Joe Peterson - Memories

The last weekend found me digging through old photo albums I encountered while cleaning my office.  The result was that I cascaded down into my childhood all over again, something I don't do often (maybe not often enough).  The joy I felt in revisiting those times made me reconnect with myself, past and present.  My life is a struggle to balance all the roles I want and need to fill in my life, something I take seriously.  I want to be a good husband, father, teacher, writer, brother, son, and friend.  But what is the origin of those desires?  How did I come to be this person?  Part of the answer lies somewhere in my past, and much of my past was spent with one particular individual: Joe Peterson.

Photo of Joe and I playing reporters at the Cutsforth's house circa 1984.

Joe is one of the best friends I had in childhood.  He lived down the street from me, just past the hazelnut orchards, a short bike ride away, and much of my childhood was spent over at his house, at his parents' pharmacy, or riding our bikes around town.  He was a spectacular kid, one of those kids with power and composure that went beyond his years.  He always impressed me, and I often tried to emulate him and his behavior.

As children, Joe and I were always coming up with new ideas for games to play, businesses to start, shows to put on, and adventures to create.  His imagination was a wonderful thing.  I remember imagining scenarios to engage in, say a game show, but it was always Joe who found a way to put it into action, who came up with the detail that launched the thing in new and exciting ways.  His mind was sharp and quick, as was his sense of humor.

Greer Smith's going away party at the Peterson's 1984

People found Joe impossible to resist.  Adults and children alike found him engaging.  When we were in Junior High, Joe, Chris Etzel, and I started Action at Ackerman a "news" show on local access television that kept the community informed about events at the junior high school.  This was Joe's brainchild, and he filled the role of lead anchor.  While I believe it was Harry Lee Kwai, the head of the local channel at the time, who came up with the idea and recruited us kids to participate, it was Joe who ran with the project.

It wasn't long before Joe designed a logo, professionally printed business cards for all of us, and solicited a fair amount of money from sponsors.  I remember traipsing into local businesses as a 12-year-old, Joe by my side, and asking for the owner.  Joe dressed the part too.  Dressed in a suit jacket and tie, he always played the consummate professional.  By the time we left these businesses, owners had cut us a check.  We bought a lot of soda pop and candy with that money while we edited our show.

Photo taken circa 1987 before Jen Shelstad's surprise party.

There was another side to our friendship though.  No matter how good of friends Joe and I were, we were also competitors.  I can't say for sure that he felt the competition the same way I did, but I competed with Joe.  We wanted a lot of the same things.  Both of us were ambitious boys.  We wanted good grades, to play sports, to excel in clubs, and, once, even the same student council position.  In middle school, Joe and I ran against each other for the office of President.  Joe inevitably won that position, and I was hurt, but I couldn't deny that he'd earned it.  As with most things he put his mind to, Joe excelled in campaigning.  His wit and easy way around people made him endearing and the obvious choice.

When I was young, I found this competition to be a terrible thing, a destructive force working against our friendship.  It brought me a lot of sorrow back in those days, but I've come to reevaluate it since I've grown up and become a man.  The competition I felt with Joe has transformed into something positive and purposeful.  In some ways, Joe is the source of my drive.  He taught me what it was to work for what I want.  He showed me how to imagine, to plan in detail, how to act in pursuit of my goals, and how to survive the inevitable hardships that follow the process of wanting.

My birthday party 1987.

I want many things from this life.  I'm not afraid to admit that fact.  I've already achieved a lot of things as a result of this wanting, this inner desire that drives me to push past my own status quo.  For that, I am proud and grateful.  I am proud to have been friends with Joe while he was alive. Yet I always return to the fact that I am grateful.  Grateful to have known him.  Grateful to have been a part of his life.  Grateful that he was a part of mine.  He is missed dearly by his family, his friends, his community.  

He was one of a kind.

Photo taken at the Peterson's house in 1983

Nostalgia

The quest against clutter and for order continues today.  As Shea watches Wild Kratts and Tracy prepares for a Christmas party with her girlfriends, I work through even more "stuff."  In the quest to organize my office, Tracy pointed out a stack of photo albums.

"What are you going to do with those?"

"I don't know.  What are they?"

"Your photo albums."

I open the photo albums and am greeted by pictures from my childhood.  My mother put two albums together when she was working her way through all the family pictures.  One of the albums is all me though.

The album with the mountaintop is one I put together when I was younger, maybe just after high school, maybe right before I left the state and traveled to Missoula, MT.  I wasn't planning on browsing the pictures, but I couldn't help myself.  As I opened one of the albums my mother made, I was shocked to find a couple of pictures in there that really transported me back to my childhood.  The first one I discovered was a picture of me napping in our old house.

I apologize for the poor quality of the image, but it is a picture of a picture.  I used to love napping on linoleum floors.  I remember being young and crawling into the kitchen with my blanket, or a sleeping bag, and crashing out in the middle of the house.  The cool floor pressed against me was such a comfort then, and I remember listening to my mother move through the house.

The second picture evokes so much of my childhood.  It is a picture I remember hanging on the refrigerator at the homes of almost all my friends back then.

It is a picture of the "posse."  The group of boys I used to call my best friends in the world.  The BMX Bandits of North Grant Street!  The lot we are pictured in is now a home, and we've lost two of the boys to moves out of state and one to death, but this picture makes me smile like none of that matters.  For some reason, looking at this photograph today transported me back to that time, to that dirt track, and I am lifted by the memory.  I wonder about these guys.  I see one of them on a semi-regular basis, but time and distance have made us acquaintances more than close friends.  Even though this is true, I still love these guys.  Love them for being in this picture with me and giving me the gift of a joyous childhood that was filled with crazy bike adventures and a whole lot of laughter.

They are all good boys.

I'm going to spend some time flipping through the rest of the albums tonight with a glass of red wine in hand.  Hopefully my wife is in the mood for some stories because I feel like that's how I want to spend my evening.

The Not-A-Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Improvement

Nothing in the world makes me feel as inept as home improvement projects.  I am a man of reasonably moderate intellect and critical thinking skills.  I understand geometry, math, a reasonable amount of mechanics, etc.  So, why is it that every time I try and do something in my own home it takes me twice as long as is reasonable?

For months my house has been in various stages of remodel.  It is functional, clean, and tidy, but it isn't complete.  Due to some pressure from an as-of-yet-unnamed-in-law's threat to come over and do the work his or her self, I decided that I would move the project forward to avoid the shame of having said in-law working on a project that I have the means and the time to do myself.  Simple enough, right?

Wrong.

The project is a simple one: attach the baseboards to the walls of my kitchen, dining room, and entryway.  The supplies needed?  Air compressor, nail gun, extension cord, stained floorboard, and compressor cable.  Check all the way around!  I'd picked up the supplies yesterday and felt reasonably confident that I was going to knock this project out of the park.

When I started working, the kitchen came together quickly.  I'd already measured and cut all the floorboards to length, so it was simply a matter of finding out where the stained floorboards went.  (Note to self: after cutting floorboards to length, write a clue to where they go on the back with a permanent pen or something.  It'll save you 20 minutes of walking around your house looking for where they go.)  Once I got all the floor boards in position, it was simply a matter of a couple of finishing brads to attach them to the wall, right?

Right.  And...

Right.

So, where does the idiot part come in?  Thanks for asking my astute audience.  The idiot part comes in once I realize that I have all the floorboards I need except for one.  Part of the remodel discovered a "vent to nowhere."  This vent was positioned under the door leading to the furnace.  It was not an air return as the inside of the vent compartment was framed in.  There was no air draw.  So, I decided to dry wall over it instead of having this awkward nowhere vent in the middle of my hallway.  As you can see here.

In my exuberance to dry wall over the hole in the wall, I forgot to cut and stain a piece of floorboard and a piece of door molding to cover it up.  So, my project is done except for another trip to Home Depot for extra door molding (forgot to buy it last time) and floorboard (I was so impressed that I bought the "perfect" amount).  After I cut them exactly to length and stain them, I can finish, but my "simple" little project just got expanded by about 2 hours.

Thank you, universe.  I get it now.  I'm an idiot.  Well, the rest of the house is pretty much complete!  I'll take some comfort with that.

The next chapter of "The Not-A-Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Improvement" will cover tile back splashes.  I can't wait to get my hands on that tile saw!!!  Be nervous, y'all.  Be very, very nervous.

Promise Kept #1

For those of you who missed it, I've decided to avoid New Year's resolutions this year.  In its place, I've decided to keep 52 individual promises instead.  Each promise coincides with a week of the year.  I got this idea from listening to Tell Me More on Oregon Public Radio.  Michel Martin interviewed Social Entrepreneur Alex Sheen.  Alex believes in the power of promises so much he founded the organization Because I Said I Would.  He believes we should be more concerned with making promises and keeping our word than with unsuccessful resolutions.  I agree with him and I believe it is worth a shot.

Last week, I pulled a piece of paper from the tin bucket I've placed in my kitchen.  It contained a single promise that I swore to execute over the last seven days.  It said, "Say 'no' to someone."  I often have an issue of over-committing myself when people ask me for things.  I simply don't say no.  It was entirely appropriate that I randomly drew this promise this week because it was the first week of the new term at PCC.  It is a time when students are asking for special concessions and late adds.  It is a time when I must say no in order to keep my class size manageable.  It is often hard as students often have hard luck stories that pull on your heartstrings, but it is important to preserve the smaller classroom environment, both for my work load and student learning.

The permission to say no extended beyond work though.  I found myself feeling more comfortable saying no to small little things throughout my life, both at work and at home.  Shea received a couple of those nos, which is not a bad thing at all.  It's good to remind yourself that it is okay to tell your children no, even if it is something you do on a regular basis.  That sense of permission, of forgiveness, is empowering.  Overall, the week has been a good one.

In order to keep myself on task, I've made promise cards a feature of my wallet.  I've placed them in the see-through window of my wallet in front of my license.  I'm hoping this visual reminder will be enough to keep me on task.  In addition, I've set a reminder in my calendar on my phone so I remember to draw a new promise each week.

As you can see below, this week is going to be a great one.  I get to take myself for a drive in the country!!!  I'll try and remember to take pictures for all of you.

Classroom Activities for the First Day of Composition

The first day of any term provides specific challenges in terms of how to set the tone for your class, and this term proved no different.  There is so much information I have to download into my students in terms of what the class expectations are, assignments, the book, alternate resources, etc that it becomes overwhelming to both them and me.  So, here are a couple of things that I did this term that seemed to work well.

1.) Poem of the Day: I begin every class with the poem of the day.  It is how I get my students into the mindset that class has begun.  It also serves as their notice that they are tardy for class.  If the poem of the day has been read, then they are late.

More so than any educational purpose, I simply like reading poetry to them.  I don't ask them to talk about the poems, to write about them, or to analyze them.  I simply ask they they take a couple of minutes out of their day to listen to a poem.  On the first day of class, I always read "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins.  It sets up the term nicely and reinforces the idea that I'm not looking for them to tell me what the poem "really means."

2.) Four Sentence Introductions: Students are required to write four complete sentences about themselves in order to give the class a better idea of who they are.  They are required to give their full name in one of the sentences.  Once the entire class has finished writing their four sentences, they are required to read them aloud.

This activity is great because it is also an assessment tool.  I can begin to see where students are in their understanding of basic sentence structure.  While I don't collect this bit of writing, it could easily be collected and used to more formally assess where the class is at in their understanding of grammar and sentence structure.

3.) Don't Print the Syllabus: Portland Community College has an online system that creates a homepage for every class.  On this page is a repository for files.  I upload my syllabus onto the class page, show students where the syllabus lives, and then proceed to go through the syllabus on the overhead projector.

This is a new one for me as this is the first term I've tried it, but there were some fascinating results yesterday.  Students took notes as I went through the syllabus!!!  Instead of burying their faces in the syllabus document, they were looking up and engaging with me and what I was saying about the syllabus.  They knew they could always access the syllabus later, so they were more interested in what I had to say about the syllabus, rather than the syllabus itself.

Now, the proof is in the pudding, so I will have to wait until later in the term to see if students respond better to this method, but it looks good so far.

4.) Reading Aloud: I almost always start each term with the same reading by Anne Lamott from her book Bird by Bird.  It is the chapter entitled "Shitty First Drafts."  It is a comedic piece about process, about letting go of perfection in the first draft and realizing that writing is rewriting.  All of my classes stress this idea, that first drafts are all inherently "shitty" on some level.  This reading allows me to convey that to them in a humorous way.  Also, Anne Lamott cusses before I do, so there's always that.

I find it important to assess reading skills as well as writing skills early in the term.  In order to be a good writer, you must be a good reader.  I find that many of my students are underdeveloped in this area.  In fact, there are many times when I feel that it is students' reading skills that hold them back in my class even more so than their writing skills.  When you ask a student to write you a research paper and they have underdeveloped reading skill, then of course the result is going to be an essay that is more of a report than a synthesis of ideas.  Their reading skills are preventing them from really processing the material in a way that is conducive to the act of research.  So, I make them read aloud, paragraph by paragraph, moving around the room.

This activity is always met with an almost unanimous groan.  I simply explain to them why I am having them do it.  It doesn't make them hate it any less, but they come to understand why I am asking them to do it.  When we are forthcoming with our students about our methodologies, then we can help them understand the process they are being asked to participate in.  I find they appreciate the heads up.

5.) Student Entry Survey: College students, but particularly community college students, are a busy lot.  They have jobs, families, and other commitments.  I feel it is important to understand the dynamics working for or against my students, so I ask them to fill out a survey that lets me know some of this information.  I ask them what other classes they are taking.  I ask them about their work schedule, their hobbies, and what they hope to get out of my class.  All of this information allows me to build a personality profile for the class as a whole and to be sympathetic to their needs.  It also allows me to choose verbal examples that maybe match their hobbies and interests.

One thing I do include on this survey is a section where they are required to respond to a writing prompt.  They are asked to create a single paragraph in response to a question.  The questions are open and, usually, easy to answer like "Who is your favorite teacher and why?"  This paragraph allows me to understand the students comprehension of what a paragraph is as well as their ability to create complete sentences.

These are the things that launched my class this term: lots of writing, some lecture, and some reading aloud.  I think it is important to keep things fresh by moving from activity to activity, and it is important to set that tone early in the term.  Take it or leave it, but I thought I would share with my fellow teachers out there in cyberspace.

Creativity and Schedules

For the longest time I have fought the idea that creativity actually loves schedules.  I thought I had learned my lesson about this years ago, but I'm finding that I need to revisit some terrain I covered in graduate school.  Here is the realization: I do my best creative work when I work on a schedule.  As such, I have given myself a hard schedule for this coming term.  I will try and follow a hard-edged schedule in an effort to better utilize my time.

I've set time in the morning and the night to write, so I'm hoping to use them both.  The mornings are great for discovery for me.  The editor mind is sleepy and the creative mind is in full dream/free association mode.  At night, my editor mind is more sharply engaged, so I can use each of those times to contrary purposes and really move some work forward.

This effort is a multi-pronged attack on better living.  I need more sleep, more family time, more creative time, etc.  By putting some controls in place on my time, I hope to achieve some of these goals.  Here's a mock-up of my schedule.

As you can see, there are still plenty of openings in the schedule for free time.  When I was an Academic Success Coach at Pacific University, I advised my students to not over-schedule their time.  It is the quickest way to ensure you will not follow through.  By leaving leeway and wiggle room in the schedule, it ensures that you feel like a person with free will and the ability to switch things up if the moment arises.

I begin tomorrow.  I've set up this schedule as an 11-week run in my calendar, so I will be getting calendar reminders about each set of tasks before they begin.  All of this streams to my phone, so I'm hoping for a greater accountability to myself and my personal goals.

What kind of calendaring and scheduling tasks do you engage in?  Let me know your suggestions in the comments below.

Turning It All Off and Cleaning It All Out

Christmas break has been a welcome reprieve for my family and I.  Tracy took some days off, I didn't have to work, and Shea spent all her time with us.  It was a wonderful holiday.  While we did do the family gatherings, the gift-giving, the holiday dinners, etc, the best part of the whole week was the days that followed.

Tracy, Shea and I basically hunkered down in the house and simply rested, played, and enjoyed each other's company.  I spent almost no time on email or any other electronic media.  We played with all of Shea's new toys, and simply enjoyed our time together as a family.

By the end of the third day or so, I got the itch to clean.  The cleaning started simply as putting the boxes away, putting new clothes away in the closet, but it quickly escalated into filing all of my comics into their polybags with cardboard backs and slotting them into their proper longboxes.  From there, it meant cleaning out all of the cupboards in the office.  From the cupboards, it moved into my closet, my dresser, the downstairs closets, Shea's, etc.

Tracy, Shea, and I wound up putting together almost six bags of things for donation.  We filled up our recycle bin, our garbage, and a couple of other bags that will have to wait until next week's pickup.  There are cupboards in my house that are empty, organized, clean.  My office is organized, books are put away on proper bookshelves, and by desk is ready for use.

I am ready to start the new year in this new space.  I think back to Madeline DeFrees and her craft talk at the Pacific MFA.  She told us how she knew a creative spurt was coming on, the formation of a poem, when she began "clearing the decks."  Clutter can be a physical situation, but it can also extend its reach into the mental landscape.  I'm hoping I've made some space here.