July 30
Happy birthday, Jim!
1966 (Mexico)
Went to Taxco - bought a guitar for 200 pesos ($16). It’s fine.
Stayed up until 2:30 with Raul. We “held fingers”. I like him very much. But he’s five years older than me, and won’t even look at me.
He recited love poems to me.
Comment 2023
Anyone else see the contradiction?
1978
Jim’s 29th birthday! I gave him his present before we went to bed, at 1 am. He seemed to like it. (The Shorter OED).
Found, to my delight, Gilbert Highet’s The Art of Teaching on a discount table for 60 cents. He had an excellent-sounding suggestion for organizing one’s career, providing for both teaching and publishing. (Or actually, writing; getting published is obviously not easy.)
It involved seeing each course as part of a chunk of the discipline, and creating lectures and lesson plans that permit you to learn as your students do. So I’ve tried to sort out my interests. The big general areas are: history (American Studies, non-western civilizations, costume and textile history) and research methods.
While I am teaching clothing construction, it seems logical to study that from a historical angle. Luckily (or possibly because I’ve been unconsciously ordering my life anyway), that dovetails nicely with my work at the Smithsonian. So my plan of action is:
Topic: Clothing Construction and design
Disciplines: American studies (culture 1875-1895), history (national and world events 1875-1895), Non-western culture (clothing without fasteners), Costume history (fashions of 1875-1895; mostly women, but men and kids a bit), Research methods (content analysis).
Conceivably, at least the last three have publishing potential. If I can spend a few hours a week on that, I will be golden! The AMST course should help, if I can select humor from the period 1875-1895. It will also get me on the way for my dissertation.
The other courses I am taking are less directly helpful. (Unless I can do something in the Econ and Marketing course on that period, or the marketing of textile products in the 19th century.)
The Textile Science and stat courses will have to be endured. (Sigh)
Perhaps next semester, I can attack another aspect of these disciplines.
Comment 2023
“Clothing construction” = a sewing class for reluctant university students. Most were fashion merchandising majors with zero interest in the course. I was about to start my second year as a PhD student, with the goal of finishing my coursework in the next two semesters, then defending a completed dissertation in 1980. Besides teaching that sewing class, I was taking four graduate-level glasses, none of them having anything to do with my interest in the history of fashion. So, for the 1978-79 academic year, I was determined to somehow make use of those five ridiculously disparate courses. I look back and wonder how I did it, since I obviously did.
1997
So, as I try to begin to simplify, I find that I need more than I think I do.
Truth: I would like to need only 2 pairs of jeans (one newer, one older), a few T-shirts and long-sleeved shirts, a comfy sweater or two, and two pairs of comfy shoes. But I have different roles I need to dress for, so need a bigger wardrobe.
Next if the food cupboard, I think
This has been very restful, educational and satisfying summer so far, despite the sorrow.
Comment 2023
One of the things I am realizing as I do this project is the impact that my mother’s death in June 1997 had on me. I had always been interested in what today might be called “minimalism”, or “slow living”. But clearing our my mother’s one-bedroom apartment and seeing how little she actually owned was a revelation. Bear in mind that she wasn’t “at the end of her life”; she died suddenly, at the age of 75. For what it’s worth, the closet in our apartment is about the same size as hers was. All of my clothes are either in that closet, in a normal-sized dresser, or in a storage thing under our bed. Getting there, Mom.
2016
Happy birthday, Jim! He doesn’t seem so thrilled about it; I, for one, am glad he’s still around. I know he is still worried and uneasy about his recovery. Several times last night at Franklin’s , people asked how he was, and every time he answered in a manner that was uncharacteristically terse. He usually over-explains everything.
In the meantime, I am doing what I can to change up my routine to include more creative work and more physical activity. First, I need to wake up earlier. That means going to bed earlier, too. And NO Candy Crush. Not minimal Candy Crush, NO Candy Crush. Reading instead. Crossword puzzle instead. Anything productive or stimulating instead!!
So today I am watching Don. I need to write up Asoka!! Sadly, my first exposure to Karina Kapoor was in K3G, playing my least favorite character in the movie. The whole mean girl-diva thing just did not appeal to me. But her debut with SRK as the warrior princess in Asoka was so different. I wish I had seen it first. And she is so wonderful as a wife and mom in RaOne! I believe she is his first co-star to be markedly younger than him, but I will have to check. Maybe not. Maybe that was Anushka.
I bought Sara Benincasa’s Tim Kaine book and love it so far. Very funny, very light. And she apparently wrote the whole thing in something like six hours. I am so jealous. I don’t think I could do that. But could I write a 200-page book in. Week? 30 pages a day? Not likely. A month?? 7 pages a day? Even that would be a stretch. But six months is doable. I have six months between now and the start of my last semester before retirement. Maybe I should try to write 3-5 pages a day (21-35 pages a week) and also to research. The Age Appropriate book can wait until I retire.
Comment 2023
You can also try flapping your arms and flying to the moon. At the very least, it would be good exercise.
2020 (Avon, North Carolina)
No sweater was necessary
Also no shoes, since Monday activities requiring shoes = NO
That’s my new rule.
Happy birthday, Jim. (Waves from the deck.)