Choosing Ebenezer

So Tired…So Very Tired

Posted on June 16, 2015 by evamccollaum

I have had a great couple of days, but they haven’t been easy. Exciting? Yes. Nervous? Yes. A bit embarrassing? Yes. I’ll start with the shame.

I have been involved with planning a big event recently–A BOOKISH AFFAIR. It is the first time I have tried to do something like this, and it was no picnic. The Friends of the Library helped, and it turned out to be a whole lot of fun. Still, I had some shame come on me before it began. You see, I have had some trouble getting the ROSWELL DAILY RECORD to use my press releases–for about sixteen years. Sometimes they use them, and sometimes they don’t. So…when I started working on this big event, I tried to make sure I followed all the various instructions they have given me over the years, and they didn’t put my story in, so I lost it. I mean, I LOST IT. I have a rule for myself that when I’m feeling emotional, I will wait at least twenty-four hours before I act on anything. I didn’t. I called Tim Howsare at the RECORD, and I started griping full volume. He was patient, and he listened, and he very kindly got on it and printed my story. More importantly, he also sent a reporter, Jeff Jackson, who wrote a fine article following the event, and I am entirely grateful to both of them.

The event itself was delightful. Both the readers’ and the writers’ panels were interesting and informative. People joined in and seemed to have a fantastic time. Rob Wilder spoke and read from his work, and he stole the show.

Since then I have been doing two things, resting to try and recover. Cleaning and putting away all the things I had to move and use to do the event, and finally working on a new web page. It is killing me. I hate that I do not have enough background to program my commerce page for the publishing house. I have it set up, but I want to provide a paypal button, and this will not be easy. Nor will it be cheap.

To add just a little bit extra to the mix, I have family visiting. It is exactly enough pressure and work and struggle to make me constipated. YOU MUST DRINK MORE WATER. My mother would say that at this point. Here she is saying it.

It’s funny. I keep thinking, “I have a job that’s pretty hard, the whole teaching thing. How did I manage to find another job that feels pretty hard, and one for which I have little talent and no training?” I don’t know. I don’t know.

Enough moan-moan-moaning. It was a great day. I had tons of fun, and Hedda P. Saltz was introduced to the world as a poet. Her book is superb. FREE RAIN–get it at lulu.com or just look up her name. You’ll see the link. I’m not quite ready to launch the website. It’s more than my tiny brain can finish today.

Sleep well.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Bookish, Roswell Daily Record | 1 Comment

Reading the World

Posted on June 4, 2015 by evamccollaum

Next weekend, 13 June 2015, there is A BOOKISH AFFAIR planned to take place at the Roswell Public Library. It’s an event to celebrate reading and writing in Roswell. I love reading and writing in Roswell. It’s just some of the time I get pretty frustrated with how separate we all are from one another.

I was visiting with a friend yesterday in a restaurant–Big D’s. I apologize to the woman at a nearby table who gave me a dirty look for being too loud. I live with someone who is hard of hearing, so my volume tends to be set at FULL BOAR! Ha! Anyway, we were talking about how Roswell is like an island. It’s really about 150 miles from everywhere, a geographic oddity, as they say. I like that it is an island because an island can be comforting. Nothing is too big or too mysterious. We’re all in this thing together. We should be, anyway.

I wish the writers in this town could get more respect from the readers in this town. It’s hard to get people interested in the work of their neighbors. That seems odd, doesn’t it. We’re all up in each other’s other business! We discuss our neighbors and friends all the time–births, deaths, triumphs, scandals. All of it is endlessly fascinating, like a long and delicately varied poem, yet I rarely hear of a book club choosing a local author. Why?

I’m as guilty of this as anyone, I suppose. “Oh,” I think. “If they’re from here, who are they? What could they do that would be of any interest to me?” Why does a thousand miles of difference in time or place or culture mean that something is more worthy than the restaurant at the north end of town? Why must mountains or oceans be present for something miraculous to be happening?

Here’s the challenge. Go to the Anderson, or RMAC, or the Historical Museum, for that matter. Look closely. Linger. Dive into Roswell.

Next weekend, come to THE BOOKISH AFFAIR. Win a door prize. Buy a book. Listen to a panel. The doors open at 11:00 am, and the panel discussions start at 1:00 pm. Ask some questions. Offer some insight. Give us all something to enjoy, and if you don’t enjoy it, I will personally refund you. It’s free to the public.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Working Thesis Part TWO

Posted on February 17, 2015 by evamccollaum

Reading a great work of fiction is a rare privilege, and it is getting rarer all the time. It is beginning a conversation with a great mind that has contemplated the human condition in a creative and entertaining way–an artistic way. I get a kick out of discussing this material with my students, probably even more of a kick than they will EVER get out of it.

Here is today’s list of theses, and I suspect we can all think of ways to help each other in our areas of endeavor. I can’t wait to read these papers:

In A Tale of Two Cities Dickens uses the obvious and subtle differences between rich and poor to reveal the corruption and violence created by an unjust system.

Riley Day

In A Tale of Two Cities Dickens uses a set of obvious and hidden mirrored characters and places to illuminate why two similar cultures have divergent political destinies.

Hunter Preston

In A Tale of Two Cities Dickens chooses to emphasize both historical events and myths of the period to provide a greater verisimilitude than scholarly history can.

Mack Brown

Throughout A Tale of Two Cities, three weddings provide a lens through which Dickens reveals the corrupting and edifying character of love.

Taylor Yarges

In A Tale of Two Cities three female characters embody Dickens’ sense of the feminine mystique.

Rochelle Marifosque

In A Tale of Two Cities Dickens presents the levels of cruelty humans can and will indulge when given the opportunity and the motivation to be cruel.

Miguel Padres

This is what I call fun. It works because it is difficult AND it is a pleasure.

E=Mc2

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Working Thesis

Posted on February 16, 2015 by evamccollaum

I have been teaching for thirty years. It is a strange thing to assert–thirty years. In that time I have discovered one reality of all great things.

What works takes work!

People are always looking for the easy way to do things, myself included. I have decided that is the wrong goal. I will no longer pursue the easy way to do things. I am going to chase the efficient way to do things. I don’t mean that I will expect anything to be easier, but I do think things can be better, can be improved, and that’s now my goal.

I asked my students to write a “working thesis” for each of the capstone essays that they are writing in my class. Several of them, delights that they are, gave me something. I now give them something back. I list here the theses (slightly revised) of each of my students who submitted one for review. I believe they have promise, and I look forward to reading the essays that grow from them. Here they are:

The people who rise up and become leaders for the French Revolution see their own actions a completely justified.

–Ian Fraim

In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens shows that at one point or another everyone must sacrifice what he or she loves.

–David Gofman

In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens explores how economies, particularly of France and Britain, are affected by the American Revolution and French Revolution.

–Clarence McAllister

Against the backdrop of Revolution, Dickens explores the dynamic nature of familial relationships, and shows how all power struggles are linked to specific families.

–William Teasdale

Dickens uses Jerry Cruncher, a humorous character, to lampoon the malicious deeds and morbid practices common in British Victorian culture.

–Drake Williams

Dickens exposes the traps inherent in monarchy and absolute power and how people suffer under this absolute power.

–Anhao Xiang

You will notice that all of these call for some research and some reading. I like that. I also like that they all refer to Dickens. See…that’s the essential part of this paper, that it comes from and reflects on a major work of an important author, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The next step will be to visit with these students about their research and their reading, to give them suggestions about what might work best for them. To try my best to make the hard work a pleasure, an efficient pleasure.

Writing well involves work. I do not mind sweating if I get great products. I’m hoping my students are ready to embrace the one truth of all worthwhile endeavors:

What works takes work.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Capstone essays, Charles Dickens, research writing | 4 Comments

New Year’s Resolutions For You

Posted on December 31, 2014 by evamccollaum

We all have come face to face with what John Oliver calls “the worst” holiday–New Year’s Eve. If you haven’t seen John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, you should. I hate to jump on a bandwagon, mostly because I’m afraid I’ll fall, but Oliver is worth a listen. As I listened to him say exactly how I feel about New Year’s, it came to me that I hadn’t thought about my resolutions. They would probably be typical–get more exercise, drink more water, stop procrastinating. I then thought–NO. What I really need to do is give everybody else a list. It doesn’t matter what I do. I can never keep the resolutions. What really matters is what everybody else does.

So…I have kindly put together a list of resolutions for you all that should make your (and my) experiences better. First, I realize this may seem too far for me to go, but I’m a teacher. Teachers are always correcting others. We’re PAID to correct and evaluate others. I have spent many an irritating hour trying to find helpful ways to force students to stop making stupid and embarrassing mistakes. I have even had a small amount of success at this, at times, with God’s help.

I want you to understand that this list is one made up of things I already do easily or am completely dedicated to trying. I have put nothing on here that I won’t find utterly simple to keep.

Enough framing. Here we go:

1. Get better sleep. Stop falling asleep in front of the TV, computer, iPad, iPhone or refrigerator. We all need to start using a pattern of behaviors that signal we are going to bed and going to sleep. Electronic light and sound both prevent good sleeping habits and suppress REM sleep. Thus, each year we are a little more stupid, foolish, confused and sleepy. Turn off everything. Make sure the doors are locked. Get a paperback book, nothing too interesting or well written; get in bed under a dimmish incandescent bulb and fall asleep. Oprah gets good sleep. Don’t you deserve as good a rest as Oprah?

2. No littering. A friend of mine says his neighbors drink a lot of beer, and (evidently) when they empty a can they simply let it drop from their (his words) “cold, nerveless grip.” I found a Budwiser can in my driveway, and I don’t even drink beer. Why am I looking at some moron’s empty beer can in MY driveway? We should all of us try to avoid making a mess that someone else has to clean up. More importantly, we should not break the minor laws against littering. They are good laws. We should keep them. While we’re at it, don’t spit gum on the sidewalk or stick it under tables or desks. Wrap it in a little piece of paper and put it in the trash can. Same for boogers.

3. Attack at least one cliché, and try to destroy it. Old worn out sayings and ideas offer little to the listener and make the speaker appear simple-minded. I am attacking “give 110%.” Saying that shows the speaker doesn’t understand the mathematical concept of factions or percentages. One cannot have more that 100% if a whole thing. By muddying a basic mathematical principal, one muddies thinking in general, and I am against that. I don’t really care which cliché you attack, just pick one and target it every time it appears. Good luck with this.

4. Shut-up about gluten. Look, Celiac disease is a real, but RARE, condition. People who suffer with this disease really suffer. It’s not some fad in which they are participating. The rest of all you people who are attempting to exercise your will or grab attention by being fussy eaters need to grow up. If you don’t want to eat something, don’t eat it. There is no need to make others bend to your will or the story of how you can’t “process” wheat. It’s not “process,” it’s digest. Most humans digest wheat just fine. That’s why is has been baked into so many pies and cakes and danish and hamburger buns. Try to think more about the people around you than your guts.

5. Value face-to-face interaction. It’s enough already with the texting and the snap-chatting and the social media and the video games. If you want to do those things, that’s fine, but when we are visiting face-to-face, let’s visit. There’s no need to split attention and make the person in the room feel crappy because I am not a tiny pulsing light or tinny tune coming out of your phone. (Students will take their phones out DURING a class and try to text or play games or whatever. It’s maddening!) I know this is a sore point for a great many people, but the truth is those virtual experiences, while fun, are ephemera. They rightly belong in your private time when they do not have to detract from your interaction with others who are literally there with you. This does not mean I don’t think you should take pictures of yourself and others at memorable events. The pictures are fine. The on-going narrative may actually detract from the experience, so make mental notes, or physical notes if you must, but wait and let your ideas percolate before you share them with the world. I suggest both types of experience will be enriched by this small modicum of restraint. (I doubt anyone will manage to keep this resolution.)

6. Pick a podcast and become a fan. I know I’m late to become a fan of podcasts, but at least I have a few I like. My current list is This American Life and Serial. This coming year I am going to listen to Judge John Hodgman and The Nerdist. Podcasts are great because they require one to listen, a skill this world may be trying to kill.

7. Pray at weird times for the weird things. This may seem silly, but it’s the most serious one on the list. Many people of faith have discovered the value of regular prayer and/or meditation. They set specific times to read and pray and contemplate. This is great. Now add the weird time and place. In the book The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom describes how her sister encouraged her to thank God for ALL things, even the fleas that infested their clothes and beds. Corrie refused to thank God for the fleas. Later in the book, her sister is proved right. Corrie should have been thanking God for the fleas. It’s weird, right? So, that’s the last (and best) resolution. Pray at both the right and weird moments. It’s bound to turn out best.

There you go, my fellow citizens. There’s your list of solid, healthy, worthwhile New Year’s resolutions. You, of course, know best about your life and your needs, but if you take these you will probably have a better life and fewer unmet needs. I just saying…

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged John Oliver, New Year's Resolutions, Proper Manners, resolutions, Worst Holiday | Leave a comment

For Dean, John, and Brian

Posted on December 22, 2014 by evamccollaum

I’ve been trying to figure out the last time we were all together for Christmas. Is it possible it was 1983? It seems so strange to me that such a thing could be true. Christmas has always seemed like a really important day for my family. I guess after Daddy died that was bound to change. Maybe I was too young when it happened to realize just how much.

This Christmas, when I started counting, I also realized that it has been over a year since I have seen two of my three brothers. So…in the spirit of the father we all loved, in our own ways, who loved Christmas so much, and who loved our little group about as much as a person can love anything, I send my brothers a remote visit home for Christmas. I hope you guys enjoy it.

I begin with sunset on one of the shortest days of the year. It was crazy warm outside when I took this. The air was sweet with pine smoke. I thought it might be a nice way to start this e-card and letter.

This Christmas we have several trees in the house. First, there’s the main tree. It stands in the sun room and has two really important ornaments on it—one’s an angel and one’s a diamond.

You’ll notice there aren’t a bunch of presents under the tree. For me, the tree is the point. It’s the things that brings back the long ago. We do have a couple of things hidden behind it, and we’re looking forward to opening those. Underneath the tree we have a train. We actually have two—one is mine I bought a few years ago, and the other is Brian’s old one. I thought if he found out I was setting up his train under the tree he would come home to reclaim it, or at least to see it. It’s a little tricky to get running. It’s no spring chicken, but we have it out anyway.

We also have a couple of other little trees. There’s one called the “angel tree.” All its ornaments are either bells or angels. I just leave it decorated, so when Christmas comes I unzip a bag and plug it in. It may need refurbishing soon. Even it is getting long in the tooth, and I’m not sure any of my brothers has seen it. We also have a tiny tree in mom’s bathroom, one in the kitchen, and one Charlie Brown type tree in one of the upstairs windows.

Mother’s favorite decoration for Christmas is the Nativity Scene. You’ll recognize the one that gets the greatest place of honor. Anyway, a few years back, Mother decided to start collecting these little scenes. I’m sure it has something to do with how much the very first one means to her.

This year we have the added blessing of having Orson and Ruth here until nearly Christmas. They live just a couple of blocks away, and Orson is a really good sport. He’s always up for an adventure or a trip to the hardware store for wood pellets. At eighty-six, Mother likes a ROARING fire. She will often put her chair directly in front of the stove and put her coffee cup on the top of the stove. We go through plenty of pellets, but I think she enjoys the bath of warm air flowing over her. On Sunday evenings we usually have popcorn and a glass of milk for supper and she watches 60 Minutes.

On Christmas Eve I’ll make fish. This year it will either be tuna steaks or salmon, depending on what looks fresh in the store. Christmas Day mother has developed a tradition of making Cornish game hens, which she calls “little chickens.”

Usually the day after Christmas I’m ready to put everything back to the way it was. I have gotten into the habit of decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, but this year I was a little late getting Christmas up, and in early January we’re hosting a breakfast for Mother’s Sunday School class, so we’ll leave it all twinkling until that party is over.

I miss you guys. Mother hasn’t said much about missing you to me because she knows I feel lousy about it. I’m sorry we haven’t seen each other in such a long time, and I’m sorry it looks like it’s going to be a little longer before we do. It’s a project to travel these days, and it’s hard on both Mother and me, and that’s why I understand it’s hard on you all to try and get here.

Sometimes I dream of a place in the Sacramento Mountains, a place big enough to keep Heather and Brian busy with their natural products farm, a place with a big guest house where John and Carolyn can come, and Dean and Carrie and family can come, a place where we all can share some time together. I wish talking on the phone weren’t pure torture for me. I wish I wasn’t tied wrist and ankle to my job. I wish my dear brothers a Merry Christmas.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Brothers, McCollaum Christmas, Nativity Set collection, This Christmas | 2 Comments

Annotating “The Dead”

Posted on July 4, 2014 by evamccollaum

Here is my second annotation from that most illustrious of story collections Dubliners. I love this story more every time I read it.

Joyce, James. “The Dead.” Dubliners. Ed. Brenda Maddox. New York: Bantam, 1990. Print.

“The Dead,” the last of the fifteen stories in Dubliners, comprises just over twenty percent of the entire length of the collection. The story’s plot centers on a traditional party that the Misses Morkan give every year as seen principally through the eyes of their favorite nephew Gabriel. The story begins in a more omniscient narration, but within a few paragraphs the reader is deeply inside Gabriel’s experience of the party. The party begins with a dance followed by a feast at which Gabriel carves the goose and eventually offers a toast, in the Irish fashion. The final movement of the story is some hours later, just before dawn when Gabriel and his wife Gretta leave the party and take a cab to their hotel. The final moments are in the hotel room as snow falls against the window.

I have read this story many times, and each time I find something beautiful and tender and heartbreaking and funny in it. I suspect this is mostly due to Joyce’s precise attention to Gabriel and the swinging arc of his internal experience throughout the length of the party. We recognize that the women giving the party admire Gabriel because of the way they anticipate his arrival. The aunts keep going to the stairs and looking for their nephew, “it was long after ten o’clock and yet there was no sign of Gabriel and his wife”(143). From Gabriel’s entrance we see his struggle to do the “right” thing. He first tries to be kind to the house maid, noticing that she has grown since he first knew her, and hearing the couples dancing in the rooms above him, he thinks it likely this young woman who has been out of school for nearly a year will soon be getting married, and he suggests that to her. Her response shocks him. “‘The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you'”(144). At the intensity of her reaction, Gabriel blushes and feels himself in the wrong. This effect, of Gabriel trying to be charming or debonaire or insightful and failing, Joyce describes several times in the story, and the effect (after several readings) is comic. He wants to be civil to Miss Ivors, a colleague, but fails to understand or please her. “He avoided her eyes for he had seen a sour expression on her face”(154). Once again, Gabriel is off balance.

Still, the night is not without pleasure. That feature of Joyce’s writing, what we now call stream-of-consciousness, is only in its first real rush of invention in this story. The power of it comes from how faithfully it tracks the feelings of its main character through all the currents of emotion in the setting. Gabriel enjoys his aunt’s singing of a traditional tune. “To follow the voice, without looking at the singer’s face, was to feel and share the excitement of swift and secure flight”(157). He enjoys helping to serve the feast. “He felt quite at ease now for he was an expert carver and liked nothing better than to find himself a the head of a well-laden table”(160). Above all, he looks with pleasure on the beauty of Gretta. “If he were a painter, he would paint her in that attitude”(171). In the course of no more than perhaps six hours Gabriel experiences keenly various emotional states. But, that is nothing to the closing movement of the story.

Anyone who has read this story (and has a taste for what Joyce is doing in it) has to admire the last movement. “The blood went bounding along his veins; and the thoughts went rioting through his brain, proud, joyful, tender, valorous”(173). He remembers all the tender moments of his marriage to Gretta, their intimate and domestic life. His emotion blossoms into exquisite desire to be alone with her, and when he is, once again he is frustrated. “He longed to be master of her strange mood”(177). At the moment when she seems to have come to him with a feeling like his own, there is that potent twist. She is thinking of a love from her youth, not him at all. “A shameful consciousness of his own person assailed him”(179). The artistry of the writing in these final pages might have stopped at that moment and made a fine story, but Joyce stays with Gabriel. This hesitation until Gabriel reveals the essential man and elevates the story past what the vast majority of writers usually do. “Generous tears filled Gabriel’s eyes”(182). These are the tears of reconciliation and recognition of what some might call the TRUTH.

I understand why some readers and writers get impatient with Joyce and with this technique of narration, especially as it appears in his later work. It might feel too close, too much like self-indulgence. I cannot agree in the case of this story. “The Dead” has become my dear letter from an Irish friend. We probably wouldn’t be able to stand each other if we ever met in a social setting. I’m too much like the house maid. Still, in the pages of this little paper back book, I see the craft that makes the inner life of one man on one night an absolute beauty.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Gabriel Conroy, James Joyce's "The Dead", Sample annotation | Leave a comment

Annotating “Araby”

Posted on July 1, 2014 by evamccollaum

I am currently teaching an on-line course that includes reading James Joyce’s Dubliners. As part of that work, I want to offer here an examination of Joyce’s writing that I think will be instructive for both my students and for me. I hope you all enjoy it.

Joyce, James. “Araby.” Dubliners. Ed. Brenda Maddox. New York: Bantam, 1990. Print.

This story, the third of fifteen, is one of the most anthologized from the collection. It offers a first person point of view account from an unnamed boy experiencing the first keen pangs of romantic love. His friend Mangan’s sister asks him if he is going to a bazaar called Araby and expresses her desire to go there. He suddenly offers to bring her something from it. When he finally gets there, he is disappointed both with the bazaar and his own weaknesses, so he does not buy her a gift. It is one of the shortest stories in Dubliners.

Though many readers and scholars have written about Joyce’s “hate” for Dublin, at the beginning of this story it is replaced with a feeling bordering on nostalgia. The description of Dublin as the evening is coming on has genuine beauty. “The space of sky above us was the colour[sic] of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns”(18). Some readers might see the word “feeble” as critical, but it has the effect of a certain delicate beauty. Just as the children playing in stinging cold air “till our bodies glowed”(18) bring together the pleasant extremes of winter weather and the metaphoric Spring of youth. Into this world of evening play and adventure comes Mangan’s sister. “Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side”(19). For some mysterious reason, that Joyce never explains, on a whim the narrator offers to buy Mangan’s sister a gift at Araby. For those who have experienced a true romantic fascination, this offer does NOT have to be explained. That lack of explanation is part of what makes this story work. Another less noted element of Joyce’s writing that works is his humor. In the narrator’s frustration and anticipation of the bazaar, he makes comments about the non-romantic world. Little comments often miss notice that are pointedly funny. “She was an old garrulous woman, a pawnbroker’s widow, who collected used stamps for some pious purpose”(21). Our narrator is so young it does not occur to him that this woman might once of have been young and lovely. No, there is no time but the present and no beauty by the boy’s love. The real shock of icy water thrown on the boy, and the reader, is at the end. When he arrives at the bazaar, and realizes he does not have the money or the courage to buy any silly little item for the girl, he re-organizes his thoughts in an instant, “and my eyes burned with anguish and anger”(23). It seems both he and the world are now vacant, silly, and pointless.

This effect that Joyce achieves feels more accurate to the age of the boy than almost seems possible. How many of us can recall that first devastating crush with such accuracy? Not many. Fewer still have the courage to describe the fascination in an accurate way. Who wants to appear as desperate and mercurial as this narrator? I believe Joyce creates this effect by allowing the details of the world to be given to us without the softening edge of good judgement. The narrator acts impulsively, as young people in love must. Joyce allows us to see the world through his eyes and avoids explaining, or even trying to explain, the sudden changes and paradoxes of the world the narrator occupies. Most of all, he does not give us enough clues about Mangan’s sister for us to judge her motives at all. Some say the girl manipulates him, but the evidence is pretty thin. She too is young. She too is self-involved and romantically minded, at least to some extent. We do not even know if she realizes the narrator’s affection. She might well guess it, but she might not. Joyce does not give us enough to know, not because he is incapable of doing so, but because his focus is entirely on the boy’s experience, the boy’s coming of age. I will further explore how Joyce handles this technique in a point-of-view character more unlike him.

Joyce has stories that seem true, sometimes too true. The brutality of the everyday is here for us to admire, if we can bear the insight.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Araby, Dubliners, James Joyce | Leave a comment

Food in Roswell: A Tribute to Jenny Currier (Foody)

Posted on June 12, 2014 by evamccollaum

So…my last entry has far too much self pity and angst in it. I appreciate all the uncommonly kind comments former and current students sent. God bless you all. One of these people is (of course) Jenny Currier, who got me started blogging, and I hate to let her down, so I’ve come up with a new blogging feature. I’m even going to add a tab to my page for it. I’m going to review food and products available in Roswell, America. (Just so I’m clear, Roswell, America is in southern New Mexico, not Georgia. We all know that, right?) This is also a way for my family and I to share experiences we have had that have been fun and satisfying. As a celebration of my mother’s 65th wedding anniversary, we took her to her favorite restaurant in Roswell–Popo’s!

I hear what all you long-time Roswell residents are thinking. “Popo’s? You take your mother to Popo’s for her anniversary? How cheap are you?”

Notice the contact number and the prices. Forgive the glare.

First, Popo’s food is always tasty, though I have never tried their “American Food.” The Mexican food is flavorful without burning one’s mouth with too much spice. And, it offers an “A la Carte” option, which is one of the big reasons Mother likes it. She orders the single enchilada, red, and a sopapilla. She does not want a side of beans or rice, and when she and one of her octogenarian friends joins her, they like to brag that can eat for less than a “sawbuck.” I have tasted nearly all of their specialties, but my favorite is the stuffed sopapilla. If I’m feeling guilty about my weight (which I almost always am) I get the half order, and it comes to the table hot and satisfies me well. The Guadalajara is also yummy. My nephew likes the combination plates, and even though they are the top end of the menu, they are still marvelously inexpensive. All three of us ate and had a sopapilla for dessert for less than $20, which I consider remarkable. The servers are always pleasant and efficient without being obtrusive.

The walls ARE newly painted.

Popo’s does not serve alcohol. It’s essentially a pretty Puritanical little place on the corner of McGaffey and Grand. Check out the tee-shirt they have behind the register where you go to pay for your meal.

It explains they wear red on Fridays to honor the troops.

Orson (my nephew) and I decided we would give it an eight out of ten. It loses points on only one front–ambiance. It is in an ancient building with uneven floors, doors that don’t always close quickly, and windows which show little pockmarks from (I suspect) late-night gunfire in days long past. (Don’t worry. There’s no gunfire during business hours.) Some people might assume it isn’t clean, but I have a test for that which I have never known to fail. I don’t use a straw. When I sip from the glass, I get the mildest hint of dishwasher soap. By the second sip it is gone, but that little twang always serves to show that the kitchen, though in a building that might worry one, is up to snuff in the cleanliness department.

Popo’s offers carry-out and catering, so if the building is a problem, have a party and eat in your own home. It will still be good. In case you didn’t see it, the number is (575)627-3476.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Inexpensive food in Roswell, Mexican Food in Roswell, Popo's in Roswell | 1 Comment

Writers Write

Posted on May 28, 2014 by evamccollaum

It has been too long since I posted anything to this blog. It is not because I have not had anything to discuss. I have. I have. I just haven’t had a MOMENT to discuss, at least in a circumspect way, what has been happening in my life. First, I will begin with a hint.

No.

It’s not gardening. I have bought some plants recently. It’s not even photography, exactly. No, it’s indentured servitude. I am going to be teaching summer school, something that I swore I would never do again after working with it in Deming years ago. I am doing summer school in order to help make our program more effective at placement and completion for all our students who are studying in a second language.

I am also teaching a Senior English section, a job I know will bury me. I have exactly one month to get all the materials and activities lined up and prepared. July will be hectic, and August my regular job will begin again. I will have ten minutes to myself between what I have to do and what I HAVE TO DO. One thing about the yearbook and the coming year, I am becoming more convinced retirement is the thing for me.

It’s funny. I used to have real confidence in myself as a teacher. The truth is I was spoiled. So many students wanted me for a teacher, and so many expressed gratitude for what I did, that I became convinced anyone would want me for a teacher. Not so. Just a couple of days ago, a few friends were telling me they heard a student I had this year referred to me as “mean.” <<MEAN>> Okay. I wasn’t trying for mean, but so be it. I was trying for…well…the best. I have always wanted to be THE BEST TEACHER. For a long time I felt like once I got enough experience and enough training, I would be like that–THE BEST. But, I’m not. I DO my best, but there aren’t any golden apples languishing on my shelves. “Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.” I told myself I would retire the moment I got the chance, but it’s my twenty-eighth year, and I’m no closer to being sure I have it right than I was ten years in.

ENOUGH! (moan, moan, moan) I tell you what. I just finished a year that came close to stripping my gears. What next? I have a kid asking me for a favor by e-mail. The e-mail is riddled with errors. I want to yell, “Do you realize you are writing to an English teacher? Do you realize you may as well be forcing me to chew tin foil?” I know. I’m not perfect. No one is. Maybe I should seek to teach this person who clearly needs help. Maybe. Maybe this person needs to hear “no” a little more often. This person clearly was not expecting a refusal. The curt reply to my refusal was clear proof of that. <<MEAN>>

The next time I buy a program to alter photographs, I am going to slap my own hands. I cannot FIGURE how to use them, especially my latest one, called LIGHT ROOM, which does not even offer a SAVE step. What’s with that? My nephew said, “Look on you tube for tutorials.” Fair enough. I did. They taught me all sorts of stuff except where to find and save images. It’s MADDENING. <<MEAN AND INEPT>>

Right now I have low blood sugar. It’s 1800,and I need a cocktail. I don’t plan to be mean with that.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Mean, The Best Teacher | 7 Comments