in which the author survives a fourth-grade field trip

On a whim, I accompanied Simon on his field trip today. Capitol Hill participates in this great program with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, where a theme is explored through five or six pieces from the collection. A parent volunteer receives training from the MIA then gives an age-appropriate talk to the students. The lesson culminates with a trip to the museum where students receive a docent-led tour to see the actual art.

This year’s theme was “Where We Live,” which seemed to only be tangentially linked to the art. The docent did a fantastic job with the kids even if only a handful of the 15 students listened at any one time. (My responsibility was to be the sweeper, taking up the rear, making sure all kids got from one gallery to the next.) We saw an African ceremonial mask, two Greek black- and red-figure vases, Egyptian funeral reliquaries, the veiled lady (Raffaelo Monti, 1860), and separate portraits of a couple.

Simon was drawn to countless items not on the art adventure so I promised him we’d return. Dale Chihuly's Sunburst chandelier, which hangs in the entry, is my favorite piece for its energy, vibrancy, and fragility. I have this plan to take the boys at least once a month this summer. Tackling the museum’s three floors in bits is a sane way to see more art. Follow up with a picnic in Washburn Fair Oaks park, with its exquisite views of downtown Minneapolis, and we’ll call it a civilized day.

(photo credits: top [picasaweb], middle [minneapolis institute of art], bottom left [www.chihuly.com])

soccer star

Simon played an outstanding soccer game tonight. He hustled and fought for the ball in every single position he played, and he played all the positions—forward, midfield, and defense. He’s great at defense. Although he’s never articulated as much, I can see that he likes the big-picture nature of strategizing from down field. He’d rather defend the goal than have to score.

But tonight he played with an aggression we don’t typically see from him but that we encourage him to do. Not sure what inspired him—perhaps he decided that it was his time to shine?—whatever. While playing midfield, he popped a ball “over the heads of three players” right into the goal. Boom!

As soon as Simon was subbed out, he ran around the field and asked if we could celebrate with dinner at the Groveland Tap. And we did.

I am so proud of son number one.

N.B.: The picture was taken this past fall after a particularly cold and wet game. Now, Simon wears number 20, and, as he said, "It's the last number I'll ever wear."

weasel day with winnie g.

Winston is home with me today. I’m feeling a bit like a mensch. He isn’t sick, just tired, but sometimes that’s all it takes after a huge weekend.

On Saturday night we tried to go to the drive-in for a Shrek 4-Iron Man 2 double feature. Both Vali-Hi and Cottage View were at capacity, with incredibly long lines of cars hoping to get in at some point. Even though we were thwarted twice, we became determined to see a movie of some sort so we hightailed to Inver Grove Heights, the nearest movie theater, to see Iron Man 2 at 9:35 (we didn’t get home until close to 1 a.m.).

How was it? Robert Downey, Jr. was incredible, as always. Sam Rockwell was an outstanding corrupt tycoon. Mickey Rourke was genius as the villain. The plot was hopelessly predictable, but I don’t think that really matters since the movie is action driven. And the action was good. Some of the sequences were overwhelming—huge and fast and loud. I would love to have seen Iron Man 2 on the enormous drive-in screen. Best movie of the summer. So far.

On Sunday, the boys played at friends’ houses. Winston, for one, spent the day in his friend Peter F’s swimming pool=lots of sun, lots of activity. 94 degrees and humid—I hate this weather and wish I could have spent the day in the pool, too. John had band practice while I made stock from lobster shells and planned our June trip.

So I made Winston sleep in this morning. I even laid down with him for a while. He’s so small and cuddly. My plan was to take him to school around 10. Around 8:30 his teacher called to ask if he was coming to school. She was checking because the class was taking a field trip to the Dodge Nature Center, and she didn’t want him to be left behind. How convenient for Winston? His class wouldn’t return to school until close to the time it let out for the day. No point in taking him to school.

We made a pact: no kid TV, no electronics (DS or wii), no computer. Pretty much no fun. Trying to make the most of the day, we tapped into creativity. Winston and I rounded up all the never-used chopsticks from Chinese takeout and all the scraps of yarn from knitting projects I’d finished. Then I set Winston to work making god’s eyes, which he named after Greek gods: Ares, Poseidon, Athena, Zeus, and Hades.

While Winston was busy crafting, I learned how to knit using double point needles. The sweater I started this past winter is two sleeves shy of being finished. The weather is becoming less conducive to holding a bulky garment on my lap so I’d like to get this sweater completed and stored in mothballs until November.

gardening

The following is a true confession from the daughter of a gardener, who has an impeccable yard and landscaping, as well as a world-class vegetable/herb garden. Also, my mother-in-law is equally passionate about gardening. She has a prize-winning day lily garden and is an upstanding member of her garden club for which she had to audition. I’m not a gardener and am loathe to doing any yard work. I would rather read a book or cook or knit. It’s not surprising then that our yard looks like hell.

Our house is nestled between a professionally manicured lawn and the yard of a horticulturalist, both of whom perpetually put us to shame, though more so the horticulturalist as she and her husband work on their yard for hours every weekend. While I concede that, with children, we don’t have that kind of time to dedicate to landscaping, we also can’t manage to mow our yard and pull weeds, some of which now have trunks as thick as young trees. (Hangs head in shame.)

I make no promises of creating something grand, but this is the summer I’m going to get in touch with my inner green thing. For the past few summers I have grown herbs and tomatoes in containers, and this summer is no different. Already, using starter plants rather than seeds, I have planted basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, and oregano. I should be able to start using the herbs in the next few weeks. But in a more ambitious move, I pulled weeds from the beds in the patio area. The beds currently have hostas and sedum, which are now augmented by the deep red coral bells (heuchera) and sedum that I planted recently.

Now we do rain dances and hope the plants “take.” But, I’m also actively scheming the next addition of foliage! This gardening/landscaping thing is fun.

Note: the irises came with the house. 

summer vacation

Now that school is officially done for the summer, there are oh, so, very many things I would like to do. My top priority at the moment is planning our family’s summer vacation. We’re going to England for ten days, starting June 11. We have a night flight, otherwise, I would have liked nothing more than to take the boys out of school for their last day. By all accounts, a day of airports and airplanes and passport control is infinitely more educational than anything they will learn at school in the next three weeks. No knock on Capitol Hill, which is a fine school, or the boys’ teachers, who are amazing, but the year’s wrap-up has begun in earnest.

I’m trying to nail down a final itinerary. Years of business travel instilled in me an urgency to have every dinner and hotel reservation made well in advance. There is nothing like arriving in a town, Appleton, WI, for example, to find that there isn't a single vacancy in a 100-mile radius because the Packers are playing Monday Night Football. For example. Quite frankly, if John and I were traveling alone, we could play it by ear, but since we’re bringing the boys, I have to confirm that we’re safely resting our heads each evening. I’m less concerned about meals and, with the exception of the English breakfast that comes with most hotels and b&bs, as well as hard-to-book restaurants in London, I’m willing to wing most evening meals. Food isn’t hard to find.

A thumbnail sketch of our trip:

~direct flight to Heathrow (volcanic activity permitting*), pick up rental car (automatic with a/c, please)

~Oxford to acclimate and walk around colleges and pay homage to Tolkien

~Avebury and Stonehenge

~various standing stones, stone circles, quoits, dolmens, and fogous throughout Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall

~the Jurassic Coast

~Tintagel and Merlin’s Cave

~Bath and Glastonbury

In addition to ruins, I hope to see the magnificent cathedrals of Exeter, Salisbury, and Wells but I am prepared to be overruled. The adventure will culminate in London where we’ll visit the Tower and the British Museum and see the neighborhood where I lived from ’87-88 (which, in a beautiful coincidence, was Sherlock Holmes’ “stomping grounds” as well). We each want to take advantage of a weaker Br. pound and satisfy our personal interests in bicycles, music, books, and food.

I am in need of a vacation and could leave today, but, in addition to the trip planning, I need to figure out what the boys will be doing for the remainder of the summer (whispers of sleepaway camp). And, I’m trying to undo the damage done to the house while I was a full-time student…lots to file and throw and repurpose. The next three weeks will fly.

*Eyjafjallajökull is fascinating and beautiful in a warped-nature way, but she had better not mess with my travel plans. I’m trying not to let the risks play into my neurosis, but it’s somewhat hard to avoid. The Christian Science Monitor published the photo above, and the paper's website has daily coverage of the volcano's affect on flights.

anatomy of a portfolio review

Tuesday (5/11)

I arrived in the Space Lab at 7 am, an ungodly early hour, to pin up my portfolio. Basically, I selected my best work, as well as a few obligatory pieces, such as the McNeal Hall drawing and the final project from Color. The interior design work I chose included the yoga studio floor plan (semester one final project), the two concept boards for "rustic", the condo floor plan/concept statement (semester two final project), the condo model, and a set of elevations from the volume project. Last night I blocked out a 4’-0”x8’-0” area with masking tape on the floor in the den (above), and I played around with the layout. So I know all the work will fit the allowed space. Then I took a picture and packed my portfolio cases so I could methodically I arrange the pieces in the Space Lab.

Despite such planfulness, pinning my work took the full hour. I had to move some items to make them fit, and I had to rearrange pieces to maximize their impact at eye-level. Also, I struggled with some of the 18”x24” presentation boards, which were laden with materials, such as wood and slate. The boards were heavy and bulky and laughed at the T-pins with abandon.

Before I started pinning, I gave myself a pep talk that went something like this: “Just pin up your work and walk out of the lab. Go home and prepare your comments. Don’t look at any other portfolios. No comparisons allowed. Now run, don’t walk.”

I’m neurotic and an unrealistic perfectionist. Argh. And, I peeked at other portfolios, then second-guessed myself. A last minute decision to include my condo model on the display, rather than setting on the floor, was an inspiration. Plus, the addition gave variety to larger, flat pieces.

To my credit, my work is arranged in a way that is neat and that maintains classic proportions, as we learned to do throughout second semester. I only included work that I intended to present, and I didn’t needlessly cram work onto the 4’-0” by 8’-0” display.

I will not sleep for fear that presentation boards have fallen and tiles have shattered.

Wednesday (5/12)

As suspected, I didn’t sleep very well. John went out with friends and didn’t return home until well after 1 a.m. He’s not to blame, but I didn’t fall asleep in bed until he got home, and I tried not to stew about not being well rested. Still, I couldn’t sleep. Okay, maybe I'm blaming him a tiny bit. At best, I got two hours, thus approximating a familiar situation—every large project this semester required an all-nighter to complete, followed by a bleary-eyed presentation this next morning.

My portfolio review was set for 10 a.m., which I chose so as not to need to wake up especially early but also so I didn’t have all day to stew about the presentation. I showered, had my coffee, dressed in a flattering black shirtdress that sported an a-line skirt and black w/ tan piping open-toed wedges (I looked professional and like I’d walked off the Mad Men set). Then I paced around the house practicing my speech. I had the presentation nailed to the minute. I wanted to get to campus early so I headed for my car at 9:15. Key in the ignition. Turn the key. Nothing. Car won’t start. This could have been the end of the story. Taking a bus or calling a friend or John (who works in Chanhassen) would have taken too long…I would have missed portfolio review. Plus, I had no way to contact the committee, especially since I didn’t know who is on it. Nor did I know which of my classmates were presenting around the same time as me. Fortunately, a Yellow Cab got me to campus with ten minutes to spare.

(self-portrait, in McNeal elevator on way to presentation)

Although completely unnecessary, I think that bit of drama kept my mind off my presentation. No time to get nervous. At 10 a.m. I was called into the Space Lab and introduced to the selection committee, which consisted of the two professors I had for first year labs, the department chair, another high-ranking professor, and a few other full-time faculty. They were all pleasant but quiet. I was relieved to see that nothing had fallen from the display. In the midst of my presentation, I received a three-minute warning. Apparently I lingered somewhere that I hadn’t rehearsed so I wrapped up, hitting every high point, and concluded my speech. The committee asked a few questions, though hardly any that required much elaboration. Then I was dismissed.

Fastest 10 minutes of my life.

I think I killed

Thursday (5/13)

No sleeping in for this weary student for she must put the children on the bus by 7:30 a.m. And, I had to go to campus and take down my work least it get chucked. Now, I can’t see any of these pieces filling my mausoleum but I did put much sweat and blood into them and would like to use them for reference in the coming year. Fingers crossed.

After I took down my "exhibit" and said a quiet farewell for the summer to McNeal Hall, my home away from home, I took myself to Ngon for a celebratory lunch (below).

(bahn mi, sweet potato fries with rooster aioli, Lift Bridge Farm Girl [not pictured])

Later that evening, while on facebook, one of my classmate/fb friends congratulates herself on being accepted to the program. I hadn’t expected news so soon. Holding my breath, I logged onto my U email, and there it is!! I’m in. Honestly, for all the hard work and lost sleep, the news was a tiny anticlimactic. I’m not complaining but it all happened so fast. Sigh. But I’m in, and I don’t need to worry about what to do next. Sigh.

I’m in. I’m in. I’m in.

done

Today was my last day of classes. The semester, as well as the first academic year of my program is over. Done. But don’t put a fork in it yet. Next week I have a final exam in Psych 1001: 100 questions, 90 minutes. Then, I will present my portfolio to a committee of interior design professors, who will decide if my work is competent enough to continue in the program.

(McNeal Hall drawing in progress)

I suspect that my work is competent and that I’m trainable. 

(condo model)

But it’s not my decision…