Northern Noise

I've run into a couple of folks the past few days that I haven't seen for awhile.  Both asked me the same question, "Did you do something different with you hair?"  It made me smile because I haven't done anything different with my hair.  Been the same for a long while. I have lost 35 lbs.  Maybe that's what's different.

When it come to really scary, no one does it like Stephen King.  His books have caused me to sleep with a light on, pulling my toes in so they don't go off the edge of the bed.  Even his "non-scary" books are scary, often through examination of human nature, but also with the way he makes normal people experience paranormal events.  But, since this post is about the categories of horror in my collection, I'll share the four  Stephen King movies I own which most folks would count as "scary." Stephen King Movies: Pet Sematary .  Classic cautionary tale of letting the dead be dead. Especially if it includes an ancient Indian burial ground. The Mist.  The humans are the scariest, but, like it's predecessor The Fog , not being able to see what's out there is  horrifying.  This one isn't as scary the second time around, which I think weakens it's status as a classic. IT .  This is one of the most terrifying books out there, and Pennywise th

October is scary movie month at our house.  It has been since Aileen hit about 13 years old, and we like being scared.  Over time we've gotten a pretty decent collection of what I see as classic horror movies.  Recently a friend asked me if we had a method to watching them - chronology, based on true story, zombie, etc.  It made me think about the types of movies we have and why.  So here's a first attempt at making sense of them. The Classics: Damien - The original demon child When we started watching movies, part of what I was doing was helping build Ali's cultural literacy.  (Like the summer I made her watch all the John Hughes movies, but with more death).  I think we started with the original Psycho ,  followed by The Omen with Gregory Peck and Lee Remick.  Like The Exorcist , which we've seen but don't own, these have cultural references everyone should know.  They're also pretty darn scary in their own ways.  George C. Scott in The Changeling c

It's fall time.  Although the temperature is oddly warm outside, the leaves are yellow and covering the drive way.  When we went for a walk this morning I could smell the highbush cranberries.  Soon, probably tomorrow, we'll put away the swing on the deck.  We'll mow the lawn a final time to chop up the leaves and then drain the lawnmower before stashing it in the greenhouse.  I'll make the boy shovel out the dog pen again before the snow flies.  It will be time for Jed to try on boots and coats and make sure they fit. I like fall.

School has begun and my boy is in 6th grade.  He's in his final year of elementary school, which is a little strange to think about.  Bob is in his final year of education, at least formally.  He turned in his retirement papers with his final day being February 20.  Hannah is getting married, so it's her final year of being single.  Aileen has moved into a dry cabin, so its her final year of... hmm, cleanliness? I hope its a good year for everyone.

So its August, which means back to school.  For me, in this job, that means books and courses, professional development and planning.  For Bob it's busy, busy, busy. For the kids its the fair, supplies, and new shoes. Today is a Saturday and I'm hanging out enjoying sunshine and browsing online between doing chores. I am doing chores, really. Maybe not as many as I should, but its a start.

I'm at the Coast again, and more relaxed than I have been in ages and ages.  3 days of romantic getaways with my husband, sun and sand, good food and wine.... ahhhhh.  Today I'm kicking back with my ma and the dog while the boys run around doing boy stuff. I'm also spending some time online looking for a doctorate in education program that I could do online. Am I crazy?  Perhaps I am....

In the past 4 years I've finished two masters degrees, started a new job, and got my principal certification.  Just the other day I got my diploma in the mail, so I guess its official.  Spent the weekend with an eerie feeling that I was forgetting something, but realized it's just that there's no homework hanging over my head.  Kinda strange. So the question now is, what to do next?  Do I just take it easy and concentrate on doing my job and hanging with the fam? Those aren't bad things, and they sound really nice right now, actually.  The thing is, if I'm not moving I'm just standing still and I don't know that's my style.  Even when I was teaching, I was always mixing it up.  Taking on new classes, writing pilot courses, starting a 9th grade team, being department head, working on curriculum - every year it seemed like there was a new professional challenge.  The plus side was that I love trying to do new things and improve; the down side was that I

In college, I majored in writing.  Not in literature, or general English, but writing. I liked writing "creative non-fiction," whatever that means.   The fiction I wrote was always based on reality.  I tried my hand at poetry, which I wrote with enthusiasm and little skill.  What was most important for me was the process, the practice of writing. Back in those days, I didn't have a computer.  I wrote by hand, in notebooks that varied from journals with fancy covers to spirals and 3 rings.  The process of editing and revisions was crossing things out, a therapeutic action, and drawing arrows from transition to transition.  When I first started "word processing" my writing, I saved it all on floppy disks, printing on these dot matrix things that made such noise and scrolled forward with perforated edges (what Urban Dictionary calls "kadoobies").  I remember writing workshops in college -  the good, bad and ugly.  Once an instructor accused me of soundi

If I didn't have a fear of heights, I'd build a treehouse for an escape, my own "she cave."  If I didn't have a fear of heights.

I'm sitting here at the house on the beach.  I love the fact that I can come here and be totally relaxed and feel totally at home. My mom is all I have left.  My father has passed, all my grandparents are dead, there's just her.  Her dream for as long as I can remember was to live on the Oregon Coast when she retired.  The fact that I got to be part of helping her get here is really important to me. And I feel invested in this place.  When she first moved in I convinced her to buy these "low profile" stools from Fred Meyers, and now they're where all the boys sit when they're here.  My sister and I got her pictures hung, all the Rie Munoz she'd been saving since Kenai.  Last summer we found her a small hutch for the silver and such from my Gram, and my sister and I created a family picture wall.  Bob got her a good LED flashlight so she doesn't surprise any raccoons when she's walking sweetie at night.  I know my way around (pretty much) and ha

Okay, I admit it.  I made my son go to Art Camp.  For 4 whole days.  (Well, actually 3 1/2 because I left town and his dad let him skip.)  I'm a bad mom. My son has never shown a particular affinity for arts and crafts.  He's always hated drawing, cutting, and coloring.  But I've read Mindset , and I know that it's good for brains to try new things and new ways of thinking.  He's never really tried anything like art camp, and it was only four days, so how bad could it be? Apparently the answer is bad.  Really bad. The first day I picked him up and he refused to speak to me for an hour.  When he did speak he said, "I'm not saying you're moronic, but this idea for me to take art camp sure was."  Didn't make me too happy. He sees no point to 3D sculpture.  At least the bird sculptures made sense to him.  And the art teachers are "crazy" and it's only girls and little kids. And they go on walks that are either too short or &q

I'm feeling the urge to change.  Change what? Not sure yet, but change something.  Change my hair, change my clothes, change my job, change my house, change my attitude, change my reading habits, change my eating habits, change my plan, change ????? What do you do when your primal self is calling out for a change but reality says that many of the big things in life are 1) pretty good already, and 2) needed for a responsible family life??

I'm thinking about my gramps today.  I wish Montana wasn't so far away so I could swing by and clean up his grave and give some flowers. I always knew my gramps was in the army.  My grandparents would fly up to Kenai on standby on military flights, and Gramps would go to the PX in Anchorage and buy steaks, etc. to bring down for a cookout each summer.  I would also hear stories about the army, and how whenever Gramps got called home for an emergency, he'd bring a lieutenant with him.  I knew my mom went to high school at Dugway Proving Grounds, and that my Gramps was a hospital administrator at Bassett Army Hospital in Fairbanks. One summer after I had started teaching, I went down to Helena to stay with my grandparents for a few weeks and do some chores around the house for them.  While I was there, two World War 2 planes were scheduled to fly into town.  Gramps asked if I would go with him, so we went to the airport to see them and then to Perkins for lunch.  While I

The words of Ed Abbey sometimes are where I find my sanity and my salvation. Today's words of wisdom.... 1)  "Too much proximity to folly tends to make it seem normal..." 2)  "Hierarchical institutions are like giant bulldozers--obedient to the whim of any fool who takes the controls." 3) "One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast... a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your br

When I was a kid, there were certain things that seemed like symbols of being "normal."  My family didn't necessarily have a lot of money, nor did we have the fanciest house.  I remember going to my Grammie's and she had a formal living room, fancy silver on the buffet in the dining room,  matching fancy dishes as well as everyday dishes.  Don't get me wrong, we lived just fine, but in my mind we did not hold with lots of the trappings of finery. Two Christmases ago I mentioned to Bob that I loved Christmas villages, and that in my mind a Christmas village was a symbol of..... what exactly I can't describe.  Gentility? Manners? Civility? Class?  I think it was just part of my picture of the Norman Rockwell holiday scene.  Bob got me the start of village, and I've been getting pieces ever since.  For Mother's Day, I got Downton Abbey; how cool is that?  I absolutely love my Christmas village and setting it up last year with Jed was truly about perfect

When I grow up I want to have read so many important books that I can offer wise quotes at any moment.  When I grow up, I will have overcome my fear of spiders.  And sock monkeys.  When I grow up I will do the dishes each night before I go to bed and wake up to a clean kitchen each morning.  When I grow up I won't eat the frosting and leave the cake.  When I grow up I will calmly take life's challenges in stride, and not react by getting pissed at the world.  When I grow up I'll stop blaming Bob for the fact his son talks constantly, all the time, every waking moment.  When I grow up I'll forgive the people who have done me and my loved ones wrong (but I won't forget).  When I grow up I'll quit spending so much time stalking folks on Facebook, and Twitter.  When I grow up, I'll stop answering hard questions by performing an interpretive dance. Wait, no I won't.  Interpretive dance is always an appropriate response to a question.

Over the weekend we hit 70 and sunshine was on the swing.  Today it snowed.  ugh.

It's a good thing there was no Facebook while I was in college for the first time. Or smart phones. Or XBox video games.  Back in the day when I wanted to procrastinate finishing a paper I had to do errands, or complete some chores around the house.  But now, I can turn on the computer to finish a paper and instead enter the world of Pinterest and great ideas for creating storage in small kitchens.  Or I can read the news- from anywhere in the world - and find out who wore it best in the world of movie stars yesterday. And all the while my paper is open in another window, so I can convince myself (if I stretch it a little) that I'm actually just "thinking about what to write."   In this case I'm thinking about writing my blog instead of answering questions about my philosophy of school leadership.  Oh wait, a quiz about what car I should drive.....

Sometimes I feel like everyone is going to find out.  Somehow, someone is going to realize that I'm not really a grown up, nor am I that smart, and they'll say, "How did she get into this position?"  I always felt a sense of irony that I became a teacher when I don't really believe in schools.  It was like I was pulling a fast one, getting a chance to shape young minds and incite rebellious thinking under the guise of English 9.  And then I got promoted - I'm in central office. WTF? Don't they know that I don't really believe in our school system, or that I don't see the education world the way others do?   Don't get me wrong - I love teaching, I love students and I believe that our world will be okay because young people are smart. Sometimes, I want to be king of the world for just a few days.  Long enough to change the way people think.  Long enough to make teachers, especially those in high schools, step back and think about kids first and

So at last I'm posting some picture of my "new" house.  It's not even done yet - door still to be installed and countertops aren't in yet but we're home and my house feels new. So here's some pics. The view from the front door: The view from the living room: The view of the whole thing: Pretty amazing transformation.  Will be even better when its done!  New front door, new bathroom door, countertops.... I'm loving it! It's especially exciting when at one point it looked like this: And this And this And then like this

Last night here at Wedgewood Apartments.  Truthfully, it's not that bad but the simple truth is, it ain't home.  I'm ready to be home.  I know lots of folks live in close proximity to others, but I'm missing my 5 acres of quiet. My house looks totally different - new bathroom, new kitchen, new layout and we seem real uptown.

I don't know what it is, but today's family are seriously missing out.  I can think of 3 staples from my childhood that people today totally don't appreciate - and they should. 1) Tang.  A day's supply of vitamin C and a year's supply of sugar in every glass.  It's what the astronauts drank.  Need I say more? 2)  Spam. It's meat! In a can! Fully cooked but yummy heated. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Even in sushi!  And now I hear it's available in teriyaki flavor.  Most people who knock it have never tried it. 3) Cream of mushroom soup. This magic in  a can turns any leftovers into a casserole.  It's the key ingredient to Tator Tot Casserole.  Green bean casserole at the holidays wouldn't be the same without it. I understand that times change.  I don't let my kids ride their bikes without helmets, even though I jumped board with nails in them on a bike with a warped tire and survived.  I make them wear seatbelts, although I drove to A

I'm getting closer to being able to get into my house and I can't wait.  We have moved into a different apartment in the same building, but this one doesn't have tobacco smoke emanating from under every doorway and hallway (despite the fact it's a non-smoking building). The kitchen and bathroom are being taped and mudded, sanded and will be painted.  I've picked out about everything except a towel bar, and bought everything except the over the range microwave and a new table.  The table may have to wait because I have a very clear idea of what I want and I haven't found it in Fairbanks, yet. I am such a homebody.  I want my routine, my boring life, and I really, really, miss my dogs.  I hope they're not totally traumatized by the lack of attention and loving.  They've been outside for almost 3 weeks; will they be feral, crazy, or so happy to be inside again that they'll behave?? At least a friend has invited us for Easter and that will be a fun

I'm officially the worst mom ever.  Last night I put the boy to bed and tried to teach myself to play Xbox. I even looked up the walkthroughs.  They told me what to do but not how to do it.  Like what buttons to push and what does what.  After dying repeatedly on the second phase, I gave up. Tonight I decided to try again, but this time I did a bad thing.  After assuring my son that it wasn't too gory, and to do as I say not as I do, and that no he cannot play rated M games, I made him get out of bed (he wasn't asleep yet) and teach me how to punch a zombie.  Then he told me how to use the D buttons and how to read the codes provided by the directional arrows. As a result I made it through two more achievements, and actually quit the game at the end of an episode - and while still alive. I'm the parent, so it's okay for me to do things I would never let my kids do??  And it's okay for me to make my son look at a Walking Dead graphic video game although he

I bought myself a video game.  A real one.  For the XBox 360.  It's The Walking Dead season 1 .  I have papers to write, exercises to do, books to read and last night I put the boy to bed and tried to learn how to play a video game. For the record, I suck at it.

So tomorrow is Friday, and I'm happy.  I'll go check on the dogs and then see what progress has been made on my kitchen/bathroom.  Today I went up and there were: subfloors on kitchen AND bathroom which means insulation on all the plumbing dryer vent is in ceiling fan/light is in crazy holes getting squared so sheetrock can go in Woo hoo!   I hadn't realized I was going to be so excited about this whole project.  But boy am I, and am I ready to move back home when its done!

Today I went up to the house and I am happy.  When we discussed adding some renovation to replacing the rotten floor, I had three desires. 1.  I wanted the washing machine moved out of the kitchen and into the bathroom. 2. I wanted a hood / vent of some kind over the stove. 3. I wanted a real door on the bathroom, and ideally it would not open directly upon the kitchen table. As of today, I have all three dreams realized. And I have light switches that are wired correctly and work for the layout. Woo  hoo!

Every night about 9:00ish, the smokers come out.  This is supposed to be a non-smoking building but between the smokers at the door and the smokers on their decks all around the stench seeps under the doorway and into the air.  It's not too bad if I stay out of the kitchen, and keep the sliding door closed. I keep telling myself that apartment living isn't so bad. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.....

I'm SO over snow.  Woke up this morning to about 1/2 inch and it snowed lightly all damn day.  I'm done with winter.  Drove up to check on the dogs and our muddy driveway was frozen.  Ugh.  The good news is that apparently Della dog goes into the doghouse during the day so I don't have to worry about her freezing. It's April and its supposed to be getting close to springtime, but we're predicting below 0 temps later this week.  I want warm, I want my house, and I want my dogs.

When we moved into this apartment, we brought 5 days of clothes for me and 5 days for Jed, plus some knockarounds for evening/weekend.  Today, I needed to do laundry.  I got my tokens from the front desk, found out where the laundry room is, and gathered clothes and detergent.  As I was headed towards the door I suddenly realized that every, single murder/cop show I've ever seen has had someone killed in the laundry room - Law & Order, Castle, Bones, even The Walking Dead. Sometimes of course the victim is sleeping with someone's husband, or witness to a crime, but sometimes it's simply a matter of bad timing.  So I exited the door with caution, and made sure Jed knew to call 911 if I didn't return in 30 minutes. I walked out of our entrance and made my way down the sidewalk to the entrance to the laundry room.  A man was walking out and held the door.  He looked normal enough, but I made eye contact confidently and watched to see him actually get into his car an

Jed and I are sitting here on a Friday night in Wedgewood Manor.  Yup, displaced from our home we're in "extended stay" housing. The irony is that I lived here a bit in college; I've come so far. Jed keeps commenting on how weird it is to live in a little box.  "How do you have birthday parties in an apartment?"  "How do you practice your trombone in an apartment?" "How do you wrestle in an apartment." It's not THAT bad, but it's certainly odd.  And Jed came home from school on day one and said, "My friends say people get shot at Wedgewood." After reassuring him that wasn't true, Bob leaned over and showed me the Newsminer article.  Sure enough, last month two shot, 5 arrested in a drug shooting in the same building we're living in.  Luckily, my biggest gripe so far is the stink of tobacco smoke from the smokers who stand in the doorway. I tell myself that in a few weeks I'll be home AND I'll have a

A friend from high school posted a meme on Facebook that both makes me sad and also puzzles me.   As much as I despised the politics of GW Bush, he was our president and in my book that means he gets a certain amount of respect.  And while I wished he weren't president, I never would EVER have considered wishing he were dead. So I just don't get this one. In my friend's defense, I don't think he actually wishes Obama dead. I think he just hates the President so he thought it was funny.  One of the statements in his comment section said that Obama doesn't exhibit a "love of American values and ideology." Huh?  What are "American values and ideology?"  I know what I see as American values and I would guess that I don't see eye to eye with that other point of view.  In an attempt to understand, I decided to do some research on why conservatives hate Obama so much.  Here's what I've learned. 1) People still

This was a productive weekend at the Hadaway house.  More spring cleaning.  It feels darn good though.  The big deal was getting Jed's room cleaned.  When Ali was little, Bob built a big loft bed for her and it's been there ever since.  Jed slept up there some after he got that room, and he's used it for playing with his knights and cars and all the epic battles and scenes over the years.  I've bonked my head on it too many times to count. Well, it's gone now.  Jed got the the point where he was too tall to play under it and too tall to play comfortably on top of it.  And in truth it had become a way to hide mess up high out of mom's line of sight.  He and Bob took it apart, hauled it outside, and then we cleaned all the stuff it hid.  I bought a put together book shelf and Jed put it together yesterday.  We moved a desk in there from Ali's room. All of a sudden there's a big boy room where a kid's room used to be.  It's lighter, it's brig

This was a great morning.  Husband left for early appointment.  Boy slept in.  Mama got to drink coffee, read the news and listen to Hear and Now on NPR.  Then, I had my own most awesome breakfast.  Fried spam with scrambled eggs.  Ahhhh.  Best. Breakfast. Ever.

Almost spring break - which for me is two days long.  The light is shining later at night, the sun is sharing a hint of warmth, people are smiling in Fred Meyer. Bring it on, spring. I'm ready.

After being down with a sinus infection, I not only switched antibiotics but I've got prednisone flowing through my veins. Drug-induced highs are a good way to get a start on spring cleaning.  So in order to bring some order, it was time to tackle the overflow. Books. Bob and I were married about three years before we merged our his and hers bookshelves into an ours bookshelf.  Compromising on an organizational system was a long process, but we managed.  One of the biggest challenges was space, and it continues to be an issue. Each time we run out of space on the bookshelves in the house, we sort into 3 piles.  Books that need to stay in the house, books that can go on the shelves in the studio, and books that we can get rid of. We've basically agreed that if we don't have space, we have to purge.  We purged a goodly amount today, mostly paperbacks and Alex Cross novels that we won't re-read.  We also have a goodly amount to move into the studio. But that means t

First, let me make it very clear that I love my mom.  A lot.  And I like her too, and respect her.  I don't want anyone to think anything different. Okay, now its time to talk about texting.  (In fact, I'm already giggling.) One on visit mom and I talked about texting, and she shared that with her long fingernails, texting was problematic.  I pointed out that she had voice to text on her phone, and that all she needed to do was hit the button, speak to her phone, and voila! her text was magically ready to send.  I felt like a good daughter, helping her mother with technology.  Little did I know at the time that we had created a monster. Wait, monster isn't an accurate word.  What I didn't realize is that she would speak to her phone and hit send without looking to see what her phone actually heard her say.  And in her defense, she's pretty accurate about 85% of the time.  It's the other 15% that makes me crack up. Here's an example of a text from mom

Today I'm pissed off at the ignorance of humanity.  I have two issues burning in my gut: equal rights, and the meaning of democracy.  Everyone is happy that Jan Brewer vetoed the Arizona law that would have made it okay for businesses to refuse to serve gay people based on their religious beliefs.  The right claimed they were "protecting religious freedom."  Bullshit.  They were trying to legalize hate and discrimination. Huffington Post did a great article back in September titled "How to Determine if Your Religious Liberty is Being Threatened.  There's an easy set of questions, found  here  that makes it very clear that simply because you don't like others getting to live their beliefs isn't a threat to your own religious freedom.  All people have a right to equal protection under the law.  End of discussion. The other aspect of this whole argument that makes me furious is that when the courts strike down these laws as unconstitutional, people cla