conference attendee.  Well, she turned out to be a young adult author, and we started talking writing, and before I new it three hours was gone.  I feel inspired to write, if I can find the time.  (I think one way that I shall try to find the time is to ask not to teach this summer session.)

I also have community stuff going on.  I am trying to get a writer’s group started; I am volunterring at the public library–I read the story for Christmas!  I am involved in our Big Read project.  All in all, I am one freaking busy camper.

And exhausted.

I am going to the NCTE conference in Philadelphia from 11/18 - 11/22.  I have never been to the NCTE before, and it looks to be a huge conference.  I am getting excited about it!