Pumpkin Lights

Posted on October 30, 2011 by joanienaz

So when did Hallowe’en decorations evolve from a jack-o-lantern on the porch with maybe a skeleton for company to black and orange flashing lights everywhere, lawn goblins, and a variety of other ghostly and ghastly creatures adorning every bush and tree? Don’t even get me started on the fake spider webs. Like there aren’t already enough spider webs around. These days our neighborhood is like a three-ring circus from early October until the new year rolls around.

The Hallmark holiday has become a festival of lights. Some people never take them down. They are up and in place, and only need to be turned on during the correct month. Orange for October and red for December. Our seasonal festivities are carefully color-coded.

Neighbors compete with each other to see who can present the most elaborate display. This is more typical for the winter holidays, but Hallowe’en is really gearing up. What’s next? Will people paint their houses red, white, and blue for Independence Day?

Not so long ago when I was a kid, decorations didn’t go up until a week or two before a holiday. Stores didn’t sell the stuff two months ahead of time. But the sooner you put things on a store shelf, the more people will buy, right?

Lately there appears to be quite a bit of overlap. The remnants of spooky stuff haven’t been cleared off the shelves before the Christmas stuff is making an appearance. All this celebrating should be stimulating the economy. I think I need some candy corn.

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National Novel Writing Month

Posted on October 28, 2011 by joanienaz

It’s called Nanowrimo, and it happens during the month of November. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. The idea is to focus on quantity over quality, in order to get a good start on that novel you never wrote. Tens of thousands  of people participated last year, and many finished. The question is, am I ready for this?

It sounds exciting, but the reality is I have a hard time writing a blog regularly. Sometimes ideas come to me and sometimes they don’t. I type slowly. But my biggest issue is that I spend too much time editing and not enough creating.

I have recently started to discipline myself to write no less than 250 words in each of my blog posts. If I accept the Nanowrimo challenge, I will have to commit to between 1500 and 2000 words a day. At least it’s on the same topic. However, I am not exactly verbose when it comes to my writing.

Put me on the phone, and I could talk for hours. Putting my thoughts on paper is inhibiting. Maybe it’s because I have to see them. If I just kept writing like I talk, and didn’t go back to reread and edit, maybe I would produce more. Hmmm.

This post is almost 250 words now, and I am resisting the urge to start reading it from the beginning and edit. But I will wait until I am finished, and then go back and look at it once. This is my best preparation. Also, an idea for a topic would help. My ideas tend to be short-term. Wouldn’t it be great if I could write 50,000 words on the events of a single day? Wow. That would be either wildly interesting or insanely boring.

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How to Paint a Rose

Posted on October 26, 2011 by joanienaz

Watercolor painting has always scared me. While I admire the finished product, the process is a challenge requiring more patience and skill than I am able to muster on a typical day. I have made promises to myself to return to this medium again and again, but sadly they have been to no avail. Until now.

The planets had to be properly aligned for me to attempt this delicate technique once more. It’s been several years since my last adventure. I grew tired of taking pictures and using the Photoshop watercolor filter. It just isn’t the same.

So I have slowed myself down, and I’m taking it one step at a time. I began with my favorite subject-pears. You may have seen my completed project in this earlier post https://jmnaszady.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/sometimes-there-are-no-words/. The secret is painting in layers.

My current project is a rose in my backyard which I have been watching and photographing since its infancy last week. It may very well be the last one of the season. You never know. By this time last year we had already had frost on the ground and snow in the mountains behind our coastal California community.

So, after photographing the different stages in its development and meditating on the light at different times of the day, I finally sat outside and drew the sucker. I waited until it was full blown, not only because I am a procrastinator but also because that’s how I like my roses. Fluffy. The mature rose has character, don’t you think?

A couple of days later, I painted in the background with a light wash. Yesterday I was back outside to capture the light on the flower. Next I’ll add blue to the stems and leaves, which will last longer than the bloom, so there’s no rush. One patient step at a time!

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Once Upon a Time

Posted on October 24, 2011 by joanienaz

I have always enjoyed a well-written, well-acted fairy tale or fable. The large Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales from my childhood stands out as a fond memory, and Aesop’s Fables is still a personal favorite. I never grow tired of seeing or reading these classics, and updated versions with a modern twist always tempt me.

So imagine my pleasure at viewing a pilot on TV last night entitled Once Upon a Time! The twist is a modern community in Maine called “Storybrooke”, and an adopted boy who sets off to find his birth mother. She is destined to save the town, which has been put under a spell by none other than an evil witch, who also happens to be the boy’s adopted mother and the town mayor.

The acting is engaging and the idea is intriguing. The viewer is taken back and forth between the present, as the main character returns the boy she gave up ten years earlier to his adopted mother, and the past, as events unfold that lead to the curse on the town of fairy tale characters. We are treated to two parallel tales of past and present, as the lives and trials of each character unfold.

Jennifer Morrison, lately of House, M. D., portrays Emma Swan, daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming. Given up by her parents to save her from the curse, with the promise that she will one day rescue the town, she is drawn against her will to the community and decides to stay for a week. This tempting new family drama may convince you to stay as well!

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Putting Myself Out There

Posted on October 18, 2011 by joanienaz

I was the kid who tried to make herself small in the classroom, and rarely raised my hand. Not because I didn’t have anything to say, or that I didn’t know the answer to what was being asked. I simply got stage fright, and was convinced that once all eyes were on me, I would choke and nothing intelligible would emerge from my mouth. You would think, with the same kids in my class from first through sixth grade-I attended a small parochial grammar school-that I would loosen up a bit.

But even much later, as a college undergraduate, I would rather hide in a crowd of two hundred students crammed into a huge lecture hall than sit in the front row of an English section and be put on the spot. I studied math and science largely due to the fact that I didn’t have to share my thoughts and feelings in public, at least not very often. I may be one of the few people in education who was not required to take a public speaking course, although I’m sure it would have been helpful.

I became a teacher, and eventually adjusted to my role in the front of the room. I started out slow, with small classes, and ended up in a middle school teaching math to thirty plus kids every period all day long. I got used to it, and learned to enjoy the dynamic of a large group of ever-changing and always interesting adolescents.

So now I am putting myself out there again, sharing my private thoughts on the World Wide Web. There’s nothing like a new challenge to keep things fresh, even if it’s a little scary!

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Sometimes There Are No Words

Posted on October 15, 2011 by joanienaz

Sometimes there is so much you want to say that you don’t know where to begin. Once you get started, you may never stop. Life can be overwhelming.

When you are feeling overwhelmed, it may be helpful to pick a simple task to help you focus. Recently I chose framing and hanging pictures. Home decor is something that most people have definite ideas about, but hardly anyone can ignore completely.

Except for me and my spouse. We are pretty spare in our furnishings. After several years of home improvement projects, I was afraid to hang anything on the freshly painted walls. I enjoyed looking at them and imagining what would go on them. But finally the blankness had to be filled.

It can be very satisfying to fill up a space, if you can find just the right thing to put in it. I have been taking art classes off and on for fifteen years, and doing a little creative work on my own lately. I have drawers and boxes full of my work. I have given a few things away. I even tried to sell some, but perhaps my interests don’t match those of the average art consumer.

I have been on a pear kick for a few years now. There is something about pears that intrigues me. First I made some pear prints. Then I drew a variety of pears. I painted a pear in acrylic, and now I have captured pears with watercolors. My next project may be to do a pear collage.

I am choosing my favorites and filling the walls. It seems strange to turn my house into a private art gallery, but looking around, it gives me a sense of time and space that is needed. Fortunately my husband doesn’t seem to mind. With no kids at home anymore, plants and artwork make the place look “lived in.” Guess I found a few words after all!

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What IS That Noise?

Posted on October 11, 2011 by joanienaz

You’re standing at the kitchen sink, washing up a few things, and you hear a strange sound.  You turn off the water and listen. There it is again! Something must be out on the patio. You peer through the window and look left and right, trying to locate the source of the strange noise. Is it on the patio roof? Or in the neighbor’s yard? What IS that sound? Like scuffling, but different. Not a cat, and not a bird.

Suddenly you see a large dragonfly. It is under the skylight, and appears to be trying to fly through it. Over and over it slams its twirling wings into the plexiglass and bounces back again, attempting to escape. You stop washing dishes and call to your husband in the next room. All you hear in response is: “Broom.” You go out the back door, grabbing the broom on your way.

When you reach the skylight, the dragonfly is still plunging itself upward and getting nowhere, still futilely trying to leave. As gently as you can, you engage broom to insect. It connects, and you carry the grounded dragonfly on the end of the broom out from under the roof, talking to it in a soothing voice. Instantly, it disembarks and flies away.

That was pretty simple. Saving the life of a dragonfly may not have been heroic, but it was the right thing to do. Repeatedly banging yourself into an obstacle can be frustrating, if not deadly, for dragonflies as well as other creatures. There just might be a lesson here.

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What’s in the Closet?

Posted on October 8, 2011 by joanienaz

It’s amazing what you will find when you open a closet and start digging around. There’s the usual stuff you knew was there, like the vacuum cleaner you conveniently forgot about this week. Then there’s that bag of stuff you keep forgetting to take to the second-hand store. Don’t be fooled, however. The truly committed closet scavenger will uncover hidden treasure. It’s in there somewhere.

Remember those art supplies that you bought and never used? There they are, right where you left them under the extra bedding. When you’re done digging around, open them up and try them out. Or, they would make a nice gift.

What about those pants you ordered online and never returned? That looks like them underneath the holiday lights. Try them on again, you never know. They might look better on you today. If not, you can always put them in the bag with the other give-aways.

Now, I don’t know anyone who can resist the temptation of looking into a really large shopping bag. If there’s something interesting around it’s bound to be in the bag, especially if it says SALE in bold colors. Those are the best bags.

Do you ever dig through stuff hoping to find a whole lot of money that somehow ended up buried in the bottom of a box that you never knew you had? Neither do I. Just wondering. When you are on a treasure hunt, there really should be some treasure somewhere. If you’re very lucky, you’ll find it.

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Close Your Eyes

Posted on October 6, 2011 by joanienaz

The last couple of days have been exceptional ones for cloud watchers in northern California. I could spend all day watching clouds. I have many cloud photos. Some are better than others. However, it’s not always convenient (or safe) to stop and snap.

So, I will describe my journey through a stormy afternoon. Close your eyes (after reading this) and imagine snow flying at you as you wind through tall pine forests. You skirt deep, river-filled canyons and finally descend into the valley. Pale sky appears above you. To the north, heavy blue clouds drain onto the valley floor as they approach the mountains in the east.

Pale pink and deep blue clouds pile up on the mountains in the west, obscuring the sun as you turn south. In the foreground, golden fields of grain are falling into shadow. Far ahead you see a line of airborne specks in the shape of a V growing larger, spreading out, with more behind it.

Soon the sky above you is filled with geese headed north for the night by the light of a misshapen moon. One large goose flies low, neck stretched ahead of heavy body, patrolling the edge of a field.  Now look east, where the sky has turned magenta above a deep blue mass that obscures the Sierra Nevada mountains. This is the Sacramento River valley at the end of a stormy day in October.

As the colors fade you head east through orchards, slowly climbing out of the valley and into still pale hills. The remnants of clouds dance across the sky as you swing back and forth among the oak-studded hillsides. You are almost home.

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Power to the People

Posted on September 27, 2011 by joanienaz

Everyone is talking about schools these days, and worrying about the performance of students on standardized tests. Many point the finger at teachers, the ones in the classroom preparing students to take standardized tests. It is their fault if students don’t do well. Logical, right?

There are many teachers out there, some more experienced than others, some better at their jobs than others. Just like everyone else. It’s easy to blame teachers when scores drop, without looking at factors such as test design, student motivation, parent support, and administrative direction. But who put these teachers, good and bad, in the classroom?

Who has the sole power to hire and fire in a school district? The school board. School boards are made up of citizens who are put in office by voters. So, if voters are unhappy with the choices that school boards are making, who should they blame? Who is ultimately responsible for putting a teacher in a classroom?

Politicians are waving the “Get the Bad Teacher” flag. They are not going to blame voters, or they will lose their next election. It’s much safer for them to say, “Gee, these teachers aren’t doing what they are supposed to do. It’s all their fault.”

Teachers are supervised by school boards, superintendents, principals, and assistant principals. They are watched by parents and students. Their professionalism is questioned every day. More and more of them are less and less experienced, because experienced teachers cost more money. Money that school districts don’t have.

Then there is the nepotism factor. In these tough economic times, school boards are “taking care” of their constituents. Somebody’s son, daughter, neice, brother, or cousin needs a job. A probationary employee loses their job so someone who is “connected” can be hired. It’s technically legal, because school boards can “non-re-elect” a probationary employee without giving a reason. They can imply that there is a problem without actually saying there is a problem. And a teacher’s union can’t protect a probationary employee from this practice.

So, if there are a disproportionate number of teachers in classrooms without the experience necessary to lead us into this new millenium, and school boards have all the power to hire and fire, and they are trying to balance a budget that is dependent on public money, who is ultimately responsible for our declining public educational system? Look in the mirror.

Are you willing to pay more taxes so that school boards can pay to hire qualified, experienced teachers, and supply them with the materials they need and the facilities they need to do the job properly? Are you willing to get involved and find out what your local school board is doing, and hold them accountable? Are you willing to take responsibility for our public education system? Because it doesn’t work properly without your support.

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