The Rise of Public Science

Last night before bed, I was complaining to Billy that I had to start reading this book before classes even begin.  (Full title: The Rise of Public Science: Rhetoric, Technology, and Natural Philosophy in Newtonian Britain, 1660-1750, by Larry Stewart)

He was not buying it.  "You signed up for this," he told me.  He also reminded me that I like it.  (I did not remind him that not only did I sign up for it, I exhausted myself for 18 months for the opportunity to do it.)

When I suggested that I should get a little bit of a break because I read a whole book the day before (Achebe's Things Fall Apart), he told me that all I'd done was proven his point.  "But anyone would rather read a story than an essay," I tried to get him to acknowledge.

"If it was all candy and gumdrops, everyone would have a PhD," he said.

I love my husband.

(And dare I admit, I began the book today, and I actually find it quite interesting.  And he will find it interesting, too, when I've read enough of it to talk to him about it.  Though he might not admit it.)

Questions of Travel

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Dad bought our Australian Open tickets today!!  THANKS DAD!

He bought us passes for the first four days to Hisense Arena.  I think we'll be sitting somewhere under that red smudge in the corner of the photo above.  One perk of getting tickets for this court?  It has a roof that prevents rain/heat delays.  This past year, each of the following players had matches on this court during the first four days:

Andy Roddick (2x)

Venus Williams (2x)

Juan Martin del Potro (2x) 

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2x)

Dinara Safina (2x)

Serena Williams

Novak Djokovic

Justine Henin

Elena Dementieva

Fernando Verdasco

Jelena Jankovic

Caroline Wozniacki

James Blake

Marcos Baghdatis

David Ferrer

Taylor Dent

Plus, a Hisense pass allows you to see matches played on any of the outside courts, as well.  We're also hoping that by purchasing tickets for opening night in Rod Laver Arena, when the defending champion usually plays, we'll get to see Roger Federer.  (If not, it will likely be Rafael Nadal... not a bad replacement!)  The only players we're unlikely to see are Aussie favorites Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Stosur, and Kim Clijsters (who isn't even Australian but is still beloved down under because she used to be engaged to Hewitt).  They always play in Laver Arena.  But, I kind of think it would be more fun to watch one of these matches outside the stadium with this crowd, anyway.

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In related news, Andy Roddick made it to the semi-finals of the Cincy Masters tournament this week, despite admitting that he still doesn't feel 100% physically recovered from his mild case of mono.  He beat #5 Robin Soderling and #2 Novak Djokovic en route to the semis, where he lost to his BFF Mardy Fish, who is playing better tennis this summer than he ever has before.  (If you want to know my theory, I think Andy might have been less than devastated to let this one get away.  He served for the match in the second set, but Mardy broke him and then won the tiebreaker.  After that, I got the feeling that Andy knew he wouldn't be able to compete with Federer the next day given his level of fatigue, so losing to his best friend, who was playing well and had more energy, suddenly seemed like a not-so-bad idea.)  Mardy put up a good fight in the finals against Roger Federer, but lost 4-6 in the third set.  Can't wait to see what happens at the US Open!!

The Australian Open opens on January 17.  Just under 5 months to go!!!

("Questions of Travel" is a poem by Elizabeth Bishop in which she questions why we feel compelled to travel to distant locales.  Check out that link for the full text.  As for me, I know why I feel compelled to travel to distant locales during January-- it's summer and tennis season in Oz then!!  Do you remember what I was dealing with this past winter?!)

Teacher (Wo)Man

My German class is winding to a close, and though I'm not sorry to have workbook assignments behind me, I will kind of miss some of the friends I've made in the class.  (There are certainly a handful of complainers I will not miss, but who needs to talk about them?)  We've gotten comfortable enough with our small class (12 students) that those with whom I regularly do "group work" have started teasing me about a) being so old and b) asking too many questions.  Today's heckling was actually kind of insightful, however.

Friendly Overachieving Undergraduate #1: Have you ever tried speaking German with a cold?
Liz: No.
FOU1: It really helps your pronunciation.  It's like someone was speaking Old English back in the day, and then they got a really bad sore throat, and German was born.
Liz (laughs, and says): Oh, well English and modern German both developed out of old German, so maybe someone had a surprisingly clear throat one day and decided to invent English.
FOU1: (laughs) Sounds good to me.
Military (and thus closer to my age) Undergraduate #2: Is it hard being so smart?
Liz: Huh?
MU2: You know everything.  Who knows that stuff?
Liz: Oh, I had to study the history of the English language.  When you've been in school as long as I have, you pick up lots of information along the way.
MU2: No.  It's because you have teacher's brain.  You don't even realize that you never stop teaching.

This prompted an inquiry about what he meant by "teacher's brain."  He informed me that the good teachers are the curious people, and he can tell I am one of them because I ask so many "random" questions.  As in,

MU2: No offense, Liz, but nobody else cares if the "green movement" originally started being called that because it was associated with Germany's Green party.
Liz: What do you mean?  I always thought it was called the green movement because earthy things are green.  So I was trying to figure out what was called "green" first: the movement or the party.  Did you know that Germany started the green movement?
MU2: No, and I didn't care.

More laughter.

This got me thinking about to what degree my teaching is influenced by my natural curiosity about things.  To be perfectly honest, one of the hardest things for me to get used to when I started teaching was realizing that other people aren't as curious as I am.  It doesn't help that I live with another of the world's most curious people.  I've always wanted to learn because I want to know.  So it was interesting to me that the very thing which he suggested makes me a "good" teacher is also something I would identify as one of the things that makes teaching difficult for me.  And I was also intrigued by his suggestion that I don't "realize" that I never stop teaching, because somewhere in the middle of the course I realized that I had been listening to my classmates' questions, realizing that they didn't understand the instructor's answer, and raising my hand to ask the question in a different way that would make the confusion more clear to the instructor so she could answer the question more clearly.  I guess I just can't help it.

And then I realized, the amount of time I spent thinking about his suggestion r.e. my "teacher's brain" kind of proved his point, right?

Incidentally, today marks 2 weeks until I'm back in the classroom!

(Teacher Man is the memoir of Frank McCourt, who is probably even more famous for Angela's Ashes.  It was really insightful in a realistic way, which I loved.  I like stories like Dangerous Minds, the Freedom Writers, and especially Stand and Deliver, but they always seemed so pie in the sky to me that I found them more discouraging than encouraging.  I could never imagine myself being that successful in the classroom.  Frank McCourt, I could relate to.  And I completely ripped off his idea of teaching the parts of the sentence by equating them with parts of a retractable pen... and it totally worked!)

Hardcourt Confidential

Last week, I watched 21 tennis matches-- in person!  I realize that the desire to sit on a metal bleacher for six hours at a time probably sets me apart from most reasonable people, but the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Rock Creek Park is, for me, a small slice of paradise (though I might design paradise with more comfortable seating).  For the second year in a row, my birthday present from Billy was a pair of tickets for all 11 sessions over the course of the 9 days of the tournament.  I don't quite know how to explain why I love this tournament so much, but I'll try.  (And feel free to click any of the photos to enlarge them.)

 

 If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I love tennis, clothes, being out in the sun, and that I also love my husband and my friends but my schoolwork cuts into the time I get to spend with them.  The tennis tournament gives me the opportunity to combine all of these interests within driving distance of my home.  While the tournament has never attracted the current biggest names in the game, I still get to see quite a few top 20 players and plenty of high quality play.  The tournament is hot and outdoors, but it's still a pretty big social outing, and I enjoy observing all the different ways women choose to dress for the event.  I get to spend several whole days with my husband, whose love of the game is not as strong as mine but whose love of me compels him to sweat patiently on the bleacher beside me long after he'd otherwise be ready to head home.  For two years now I've also gotten to spend an evening at the tournament with Danielle and Anne-Marie, and having sixish straight hours to sit and chat with each of them is a luxury that's impossible during my regular in-semester schedule.  I have to admit I'm a little jealous that some people get to take in their sporting events periodically over the course of an entire season (and I get to do this with Navy football), but there's also something exciting about allowing the tournament to completely absorb my attention for an entire week that must be my version of what others experience during the NCAA basketball tournament.

 

Another reason to love this particular tournament is that Andy Roddick loves it, too.  He's won it three times, and he regularly says its his favorite stop on the US Open Series tour.  Maybe that's because the crowd loves him, or because he thrives in the heat, or because he's usually the top ranked player at the tournament.  Last year, he made it to the final and lost in the 3rd set tiebreaker to Juan Martin del Potro, whom you know went on to win the US Open itself.  This year, he didn't do so well.  He looked fine in his opening match, so I was glad Danielle got to see that one, but in his second match against Gilles Simon, he looked like this.

Honestly, the version of Andy that was on court that night was the opposite of everything I've come to love about Andy as a player and a person.  I've seen him play badly before, but I've never seen him slump in his chair and bury his head in his towel.  He's always the first one out of his chair on the changeover, but that night he was kept sitting there when the chair umpire called time.. each time.  It was depressing.  It was heartbreaking, really.  I was actually relieved when he announced after the match that he can't figure out why he hasn't been feeling like himself and is going to undergo some medical tests.  I hope it's mono or something that can be treated fairly easily.  There's one thing I love about Andy more than anything else, and it's that he fights to win until the last ball drops.  This wasn't that Andy.

That meant that this tournament also made me face the reality that Andy's best days might be behind him.  I hope that's not the case, but his losses here and at Wimbledon combined to make me realize that I may not always be able to cheer for someone whose playing style, attitude, and personality I so deeply relate to and appreciate.  And there might never be another active tennis player I like so much again.  What am I going to do when that happens? I asked myself.  Who will I cheer for once he's done?  Will I lose my interest in tennis?  These thoughts were even sadder than this sight: 

Thinking about what the ATP will be like post-Andy was sad, but his early exit also helped me realize that one of the things I really love about the game of tennis are the stories.  After Thursday night's rain delay, we got to sit in the third row up to see the match between Ryan Sweeting and Fernando Verdasco.  I've liked Verdasco since his impressive showing against Nadal at the Australian in 09, and I was excited to see him post such good results this spring after he spent some time working with Andre Agassi's trainer.  (I like this trainer even more after finding out that he says you "know yourself" "on the other side of tired.")  Plus, Verdasco's not bad looking.  Ryan Sweeting is 23 year old American who made his first big breakthrough in this tournament-- he made it in through qualifying, upset James Blake on stadium court in his first match, and beat Llodra for the chance to face Verdasco.  We realized early in the match that we were sitting only one row in front of his coach, so I really enjoyed observing their interaction.  I'm intrigued by the mental aspect of tennis as much as any other part of the game, so it was cool to see how Sweeting attempted to stay competitive against a top 10 opponent and how his coach tried to encourage him to keep his head in the game without breaking the "no on-court coaching" rule.  Afterwards, I googled the coach, Dustin Taylor, and found out that he was recently named the head American coach by the USTA and he graduated from Lakeridge in 2000.  Small world!  Sweeting lost a close 2 set match, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he fares at the US Open.

We also watched the beginning of the Mardy Fish/Marin Cilic match on the grandstand court, and though I saw Mardy win in the stadium earlier in the week, it was extra cool to see him up close.  He's having the best summer of his career (after losing something like 30 lbs and improving his fitness), and he lost this match in 3 sets, but he ended up winning the doubles title with Mark Knowles.  Truth be told, I wish we'd stayed to watch this match play out rather than heading inside to see Andy Roddick crumble, but hindsight is 20/20, right?

Another storyline I was excited to see firsthand was the return of the Bryan Brothers to this tournament, which they've won three times.  The weekend prior to the Legg Mason, Bob and Mike won their 62nd doubles title in LA (near their hometown of Camarillo), which broke the record for the most doubles titles won by any single team.  Anne-Marie and I got to watch them compete in a close opening match with this past year's NCAA doubles champions from UVA, and Billy and I got to see them play a competitive quarterfinal match that they eventually lost, eliminating our hopes of seeing them win #63.  I was never good enough at singles to learn much about the strategy involved, but I always did okay as a doubles player, so it is extra fun for me to watch the winningest team ever deploy the strategies I failed to execute in my own short-lived playing career.  : )

One big highlight of the week was meeting Patrick McEnroe and having him sign my copy of his recent memoir, Hardcourt Confidential, for my tennis-loving grandmother.  I sent him a message on twitter prior to his arrival in DC asking if he'd sign it for me, and he responded! to say he would be happy to sign the book.  Billy spotted him on the grounds, and when I approached him, he was super friendly and even asked me if I was the one who had sent him the message.  I managed to speak to him for a few minutes without shouting "OMG can you introduce me to Andy!? I know you're friends!", and he wrote a nice note to Gramma in the book, so it was a success!  Also, I was surprised at how good looking he was in person, and I still can't believe he's only 7 years younger than his brother John.  Maybe being a curmudgeon takes its toll on your looks, too?

After Andy lost and Verdasco was upset by Marcos Baghdatis in the quarters, I didn't have a vested interest in who won the tournament, but we got to see some high quality play in the semifinals anyhow.  After 5 days in a row of sitting on the bleachers and driving about an hour each way, I decided that I'd rather watch the final between David Nalbandian and Marcos Baghdatis on my couch at home.

When we turned on the TV on Sunday, Billy and I couldn't help but laugh when we realized that the TV feed had almost the exact same view of the court that we had from our seats.  The match turned out to be a little more competitive than I was expecting, and Baghdatis put up a decent fight in the second set, but I wasn't surprised at all to see Nalbandian win.  He definitely looked the most consistently strong throughout the tournament.  I can't wait to see how everybody we saw does during the US Open!

Thanks again to Billy for the world's best birthday gift in the history of birthday gifts.  And thanks to you for reading all the way to the end of this blog post, which has allowed me to relive the experience a little bit.  Today's the first day P.L.M. (post Legg Mason), and I'm a little down about the fact that there's no DC tennis match to watch, but now I feel rested and ready for my upcoming semester.  I even got a little bit of a tan!  And hey, it's not that long before the Australian Open, right?!

Old Friends and New

At the end of July, my childhood friend Kelsey paid us a visit for around 10 days.  She's currently enrolled in an Occupational Therapy graduate program at the University of Washington, and she applied for a weeklong internship at Johns Hopkins so she could come pay us a visit while also completing one of her program's requirements.  Kelsey was on my new soccer team when I moved to Oregon before fifth grade, and we've been friends ever since.  She, Krista, and I grew up together and logged more hours in one another's company than many people who actually live together, I think.  For eight years we participated in the same activities and took the same classes, but for the past ten years we've lived in different states and, at times, different countries, so it was interesting for me to think about the ways we've changed.

It was great to have Kelsey here to see what my life is like now and to have a chance to share some of my favorite experiences with her.  We had been hoping to go hiking in Harpers Ferry the first weekend she was here, but with temperatures over 100 degrees, that wasn't possible.  She was working pretty long hours at the hospital, but we still managed to squeeze in several fun activities during her visit.

On her first day in town, we all headed down to Annapolis.  She needed some new running shoes, so I took her to the running shop that sponsors our Annapolis Striders races and the owner helped her find the perfect shoe.  In addition to walking around downtown in the heat and grabbing lunch, Billy took this photo of us in front of Ego Alley.

Midweek, we took a break from schizophrenia case studies and German homework to head down to Fells Point in Baltimore for their summertime outdoor movie.  Kelsey thought Fells was a cool neighborhood, and we enjoyed dinner and gelato and sat down to watch the movie.  Then we decided we were too tired to sit outside to watch a movie we could barely see or hear, so we headed home.  Just in case we needed a reminder that we're not 16 anymore.  : )  Here we are on the Fells pier in front of the Harbor.

On Kelsey's second weekend here, Billy's family got crabs, so she got to see why they're called "Blue Crabs" and why Old Bay is sold in a 2 gallon container.   I think she ate two, which is two more than I ate.  I'm glad Kelsey got to experience this quintessential Maryland tradition and spend a little bit of time with Billy's family.

Kelsey was also here for the most recent Annapolis Striders race, so she ran the 8k with me.  Or, I should say, she ran the 8k far ahead of me-- she's fast!  She has participated in several large races, including the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon and whole bunch of shorter races, but this was the first time she'd run in a race hosted by a running club.  She couldn't believe how cheap it was!  It sounds like she has caught the running bug, and she just started training for a marathon, so I was glad to help her experience what I see as the advantages of participating in smaller local races.  For the first time in a while, I really enjoyed the race.  The weather has been so hot that I have hardly run outside in the past month, so I wasn't sure how I'd do, but the temps cooled down for the race and I was able to post a time that was one minute faster than last year's time for the same race.  I felt great throughout the race and the course is sort of cross-country style through trails, so it was definitely a fun change from the past two races where I've felt pretty miserable.  I don't know why Kelsey felt compelled to capture this moment on film, but since she did, here's the photo. : )

Later that day, we took Kelsey to the opening weekend of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic (more on that in an upcoming post), and though she doesn't follow tennis, I think she enjoyed being out in the sun (while it lasted) and seeing some high quality play up close.  She didn't know who any of the players were, but she dutifully took pictures of them as if she thought they were as big a deal as I do.  : )  She also got to join me and Billy for our first ever rain delay at the tournament which was, unfortunately, not the last.  You can tell from the photo that everything is damp.

While she was here, we also went to see Inception (which I now want to see a second time), she got to experience Sunday morning breakfast at Panera with Danielle, and I think she did more shopping than she has probably done all year.  Having Kelsey and Vickie stay with us has made me realize how much shopping I do without actually buying anything, because those two go with me to be nice and then they end up buying while I walk out empty handed.  I finally made my first purchase in quite a while when I took Kelsey shopping in Georgetown, and since I did not follow the directions I'd written down on the way into or out of DC, she got to see plenty of the city!  After opting out of waiting in line for a Georgetown Cupcake, she discovered a s'mores/krispy treat hybrid at Dean & Deluca which I promptly plan to replicate.  She also spent a morning in McKeldin while I went to German class, and she marveled at our beautiful mall.  She claims that it could also be called a quad, in which she is obviously mistaken, because look how un-quadish it is! : )

In general, I think the time Kelsey and I have spent apart has made more evident the differences in our personalities that I completely overlooked when we were young.  It was interesting to talk to Kelsey about the priorities we have in our lives right now and realize how differently we think through the issues we face in our lives.  I realized that these days the people I seek out as friends share worldviews nearly identical to my own, but spending time with Kelsey reminded how helpful it can be to participate in friendships with people who look at the world differently.  I always try to look at issues from every angle I can think of, but there are always angles I can't think of, and speaking to those people who see them naturally can certainly help me to see the whole picture.

And because it would be remiss to not mention it, I MUST add that Krista had her new baby girl last week!!  Evie Kate was born healthy on August 4!  Krista said that she looks like Clara but with Jordan's coloring instead of her own, and I definitely agree.  It's funny that it worked out this way because I have been saying for months I want her to look just like Clara but with dark curly hair, and Kelsey said something similar when she visited... and now here the little one is, satisfying our expectations!  Visit the Hoffmanns' blog to read more about Evie's arrival.

(Old Friends and New is a short story collection by Sarah Orne Jewett.  I am actually surprised to realize that I've never read any of the stories collected in this volume, so I looked at Willa Cather's collection titled The Best Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, and it appears that Willa didn't consider Old Friends and New to be Ms. OJ's finest work.  Mystery solved.)

The Perfect Mile

I've been super busy, and I realize I've been neglecting the blog.  I mean to tell you what I've been up to, but the days have been slipping away even more quickly than usual!  This week is the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, so I'm actually sitting at my new desk on campus, waiting for my friend Anne-Marie to get here so we can head over to Rock Creek Park to catch today's action.  In the meantime, though, this year the Annapolis Striders have a photographer on the course snapping pictures, and he just recently uploaded hundreds from the most recent races (thanks, Rob Smith!).  I thought I'd post them here to share with you until I have more time to write--

June: Father's Day 10K Photos

That's me in the middle!

I snuck right into the corner of this next one, but I'm including it because you can see Patti, Chuck, and Billy cheering for me as I near the finish:

And in case you were wondering what I look like immediately before I throw up, here's this one:

July: One Mile Track Run 

I can't tell if that's a look of determination or desperation, but please note that I was properly attired in my Livestrong gear to celebrate the final weekend of the Tour de France.

August: 8K Cross Country Run

I'm wearing a white top and black shorts in these.  If that doesn't help you identify me, I'm the one in the middle who looks like she's walking in both photos.  I don't know why it looks like that-- it was only the start of the race!

And it might be even harder to find me in this one, but that's me running up the hill right past the mile marker, trying to pass the guy in all black.

I promise I'll be back to give you the recap on the cross country race and everything else I've been doing once I get a break from all the excitement of out-of-town visitors, an intensive German class, and an exciting tennis tournament!

(The Perfect Mile is a book by Neal Bascomb that documents the competition between Bannister, Santee, and Landy to be the first man to run a mile under 4 minutes in the 1950s.  I haven't read it but I'm sure I'd be fascinated by it!)