Hi all. How is your New Year going? Very very bizzy these days.

Business Stuff...

I am teaching Human Growth & Development this semester. It's a new course and my first time teaching it, so I've been busy setting up lessons plans and getting lectures prepared. Grading my first submissions from the 35 students I have. This is, by far, the most exceptional group of students I've had. They are all experienced learners in the nursing program, so they "get it". It's a pleasure to teach students who are engaged and want to be there.

I had left Rasmussen College a few semesters ago (needed the break), but I have returned to teaching with a new vigor. We have a new campus that is just a few miles from my house and the move took place this weekend. Rasmussen is going through growing pains and some of the changes are really good. I'm excited and I know for sure I belong in academia, even if I only take on a few classes a year as extra work.

This is my fifth year working full time as a director of marketing for a health care company and I'm putting together a 2011 marketing plan and presentation for an annual meeting. Working on a revamp of the corporate website. The CEO for whom I work and I partnered to start a separate small marketing company a few months ago. It made sense to do so... the business is there and we already have an account. I'm creating a website and mail campaign.

The Kids....

Kevin is in Canada until the Spring and doing well, he says. He has two jobs and is renting a room with friends. We haven't resolved the "international calling" bullcrap of cell phones and I need to fast find a plan that won't suck the bank account dry. Kev is looking at a College called Acadia in Canada and wants to become a teacher and likely a Canadian resident.

Kelly is wrapping up her senior year at the high school and is dually enrolled at the community college. She's applied to the pre-Dental program at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL... that's my alma mater. I hope she gets in and we'd like to find out how to financial swing it that she can live on campus and come home on weekends.

Soon I will really be an empty nester. I'm OK with this... I'm already seeing the changes with Kev gone. For example, there is no need to buy a lot of groceries. Kelly's schedule and mine cross a great deal and it feels like sometimes this house is just a drop in center for change of clothes and sleep.


Health...

About a week ago I woke up and couldn't see two feet in front me. Everything was blurry. I was scared that the Glaucoma had kicked in (I'm borderline and I've put off eye surgery a year... been warned if I don't have the surgery soon, I could go blind). But thankfully after a few hours I could see, but not at all up close like I used to be able to see. I did some googling to find out that sometimes in this age group, people can lose their up-close vision just like that (snap). I had an eye exam yesterday and I went from 1.25 to 2.00 in prescription strength, which is pretty dramatic. I ordered progressive lens glasses and sunglasses. I'm going to try and schedule eye surgery within the next month if I can pull the money together.

My uterine fibroids continue to be problematic. I have spotting and constant colicky cramping. I have been ignoring the options available for treatments after reading about them (surgery) and want to live with the condition as long as it is tolerable. I do, however, want to get a gynecologist. My primary care doc has handled all my female exams thus far. Well, I'm getting older... need to take care now I'm sure with any hormonal changes.

Last June I got 22 pounds off and I have maintained the weight loss. I want to get off another 10 or so pounds, but it is much slower to come off now. With the weight loss came hair loss... quite a bit... and I learned that I was depleted of iron, folic acid and need more biotin and B vitamins, so I'm on a program now.

Geeze.

Home Improvements

I have a long list of things to do around here. I'm making a priority list to knock out projects one by one as I can budget for them. I would like to get some window shutters in my bedroom (actually the whole house, but let's start with one room) and shutters are so outrageously priced. I have Lowes coming out to measure. The windows in this house are so cheesy and the cold pours through. My room faces the road -- noisy... too much light. My curtains fell down because the wall is concrete and the nail doesn't stay in. Very annoyed. I want a solution that is pretty, too. I work in my bedroom all the time. It's my space. I want it right.

The lawn! Need sod. As soon as these cold snaps are gone, I'm laying some grass down.

Skewl & Research & Speaking Engagement

My research is plugging along. About 600 people have taken The Love Survey (www.thelovesurvey.org) and I'm keeping the survey open to continue to recruit volunteer participants. Meanwhile, I'm working the SPSS software to crunch the numbers and learn how to statistically analyze the data.

I have been asked to be a feature presenter at a special event with the Museam of Science in Tampa. The event is in February called "Cupid the Scientist" LINK HERE

I didn't mention this earlier, but in November I had emailed the Dr. Phil Show about my research and a producer from the show called me to see about availability for a show they were planning on couples & intimacy/affairs. They asked for my bio and such, but it wasn't really a fit for their needs. I didn't get too excited, other than to realize the potential of The Love Survey (once completed) to attract media attention and hopefully give me a shot at publishing and exposure. I really want to do something good with this research. Will keep you posted on all that.

Mindless Fun Stuff

Are you watching the new season of The Bachelor? Monday nights 8 PM. I love it. Totally shallow and fun.

I'm hooked on Bravo Channel's, Housewives of Beverly Hills... more shallow fun.

I love my new Kindle. I'm reading Seven: The Deadly Sins and The Beattitudes by Jeff Cook.

I also started listening to audiobooks on my cell phone. The Android Apps are fun!


That's the news for now!

Today is the 9th anniversary of my beloved father's passing from pancreatic cancer. He was 59 years old and he was my hero... a true gentleman, smart and wise and witty. Oh, I miss him! Of course he passed the day after Father's Day... so appropriate.

We are going on a mini vacation for the 4th of July weekend. I got three suites at a beach motel for us (nothing fancy) and the kids are bringing some friends. Our chihuahuas are coming (I got them doggy Hawaiian shirts to wear to get in the right spirit of things). It's been many years since we've done anything fun and we all need it.

I busted a gut this week OMG, when the hell is menopause anyway? I'm so sick of this. There's the week before the ovarian explosion that is riddled with attitudinal issues and depression, followed by a week of abdominal unwellness... well, that's 1/2 the month or roughly, half the female's adult life. Men have no idea. Going to lay down shortly in a fetal position until the 3 ibuproferen kick in.

There is a wondrous thunderstorm here today and that pleases me. I am going to read, order a veggie pizza... kids are working, I am alone and it is peaceful....

When I'm quiet on my blog (as I have been)... that's not a good thing. I blog because I HAVE to blog... I must write to find out what I'm thinking (that line is actually credited to author, Joan Didion). But it's true, as I write, there is self-discovery somewhere. I think that is true for many writers who are self-reflective or tortured souls.

I'm NOT where I'm supposed to be this week. I'm supposed to be in Kansas on top of my game, dressed up and smiling and talking with a buncha scholars with my bigass presentation I prepared. I canceled my trip. And, although I'd love to bitch and complain and point fingers and name some names here at my blog about what happened, I won't. Suffice it to say, I had a little run in with one of the top dogs at the association about their scheduled event and some inefficiencies. Apparently, there is still "old school" law in academia and I didn't bow and curtsy just right in our communications, which ended up in a battle of academic egos...and believe-you-me, I have an ego the size of Minnesota... it's healthy and when I'm right, I'm right. So, I'm right and I'm not in Kansas this week as a consequence.

And it's a good thing, too... that trip woulda been $1,000. I just got my property tax bill in the mail and I might as well owe a million dollars. It just never ends. Work your ass off, suffer credit issues from a divorce, get an attorney to straighten out things... throw money to everyone. I could go on... I am frustrated by house projects that need dollars thrown into them.

My kids are at an age of everyone working different schedules, there's no chance of sitting down at a dinner table or catching up in a nice way. I feel alone amid people.... sometimes lost.

My (marketing) job is exhausting me and for the good work I do, it's only the tip of an iceberg of all i could be doing to really make the best contribution to the company. I took the semester off from teaching and the college is requesting commitment to come back... but here's the thing: there is a backload of students wanting to take my classes and I fear they will double me up with hundreds of students next semester and there is no add'l compensation for number of students... This is a real threat, for over the years, my caseload of students has quadrupled, which has meant 100 term papers in a semester to grade and when I break it down to dollars per hour, a scully maid makes more money. So I'm not a happy camper about teaching right now, even though I love the work and my students.

I can only please one person per day... today is not YOUR day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either.

Oh, and P.S. I just discovered my CHEEEEEWAWAS have been little piss pots under my bed. I'm ripping carpet out of my bedroom this weekend and I'll figure out new DIY flooring that I can handle.

"Analyze. Overanalyze. Analyzing. Analyzed. ANALYSIS!" But not "analyzation". Right?

I was helping a friend today... editing a paper.... saw the term "analyzation" in the text, but before I commented to him... wanted to verify. So I googled and looked around. Most online dictionaries do not have the word "analyzation" listed, but then I saw one that did... and it bothered me...

I got to thinking..

I've noticed that words enter our dictionaries because they are incorrectly used and then just accepted. A lot of slang has been adopted by Old Webster. I am reminded...

I used to find it irritating that people incorrectly said, "irregardless". The word is "regardless" or "irrespective," but NEVER "irregardless"... and then about 10 years ago, I became aware that the dictionary added the dreaded "irregardless". That's just moronic, to say the least, for the latin prefix "ir" means OPPOSITE... and would negate the "regardless" part , making the very word "irregardless" to mean a double negative, or more specifically NOT WITHOUT CONCERN which is a positive and NOT at all what anyone would mean when they used the reference.

And a couple of other troublesome words...

- Oriented versus orientated
-Preventive and preventative

And while I'm on a roll... as an instructor, I really hate when my students mess up these:

- your and you're
-their, there, and they're

And you know what else bothers me? Just knowing... KNOWING...that you are reading this and thinking I'm weird.

That's alls I gots ta say about that!

An Open Letter to Students:

Don't do this....

It is Week 10 of an 11 week semester. Two hours into my four hour long class, the door opened and a student stepped in while I was standing there lecturing. He was holding a backpack and looked a bit disheveled.

"May I help you?" I asked. The student was unknown to me and, despite having a heavy caseload, I do know all my students by name.

"My name is (removed to protect student from embarrassment)."

"Yes?"

"I'm in this class."

"Oh, Really?"

"Yes, I was here during week one. I kinda missed the past nine weeks... had some personal issues."

"Don't even think about it."

"I know. I know. But the dean said to come see you. They're going to kick me out of school... unless..."

I pointed to the door.

He slithered out.

C'mon, Folks! Every semester I get at least ONE scenario like this. What ARE you thinking? That you can buy your degree? That you can redeem yourself?

This final week before the semester ends... I cannot tell you the number of boo hoo phone calls I get about illness and deaths in the family, about car engines dying and lost books and crashed computers and lost term papers. My email box, my cell phone containing text messages... are filling up fastly.

It saddens me that something as important as education is attempted negotiated by students who never tried.

I could pontificate a lengthy diatribe here about the value of education and the ethics of hard work. But you, my faithful blog readers, have probably heard my yacking long enough... so much so that violins are playing in the background as you read this sad, sad tale.

Geeze.

Guys... I'm borrowing this space for youtube.com videos I'm I'm showing on the big screen in my classroom tonight on Student Learning and integration of New Technologies.. Heck, maybe you'll enjoy it, too. Really cool

First, a note to parents and teachers... Heck.. to us all, really, but especially those who live or work with young people....

Perhaps because we are plenty busy with work and running around.. maybe we've not been prioritizing the important things, we're neglecting duties, don't feel it's "our" responsibility, or we've just plain forgotten to teach our kids some manners. Or values. Or any sort of skills to improve the human condition or enhance the next generation.

Maybe it's just me.... concerned.

Don't parents tell their babies any more, "You are good, you are smart, you are special and you can be anything you want to be... but you've got to earn it..." ??????

Dear World:

There are no free lunches.

Signed,

Chuckles the Clown


"I'm borrrrrrred. Can we go home?"

I looked up from my lectern. I put down my white board pen. I peered over my professor-like glasses with a long pause. My lips were drawn tight and brow furrowed. I took a few steps closer into her and the entire class. The others waited to see how I would handle this.



Teachers are in an important position to affect minds. But the percentage of connection is ever so slight... seemingly insignificant. I feel lucky if I've touched one or two in a class each semester. It is exhausting to care... to really care about students and take them aside and encourage them. It is frustrating as hell to be on the receiving end of rudeness.


Where is the fight?

Where is inner strength?

Conviction?

Why don't people emerge heroes in their own right? In their own world?

Why is it everyone seeks a savior and won't work for the end result themselves?

Pick yourself up and ACT RIGHT! Quit whining. Do well in school! And for those of us who are parents or teachers... Tough Love!

I do what I can... it's not enough.

That's alls I gots ta say today.