dr. brilliant

tuesday night i escaped, uh, i mean, took a break, from class and as i walked through the atrium i saw a sign for an upcoming seminar. the name of the speaker caught my eye: murray brilliant, phd...dr. brilliant?! are you kidding me? how awesome is that name? and then i got to wondering, do you think, because of his name, murray felt obligated to get his doctorate? do you think, growing up, his teachers had higher expectations of him because of his name? do you think he spent his childhood hearing comments like, 'with a name like that, you'll do great things for sure!' that's a lot of pressure. maybe he really is brilliant. dr. brilliant.
brilliant.

lent

i had a meeting last week on the 14th floor of warf. as i got off the elevator i saw my friends nancy and john. john looked slightly out of breath. john is in great physical shape so i guessed the only thing i could think of that would cause him to breathe heavily. 'john,' i said, 'did you walk up the stairs?!' indeed, he had. 'wow!', i said, 'i'm impressed.' 'don't be,' he said, 'catholic guilt, i gave up the elevator for lent.' i was still impressed and made him give me a high five. quick-witted nancy piped up, 'i gave up sweating for lent.' she got a high five too.

and here's a little history of lent: lent in the christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year from ash wednesday to easter. the traditional purpose of lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during holy week of the death and resurrection of jesus, which recalls the events linked to the passion of christ and culminates in easter, the celebration of the resurrection of jesus christ.

why i won't wear green today

st. patrick: st. patrick was not born in ireland, but in britain. irish brigands kidnapped st. patrick at 16 and brought him to ireland. he was sold as a slave in the county of antrim and served in bondage for six years until he escaped to gaul, in present-day france. he later returned to his parents' home in britain, where he had a vision that he would preach to the irish. after 14 years of study, patrick returned to ireland, where he built churches and spread the christian faith for some 30 years.

saint patrick’s day: saint patrick's day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 march. it commemorates saint patrick (c. ad 387–461), the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of ireland, and the arrival of christianity in ireland. it is observed by the catholic church, the anglican communion (especially the church of ireland), the eastern orthodox church and the lutheran church. saint patrick's day was made an official roman catholic feast day in the early 17th century, and has gradually become a celebration of irish culture in general.

catholics vs. protestants: the terrible combination of nationalism, politics and religion has had deadly consequences for the people living in northern ireland. catholics and protestants have been vilifying, attacking, torturing and killing each other in a seemingly endless cycle for decades. the origins of ireland's "troubles" lie in the distant past of english imperialism. the creation of an anglican protestant church also created a fundamental religious conflict with an irish population having little interest in converting with their neighbors. it wasn't until the reign of elizabeth i that ireland was finally "conquered," but she was never able to halt regular catholic uprisings. conflict has continued ever since, becoming ‘the norm’ for the irish.

...in 1985, a relatively quiet year, authorities recorded fifty-four assassinations, 148 bombings, 237 shootings, 916 woundings, 522 arrests on terrorism charges, 31 kneecappings (shooting out a person's kneecaps) and 3.3 tons of explosives and weapons seized. all this in a tiny country with a population of 1.5 million people.

the wearing of the green: the colors of the republic of ireland are a tricolor of green, white, and orange. the green represents the catholic population, the orange the protestant, and the white the peace between them. the clashes in ireland between the catholics and protestants are often clashes of the green and the orange. the traditional pinching of a person who wears orange (or doesn’t wear green) on st. patrick's day is a mild form of the violence that has so often occurred in the past.

although the united states has taken on the celebration of st. patrick’s day with parades and river dying, guiness drinking and corned-beef and cabbage eating, very few americans are aware of the true meaning of the wearing of the green. i know i have a tendency to make a big deal out of things no one else does, but i just can’t wear green on st. patrick’s day. to do so would show support of a long-standing political conflict masked by religious debate.

younger and hipper

today a co-worker approached me with a "very important question". as a "younger and hipper" representative of the world (her words, not mine), she needed me to interpret a phrase that had meant one thing when she was in college but now, she was pretty sure, meant something else entirely. she was correct that my hips are younger than hers, but just barely. and she was right that the phrase she was using has a new meaning. we discussed how "young and hip" was definitely relative since my sister considers me an old woman just because i keep foot cream on the table next to my bed. hey, my feet need moisturizing! she also says i'm old because i use words like 'gal' and 'okey-dokey'. i thought of another one the other day but haven't had a chance to use it yet: 'it's a gas!' isn't that cute? i think it's a gas! ha! i used it!

speaking of my sister, she'll be in madison in eleven days. yay!!!!

poetry by penny

friday morning i awoke with a sore throat. drat, i thought, i don't have time to be sick. a lack of time, notwithstanding, i proceeded to get sicker throughout the day and by friday night, i was in a bad way. coughdrops weren't cutting it, airborne wasn't doing a thing, orange juice, puh-leeze. i had to pull out the big guns. the nightime sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffyhead fever so you can rest should be federally regulated medicine. as the nyquil suffused my body, i could feel myself laying heavier and heavier on the matress. turning my head took so much effort. strange, i thought slowly. and then the poetry began. i giggled as i drifted off to sleep. something about yoda? when the drugs wore off around four-thiry am, i struggled to remember my poem.

nyquil taken
heavy feeling
yoda talking
goodnight

i didn't say it was good poetry. ah, nyquil. not only do you help me sleep, you give me funny stories. my sister said nyquil should have a contest for craziest nyquil stories. i can only imagine.

can't think of a title

just sent my first e-mail to my committee. was going to post this on facebook, but thought it might be a little obnoxious since that's all i seem to post about lately. this, however, is my blog and i can post what i want to, post what i want to, post what i want to. you would post to if you had a committee.

it's a happy-dance day

what a great day. the sun is shining (somewhere); it's a brisk 33 degrees outside, which means snow is melting, birds are singing, i just caught a typo and avoided embarrassing myself, man! could it get better? hmmm, i suppose i could have a meeting this morning and secure my fifth and final committee member for my phd!!!!!! uh-huh. uh-huh. uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh. it's been a four-and-a-half month journey. meeting with people, pitching my ideas, getting names of more people to meet with, getting names of people i've already met with, revising my proposal twenty-seven times, on and on. but for now, it's done. sigh of relief. next step: polish up the proposal, send out to my committee (oh, does that feel good to say!) for final feedback, traipse all over campus for each of their signatures, and submit for approval from the grad school - basically, the administration and authority over special degrees like mine. here is my final cast of characters (and by final, i mean, for now; things can always change):

patrick remington, md, mph, has agreed to serve as the chair of my committee. thank you, thank you, thank you.







d. paul moberg, phd, my boss and the guy i met in washington dc at a conference before i came to wisconsin. great guy, super smart, and this is a terrible picture of him.






susan zahner, drph, teaches in the school of nursing, is super nice, and was my first non-pop health committee member to sign on. thank you susan!!








shep zeldin, phd, teaches in the school of human ecology. not much to say yet, don't know him well. but super greatful he agreed to be part of my committee!








gary green, phd, met him this morning, love him already. really nice, seems supportive of my ideas, does work internationally and domestically with community development and building assets in communities.






so yay! moving on. i'm also suddenly filled with a feeling of, oh my goodness, what have i done? these people now have expectations and i have a responsibility to deliver. i no longer belong to a department; i am an island...





i'm an island! i'm an island! hoorah, hooray! i'm an island! and i have a committee! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

new kicks

got me some new kicks. and what better way to break them in than to wear them out on a cold, icy wisconsin winter day? unfortunately, converse don't exactly have the greatest traction, so it may not have been the best shoe choice for today, but when you get new shoes, you have to wear them right away!i've been wanting brown all stars for a lloonngg time. i finally ordered them last week and they arrived yesterday. i haven't bought shoes in a couple of years so it's a pretty exciting day, wearing new shoes. there's a definite bounce in my step. people are saying, penny, something's different... and i point to my new kicks. ahhh, people say, nodding and smiling, must be the shoes.

i say hello and you say hello (and then i say hello again)

oh, the social conundrums we face. take telephone greetings for instance:

'hello?'
'hello. may i please speak to penny?'
'this is...i am...that is, her...i am she.'
'great, penny, this is so-and-so from somewhere.'

and while i am still trying to figure out the grammatical puzzle of my first response, i am hit with yet another issue. how do i respond to the caller's self introduction? possible responses:
'oh…' - natural but insufficient
'ok…' - see above and a little rude
'hello…' - redundant, that’s how i started the conversation
'what do you want?' - sincere, but rude, i've been told
‘mmm-hmmm?’ - non-committal, one of my favorites, but doesn't exactly ooze intelligence
'oh, hello, how are you?' - the combo approach, completely insincere 99.9% of the time

social etiquette dictates the redundancy option but i just feel like there has to be a better way.

you have to read this just because i spent so much time trying to upload the stupid attachment

flav called me on her way to milwaukee this afternoon and asked how i was doing. she had the nerve to tell me i was being dramatic when i replied, 'dying a little more inside as you and the kids get further away.' last night the clan picked me up for dinner and sam tried to make me feel better by saying it was only three saturdays. blake promised not to forget me. blake also managed to explode a little cup of creamer all over the table within thirty seconds of us sitting down. we told him it was no big deal but he still hid under the table while the server cleaned up the mess. you can't possibly be wondering why i'm going to miss him.

so a couple of weekends ago i posted on facebook that i had 'so much to blog about' and then, i'm sure, all three of my readers were super disappointed when i didn't follow through. not surprised, just disappointed. well, here's what happened that weekend: i started saturday morning at flav and sam's because i was working on a paper for a class at their house until the wee hours of the morn. breakfast with the kiddos and then i was off to the campus library. flav packed me a lunch so i wouldn't have to leave the library and eight hours later, i finished the paper, thus officially ending my third semester at uw. it was a day and a half late (what else is new? i don't think i turned one thing in on time this last semester) but it was a kick-a** paper, if i do say so myself. sunday morning i went to church (victory clasp to the left, victory clasp to the right), walked in to the auditorium, and there, up front, is this huge choir singing christmas songs. i immediately burst into tears, the effect i'm sure they were going for, found a seat, and just sat there crying while they sang. i don't know if it was because it reminded me of my childhood or my grandpa or my involvement with music or what, but man, was i emotional. flavia finally showed up so i was able to start making my usual jokes and comments about everything and anything (she really likes when i come to church) so i got over the crazy crying thing. my favorite pastor spoke, making it a great service all around. he has been encouraging people to spend less and give more, that is, buy one less gift and give that money toward other needs around the world. he had people volunteer to cary forty liters of water around the auditorium throughout the entire service as a demonstration of what people without clean water supplies have to do just to get enough water to drink, cook, and wash with. i thought it was great and wanted to include a link to his talk but the church website isn't quite that fancy. here's the video (you'll need quicktime):
and here's the link to the church's website and their 'message archive' if you want to watch or listen to other stuff: http://www.blackhawkchurch.org/resources/message_archive.php#.

after church, a friend of mine from school got baptized. it was a really simple service but so, so beautiful. all seven of the people who got baptized were from china so the service was in english and mandarin chinese. a man read each person's testimony in english, then a woman read it in chinese, and then the person was baptised by the pastor. some of these people were leaving to go back to china that week. at the end of the ceremony we sang amazing grace and the words of the song were on the overhead screens in both english and chinese. as i stood there, i realized people were singing in both languages so i pulled out my phone to record the song. if i ever get around to finding the media card thingy i need to transfer the file from my phone to my computer, i will post this beautiful musical event.

so that was that weekend, totally worth a blog.

it's warm outside, but inside, i'm cold

it is currently forty degrees in madison. madisonianites throughout the city are practically wearing shorts and t-shirts in honor of the un-seasonably warm weather. the streets are wet with melting snow and bushes and plants are peaking out from under diminishing piles of crystalized precipitation. we didn't have a thaw mid-winter last year so the snow just piled higher and higher all season until spring came. i think i like it but i'm pretty sure it will just illicit extra hard complaining during the next snow.

so outside, it's warm, but inside, my heart is frozen. in three days, flavia takes my two favorite things in the world away for a month. she might as well rip my heart out and stomp on it with spikes. blake and ziva are going to see three sets of grandparents, various aunts and uncles, and numerous cousins in two states before returning to me, a shell of a human being. they won't remember me, and they will have grown up and become completely different people, but they will return to me. excuse me, i need to blow my nose and wipe my eyes.

last night i prayed their flights out of wisconsin get cancelled. is that bad? i know it's selfish, but is it bad? i want them to see their grandparents, i would just rather their grandparents come to madison to see them. a month for goodness sake! sigh. sad face. sigh again.

ps - i didn't really pray their flights get cancelled mom. god knew i wasn't asking for real.

make your voices heard

'cause i can't. i lost my voice in one of the worst colds i've had in a long time and i sound rediculous. the best part is that the sound coming out of my throat is totally unpredictable. when i'm talking, i'm really shouting because the people i'm talking to can't hear me. the unpredictability comes in when i'll suddenly, unexpectedly have a clear sound come out and since i'm shouting, out comes a shouted clear sound. it's pretty awesome. especially when i'm on the phone with my sister in the library. oh, and i have to conduct three interviews today for a final project due today. we'll see how those go.

on a bright note, the owner of my apartment building is building me a pantry and it should be done by monday. added square footage, added storage space, me likee.

just a little rant

laughing. love it! i especially like when something tickles me enough to make me laugh out loud. you know what i don't love? 'lol'. that three-letter abbreviation for 'laughing out loud' drives me up the flippin' wall. everytime i see it, i cringe. i've actually had to cut back on my facebook time because I was getting a headache from all of the cringing. i don't know why it annoys me so much but it does; i seriously have a visceral reaction to it. there are lots of ways to let someone know they've said something you think is funny without using 'lol'. what's even more annoying is when someone writes something, and then, to make sure other people think what he/she wrote is funny, he/she adds 'lol' to their own comment. so. gross. you want people to think you're funny? be funny. you shouldn't have to tell them to 'lol'. ugh. and don't try to be funny and comment on this post by writing 'lol'. i will throw up on you or never speak to you again.

sky mall - my favorite things (one through eight)

recently, i had the pleasure of traveling from wisconsin to california and back. three flights to cali and three flights to wisconsin. some people may think this sounds painful, but it was actually really painful. totally worth it to see my family though. six flights and four layovers gave me ample opportunity to thoroughly explore, nay, experience, the skymall. that's right, the catalogue in the seatback in front of you that says, 'free copy - take it, we'll replace it!' sure, we've all glanced through it on a flight here and there, but i used three full flights to look at every item on every page. i have selected my top 34 favorite items and tonight will be listing items from the spy gadgets and anti-spy gadgets genres. my comments are in italics.

• multifunction sound-activated video camera pen: video pen is the easiest, stealthiest way to capture true events! collecting solid evidence often times requires keen discretion...

and presenting solid evidence in court requires you follow the law and get permission before recording people.

• spy ear: it's the next best thing to being a fly on the wall! the office can be a pretty hectic place these days, and it's not always easy or prudent to make every meeting…disguised as an innocuous penholder, the spyear actually holds a listening device…best of all, the spyear features a working digital face with a clock, calendar, and thermostat.

first of all how is it not prudent to make every meeting? i like that the self-proclaimed ‘best’ features are the clock, calendar, and thermostat.

• spy pen: carry an eyewitness in your pocket. click this pen and it doesn't just write words it records video…nobody needs to know that you're recording…by the way, this pen writes, too.

‘by the way, this pen writes too.’ i would hope so! otherwise, it would just be a spy.

• orbitor electronic listening device: "hear" and "see" a conversation from a football field away…this secret surveillance device is perfect for when you really need to know what's going on!

i’m not quite sure why ‘hear’ and ‘see’ have quote marks around them. i’m also not sure how ‘secret’ this surveillance device is.

• agent cam color video spy camcorder: keep your family and personal belongings safe using cutting edge spy gear. what happens while you're away? let's face it. our vision is limited to what we can see in the moment…slip into your shirt pocket, and you'll have access to a whole new world of information you didn't see before.

let’s face it, how many audiences are you trying to appeal to? families who want to protect themselves or wanna-be spies/techno geeks? and btw, a mini camera is not going to keep your family safe.

• mega-mini pro spy camera: audio-activated portable dvr camera with amazing video quality. about the size of a stick of gum, this miniature camcorder is perfect for covert operations on-the-move…every mega mini spy camera pro comes complete with the camera, the belt/pocket clip, the neck strap, the dash mount and 1 recharger…this camera can be mounted on anything such as a helmet, bike, car, jacket, and more for the ultimate in portability and on-the-go recording.

i’m pretty sure, of all of those options, the bike will be the most-used by people buying this product.

• mini bug detector: mini handheld device is able to detect and locate the presence of concealed wireless transmitters ("bugs") that are operating in the 50 mhz to 3 ghz range. led bar display and optional audio alarm helps locate hidden devices. with adjustable rf sensitivity level to minimize false alarms.

a, i'm pretty sure the people who buy these things are the same ones who buy the spy gadgets. and b, how many calls has the fbi gotten from people using this kind of device (and this was not the only one in the catalogue, btw) who are convinced their house is being bugged? way to feed the paranoia skymall!

the next installment of 'sky mall - my favorite things' includes items such as a kitty cat potty training set, freeze-dried sod from yankee stadium, solar-powered luggage, a holiday yeti, and much, much more!

t minus three days and counting

today is sunday and i am in my office for the second day in a row to do homework. yesterday, i put up my little two-foot christmas tree and made ornaments for it out of business cards and paper clips; caught up on facebook; and printed one journal article for school before my printer crapped out; all while listening to ella fitzgerald christmas music. today i finished printing articles (still haven't read any of them); took pictures of my little christmas tree for this post; caught up on facebook; texted with my parents; looked up a bunch of stuff on the internet (how cool is google tv gonna be?!); all while listening to harry connick jr christmas music. homework? mmmm...














yesterday i met flambliva (flavia-sam-blake-ziva) for brunch and then we walked around the westtown mall for awhile. we played in the play area with seventy-five other children until i noticed a kid coughing and motioned to flav to keep ziva away from her. flav took one look at the little girl, scooped up ziva, grabbed blake, and said, 'that little girl has pink eye, we're outta here'. between my motions and flav's announcement, we pretty much cleared out the play area. it was like a horror movie, moms grabbing their kids, running around like crazy, everyone trying to get through the 'you can't be taller than this' entry/exit way while putting on winter coats and rubbing anti-bacterial gel on every available surface.* seriously, pink eye? why would you bring your child to the mall, especially the mall play area with tons of other children, when she has a highly contagious infection? the big story here, of course, is that i was at a mall on a saturday, the day after black friday even. shows how much i love those kids; if that's where i had to go to spend time with them, so be it.

watched ocean's thirteen the other night. so funny. two of my favorite moments: george clooney says to andy garcia, 'you ready?' to which garcia replies, 'i'm always ready' as he puts his sunglasses on and walks away. clooney waits a beat and then rolls his eyes. awesome. the second moment is george clooney and brad pitt watching the operah winfrey show. i won't detail it here, you'll just have to watch it. i love when a movie or television show makes me laugh out loud.

let's see, what else is new and can help me procrastinate while i write about it...oh! i'm heading to california for the first time in fifteen months this coming thursday morning. it's only for a few days, i'll be back on monday, but i am so so excited. my mum's having surgery tomorrow so i'll be there while she's recovering. someone asked me what type of surgery she was having and i said it was something internal. really penny? i asked her this afternoon how she was feeling and she said she was stressed because she wasn't done cleaning the house so i might have to deal with dust. not exactly what i meant by 'how are you feeling' but that's my mom. fortunately for her, i like dust and am coming to see her, not make a house cleanliness inspection.

and speaking of, if i don't get enough homework done before i leave, i'll be stressed out, so here i go, doin' homework now.

*ok, ok, it was one other mom who heard flavia and my very subtle conversation but it would have been mass panic if any of the other parents had been paying attention.