Working toward the 50: UPDATE

This is what you might call overzealous posting...twice in one afternoon? I know, I know. But, I found myself reading over some of our original posts and I wanted to update my progress on visiting all 50 states. Here is where I last stood with states left to go:

arizona

washinton

oregon

north dakota

south dakota

nevada

idaho

maine

south carolina

hawaii

alaska

alabama

louisiana

mississippi

wisconsin

michigan

minnesota

oklahoma

kansas

AND the new list:

washington

oregon

north dakota

south dakota

idaho

south carolina

hawaii

alaska

alabama

louisiana

mississippi

wisconsin

michigan

oklahoma

kansas

Accomplishments include: Arizona, Minnesota, Maine and Nevada. That leaves only 15.

I have a good friend from Woolman who will be living in Idaho next year, and possibly one living in Seattle. Washington and Oregon are so within reach it really is almost ridiculous that I haven't visited there yet. One good cross-country road trip would cover all of these except Alaska and Hawaii. Also, Nick Singer told me about a type museum in Wisconsin that has 1.5 million pieces of woodtype. A must-see before death.

Getting back to the Blogging bug

New concerted effort to write on this blog. Years from now, how will I know I even existed if the internet cannot confirm it. I need to start taking this stuff seriously.

I had an amazing conversation with Nick Singer this week where I shared a bit of an article with him. Here is the jist: Christianity effectively created or popularized a new technology (the book) because it NEEDED a comparative reading experience (i.e. flipping between the old and new testaments) so that the religion could emphasize its relevance to Scripture. Previously reading had been a linear experience as in the case of moving through a Torah scroll. That article pretty much blew my mind.

I also had a mediocre conversation just now where the Woolman program coordinator, was complaining about how much time it takes to create our monthly newsletter and how ze had fallen behind on it, and how there is no person being the point-person for our online presence. I have to say I did not respond so well to this in my facial expressions. We hired a Media Outreach Intern, who is under the program coordinator's supervison, and ze just won't work with this intern to have hir help on these tasks (which were the tasks he was hired to do...) Now this intern is definitely amazing, doing all sorts of great work, but the program coordinator is not managing him at all, so this pretty essential work that needs to happen on a timeline is being left to others. Why is it so difficult for people to supervise? The head of school asked me if admissions could take over on these tasks, and I said I'd rather have them focusing on prospective students. I manage my people, and I know they are busy, and I know who should be doing this work, and I also know who should not be complaining about this if ze cannot supervise his interns and gets to choose hir own job description. Okay however vague that little rant might be, please forgive.

The greatest thing about this conversation is that it happened exactly 24 hours before I will be in Phoenix with Bananz, laughing and cajoling, and not at all caring about any monthly newsletter or blog posts, except for these ones.

Earthquake!

While planning my lessons this afternoon, I was interrupted by a slight vibration of my computer and the table. Being from the East Coast, I did not think earthquake, until I looked above me and saw the hanging light fixture swinging back and forth. My very first earthquake! Turns out the 7.2 magnitude quake quake originated in Baja California,about 300 miles from Phoenix.