Place in Space...

I have been reading blogs this evening and thinking about how these offer a whole new sense of place... out in cyber space.

What is striking to me is how technology allows us to connect without a place. It is real and yet it is virtual. So, how do we create ourselves in these spaces? How do we "author" ourselves in order to give those with whom we speak a sense of a real person here.

I am rather mesmerized by Facebook for this reason. In brief blips and blurps, writers create a voice, a self for their facebook friends -- all dependent on language. Who will I be today? Tomorrow? Hmmmm....

The Sofa

I have been thinking a lot about a post by Searching for answers called "Opportunity Costs."

What is the cost of our opportunites? I ask this as a person who loves her job, but who has too much job. It is ironic that I am asking my students to think about place and I never go anyplace. Except to and from work of course.

Today, for instance -- apart from a couple trips to the backyard with the dogs, I sat on the sofa with a laptop for the whole day. And when I say the whole day -- I genuinely mean since 7:30 am till now, 11:44 p.m. I even ate dinner while working today. And I made someone else make it for me!

Don't get me wrong. I love what I do. And I love reading student work. But, the way the budget has been working in the CSU in the last few years, there is more and more work and fewer and fewer bodies to do it. It's reaching frightening proportions.

I want to be a person who invests in her community. I want to notice the trees outside my windows. I want to spend time with my family. And I want to work with my students. Why must balance among good things be so hard to come by?

Opportunity costs, indeed.

Thoughts on NC Notebook's Poem

Today we heard 4 people read their "Where I'm From" poems in class. They were awesome.

What struck me was the level of metaphor, the concrete details that anchored me and allowed me a felt sense of the authors and how they are created by where they are from...

I was also struck by one writer's mention of technology as a place where she is from -- it made me think of MCLars's I-Generation on Youtube. Check it out!

And check out our poems: you can link to them from the blog list to your right.

Thanks for reading and thinking with us!

Where I'm From

I am from kitchen clatter,
from clutter and chatter, and coffee after dinner.
I am from corningware dishes
And flatware that came free with a toaster and a bank account.
I’m from the yard, not the garden,
from the transistor radio and books read in the deep “v”’ of the maple tree.
I’m from pussy willows and parking lots,
and lilacs! whose heady, heavy scent I can still smell through the window of memory.

I’m from lemon ices in summer and corduroys in winter,
from 'mybetts' and 'seamus,'
from debaters and teasers, the outraged and outrageous
I’m from do good, avoid evil,
and if you can’t be good, be careful.
I’m from reading is fundamental with a library card
and a collection of condensed classics
on the shelf beside my bed.

I’m from Billy Joel songs and bike paths,
backyard barbeques and Jones beach,
from my father’s sun-reddened back and my mother’s muscled arms
When I peer in the mirror, my inheritance stares back --
I smooth my mother’s brows, brush my father’s teeth,
wipe the paste from my grandma’s chin…
a legacy of hearts and hopes in my own bits and pieces.

Foreclosures in the Inland Empire

In my last post, I mentioned how I'm seeing a lot of abandoned pets in my neighborhood as foreclosures are popping up everywhere. This is a horrible situation and the Inland Empire is rife with it. I thought I'd post the following video from KCET, which documents the problem in our region quite movingly. It is called Foreclosure Alley.

My husband and I bought our home 4 years ago. We are first time homeowners. In the last year or so, the value of our home has sank significantly. This is not the investment in our future we'd hoped it would be. The situation is sadder still in the blocks surrounding ours as foreclosure notices are springing up all around town. While the video suggests that the problem is epidemic in newer subdivisions, it seems a problem everywhere in our region.

Here is a map of foreclosure activities nationwide. Things do not look good in California. No, not at all.

The dog in the picture...

The dog in the picture is formally known as Magnolia Maybelle.

She's been in the family since last April (April fool's!) when we rescued her from traffic in Riverside. Poor thing: she was caught between lanes of moving cars and no one was stopping to let her finish crossing. She was terrified. My husband stepped on the brakes to stop one lane of traffic and I ran out waving my arms to stop the other. I coaxed her to the median where she crept over to me, put her head in my hand, and fell sound asleep. When took her home, she slept for 4 days solid, waking only to eat and pee.

At first we called her Maybe -- maybe she had a home, maybe she didn't. We tried to find one, but no luck. She eventually became Magnolia after the street where she was found; we added the Maybelle to convert Maybe into something that would reflect her more permanent status in our family. Plus Magnolia Maybelle sounded southern, our own Blanche Dubois ("I have always relied on the kindness of strangers"). Of course, we rarely call her by her formal name. She is, interchangeably, Maggie, Mag-a-no-lia, Maggie May, Maggie Maybe, Maggie Mayhem, and Magnet.

Since we've been in this area, we've rescued 4 dogs and passed by many more roaming without collars and in dangerous spaces. I see them everywhere -- some look healthy, some are scabby sacks of bones. I worry when I have to pass one by that I will drive past its broken body on my way back home. I wish those who own dogs would keep them fenced or on leash, and at least collared and tagged, but all too often they don't.

I have noticed that the number of dogs in the streets has been increasing in the last year. As homes are foreclosed and families are having to move to rental situations, some are simply leaving their pets behind. Evolutionary biologists, however, think that humans and dogs have co-evolved, that we have each shaped the other's species. Dogs, in other words, are not wolves and those who simply leave their dogs to go it alone are not doing them any favors. I wish instead that they would take their companions to a good no kill shelter or otherwise try to find them a new home if they cannot provide for them.

I also wish that people would spay and neuter their dogs. By the time we found Maggie, she'd had at least one litter, probably about 8 or 9 months earlier. This means her pups are likely also out and wandering (and reproducing) or dead. Some counties (including Riverside) in an effort to curb the geometric increase of companion animals have initiated low cost spay/neuter clinics. The Riverside Department of Animal Services (last link) also helps connect people to other support services and agencies for companion animals.

Maggie has settled in and her antics bring us (mostly) great pleasure. She and her older brothers (see small picture) have sorted things out and become quite companionable. Our home is a noisy, furry, bumptious place and we humans are well loved and looked after. Not a bad deal, considering that we just happened into all 3 of them.

Interesting Event in My Town

I subscribe to a couple of listservs in my town. One is a neighborhood watch/news type list and the other is the Downtown Area Neighborhood Association. This keeps me in the loop on some of the events that are going on in my area.

The following announcement was sent by both lists today and the event looks kind of interesting (though I must say I am not a big fan of death related things). It occurs the day after Halloween, appropriately enough. Maybe I'll go?

A Celebration To Die For

Where: Evergreen Cemetery, 14^th and Pine Sts. (costumes Welcome)

When: November 1, 2008
Time: 6:30-8:30pm

Admission: $10 per person or $25 per family

A multicultural event to benefit the restoration of

Evergreen Historic Memorial Cemetery

Dance with the Day St. Dixielanders in the Jazz Funeral Procession

See Ballet Folklorico and Dia de los Meurtos dances

Hear Old English Dance Macabre

Enjoy the Hearse Club collection & Paranormal Tours by Kirchoff

Refreshments by Phood on Main