Blushing Bardians

I know you were wondering where I was, but then you looked at your calendar and realized that this is the last couple of weeks for classes this semester and figured I had finals and final papers to worry about. You were right! I took advantage of the long break to catch up with studying, family and everything else. Not sure if it worked or not, because here I am up early after going to bed late . . . .

And then my Medieval Lit teacher wants us to read Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, and that is one of those books you can't but down. Okay, picture this, it is during the black plague and seven young virgins leave town with three young men to avoid catching it and end up in an empty palace where they spend the next ten days telling one hundred tales that would make your grandmother blush. Okay, they made me blush too. The funny thing is that the author uses no foul words and gives no details or descriptions. He uses everyday words like rod, stuffing, mortar and pestle, etc. He even suggests in his epilogue that it could be that because you are guilty of these transgressions that you think he is suggesting something else. Believe me - he is

suggesting something else. But there are moral lessons to be learnt here too, I suppose, if a man does deserve his own wife to cheat on him right in front of his eyes because he is a jealous fool, then I guess there is a life lesson there. I'll let you know if and when I ever find it. You can read more about this book here.

Tonight I'll be racing home to register for my Spring classes! There is so much to pick from. Maybe a class on James Joyce? Anthropology? History of Photography? Check out the list of available classes at (http://inside.bard.edu/academic/courses/spring2010/) and leave your suggestions. At least I don't have to wait on long lines and run from class to class like I did for this semester. They save that experience for new freshmen and transfer students. But there is still a process that requires some work. I enroll online and then the professor decides to accept me or not, and then next week I can pick more classes if my first choices don't work out. If the second round does not work out, I am back to running around asking professors if I can be in their class or not. I suppose they just want to keep the classes small, and in reality, that is okay by me.

So, wish me luck. Between the blushing and the registration process, it's going to be a long day.

Talking Turkey Hands

It's that time of year again - Turkey Hands! While you trace your own hand this Thanksgiving, remember all the little and big things you have to be thankful for this year. I will. It almost seems that tracing one turkey hand is not enough either since there is so many things to be grateful for this year. Here is a small sample:

I'm thankful for family and friends, of course. But I am also thankful for the warm fuzzy slippers on my feet, The Cat that meows to be let in and out and all the people who read my blog. I'm thankful for a warm house the freezer full of food - which would make me thankful for the blueberry pie I am going to make and the great dinner we are going to have tomorrow.

I'm thankful for DCC and graduating there this year. I'm especially thankful for Bard and the long break we are on now. I don't have classes again until next Tuesday. In fact, I am almost even grateful for the two papers I'll need to work on and the minimal reading I'll need to do to over break too. I am very grateful that I may even get to read something not related to school during this break too!

I'm thankful that I won't be out shopping on Black Friday because I am just about done buying gifts for Christmas and I'll get to stay in my warm home with my fuzzy slippers finishing up that blueberry pie!

Now go trace your own hands. Might as well do both your hands so your turkeys can talk to each other about all that you're thankful for. How will they know what to discuss? Tracing your hands is a perfect time to make your own list and with two hands, you'll have plenty of time to make an especially long list. There is an awful lot to be thankful for! Don't you agree?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hell is Full of Mismatched Socks

If you're a Facebook friend of mine (and you should be, just look for me by name), it's no secret that I have been working on a paper about Dante's Inferno this week, and probably next week since we got an extension on the due date. I am particularly writing about the punishment for the sin in a few select circles of Hell and if the punishment itself is contrapasso - showing how the sin itself involves opposites and similarities to the original sin. Really, if the punishment fits the "eye for an eye" mentality. I won't bore you with details, but all this talk of hell and why people are at certain levels certainly got me thinking.

In Dante's hell, Dante seems to keep running into people he knows - either personally or just because of who they are - and they all seem to be from Florence. Is hell just full of Italians? I find that hard to believe, and it certainly makes you wonder what kind of people Dante hung out with! I also wondered what levels I would see my own friends or public figures in - because I would surely be just like Dante and only be visiting each level on my way to Paradise! Of course! So far on questioning, no friends have admitted to any particular level. I'll keep you posted.

It made me wonder too what level the people who cut you off on Route 9 would be in, because I would avoid that level during my visit. And what about the people that park right in front of stores even though it is not a parking spot making it hard for you to get out of the lot, or the mysterious spirit that takes the matching sock from the laundry . . . very curious indeed. All nine levels must be very, very crowded.

And if you don't believe in heaven or hell, don't worry, hell has a place for you too! You just wander aimlessly following a flag without a symbol unwanted by heaven or hell since you were unable to choose a side. Sounds tiring!

I also need to memorize a sonnet for Shakespeare class this weekend. I'll be memorizing Sonnet 42, which I have included here for you, where the author is more upset that his friend is sleeping with his mistress than he is that his mistress is sleeping with his friend. It's the love for his friend that hurts him more than some silly woman. Is this proof that Shakespeare was bisexual? I guess we'll never really know, and it really doesn't matter, but this sonnet sure has sin written all over it! Adultery! Jealousy! Lies! False flatterers! Yikes!

That thou hast her, it is not all my grief,

And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;

That she hath thee, is of my wailing chief,

A loss in love that touches me more nearly.

Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye:

Thou dost love her, because thou knowst I love her;

And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,

Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her.

If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain,

And losing her, my friend hath found that loss;

Both find each other, and I lose both twain,

And both for my sake lay on me this cross:

But here's the joy; my friend and I are one;

Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone.

Metamorphoses

If you can get to SUNY New Paltz within the next couple of weeks, you are in for a real treat. Both the theater and the art gallery are presenting change to lovers of fine art. The Guy and I crossed over the big river this weekend and we were both completely mezmerized by what we saw in New Paltz.

Our plans were to see Ovid's Metamorphoses, as written by Mary Zimmerman and performed by students of the theater program at SUNY New Paltz. What a great performance it was! It was all very dreamlike and it was very easy to feel part of the dream and listen to the myths as presented. There was a large pool on stage too and sometimes water can have just as hypnotizing an effect as fire. It was all very peaceful and dream like. I highly recommend it and if you're quick, you can get tickets for the last three performances this upcoming weekend. You can find more information about tickets here.

The McKenna Theater at New Paltz is in the same building as the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art so plan on arriving early for the show to see the two exhibits. There was a solo exhibit by Greg Miller featuring the most amazing panoramic views of the Hudson Valley. The lighting and the colors were just breathtaking and as a resident of the area, you can tell these photos are real and not enhanced capturing the beauty that we see around us everyday as Hudson Valley residents. The next gallery is full of paintings of the Hudson River, mostly older paintings, but each showcasing the beauty of the river.

Greg Miller also had an exhibit in that area featuring a panorama of the Hudson. Not just parts of the Hudson, the ENTIRE Hudson from Manhattan to Albany in one complete trail to follow, curves and all, around the room. The panorama also had an older panorama below it of the same Hudson from the early part of the 20th century. It was just breathtaking to see how much of it has changed, and how much if it hasn't. It was very easy to want to walk and examine each piece of it closely, but remember, there's the show too! Here is small sample of the panorama taken from the museum's website, which you can visit here for more information about the current exhibits.

After following the River, we quickly admired the oil paintings from different artists and ran to our seats.

It was an afternoon of metamorphoses. First it was the changes in the Hudson River over the years, and then the changes in man as presented by the Roman poet Ovid in the year 8 CE. We were changed too afterwards to a relaxing and meditative state that made our Sunday afternoon in New Paltz wonderful.

Friday the 13th Comes Early

Is the calendar right today? I would have sworn yesterday was Friday the 13th and not today.

I started the day very, very tired. This weeks seems to be overwhelming and I've only been getting about 4-5 hours a sleep a day so yesterday morning I really needed the LARGE coffee I bought on my way to campus.

I get there early on Tuesdays and Thursdays to read in a quiet area undisturbed in Olin Hall, where I have my first class of the day. Aaaah, it was all planned. A big steaming cup of coffee, a comfy sweater, a quiet chair with a view of the campus out the window, and then I entered the building and WHHOOOOPS! As soon as my heel hit the stone floor it slid causing me to fall on my knees and send my coffee flying. The mittens I had on didn't do much to stop the coffee from spreading and spreading quick on the gray floor.

I was okay, really. Fine! Luckily another student had witnessed the entire thing and helped clean up the coffee. Luck for us too that the bathroom nearby had paper towels (and not just a hand dryer) and we found a large garbage pail and cleaned up most of the mess. My mittens went into a plastic bag I had a sandwich in and for the remainder of the day I smelled like I was wearing the new Dunkin Donuts brand of cologne. Pleasant yes, but a sad reminder of the coffee I really needed yesterday.

The rest of the day fared better, but to the students at Olin who had to walk around the wet spot, I apologize. To the cleaning crew that had to clean the floor better than I did with the paper towels, sorry and thank you.

Maybe it's good to get that stuff out of the way since today is really Friday the 13th?

Enjoy and be careful!

Is the Flue One of the Seven Liberal Arts?

Aaaarrrrghhh! Another science test today, and that means more hours of trying to memorize names and events - a task that I am all too willing to admit becomes harder with each passing year. I am at the time of my life where memories are carefully being screened for retention purposes due to limited disk space, and sometimes my mind will chose to forget Paracelsus, an alchemist who thought that everything was poisonous if not taken in moderation. Sure, I remember that now, but ask me about 2:30 or so. I am sure to say Para-who?

I didn't do too poorly on the last exam, and he promises to drop the lowest score from our three exams, but still - I wish there was an easier way.

Last night was our last Algebra Workshop class and we had our final. Algebra is funny in that it is one of those classes that is always building on what you already know, so once you master finding the X variable, finding Y is no problem. You have to remember what you already learned to progress - but not so in my History of Science class. The people we learned about for the first test will not be on the second test. Sure, it's true that science builds on prior science, but when it comes to remembering who contributed what, those connections become moot.

I wonder what these fellows would say about the flu shot? I am sure Paracelsus, an alchemist, would think it a good idea - if the dose is not too strong. I've already had the regular flu shot, and today I get the H1N1 vaccine available at Bard for students and staff. Good thing too. There are a lot of sick people on campus with coughs. It's rampant! One dorm was already quarantined this semester. I guess that's what happens when people live close together and forget the basic domestic skill they were taught as children. I am not taking any chances. I am getting my shots and washing my hands - lots. Have you gotten the shots? Why or why not?

Bard is a Liberal Arts college and I do have to know the seven liberal arts (from medieval times) for my test, but I don't recall influenza being one of them . . . let's hope that is not on my test today - or anywhere near me!

Hey Guy!

These days I wonder if my own husband has to read my blogs to find out what's going on with me lately. Then I started feeling guilty that I had only posted once this week and now he wouldn't know what's happening!

Okay, it's not quite that bad. We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant Tuesday night after we voted and before I stayed up way past his bedtime to read Othello for my Shakespeare class. I didn't have the heart to wake him up the next morning at 7:30 before I left for work either. He looked so peaceful and cozy. Last night was another late night. I stayed after classes at the library for a few hours reading and studying for an exam next week in History of Science. When I got home, two of his favorite television shows were on so I let him watch them in peace and only interrupted him during commericals.

He probably doesn't miss me all that much anyway! There are plenty of reminders. Like the leaves that I've not been able to help rake, and the food shopping that he's been doing for me and the clean basket of laundry he finds at the bottom of the stairs that means I am asking him to carry it upstairs. There are those dust balls tumbling down our hallway too. Besides, I am sure he notices that my side of the bed is messy those days I go to bed after him and wake up before him. Doesn't he?

When I do suggest that maybe I am away from home just a little too much, or when I am home and I comment on how much I can't do around the house these days, he just reminds me that it's only temporary and to look at the big picture. A few dust balls are so worth the effort, and he admits that he can always tell when I finally come to bed. Besides, it's fun to tell him I haven't seen him in a while so why doesn't he meet me for lunch? It's like having a weekly date with handsome stranger!

So Guy, if you are reading this to find out what my plans are for the next few days, here they are: I have a paper to write for my Shakespeare class, study, study, study and them some reading, reading and more reading. Can't promise I'll get much done around the house, but at least I'll be home. Thanks for being so supportive.

It's quite possible I'll being having lunch with that handsome stranger today! Yay!

To Live or Not to Live on Campus, That is the Question

I really like my time on campus two full days a week. Bard is such a beautiful campus, the trees are all ablaze with fall color, and there is always something going on, but lately there seems to be more going on the days I am not there.

Let's see . . . Paper due Monday at noon in a basket on the professor's door? Sorry, can't do that. I work, but I can email a copy and drop a hard copy off later that night. Swine flu vaccine clinics Monday and Wednesday at lunch. Errrr, sorry. Can't do that either. Will you plan any for Tuesday or Thursday? Swing dance lessons on Friday nights from 7-10 p.m. Dang! I can't do that either, and I am surely way too tired by Friday to drive 45 minutes to dance for three hours.

Why, just today there is a lecture on Avicenna, a medieval philosopher that we just happen to be discussing now in my History of Science class. And look, there's a piano/cello concert this afternoon. And a Free Press writer's meeting (okay, I am not a writer on the Bard campus newspaper, but I would like to write a story about how different campus life is for non-traditional students not living on campus). Maybe I could email an idea for an article? I'll find out.

Bard Stone Row Dormitories
Needless to say, Bard does a great job of keeping the students who live on campus active, involved and far from bored. There are movie nights, pizza nights, craft nights, dancing nights, concerts . . . well, you get the idea. I take advantage of what I can, like leaving work early this past Monday to go to a lecture from a visiting Yale professor on Dante's Inferno, which we are reading in class. It was a great lecture, but made for a very long day.

I realize that by not living on campus I'll never have breakfast, lunch or dinner at Kline Commons. I'll never have to buy overpriced health and beauty aides at the bookstore. I'll never really get to take advantage of the on campus gym because when I am on campus, I am attending class or burning the midnight oil at the library trying to get something done.

Living at home sure at benefits too. My laundry is always clean AND ironed. I get to sleep next to a warm body every night. My family and my cat are always glad to see me when I get home. I don't have to share a bathroom with a teenager (not even the girl at home!). The mess in the kitchen is my own so I can't get angry for anyone for not cleaning it. The list goes on and on, but you get the idea.

I am sure as my time goes on at Bard, I'll find ways to be more involved in the on-campus events. Sheesh, it's only my first half a semester there so far. I'll meet more people and find out more about more things listed and not listed on the school's event calendar too.

Until then I'll enjoy the view, and my own bed.

Thrills and Chills

What to know what's spooooooky? I'll tell you! It's downright scary when you understand something in one class because you learned it in another. It's creepy that names you never heard of before September start sneaking their way into the literature you are reading for different reasons and you can nod and shake your head and say, "Hmpf. I've heard of that guy." And it's really frightening when you find yourself looking something up at the Bard library that was mentioned during a class that you didn't know about before.

For example, we are reading Dante's Inferno in Comparative Lit and in the first ring Dante visits with his guide, the poet Virgil, he sees all the people I learned about in The History of Science Before Newton including Thales, Anaxagoras, and the bunch. And then when your History of Science teacher starts telling you how universities were started during medieval times and your face lights up with understanding because you've already learned that in another class when you discussed Benedictine and Cisterian monks. Or you find yourself hunched over a computer at the Bard Library looking up an German poem about a boy on a horse with his father trying to escape death's grip just because a character in a book by a Slavic author mentions it in passing. (The poem was Der Erlkonig by Goethe and you can read it here in its eerie entirety.)

See how scary it all is?

To scare myself even more, I'll be going with The Family to see The Birds tonight at the Bardavon. Still only a spine tingling five dollars for a movie and an organ concert, it's a great way to be scared together as a family.

Then Saturday it's off to Greenwich Village for a concert (Mike Doughty) where I am sure there will be plenty of night creatures about. It's Halloween after all and the Village is known for its parade of the creepiest and scariest on Halloween.

Yes, I'll be in costume as an enlightened Bard student. Beware!

Literate Literature

It sure has been a literate week, and not just because I am reading Hamlet for my Shakespeare class, The Bosnian Chronicles for my Slavic Lit class or Dante's Inferno for Comp Lit. You would think all those books in one week would be enough, butno - two amazing people visited two amazing schools this week and I was lucky enough to see both of these engaging, interesting men.

On Monday night, Bard's guest speaker was Barney Rosset. He was the founder of Grove

Press in the 1960's. Yes, the Grove Press! He also published D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover, fighting Congress and the Postal Service all the way. Rosset also publised Samuel Beckett in English in the United States and many other amazing authors including Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac and Larence Ferlinghetti, battling for First Amendment rights as he did. It is largely his activism that paved the way for today's contemporary writers. It was great to listen to his stories.

On Wednesday night, Vassar College's invited speaker was Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. He read excerpts of his book and then opened the floor to questions. Diaz told young writers the best thing they could do was stop arranging their lives so they did nothing but hang out with other writers. There is too much life out there to learn and write about to be confined. He also stressed that writing should not be done to gain one's approval, which may be difficult in this country as we tend to be nation of people that strive to be the best as viewed by other people. Don't write because of what other's may think, write for what you think needs to be written.

Both men were such great inspirations. One man created a literary magazine with nothing more than a dream and kitchen table, another started life with nothing but family and became famous because of his own doing, and for doing something for himself and not others.

Literature does have more to teach us than just words on a page. It's great when you can meet men like these that remind you of that.

Nobel Noble Slavs

Just what is this class? It's easy to say Noble Slavs instead of Nobel Slavs, and I think most of us do a lot. Like the people who called Astronomy class Astrology class, but there is more truth in calling these noble instead of Nobel.

There are two criteria that each author must have to be taught in this class: the author must be Slavic and must have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. To win this prize for literature, your work must have some lasting literary value and benefit mankind. That is a tough call. A small group of people in Switzerland review the candidates for the year and make a decision, giving the winner a large cash prize. This prize is privately funded by the Estate of Alfred Nobel who at the turn of the century left most of his fortune just to fund the Nobel Prizes. What a guy! You can read more about the Nobel prize at www.nobelprize.org including this year's winner for Literature Herta Muller, another Slavic born author living in Germany.

Since this class is being taught by the professor that teaches Russian studies, I was afraid that this would turn into a class that dealt mostly with the history of the area and not the literature itself. It is listed as a Lit class, I am a Lit major and I love these authors from these cold, Slavic countries. I worried for nothing. Sure, with each new author there is some discussion about the area at the time that led the author to write such a book, but we discuss so much more. When we read Quo Vadis by Henyrk Sienkiewicz we discussed his talent of ending and beginning chapters and the literary tools he used to progress the story. When we read the story stories of Ivan Burnin, we discussed how he was brillant at telling instead of showing, often a big no-no in the world of literature. Boris Pasternak snuck his poetical style of writing into his narrative in Dr. Zhivago even including a book of poetry at the end written by the progrationist, Yuri Zhivago. Now we are reading The Bosnian Chronicles by Ivo Andric, and this man was able to share wonderful tales of Bosnian life during the Napoleonic wars but in such a way that you feel you are reading one fairy tale after another. He wrote stories as if he were reciting them aloud interwined in a novel about diplomats from other countries living in Bosnia.

Needless to say, I am just loving this class. It satisfies my craving for brilliant authors, close scrunity of style and just enough history of the area to make the story fascinating.

These Nobel Slavs are truly noble.

Will Mercury Collide with Mars?

I'll be the first to admit that the older I get the harder it is for me to memorize stuff and this is probably not the first time I am admitting this! I don't remember (that must be the second sign of old age). Where was I?

Oh yes - and when it comes to science, which you guys know I love, it can be painfully difficult for me to prepare for a test. I read and write and read some more. I try to remember all the little stories that my professor likes to tell us, but I need to spend an awful lot of time both before and after class to remember what we are taught in class.

There is one fellow tho, Ptolmey, that I think I will remember pretty well, especially when we know so little about him as a person. We think he lived somewhere in Alexandria between 70 and 140 BCE and he was a big believer of astrology, as well as the man whose astronomy the world followed for almost 1400 years before Copernicus shook things up a bit. Here is a sample of his wisdom(?):

"Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth."

He is best known for writing the Almagest, a delightful little book wherein he attempts to explain spheres, the fixed stars and movement of the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. This guy was way off as the little video below demonstrates. If this video is correct, and I have every ready to believe it is, why weren't people more worried about collisions? Maybe they were but since the earth was the center of this universe, if anything happened it would be far away and Earth would be safe. Who knows? Remember too, this was long before telescopes and space shuttles, so he was pretty much going by what he saw with his naked eye and I get to him this was how the planet appeared to be traveling in the night sky.

Now I could only remember where I left The Guy . . . .he's not by my keys!