Facie’s Ramblings

Years ago, pretty much before I had a kid and it became all about her, I embraced being the center of attention, musically speaking. In high school, I was in the musicals and plays, eventually working my way up to the leading role my senior year (Reno Sweeney in "Anything Goes"). I was also in the chorus, and had a few solos here and there. And the first half of my senior year I pretty much was the alto section since most everyone else could not get the harmonies or was too shy to sing out (I jumped ship to the sopranos the last half of the year because I wanted the "easy" part). In college I used to sing in the dorm showers, and Mariah Carey's "Vanishing" got me a tryout with a local band thanks to someone in the dorm hearing me sing. My senior year, four of us worked on an education project in which we all shared our musical talents with the class (I sang something from my favorite show, "Jesus Christ Superstar"). And after 13 years of si...

Ever since J was a toddler, we (or at least I) have been taking her to the Pittsburgh Zoo. Once or twice, we went when it was free (thank you, RAD). Mostly, we would go with the Pittsburgh chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association. And the past two years, J and I went during the week when the Penn State College of Education sponsored a day at the Zoo, most recently last week. I love our zoo! I cannot say that enough. I could spend all day there, but unfortunately, we seem to end up going on days when it is near or over 90 degrees. Still, I have never had anything less than a great time there. As creatures of habit, we always start out clockwise with the tigers and leopards. When it is hot, those guys and gals aren't too exciting, so we tend to see them (if they are not hidden) and quickly move on. I like to spend a few minutes looking at the flamingos because they are so pretty.  I am not too enthralled with the rhino, but I still manage to get a pic for good mea...

Last week, I spent three days subbing for the math teacher, who, God bless her, teaches seven different math classes a day, ranging from pretty simple fifth grade math to basic geometry and algebra. In high school, I was good at math. I took Algebra I, II, and III; trig; and geometry, and had straight A's save for one nine weeks of geometry. I quit calculus after one day because I had seen too many people in my school wreck their GPA for that apparently difficult class. Since I was planning to teach English, I did not see the point. Once I got to college, I needed only two math classes, one of which was a great stat class. After that, I figured I would never need math again (you know, calculators and all). But, alas, I figured incorrectly. In the fall of 1994, I was hired to teach the English classes at a business college. Because they needed to fill a period of my schedule, I ended up teaching a business math class my first quarter there. One might think with my math skills,...

Last week while at my mom's, my brother, his wife, their three kids, my kid, and I went sled-riding down a smallish hill speckled with snow. On the surface, that might not seem like a lot of fun, but I am here to tell you otherwise. The last time I went sled-riding was in college, via a dining hall tray. I think I did it only once, but I seem to recall it was fun (those trays can actually move on the snow). Or maybe it was just one of those things you have to do before your graduate. Anyway, because Brian and I are overprotective, Jordan's sled-riding experience consists of Brian pulling her on a sled down the approximately 10 percent-grade hill that is our side yard. As you can imagine, there is no speed involved.  But over the last year, I am proud to say I have been letting loose a little as far as my kid is concerned, so when my mom's across-the-street neighbor offered us the use of three sleds, we jumped at the chance, thinking the hill would be tiny (in other wor...

This past weekend I went to State College (Penn State) for Arts Fest, which is technically called the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. The first few years after I graduated, I was a fairly frequent visitor of Dear Old State, but as the years went by, eventually just about everyone I knew graduated or moved. And then I had a kid; my last time at Penn State was for a football game in 2002, probably a month before I got pregnant. In some respects, it seemed a lot like it was when I left. Most of the same buildings were there. Students waited in long lines to get into bars. I would walk past a place, and a memory would come rushing back. But, of course, there were many changes. New buildings. Shinier things. Recycling was everywhere. The Loop bus was nowhere to be found (I think there is a different version of it, and it is not blue). A few times, I caught myself missing the college life and wishing I could turn back time and do it all over again. Learning. Going to...

The P-G recently published an editorial/article from a mother of an autistic child in the Hampton School District. Apparently some parents of her son Jake's high school classmates felt that Jake was disrupting class too much and taking time away from their kids' learning, which they feared could ultimately hinder their kids' chances of getting into a good college. Not willing to own up to their feelings, these "concerned" parents sent an anonymous letter to Jake's mother Renee asking her to consider an alternative setting for Jake. Wow is all I have to say. Well, almost all. As I blogged about last year, there was a mildly autistic child in the vacation Bible school class I taught. It was very challenging for me, someone who had pretty much no experience in that area, but I was glad that child was able to do what all the others did that week. I think we all benefited from the experience, and I would not have traded that opportunity for anything. In fact,...

I used to have a great memory. When I was an editor, I could tell you the status of every one of my spec guides, even when I had 15 or 20, without looking at a tracking form. And I guess I still do remember a lot of mostly useless things. But over the last year, my mind is not working as well as it once did. This blog is the perfect example of that. For at least the third time in a year, I wrote most of a post before checking previous ones, only to discover I had written almost the exact post at a different time. Sometimes the titles were even the same. In fact, before I finish this post, I should wade through some old ones. I am 100 percent certain I have written about my failing memory, but I am hopeful just not these words. I guess I feel strongly about some subjects and/or they are just on my mind a lot at some points. But that is pretty sad. And yet I am fairly certain if a blogger that I have followed for quite some time repeated her post, I would know it. I was looking thro...