Songbirds

Of all the songbirds that could perch on my windowsill to sing at dawn each day, I got stuck with a pesky little tone-deaf one who belches out his morning greeting. And so if Sleeping Beauty's melodious musings are true--

"I wonder..
I wonder if each little bird has a someone
to sing to,
sweet things to,
a gay little love melody.."

--I got screwed.

Sillyness

I came out of the shower and found Sabbath IN Elinore's animal barn. In case she was worried about her toys getting lonely, Sabbath is keeping them company. I snapped this photo in between lazy blinks, she just may have fallen asleep in there.

Liberty, Annecy, and Mont Blanc

In the process of picking new hikes for each day we decided to visit Col des Glieres, a high valley between two ridges a little southwest of La Clusaz. The ride up to the plateau was a bit hair raising, but our nerves are steeling up now that we've been on the road here for a while. This particular area was the site of an historical parachute drop in 1944 during WWII of weapons and supplies to support the formation of the French Resistance effort. The Savoie region was ideal for this cause because of the terrain. The Vichy and Nazi response was ferocious, with artillery and bombardment taking a high toll in lives and habitation. We sat and ate lunch on a ridge across from the monument erected in honor of the dead.

We also visited Annecy on Market Day and discovered a beautiful area with narrow winding streets crossing over several canals leading to the large adjacent lake. The weather was exquisite as families socialized in the gardens by the lake and by the vendors sellings fruits, cheeses, meats, and vegetables. It was a glorious day, ending with a lunch of crepes.

Saturday May 23 we decided to make a go for Chamonix anf the telesphere ride up over the flank of Mont Blanc. We had been watching the weather and figured this might be our best chance to get clear air around this highest peak in Europe. We weren't disappointed after getting up early to arrive in time for the first lift of the day to the top. We were accompanied by a crowd of seasoned skiers and technical climbers who quickly scattered out into the "White Valley" adjacent to Mont Blanc to their various objectives of the day. We watched as they quickly became small specks making their way across the glacial ice and snow. The weather was perfect and the scenery spectacular.

Ambience de Savoie au Printemps

So we woke up this morning and the air was clear and the sun was shining and there were no clouds. We decided that we would make a quick run back up to Col des Aravis to see if Mont Blanc was clear from what appears to be ever present clouds. Much to our surprise and delight Mont Blanc stood majestic and vivid in the morning sun and we got our pictures, and fueled our anticipation for riding the telecabin over to Italy with spectacular views next week. But, we couldn't linger, because, it was Wednesday and the marche in le Grand Bornand was in full swing, and we couldn't miss out on that. We bought cheese and sausage and fresh vegetables, des olives, and du vin for dinner and then proceeded to a wonderful hike up to a local peak, Tete du Danay, which has a 360 degree view around our entire area.

We've been enjoying the local wines (apremont and des autres) and cheeses, also locally made and delightful. Many thanks to Lawrence Bland for the generous champagne contribution to our anniversery on Tuesday!

This is a multidimensional good time, with exercise, outstanding food, scenery to make one sigh, and good company - we're doing our best to take it all in.

Milles Bornes en France

We continue to have some new experiences in and around La Clusaz. We had a very pleasant and traditonal regional dinner last night at the Savoie Restaurant at Hotel Airelles - Raclette and Fondue. We broiled our own raclette at the table and managed the cheese fondue expertly without setting the table on fire. Interesting, the last of the fondue was taken after mixing in a raw egg and a shot of kirsch, allowing every last bit to be scooped up. Tuesday morning brought back glorious sunshine in celebration of John and Linda's 30th anniversary. As we sat having some coffee, muesli, and yoghurt, we began to hear a cacaphony of bells - similar to what we heard from the cows in meadows while hiking, but louder, with more tones, and in our immediate vicinity!

We rushed to the deck overlooking Route des Confins, and there was a herd of dairy cows wearing ceremonial bells with broad embroidered collars, each with a distinct insignia. They were heading to the high meadow around Lac des Confins, perhaps as a symbolic heralding of spring. We watched with broad grins as the herders flicked those who slowed, keeping the musical parade moving upward. To be sure, the meadows, paths and roadsides are surging with flowers sprouting everywhere. Crocuses are popping up everywhere, with violets, elder flowered orchids, marsh marigolds, and many others unidentified. And this is clearly just the beginning, with lupine, edelweiss, and others yet to follow over the next few weeks. We are truly here at a magical time - between tourist seasons of winter sports and summer pleasures, but just at the time when the snow melts away to release nature's abundance.

Every morning's first breath brings another wave of exuberance.

We drove to Col des Aravis and hiked up to an overlook to view Giettaz in the precipitous valley below and a cloud shrouded Mont Blanc in the distance. Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe lie near the conjunction of Italy, France, and Switzerland and will be the object of a visit by us next week, when all telesphere lifts will be operating to take us from Chamonix up and over the nearby ridge to Italy. We hear it is a magnificant view and ride.

City Rites of Passage

I get to tick another city-living hazard off my list today. I've previously:
-Been hit by a car while crossing the street
-Had my car broken into
-Received more parking tickets than I care to recount
-Had a hit and run to my parked car at some point during the night.
Am I forgetting anything?

One more is due: The Apartment Break-In.
Yes, it has happened, though our unit was spared. We live in a 3-flat, meaning there are only 3 units in the building, each one taking a floor. We live on the 3rd floor and are the only tenants. The 85-year old owners live on the first floor with their son, and their daughter and son-in-law live on the second. Around 2 pm on Thursday last week Emily and I were sitting in the living room when we thought we heard a knock. Generally when our landlords come up for whatever reason they knock on the back door. We waited and heard it again, so I walked back and opened the door. Nobody there. I called out, nobody answered.

Later that evening the daughter from the 2nd floor came running upstairs to tell us that their apartment had been broken into! The computer and jewelry had been taken and contents of drawers had been strewn across the room. We assume that the knocking we heard was the burgler knocking on the front door of the 2nd floor apartment to make sure they weren't home. The unsettling part was knowing that Emily and I, and the 85-year old owners on the first floor had been home the whole time.

Thankfully nobody was hurt. We still feel safe though we are being more vigilant about keeping the doors locked.

On another note, I had my first run-in of the season with that big, scary raccoon in our backyard again. I think we are equally nervous about each other except that he is the size of a coyote and has a cool bandit-style headband. All I have is a voice that quavers when I say, "go away!" and cloth purse to protect me.

Goat Cheese Supreme

...and this is for Caitlyn and Laura, luscious goat cheese, though we don't expect to bring any home to them. Temperatures were in the 70's and just about perfect for walking in the mountains.

Hiking La Clusaz

The day was sunny and beautiful, so after a good night's rest and a hearty breakfast of muesli and yoghurt, we headed out for a casual walk up near Lac des Confins, east of the chalet. We had cheese, pickles, apples, and a baguette for lunch and found a wonderful spot overlooking a long valley. Dairy cows and goats were busy working their way across the meadows, to create the miracle of fresh milk and cheese. On the way back we stopped by the Chrevrerie to buy some fresh made goat cheese!

Arrived In La Clusaz

After a long night and day of flights and a harrowing drive up into the alps with impatient locals nipping at our heels, we have arrived at La Clusaz and the chalet. We've enclosed a first couple of pictures of the view across the valley, with lingering snow still blanketing the heights. Wysteria, lilacs, and diverse flowers reign supreme along the lush green meadows. The air is crisp and clear, with a warm sun providing a nice welcome. More to come.....

French Alps 2009

We've begun our journey with stage 1 being a stop in Huntington to pick up the Pitficks and double check our packing to make sure we have everything. Friday afternoon we'll depart for Geneva, Switzerland via Madrid, to arrive Saturday afternoon. Here we are having dinner on Wed 5/13/09 remembering old times and anticipating the new.

Life Lessons in Tupperware

It was a weeknight, I was cleaning up the kitchen after eating dinner. I went into the pantry in search of a tupperware container. After several attempts...

Caitlyn (shouting to make sure that roommate on the other end of the apartment hears): This is ridiculous! None of our tupperware matches! What happened?!

Emily scurries into the kitchen in her all-business way, gets on her hands and knees and starts pulling out all the tupperware piece by piece to match it up.

I go about my business in the kitchen and periodically glance over to see the "matched" pile getting bigger and bigger. I scowl to myself, but take a few breaths so I can be calm and humbled.

Emily (looks at me with an ironic twinkle in her eye): I sure hope I'm not in THAT pile. She indicates the group of 4-5 unmatched pieces. But I think I am.

I laugh, and survey the scene. A mountain of matched tupper and a few, a small few, lonely pieces with no match.

Caitlyn: I guess I was too hasty in my accusation that there weren't any that matched. But I just kept picking the wrong ones!

And then I hit myself in the forehead, because OH GOD! was that ever a metaphor for my life.

Gas leak or skunk spray?

As you know, Mom and Dad are in Florida with Grandma and Grandpa. Last night, I was studying metabolism for my exam tomorrow when I smelled something strange in the house. It smelled like gas, only it had a tinge of burning to it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out where it was coming from. I searched high and low, I looked out the window for a potential culprit, and began moving around the house trying to locate the smell.

Needless to say I was getting pretty freaked out, the oven was off, the fireplace wasn't on, and the toaster oven was off. So I called Mom and Dad to find out what to do. We ran through the list of things to check if they were on and then Dad helped me locate the Nicor gas people's phone number for emergencies. Before I called I went down to the basement and the smell was much stronger. The furnace was on so I walked into the panty and was overwhelmed with the smell of gas and I immediately got light-headed, so I called nicor.

The operator who answered my 'gas emergency' was not very friendly, he asked me what my emergency was and as I was telling him he cut me off to ask what our address was. He informed me someone would be at our house in approximately 30-40 mins. I grabbed my cat, turned off the heat, grabbed my notes and pulled the car out of the garage and sat in the driveway waiting for my helper. Sabbath was not thrilled with being in the car and attempted to climb up into the car from the space where the pedals are. Finally, the gas man arrived and I explained the situation to him and that I had turned off the heat, opened the back door and we headed inside.

He used his gas meter and we headed down to the basement and about 10 steps in he says, you know I think the smell might be a skunk. He used his meter on the pipes and nothing beeped. He said it smelled like it had sprayed right along the back of the house, well that's right where the porch is. So we headed back upstairs and outside, where the smell continued on. We noticed that the window well cover was slightly off and he suggested that a skunk may have fallen in, sprayed and jumped out. But he checked the meter anyway and then left on his way, but not before assuring me that the spray of skunks is almost chemically identical to that of natural gas and that it was better to be safe than sorry/dead.

I should've asked if this happens often. I thought he may have been trying to make me feel better about my idiocy, so I googled skunk spray and natural gas. Apparently they put the odor from skunk spray (butyl mercaptan) into natural gas because it is normally odorless. So I still feel like an idiot because I really thought I was going to die, but at least I wasn't completely off the mark. I had to air out the house today because it still stinks of skunk.

Luck

When I arrived at work this morning and propped my umbrella up to dry, I noticed a big splotch of wet bird poo on one of the umbrella panels.

Good thing it wasn't my head.

>:o!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MY COMPUTER CRASHED AGAIN!!!!!! WHAT THE MONKEYS IS GOING ON I HATE HERBERTHA!!!!!!!!

Cultural Differences

It has come to my attention since working in my new position that resume presentation and the standards and norms that go along with it are, in fact, cultural phenomenons. Since study abroad obviously deals with professors in other countries, I have been finding out that the cultural norm in other places (at least in academia) is to have resumes that average 4-10 pages in length. Some have cover pages. Others have photos. Others have listed publication after publication, seminars, conferences, doctoral candidates advised even going back to the 1970s.

The first time I opened a 9-page resume I gasped in shock. The shock-standards were raised considerably (actually they were yanked up by their bootstraps) last week during my project compiling all course syllabi and professor CVs for a site review of one of our international centers. One by one I opened the resumes to be sure they were formatted suitably. I took the liberty of abbreviating those that were longer than 10 pages, taking care to make a note on each one that it was abbreviated and that anyone was free to ask the center for a complete copy. All was going smashingly until I opened a resume that was 47 PAGES long. 47. 47!!

I sincerely hope that particular professor is 90 years old, but his list of accomplishment and collaboration, and experience, and advising, and teaching went on for days and days. With a little boldness I managed to wittle it down to 6 pages, but I may have started the Third World War. You might want to have an ear to the news during the end of May when the professors see what I've done.

Things that make me mad:

1. Olfactory intrusion. I am fed up with the amount of perfume and cologne that permeates the air on the morning train. Each day the soup of air-born chemicals tickles my nose and dries out my eyes for 30 minutes before I arrive at work and begin staring at the computer. Today was particularly bad because the girl who sat down right next to me had drenched herself in something acrid, and my eyes watered for the entire trip. On the train there is no respite, there is no wind, and nowhere you can turn to suck in some cleanish air. I am not opposed to perfume, but the idea is to have a hint of scent that is pleasant to someone within 6-8 inches. If you can be detected across the room, or if your perfume makes your neighbors' throats swell up, it's TOO MUCH! And let's be honest, living in this country where hygiene may be taken to an extreme, most people shower at least every other day, if not every single day. How much fragrance do we really need?

2. Annoying dogs.
a) Those of you that follow my other blog Mona Lisa's Teeth (MLT), will recognize Bowser in this story. This is a dog that belongs to one of the families where I teach piano. Bowser is a friendly dog to a fault. He jumps. Incessantly. About 2 weeks after the escape incident I reported on MLT, Bowser greeted me at the door (by jumping on me) and caught a nail in my bracelet. Being made of elastic and beads/shells, it snapped and beads and shells scattered to the floor. My annoyance was more on principle than a PARTICULAR attachment to the bracelet. Last night, Bowser was at it again, but this time a nail got caught in my favorite scarf. It snagged, and although I was able to pull some of the thread back through, I'm left with a toenail-sized hole. GRRRRRRRRRRR. I took a deep breath, put the dog in the crate, and made sure to request as I was leaving that the dog be in the crate from now on before I come.

b) The next house on my piano circuit after Bowser is home to 4 tiny dogs. While not in danger of having my things destroyed by jumping, I have to bear the 4-part chorus of piercing yaps for the first 5 minutes after my arrival. The polyphony is truly astounding.

3. Children who are disrespectful and parents who are complacent. Yesterday (after the scarf attack) I was the piano teacher that you dreaded as a child. Call me quaint, but when an adult adresses a child older than around 4, the child should respond. I find it to be terrible manners when I greet or address a child and am ignored, and particularly bad when the parent smiles indulgently at their child and shrugs at me as if to say, "kids will be kids." True, but parents should be parents and teach their children to be polite. I layed down the law with one of my students yesterday who sat at the piano and looked straight ahead as though I wasn't even there despite my attempts to engage him. I decided not to resort to being a clown or groveling for his attention, and instead crossed my arms and had a stern little chat (well, monologue) about being respectful. For those of you who have children, I'm sorry to be harsh, and I do understand that kids have bad days just like adults and often express them more freely. Maybe I need to move back to the south where children say "ma'am" and "sir" or at least address adults with titles and know how to behave if they don't want to get a whoopin'.

In Defense of the Glutes

I have just one question. Who ON EARTH thought it was a good idea to put METAL benches on the El platform? Hello? This is CHICAGO. There are serious liability issues at stake here. Imagine sitting down in the middle of January on a metal bench while waiting for your train to come and having your butt freeze to the seat. Can Chicago really afford the medical and legal bills that would ensue? Considering their ferocity for handing out parking tickets to earn a little extra cash (I would know, I've gotten 4 in 3 years), I'm going to wager, no.

If we want to be serious contenders for the 2016 Olympics, we have GOT to get smarter folks on the Chicago Transit decor committee. Metal benches have to go.

Near death experience

I thought I would share my near death experience in State College, PA. On Monday, Mike had class from 1-4 so I stayed at his apartment, he left me his key, and I decided to go for a walk in the nature conservancy across the street. We had gone walking the day before and I didn't want to be stuck inside all day so I put on my field coat, extra sweater and mittens and headed out. I was walking along enjoying the fresh air, despite the nip to it and then got to a crossroads. I decided to keep going up the hill and just as I passed into the trees I noticed two men wearing bright orange, hunters, carrying rifles or shotguns. All of the sudden, they stopped, both looked in my direction and RAISED THEIR GUNS!!!!!!! I was watching them because at that moment I realized, I'm wearing a buckskin color I LOOK LIKE A DEER. So I did the only thing I could think of, while contemplating a bullet firing at me. I hid behind a tree. I had red mittens on but they weren't enough to show I wasn't an animal, I'd probably just look like a bleeding deer and then they'd shoot just to make sure I was dead. So I removed my coat, hoping that my white sweater would act as a white flag of surrender, and walked back into the open. They did not fire but I decided it was time to go and I wasn't comfortable walking alone where hunters freely roam, rifle in hand, with walkers. On the walk back I noticed a sign that read IT IS UNLAWFUL and then in tiny print you had to get within 3 ft to read, to discharge a firearm from this point on. I was 100ft from the parking lot. Not much room to roam if you're a walker without a bright orange jacket.

On a lighter note, I found out one of my required textbooks for one class is going to cost $3500.

Spring, yellow lights, and bathroom stalls.

Come on, Bloggers... we're getting lazy.

The truth, actually, is that I've been noticing some blog-worthy things here and there, but none is really enough to warrant a full post. So I'm going to combine some things.

1. THE CROCUSES ARE BLOOMING!!!! You know what that means.. SPRING is officially here!! It's still nippy, especially when the Chicago wind kicks in, but it's tolerable now. Now we know that there really is light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not the headlights of an oncoming train! On that note, I started running again.. I'm easing myself in slowly, and I've registered to run a 5K in my neighborhood on Sunday, April 26th. If anyone wants to join me, give a holler!

2. I've noticed that in my morning walk to the train, I am relaxed and calm until I am exactly one block away from the station. As soon as I hit the one block point, I start walking faster, my body gets tense, and I get a little more anxious. When the lights start flashing, the bells start ringing and the crossing gate starts closing, I have to decide whether or not I am too far away to run. There is a magic line somewhere on the block that denotes this, but I'm never exactly sure where it is. So for the whole block I have to play the hypothetical game.. if the train comes now, should I run? No, I think I'm still too far away. Well, maybe I could make it.. What about now? Most of the time it's all for naught because the train doesn't come until I'm already in the station. But sometimes it does. I have learned recently that I usually take the 7:52 train, so now I can time my walk. I used to just get there when I got there, and I never knew when the alarms would sound... I wonder if everyone else has the same anxiety. It's like passing under a stale green light when you have to judge.. if it turns yellow now, should I stop or go?

3. And perhaps the most important... Office bathroom protocol. I am new to bathroom stalls in the workplace, and I have to confess I find them a bit unsettling. Previously my workplace bathroom was like a residential bathroom, so you shut the door and had all the privacy in the world. But now everything is out-of-whack. I hate arriving in the restroom only to see that one of the stalls is occupied. And I hate it when I'm already there and somebody else walks in. Often, in the silence, I get stagefright and can't do what I went in to do. Sometimes I reason I'll just wait until the other person leaves to take care of business, but sometimes it seems like the other person has the same idea. Then it becomes this awkward game of chicken before someone risks discovery and leaves the safety of the stall. I know that there are some people who will read this and think that I analyze too much (probably men), and there will be some who read this and say, "oh my gosh! that happens to me too!" (probably women). So I'm just putting it out there. It's a totally annoying phenomenon.

The Terrible, Horrible..

It's one of those days where everything I try to do doesn't work.

I have had an IT guy up to my desk 3 times already today about one issue, and been on the phone twice with another about a different issue.

Even though it is GORGEOUS today, I think I won't try skydiving or deep-sea diving.