Firsts and lasts

Today is Cornelius' last day with us. She snuggled with me and even allowed Nukah to get close. I can't write more about her right now.


Joseph gave Nukah his very first bath.


He was a shiny puppy until we took him for a walk. Because his body is so low to the ground, he managed to acquire a thick layer of dirty snow across his belly and on his paws.

Nukah comes home!

We drove five hours in a snowstorm to pick up beautiful Nukah in Pennsylvania.


He was very excited and overstimulated when we began the ride home. After an hour, he slept on and off for most of the trip.


As soon as we arrived home, Nukah investigated Cornelius.








Joseph, Cornelius, Nukah, and I celebrated New Year's together.


We were all exhausted from a long, but happy day.




At first, Nukah cried and groaned when we left him in his crate, but we stayed strong and he slept in his crate through the night. We're so proud of our puppy!

Animals, present tense

Joseph and I are going to pick up Nukah tomorrow. Above is his most recent picture. Look closely; he's aged a lot. In two weeks, he's already grown into an old fellow.

After Riva and I returned from the vet last night, we snuggled with Cornelius; ate lots of comfort food; fed Cornelius baby food; and watched Party of Five, a bad television drama from the nineties.



Cornelius stayed tucked inside my armpit as we slept through the night. I'm glad we have these last few days together. Cornelius has had nine lives; she's lived in nine different houses since I adopted her: two in San Francisco, two in Minneapolis, one in Boston, three in New York, and now upstate. This cat has seen the world.

Cornelius, you always walked a step behind.

Today Riva and I took Cornelius to the vet. She is suffering from kidney failure. On Saturday I will probably have to go back to the hospital to put her to sleep. Here are some pictures from her early years in San Francisco.

You're the one for me, Fatty.

the lengths we'll go

After suffering through two horrible movies, Nine and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, we finally chose a winner: Up in the Air is surprisingly intelligent and engaging. Now we're kind of trapped because there's little chance that for the rest of the week, we will see a better or comparable film in the upstate area.

It's probably best that we take a sabbatical from the cinema as I have been subsisting on popcorn, candy, and soda for most of this winter break.

In other news, Riva and I are back to our old mini-rebellions. Yesterday we stopped by a hotel where my parents stayed when they came to visit. I was in need of caffeine and remembered their coffee and hot cocoa bar in the lobby. We waltzed in, greeted the man behind the counter, poured coffee and hot cocoa for ourselves, and waited for the right moment to bolt. Two young fellows, who looked much more dangerous than we did were exiting the hotel, so we rushed to catch up to them and followed them out into the parking lot. Hot drinks in hand, when we got into the car, Riva said she wanted to go back to the hotel again the following day.

These activities reassure us of our youthfulness.

Save yourself!

As promised, I joined Riva's family plus Georgette and Tom for sushi and a movie. The sushi was delicious and the company was lovely, but it all went downhill at the theater. I am ashamed to say that we saw Nine, and I feel that it is my duty to spread the good word that this wreck-of-a-movie will cost you 110 minutes of your life. Consider this my community service of the week. Believe me, you don't want to go near this one.

Ew, Christmas

I arrived back upstate last night after having the money drained out of my pockets in the city. While I was away, the pipes in my cottage froze and one of them burst. Apparently, I have to use all of my savings not just to live in the city but also to live through winter in the country.

A nice plumber finally showed up today to repair the damage. We talked for a long time about literature, insulation, and our life stories. He was very generous and sympathetic.

After he left, I read more of Moby-Dick and Alice Munro's new book. Then I fell into a trance/nap/coma with my cat. Before I could recover, Riva was knocking on my cottage door. She hauled me out of the house to "enjoy" another local tradition.

Every "holiday" season, the town gathers for caroling, free hot cider, something related to stockings, and Santa's big entrance. Having just woken up, I wasn't totally prepared for the immensity of this event. I ran into my students and Riva's high school friends. It was hard to plaster on my "social" game face after a day of dealing with my disdain for costly winters, landlords, Christmas, Christians, and country life in general.

Tomorrow I will continue my favorite Christmas tradition of watching movies and trying to avoid having to fake holiday joy.

Until then, I will lose myself in my imagined life as a whaler: "...but lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity; takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature; and every strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him.... And perhaps, at mid-day, in the fairest weather, with one half-throttled shriek you drop through that transparent air into the summer sea, no more to rise for ever. Heed it well, ye Pantheists!"

The votes are in!

At school, we voted on the top three names for my new puppy:

32 votes for Nukah
23 votes for Kugel
10 votes for Moishe

Unless there's a drastic change when I meet the dog, it looks like I'll be calling him Nukah!

(Actually, the "h" is still in question. It could be Nuka or Nukah. That's the next big decision I'll need to make.)


Today was the last day of school before Winter Break. Thank G-D for two weeks off! An abundance of playing Jenga, dancing, eating sweets, watching movies, and gift giving took place.


I won one out of the two games I played. Nobody actually wins at Jenga; there's a loser and then everyone else. So I guess I was part of the everyone else.

Time to dig into my giant stack of books.
F(read)om!

Puppy-loving

Joseph is getting me this basset hound puppy for Hanukah! We're going to pick him up from the breeder during winter break. He'll be about twelve weeks old when we retrieve him.

I'm thinking about naming him, Nuka, as in HaNUKAh, but I'm very much open to suggestions. Some other name ideas are: Wendell, Kugel, Winston, Matzo-Ball, Latke, and 476-4.

My students put a suggestion box on my door, so that they can help me come up with a good name for my puppy. I'm going to put a little bed in my classroom, so that the dog can come to school with me, at least while he's a puppy and needs more attention.

Here are pictures of my puppy's parents:



I've never had a dog before, though when I was little, I dog-sat everyday for my next-door neighbors.

When I was young, I begged my parents for a dog. My mom would always reply, "When you grow up, and have your own home and your own family, then you can get a dog."

Well, look at me now, Mom! Finally, I'll be puppy-loving my very own puppy. It's about time!

8 nights, 7 sins

In celebration of Hanukah, I'm preparing to teach my first Senior Seminar, which begins tomorrow. I've chosen a nice Jewish theme: Artists' Responses to the Seven Deadly Sins.

This topic interests me because I don't know much about it; I wasn't raised Catholic and I can barely remember all seven of the sins. I like having an excuse to learn and the structure of a class to keep me motivated.

Tomorrow, I'll find out if the students take the bait.

Country living learning curve continues

We woke up to a 5:45 am phone call. The news: school was postponed until the roads could be cleared of ice.

My new favorite phrase besides "snow day" is "two-hour delay." This means that school begins two hours later and resumes where we would be in the day had we been there since the beginning. Instead of starting my day at 8:10, I arrived at work at 10:30.

Joseph decided to take a later bus for fear of the icy roads, so we spent the morning drinking coffee, eating breakfast, and reading. Since the rain and snow had stopped falling, Joseph took out the newly acquired shovel and sculpted a walkway from the car to my home.

Not a terribly interesting anecdote, sure, but solid support in defense of winter's perks.

Silver lining, people. Silver lining.

Chappy Chanuka!

My first snow day

I'm learning about the perks of country living.


Because of a massive snowstorm, which blew in from the west early this morning, school is closed for the day.


Last night, before the snow fell, there were no visible signs to the amateur eye that this amount of snow was possible.


For once, the meteorologists were right about predicting the weather.


I'm going to stay inside for most of the day, bundled up in a sleeping bag next to the bay window with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book.


Its cold outside, but it's warm in here.


One slight problem: I don't own a shovel. This afternoon, I'll have to walk in my non-snow boots over to the hardware store with the hope that they aren't sold out.


Otherwise, it looks like I'm not going anywhere for a while.


Keeping up with my country learning curve is a fun challenge.


Time to hibernate.

New Bookslut Column

Check out my new interview with Carolyn Mackler!

I've decided to talk to authors who have written banned and challenged books.

You can also scroll down from Bookslut's homepage.

Enjoy!

P.S. I've been swamped with report card writing, which is why I haven't been updating my blog regularly. Life should begin to mellow out in eight more school days because that's when we are free for Winter Break! (But who's counting?)