I am so excited that I can’t concentrate on what I should be doing. My husband and I are headed up to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island this week-end. We got a great rate on a hotel so we couldn’t resist. We plan to explore more trails while we are on the island, one imparticular – Manitou Trail and Tranquil Bluff Trail. I can’t wait! I also want to chill at Anne’s Tablet since I didn’t hit it up the last time I was on the island.

 

We (my husband, stepson, and I) went to Mackinac over Labor Day week-end which was awesome. We stayed in St. Ignace Friday night, went on over to the Island for two days and Saturday night, and they back over to St. Ignace for Sunday night so we could do the Mackinac Bridge walk on Labor Day. I have been wanted to put this in my memory book here since I got back but haven’t had the time.

 

On Mackinac Island we stayed at the Inn on Mackinac, which is the sister hotel to the Murray Inn where we usually stay. I had spent the night at that hotel before with my parents (used to be called Chateau Beaumont) when I first went to the island as a very young girl. I guess you could say that is the place I first fell in love with the island despite the fact that according to my Mom they did not have TV’s at that hotel when we were there and we had to share a bathroom. I guess my Mom complained to the front desk about the lack of TV’s and the lady behind the counter got all snobby on her stating, "You are staying at one of the most historical places in America and you want to watch TV?" My Mom retorted, "Tell that to a four (?) year old who wants to watch cartoons!" LOL I guess I got over it – I never care to watch TV when I am on the island anymore.

 

This trip we didn’t have time for much TV> We hit up downtown first and got our shop on. Plus we had to buy tickets for the comedy show. We wanted it to be a surprise for my stepson but he saw the sign for the show and kept bugging about it. My husband bought the tickets and we both tried to keep it a secret. Stepson kept hinting around about it – "I wanna’ check out the comedy show…" and "What’s the plan for tonight?" Eventually we had to tell him.

 

Then we did a lot of walking of course. I love all the trails and scenery. We must have walked at least 6 miles the first day if not more. I got some good pictures but not so many as in the past becuase it was kind of overcast and I have tons of pics of Mackinac already. The only drawback was I was moving slow like turtle. We hit up the spa pool at the hotel before we went out for our night on the town.

 

We checked out the Stu Stewart comedy show later that night and I got buzzed off one of the giant drinks they serve at the show. It was fun and my stepson enjoyed it and met Stu. Then we hopped on down to Sinclair’s Irish Pub to eat and check out the Michal Bailey Band. We were super excited for my stepson to see him play live. The band was awesome as usual and my stepson was impressed, especially since Michal came over to talk to us. I love that band! I was filled with love from being at my favorite place in the world, with my favorite people, listening to one of my favorite bands, and drinking my favorite drinks (screwdrivers). I couldn’t stop drinking once I started, yikes! I only made a little bit of a fool of myself though – I have to give my stepson something to tease me about, ha.

 

The next day I had to scrape myself together for the 8 mile bike ride around the island. I managed it pretty well. After our bike ride we must have walked another 3 miles but then we pooped out and spent some time chilling around town and on the hotel front porch. It is nice to watch island life go by.

 

We left as the setting sun cast it’s glowing, golden, magical haze over the water and island, as the blue and lavender twilight crept in. It was sad leaving the island but I wasn’t feeling it to keenly because I knew I would be returning soon. I guess I cried with joy more upon arriving than I did with sadness upon leaving. I’m sure it will be different this week-end.

 

 

 

 

Ugh! I had to stay home from school today because my sinuses are so bad. I just couldn’t get moving this morning. I had a really bad cold in the beginning of August and I have yet to get truly over it. I had antibiotics and everything. So sick of this shite – don’t need it. Everybody has been complaining of their sinuses lately. I wonder what the problem is – can it be this screwy weather? Why is it back up in the 80’s? I love hot weather but I could care less once school starts and the pool is closed.

 

I wish I had some magic to combat my sinus problem. I think it might be due to ragweed and perhaps mold. I can’t concentrate when my nose is plugged. It just makes me feel totally out of it, tired and mouth breather dumb! Hence this stupid, boring blog entry.

 

I have been thinking about making an entry everyday, no matter how boring. It will keep me writing. Writing for school is not enough for some reason – I need a creative outlet I suppose. (Yeah righting a critique about a research article "Cross-Sensitization Between the Locomotor Stimulant Effects of Ethanol and Those of Morphine and Cocaine in Mice" is not very scintillating or stimulating for that matter). One of the things I like about keeping a blog is being able to go back and see what was going on at any given time. I have a diary I tried to keep when I was in Jr. High and it is so funny to go back and read some of the entries. I wish I had written more. Well I have my lovesick Juan notebook too. Now that is hilarious. Sometimes not really. I am full of contradictions lately. Well maybe always. Ha  

 

I do have some exciting news, exciting for me anyway but I will write about it under another blog title.

Sitting in Cognitive Psych class – kind of bored. Well not really ’cause I can blog, but I hate this classroom – 422 Murchie Science Building, UM-Flint. I have 2 classes in this classroom this year so YUCK. For some reason this room makes me sleepy, it messes with my sinuses and it is always too damn cold. Plus the professor’s voice is somewhat hard to follow. I can’t describe it. He has a Boston accent (he has said ‘draarariiings’ quite a bit today), his pitch is kind of low, kind of sounds like his nose is plugged (which mine is now, ha) and he kind sounds like a cartoon character but I can’t place which one. He is hard to pay attention to. UGH, he is also the department chair and so focused on research. I am worried about this class because this professor also gets very bad reviews. All grading is based on tests and he admits his tests are hard. So we’ll see.

 

I have a full semester this fall – 17 credits! Yikes, I didn’t even realize how much when I signed up for everything. Plus I added Wind Symphony. At first I wasn’t going to take Wind Symphony; kind of wanted to but not sure how I could fit everything in. Well the symphony needs trombone players, even ones that play as ill as I do. So far so good though.

 

Sitting in Intro to Clinical Psych now – 329 MSB, UM-Flint. I don’t like this classroom much better but I love the class and the professor, Dr. Douglas. I have my internship with him also. He is awesome! He has a PsyD not a Phd and his main focus is counseling which of course I want to be my main focus. I love his class because he is funny and he actually gives us useful information like the difference between a PhD and a PsyD in psychology, how to get into grad school, and financials.  Dr. D is a busy, busy man. In addition to teaching at UM-Flint, he has clients that he counsels (some for free, he also works with vets for free) and also does public school assessments. I have only worked with him while counseling but I think I will also learn to do school assessments. So far I love the counseling part. I always thought I would but it is good to have it validated. Dr. D works a lot with (young) children, which I wasn’t particularly interested in but I found out I love it. I just need to learn more about the disorders/diagnoses.

 

I have an internship class which only meets once every 2 weeks, off weeks on a discussion board, in addition to at least 10 hours a week actually on internship. Believe it or not you have to pay for your internship – 3 credit class. That part kind of sucks and the work load too. The prof. that oversees internship, while nice and helpful, is big on assignments and taking on extra work. Her assignments are super detailed and multi-parted also. UGH! On one hand I like her but on the other hand she really annoys me.

 

Ahhh, my nose is clearing…422 IS bad for me.

 

My killer class this semester is going to be Advanced Writing and Research in Psychology. So far I really love the professor. She is a neuropsychologist whose main focus is on drug addiction and how it changes neuro pathways/structures in the brain. She is from England; I love her accent and voice, I do not really love the class though. Research is my weak spot – well research design and statistics. Right now we are reading a couple boring research articles and have to write reviews, pretending we are reviewers for a psych journal and looking at if the research was designed and performed correctly and also if the stats are correct. UGH! Later in the semester we are going to be researching and designing are own research project as a group and on an individual basis. Mine is on obesity. This class will actually span over 2 semesters. O joy! I guess this is the alternative to having to write a thesis in order to graduate.

 

I also have an English composition (advanced) class. I like the professor, I like his ideas. I just don’t write well for male professors. I am not sure why. I guess perhaps because I am afraid they might find my writing silly and emotional. Something I have to work on getting over. He wants us to write every day of course so we have to keep a blog(s) (one specific topic of our choice) for his class as opposed to a journal. I love blogging so I hope this won’t be too hard for me. Finding the time to write is my main obstacle. I actually created 2 new blogs because I wasn’t sure what to write about. I chose weight/obesity as a topic for one blog and being stepmother for the other. So far I have only started working on the weight blog. I have not decided if I want to connect my new blogs to this one yet. This blog is varied and more like a journal or diary, although my writing style (outside of research stuff) is always personal.

 

I went on a field trip this morning with English class. We all had to go to the Farmer’s Market and experience it. I have been to the Flint Farmer’s Market once. It is a cool place. It just won an award as being one of the top ten farmer’s markets in America. I looked around and kind of chilled – had a spinach and feta croissant and tea for breakfast. All the veggies looked great and there is a great cheese market there. I couldn’t really shop though because I had to go back to school. I want to make an effort to shop there. In addition to great veggies, I hear the meat is really good. There are other little shops there too – wine, used cds & books, and jewelry. My English prof. wanted us to get a sense of place and see how different people experience the same place.

 

http://www.flintfarmersmarket.com/

 

Well time to get the heck out of school for the day. I have all my classes save Wind Symphony on two days a week, which makes for a long, full day. Long days, full semester.

Can a Woman Be a "Great American Novelist"?

If you doubt unconscious bias exists, you live in a man’s world.

An article after my own heart. I was thinking of this somewhat when I wrote my last blog. Personally I do believe there is a bias and women buy into that bias. But I also believe that women read more than men and tend to gravitate more towards women writers so perhaps womens works are being read more. 

Of course the power, at least in the literary world, belongs mostly to old, white men stuck in their ways so of course good writing by men is heralded more. I suppose men’s writing is less sentimental, less touchy feel-y so it tends to be seen as ‘great’ while women are seen as more emotional and as writer of more personal, ‘smaller’ concerns – a lot of people don’t understand or are scared of anything ’emotional’. Plus people tend to think ‘big’ when they think of a ‘Great American Novel’ – a story of epic proportions, high drama but stark of emotion. 

Hot weather = fun times in the pool.

Then there is Baby Brent who just turned 3. He also love the water just like his brothers and wants to swim in the pool just like them. Of course he sees them swimming around and wants to be just like his older brothers… or sees them without a life jacket and refuses to put one on himself. Actually he has always hated the life jacket. Most times we make him, threatening him with nap time if he doesn’t cooperate. He puts on his life jacket fast enough then! He is a stinker. One time last month he was getting in the pool and refused to put his life jacket on. I let him get in without it thinking I would just hold onto him but the stubborn, brave baby decided he was going to swim like his oldest brother. The bad thing is he began to sink like a stone. I was right there as his little face went under water, his eyes got huge as he realized he was sinking and he began to panic. Of course I pulled him out quick as can be. He was alright and not too scared, I think he laughed once I pulled him out. I just hope that taught him that the life jacket is for his protection. Of course kids must push boundaries and test themselves. I just pray for my nephews to always be safe around the pool. 

Can I say again how fun and special it is watching these guys learn to swim? It is great to watch them develop each passing day. I wish I could spend more time with them. I also want to do a better job at keeping my memories of them, specially when they are young.

This summer I bought this log flume thingie for the pool. It is two blow up ‘logs’ that you sit on in the pool along with two blow up ‘jousters’ that you hit another person with to knock them off their log. I thought it would be fun and perfect for rambunctious boys to play with. If they could only stay on the log long enough. We found out that it is next to impossible to stay on the dang log. I had fun the first day I attempted to. My husband and nephews laughed at me as I tried to straddle the log and stay on. Of course the second I was on the log would roll and I would be dumped into the water with a shriek. It was fun. A couple of times I was able to stay on for more than a few seconds but Kenny thought it was more fun to see me get dumped into the water and he would push me off. My stepson Jordan is better at staying on the logs although we had fun teasing him because it looks hilarious to see anybody getting on the thing. He and Kenny actually were able to have a couple of jousts too, although I had to balance Kenny and hold his log. Jordan was the winner of the jousts of course. 

Ah summer memories, fun times in the pool. Those are the best!