25 random things about me

I've avoided the lists of questions, but I did this one on Facebook because it is unstructured. I figured I would post it here too. Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I did a half-ironman in 2007 (http://deeplanguage.blogspot.com/2007/10/full-race-report-south-carolina-half.html).
2. I'm signed up to do Beach to Battleship full in November (http://www.beach2battleship.com/)
3. I wasn't an athlete until I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 48.
4. I love intensity but I didn't really know that about myself until I began racing.
5. The only pill I take daily is a supplement to reduce stress and depression (http://us.naturalfactors.com/search.asp?mode=List&pid=762).
6. I am depressed about my husband's illness (Parkinsons and the early stages of Lewy Body Dementia).
7. When I was a teenager I wanted to be like Mr. Spock on Star Trek.
8. My other hero/role model was May Sarton.
9. I didn't expect to marry or have kids.
10. My children make me happy.
11. My parents were atheists--what started me on the path to being a churchgoer was reading Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father.
12. These days I go to two churches most Sundays: Episcopal and UCC.
13. I pray mostly when I am having trouble getting to sleep or back to sleep.
14. I want to simplify my life but I have too much stuff.
15. I'm very self-critical but I am trying to learn to be gentler with myself.
16. I wish other people saw that I'm hurting inside.
17. I'm not big on privacy because when I was a child privacy protected the abusers.
18. I haven't touched alcohol since I got pregnant for the first time.
19. I have never had my ears pierced.
20. I don't regret having missed all the things I would have learned in Girl 101 except not being able to teach them to my daughter.
21. I love my Scion XB but my Ford Escort was special to me because my first car was a Pinto stationwagon.
22. My favorite food has long been lobster, but rasberries and blackberries are a close second.
23. I like milk chocolate better than dark chocolate.
24. I wish I were better at making friends.
25. I didn't mind turning 50 but now I am not looking forward to the next 10 years of my life.

curriculum change

I thought the proposed plan was fairly good, even though it eliminated my program (I saw some opportunities to move some of what we do into the new system). But there was a meeting to discuss it today and almost everyone who spoke attacked the plan. I came away overwhelmed by the negativity.

New curriculum plan

A proposed new curriculum plan no longer includes Science and Technology in Society (the program I run) but it includes something called Global Challenges:

Credit for the core 13 hours of math, science, humanities and social sciences can be met with two types of courses:
1) Introductory or foundational courses that are taught within a major and which count towards the major and Gen Ed; and
2) New “Global Challenges” (GC) courses which are current, interdisciplinary,
relevant, and exploratory.
GC courses are not owned by specific departments – faculty from different disciplines can contribute to the teaching.
Courses will be fresh, somewhat like the ‘freshman seminar’ model at other universities.
To avoid adding more administration, this program can be managed by Undergraduate Studies.
GC science courses will be similar to current STS classes but more expansive
in scope. GC courses in the other areas will have a similar expansive
perspective on current issues and cross-disciplinary links.
An important philosophical change we are considering is to do away with the
term “general education” altogether and replace it with some new terminology
like “Preparation for Global Challenges”. Doing so would help eliminate
current student perceptions that GE is fractionated and unrelated to their disciplinary studies.
We conceive of the new GC courses as falling into at least ten mega-themes:
• Environment • Political Structures • Health & Wellness • Energy • Value Systems • Technology & Society • Cultural Narratives • Peace & Conflict • World Commerce • Math in Context
Within these mega-themes several specific courses would be offered each term that are interdisciplinary in scope and focused on modern problems.
Numerous existing courses can likely be repurposed to meet the requirements for
GC, and GC courses can vary over time as faculty expertise, availability and interests dictate. To meet the demand for GC courses and still reduce the number of teaching faculty, relatively large section sizes may be required. Since many of the disciplinary courses that currently also serve as GE credit will no longer have to be taught in multiple sections, the total number of courses taught will be reduced.

I see opportunities there, but my first reaction is that I am tired, I don't want to start fresh.

kids

Happy news today--our son received an acceptance letter from College of Wooster. He applied to four colleges and has now been accepted by all four. Now it is his decision. We have only heard from one school about financial aid, but they seem to have taken into account our special circumstances and gave a very nice offer.

I had a long phone conversation today with our daughter's boyfriend's mother. Both sets of parents feel positively about the relationship, but we aren't always quite sure how to think about a 15 year old (she will be 16 in April) and a 16 year old in a serious relationship (getting towards a year now). I talked about our conversation afterwards with John and I was pleased that he was thoughtful about respecting the kids' developing relationship rather than wanting to fall back on rigid rules. Our daughter is so mature it is hard to remember she is not 18. The boy's parents don't think of him as so mature, but we are happy with how he treats our daughter.

sigh

My husband's aunt, now 98 years old, moved to a retirement community near us 15 years ago, as my husband is her only close relative. She has been in an apartment, but yesterday she fell and fractured her pelvis. She is settled now in the health care unit (nursing home area), but assuming she is going to be there for weeks, I don't see how we are going to manage any of it, from her finances to her laundry. My husband is trying to take the burden, but he was so grateful I went with him yesterday evening and made lists. And then there is the problem of her personality--she is pretty sharp but obsessive about her health, from eating a strict low-fat low-salt diet to wanting to take her medicine according to an elaborate schedule to concern that her bare feet not touch the floor. I'm worried that the health care unit really isn't set up to take care of patients who are confinded to bed--she has no TV, no nothing for entertainment. I will ask tomorrow about bed sore prevention. I wonder if we could get help from hospice. She may well recover, but there is no treatment for this but time so we wouldn't be giving anything up by bringing in hospice.

Italy

We spent Christmas in Italy--three nights in Rome and a week in Venice, the Venice part with my sisters and their families and my mother (we scattered the last of my father's ashes). Pictures are here.