Saturday, January 26, 2008

On Ice Skating with Sophie

One thing led to the other & yesterday Sophie (my 4 year old granddaughter) & I ended up at the ice skating rink at Chelsea Piers, the mammoth sports facility on the banks of the Hudson River in New York City. It has been close to thirty years since I last put on ice skates: Sophie never has.
Being a sensibly cautious person (not one of my salient characteristics), Sophie finally put on her skates--after carefully observing everyone and everything & talking about the difference between ice over water that skaters could possibly fall through & ice over a hard surface--and off we went: the oldest and the youngest skaters in the rink. And, by oldest I mean by about 35 years! (Reread my earlier admission that "being a sensibly cautious person is not one of my salient characteristic" and you'll understand why I didn't wonder whether or not I'd remember how to skate; fortunately my muscles did.)
We started out with Sophie holding onto the railing with one hand & my hand with the other. Being focused on managing my own skates so as not to fall or trip Sophie, I didn't try to teach her anything except to briefly explain about pushing with the toe of one skate and gliding on the other, or something like that. About half way around, we switched to her being about 3 or so feet in front of me and me holding both her hands. My strategy was to keep pace with her by pushing with my right foot. Her technique came from closely watching other people & imagining she was a horse pulling me. After about an hour of skating and brief breaks, I stumbled and fell taking Sophie down with me. I sprawled: she sat down, kerplunk! We weren't hurt, just surprised, although I must admit I was embarrassed when the "rink safety person" suddenly appeared to help me up (was my gray hair magnetic, I wondered). No harm done we were up and off again. Another round and I stumbled again--one foot, then the other. Yikes! I thought. Then, amazingly I found myself staying upright. Why? Because Sophie, who was skating in front & holding my hands, kept me steady. When we took a break, Sophie said, "Grammie, I held you up."
"Yes, you saved me from falling. How did you know to do that?"
"I felt you stumble again & held you up," she matter-of-factly replied.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

On Writing--Eventually you've got to start


Start what? Writing! Yesterday I took these pictures of the pingpong table in my basement office (not to worry, I'm not a complete mole, there are windows that face the bird feeders and sunset, although it is chilly!). The point of these pictures is how easy it is to get overwhelmed with material, especially with the amount of primary source material available via the Internet--yikes! From left to right: the brown with a pink stripe object is the 3-ring notebook in which I keep completed manuscript pages (I write and revise as I go, aiming for producing final copy.); there a couple of books on & under the notebook that I'm using for double-checking; a 1,000 piece puzzle is under the notebook--periodically working on the puzzle keeps me from solidifying in my chair and helps me focus; more books(many from the stacks at the Columbia University library--see early blog for picture of the stacks) and papers are spread out on the table; taped to the bookshelf in the upper right corner is a double-entry chronology--ECS on the left, SBA on the right, the green post-it & red note card taped to the side have contextual info. The second picture shows the box in which I keep all relevant information, including folders for each chapter. More books are piled up on the bureau (yes, that is a statue of Santa Claus that my father made in the early 1940s. It was never fired but has survived moves back and forth across the U.S.) p.s. the journals in the metal bookshelves belong to my partner who is head of the program in intellectual disabilities and autism at Teachers College, Columbia University. The file cabinet holds maps and my women's history photo archive.

Since the semester ended, I've been full-time into doing research for
Stirring Up The World, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Powerful Friendship, except for days when I've needed to tend to the production of Thanksgiving: The True Story, which I'm very happy to report will be out in September. And, of course, my Sophie-days and family birthdays, etc.

Yesterday, I got an email from the department secretary reminding faculty that the semester starts tomorrow; not that I had forgotten, but somehow the reminder-email made it real. Fortunately my first class isn't until Monday, but that means just a few more days before I add more demands to my time and attention. So, clearly it's time to shift from doing research to writing, which isn't to imply that I haven't been writing, I have, but nothing that excites me. Nor that I won't continue to do research, just that I'll shift my focus and intensity.

So, after all that, if you're wondering whether or not I got up and started writing today? The answer is YES!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Winter Weekend at the Shore


Spent a winter weekend at the Jersey Shore with Sophie; her first without the summer crowds. (She--a New York City girl--commented on the lack of people and the silence.) On our way to our bungalow, we stopped at the fish co-op in Point Pleasant Beach (the home port of a fishing fleet)and got some flounder that Sophie--all by herself--rinsed and swished around in the egg and rolled in bread crumbs for me to fry. Sunday morning we bundled up and went at the ocean beach & ran around, made sand castles, picked up shells to paint later, and played in the frothy surf. As was probably predictable, in time, a wave splashed up and over Sophie's rubber boots.
Later when we returned to Englewood, Linda asked her:
How did you like the Shore in the winter?
I liked it, Sophie replied.
Wasn't it really different because
you couldn't lie on the beach and go in the water?
Well I did go in the water, Sophie told her. My feet were wet and my boots.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Book update and Sea Stars

During the last class of the semester, I did a show-and-tell re the publication process for my students in my Issues in Children's Literature class at Queens College. How? I showed them the page proof of Thanksgiving: The True Story that had just arrived. The page proof being my manuscript now typeset and paginated with the placement of the text, illustrations, and other design elements. I talked about the back and forth of line editing, copy editing, revising, checking and double checking. They were astonished at the amount of work involved--truly astonished. Little did they or I know that within a few days(as the result of an email exchange with my editor) I would revise the first two chapters into one chapter and created a chart with information about the 12 claims for the "first" Thanksgiving!! An intense task, but the result s "thrilled" my editor, and me too! We're all really excited about this book.
Fortunately I finished in time to spend my one-day-a-week with my granddaugher Sophie, who just turned 4 years old. Happily she loves road trips so off we went to the aquarium in Camden, NJ. This is the fourth aquarium we've visited. We identify them with a unique exhibit, e.g., Mystic, CT, with it's beluga whales; NYC with the walruses, including the baby; Jenkinson's with it's albino alligator. This one has two hippopotamuses and a fascinating collection of sea stars. In the picture (l-r) are: bat sea star, sun (thirteen arms); another bat (dark color) ochra (can't remember what's beside it) and a rose sea star. They were in a touching pool, which was very cool.