Here you see my art studio space, complete with some bright colors to keep the spirits up, some cadbury caramel eggs for a sugar kick now and then, sketches, computer for research and just a hint of the mess that is the rest of the room:) With the exception of a few hours spent outside when the weather permitted, this is where I have spent my last handful of days. I wish I could say that I have created a ton of art, but mostly I have been doing research via the internet on critically endangered species (specifically mammals for now) where they come from and why they are critically endangered. With the current state of affairs, my first plan to meet with conservators and keepers at zoos and aquariums to talk with them about their work and the animals they focus on has been put on hold indefinitely. I have refocused my research why these animals are critically endangered and where they come from , pulling from this info different details that will help me figure out how to create my imagery/forms as I move forward with my Endangered Species series. As I always find, when I do research I tend to lose track of time falling down the rabbit hole as I follow threads of information. I have had to implement a timer that goes off every hour so that I stand up and move around a bit before getting back into it. 
At this point I have enough info so move forward with a few images so I am going to move into the half and half stage, spending some time research and some time making. I look forward to the making but will still have to keep the timer going or I will end up bent over and broken! While making work I have to remember to take care of myself as well!
I think that for me, working in isolation as we are all doing now has gone relatively painlessly. I tend to work that way most of the time anyway and it has removed a few of my distractions. I have found however, that I miss the contact that I had with fellow artists and creative folks. Having them to hand meant that I could reach out at any time for advice, critique, or just a hello and let's have lunch and talk about random things. I may be antisocial but I have found that I still need connection, just at my pace:) The connections I have found through social media and phone calls every day to family have keep me from falling into depression which I was worried about when this started. Though the days seems to be blending into one another (I had no idea it was Sunday today) I have managed to get up every day, get dressed and  be productive in some way or another. I built a pantry last week, cleared out and reorganized my studio putting it into making mode, cleared out a bit of gathered mess about the house and generally have moved forward in the day to day activities that can get laid aside when things go awry. 
I know this isn't the case for everyone. 
I don't know how much longer this will go on. I hope that my work and social media connections can help me make it through. I hope that we can all make it through well and come out the other side having learned some very valuable lessons about how our society needs to adjust moving forward. 
I have too many thoughts to put down now. More to come later.
Stay healthy everyone!

​me
 

Impeachment is everywhere. TV, Radio, random conversations overheard at Starbucks and the grocery store. I can't escape it and I can't stomach anymore of it! So much of it is political posturing, whining, complaining and bullshit. This last three years has only solidified in me just how much I hate politics. Keeping in mind that I only got involved in the whole process when Trump was running for President the first time. I only got involved so that I could make sure that I did everything I could to keep him out of the office. Little good that did. It was the first time that it seemed that who the president was, who was controlling the government had any impact on me or things that I believed in. What a time to dive into the world of politics! It was a shit show of a circus from the beginning of course and has only gotten worse as we have gone on. At this point I can only hope that enough people come to their senses and vote to make sure that he doesn't get a second term. Anything would be better than another four years of him. I can't even enjoy the jokes anymore because it is all to painful. Nothing is funny because even though comedians have tried to hide it in humor, it's still rings too true. They don't have to work for their material anymore. It's pumped out of the white house like smoke is pumped out of a coal factory!

In an attempt to hide away from the shit, I have spent a good chunk of every day for the last week and a half playing with clay. It has been a blissful glorious escape with a bonus of time spent practicing skills and developing new ones. I have focused so far on wheel throwing, trying out new shapes and sizes and working in two different clay bodies. I have had to do a lot of laundry because of it, but I see that as a great trade!

The next phase is to glaze the work I have made and then dive into some more sculptural work that will hopefully connect to my Endangered Species series. I also have a few Zoo and Aquarium trips coming up in the next couple of months so that I can do some research with people who actually do the conservation work and work with endangered animals. I am excited to see what I can learn!

Sabbatical has been interesting so far. It's been weird not to be teaching and I feel a bit lost when I think about what I might be missing, but at the same time I love the freedom I have to sleep in when I want, stay up late working on art when I want and not have to deal with the less than awesome parts of the job. (meetings! I don't have to go to any meetings!!! YAY!!!!)

Tomorrow I am going to sleep in a bit, then get some lunch and go back to the clay.... happiness is found in MUD!!!

Maybe I will have something more interesting to talk about next time.... or maybe it will just be more mud!

​me

It has been a long time since I did a blog entry. There are a billion reasons, but the most relevant is that I simply became busy with the process of becoming a better Professor, Artist, Mentor and Professional. I have developed as a Professor moving from Associate Professor to Full Professor with a few interim positions in Department Chair, Gallery Director and LASC Coordinator. The past few years have been full of course content development, major development and new major creation, advising and mentorship, thesis guidance and professional development... I also taught my courses, you know, the whole reason I got into teaching in the first place. I have found after all these years that the teaching part of my job is only about 10 percent of what I do. They don't tell you that when you get your first adult teaching job, or if they do, you are just so happy that you got a job that you don't really hear or understand them. But even given that, I wouldn't want to do anything else in the world. I truly like teaching Art and Interdisciplinary Studies. Next to making art, it is what I was meant to do with my life. I was made for this.

My art has continued during the past 4 years or so as well with many shows, new works, new investigations developing into new bodies of work, commissions, grants, awards and new associations with other artists and organizations. Developing as an Artist is multifaceted and is part of every day of my life. Some I can do without much effort but some I need to focus on, consciously putting in effort and often putting myself into a situation that is out of my comfort zone (like talking to people at gallery openings... people... especially a lot of people... yikes!) But, knowing that things like that will help me move forward as an artist, I have done my best to at least try. I still have a lot of work to do in some of those areas. 

Now here in the beginning of 2020 I find my self on sabbatical from my teaching until next September. As I proposed when I decided to take a sabbatical, I am taking the time to do a few specific things. Firstly, I plan to continue to research and develop a body of work started a few years ago that focuses on Endangered Species. I hope to spend some time visiting zoos, aquariums and other organizations that are certified for their conservation efforts and programs. If it is at all possible, I hope to actually speak with those who work in conservation and work with the animals and hopefully get behind the scenes with the animals and document them close up. Then I will take the research and documentation back to the studio and use it as source info for my artistic works. Some you can see here ENDANGERED SPECIES SERIES

​

​I was reading through some facebook posts a bit earlier with a breaking heart and anger. There have been so many acts of violence, hatred, racism and just plain evil in our world that I find myself at a loss as to how to process it all let alone what to do, if anything, about it. With many of the posts I have read on social media (facebook, twitter, etc) it seems that there are many folks who think that there is one answer (their answer of course) that is right and will fix “The problem”. The problem?? Fix the PROBLEM?? There is no ONE PROBLEM. (Taking away or restricting guns isn’t going to end gun violence. Obama didn’t destroy the world. Being a Christian doesn't mean you are good. Wearing “appropriate” clothes won’t keep you from being raped, etc). There are many problems with many and sundry causes and to spend hot air blustering about how there is one solution and if you scream it loud enough and criticize and hate on everyone else’s ideas over and over again (creating more hate and anger along the way) then everything will be fine. Oh wait… have I just stumbled onto yet another part of another problem??? Hmmm….

I started out this post trying not to let my anger and frustration leak through, trying to simply lay out my confusion mostly for myself as I search for a path through the darkness but also to see what insights others might have if anyone chooses to respond. Knowing how this whole internet/social media/digital community thing works and knowing how people are, if anyone replies I expect there to be a few (or more) negative responses because it seems that humans can’t help themselves from being assholes. Oddly, I find myself interested in those responses just as much as any others because it illuminates yet another facet of the multi-layered, many sided “Problem” that we as humanity struggle with every moment of life.

I found myself wondering if all these issues that are currently in the forefront could be traced back to one problem (though not the one problem that so many folks want to argue about) I thought about the police brutality/violence towards black people and the violent responses, about the gun violence/issue, about women’s equality issues, about LGBT issues, race issues, religious issues… on and on and on. I asked myself why they are issues at all. As I went through each of these issues, a few common threads kept coming up. The three that were the most prevalent were ignorance, fear, and arrogance.

Ignorance. The lack of knowledge, the sometimes willful lack of knowledge in regards to a situation, person, time, issue, etc. What do I mean by “sometimes willful”? It seems that there are a lot of people who don’t want to know the truth about important issues. They don’t want to take the time to learn about how things really are. They are happy in their ignorance, they hold onto it with a desperate strength because they aren’t challenge by their ignorance. They are comfortable in their version of how the world works and the idea that they might be wrong terrifies them more than anything. They are belligerent in their belief that their version is the only right version and they will die fighting for it rather than accept that they might be wrong. They choose their fantasy, their comfort over the truth. It is easier for them and others suffer for it. That is what I mean by “Willful lack of knowledge”.

We all fear what we don’t know. We assume it could hurt us and so we go into defense mode. Sadly, personal experience and shared history often shows that what we don’t know can SOMETIMES hurt us, but not always. But knowing this only reinforces the idea that true knowledge is the best course of action. If you have a 50/50 shot at getting hurt from something you don’t know, then it would seem that your chances of getting hurt would lessen if you educated yourself. Often it is our own reactions to what we don’t know that sparks conflict. If we learned more about a person or a group of people then maybe we wouldn’t assume that they are all terrorists or criminals. If we stopped believing the media (social/network/other) and started looking for facts then we could make better choices. Maybe we could begin to fix our broken systems from the smallest all the way to big government. Ignorance will never lead to positive change. We need to stop, breath and take a moment (or more) and learn about each other with open minds and hearts. We need to put aside our own selves and truly invest in each other, find our common links, find and truly realize our common humanity.

Fear. Fear is a hard one to comprehend because it is so instinctual, so overriding and so very, very big. We feel fear. There is no getting around it. Everyone, everywhere feels it and often times we can’t control it. There are a million bits of advice floating around but when it comes down to it, none of them will get rid of fear. Nothing will. The key then is to accept that we feel it, accept that it is a huge force in our lives, accept that it is part of who and what we are and then look at what comes next. We can’t control whether or not we feel fear but we can (to a great extent) control how we react to it. There, in that place of choice, of control, of action, can we find our chance to make a difference, to change our path, to make things better, to begin to heal, to begin to love, to begin to find our commonalities, our humanity, and overcome fear and ignorance.

We have to make a CHOICE not to let the fear that we feel become what guides our every action/inaction. We have to educate ourselves, arm ourselves with CORRECT information and then take a moment, take a breath and think with the amazing brains that we were given and make a better choice on every level, with every chance encounter, with every conversation, every moment. We have to choose not to be suspicious about someone because of the color of their skin, or the clothes that they wear. We have to choose not to assume but to get the truth through asking questions and questioning assumed “knowledge”. We have to stop believing and start knowing (not assuming). We have to make the choice to Act Informed, not React out of fear and ignorance.

Arrogance. I sometimes think that this one is at the root of all problems. We are an arrogance species, assuming dominance over everything on this planet. We think we are at the top of the food chain, claiming the right to kill other species for food, for material goods, for fun. We look at other species as “pests” and kill them because they are inconvenient for us. We think we have the right to use and abuse the earth as we want and most of us don’t even accept that there are consequences. Because some of those consequences aren’t truly impacting our current day to day, most people shrug them off, not caring that we are screwing future generations. We abuse each other because we arrogantly believe that, “I am better than you”. We use a million reasons to convince ourselves that we have the right to be arrogant. We use ignorance, religion, sexism, racism and a million other reasons to puff ourselves up and make us feel superior. Then we use that to abuse, maim, destroy, enslave, assault, kill, beat, break, endanger and belittle anyone and anything that we feel is less than.

It is arrogance that allows someone to believe that their religion is the only right religion and so they must kill or dominate everyone who does not believe the same. It is arrogance that allows someone to believe that anyone who doesn’t have the same skin color as theirs is somehow less than human and therefor doesn’t deserve the same rights. It is arrogance that allows someone to believe that women are lesser humans and therefor shouldn’t be paid the same, shouldn’t have control over their own bodies, that they are somehow at fault. It is arrogance that allows someone to believe that just because they wear a uniform and carry a gun that killing a person of color is acceptable. It is arrogance that allows someone to believe that they have the right to take another’s life because they have difference sexual preferences. It is arrogance that makes humanity believe that they have the right. We are an arrogant species and we revel in it, we bath in it and we won’t give it up.
​
Do I think there is an answer to the problem? No. Firstly, there are many problems. There are many symptoms and many effects that are the result of what I think are a few core causes. Will we ever defeat/get rid of those core causes or even all the symptoms? Probably not but does that mean that we shouldn’t try. Hell no! We must try. We have to try. We have to be better than we are now. Every day we have to be less ignorant, less arrogant and less controlled by fear.
 
We must try. We have to try. We have to be better than we are now. Every day we have to be less ignorant, less arrogant and less controlled by fear.
 
We have to be better.

On a happy note, my summer Sculpture 1 class is going along wonderfully. I have a delightful group of students with a large age and skill level range. They enjoy each other and have a great time working with one another. Their work has been inventive, humorous and clever. When I have a student tell me that he is going to remember the skills that he has picked up in my class forever because they are so smart and useful then I must be doing something right! When I see people who would have never crossed paths in any other situation or never spoken or become friends, sitting together and talking about their work and then about their lives and making a true connection... then I know I am doing something right. And when I hear a student tell another student that they are proud of what they made and that they can't wait to show it to their family and friends, then I know I have done my job well. I may go home tired in body and mind but my soul (to sound a but cliche) is invigorated and happy! Now if the administrative side of my job was that fulfilling I would have nothing to complain about!!!!

I have another full week of my summer sculpture class then I get to go home and see the family for a few days before I am back to the chaos of being Acting Chair of my department. I hope to get to do some art in there somewhere but I am less and less optimistic about that at this point. Speaking of art, I did this little carving while trying out a new carving material for possible use in my classes. I call him George.
He took me just under 3 hours to carve which was pretty good considering that carving usually takes me a long time because I am always worried that I am going to screw it up. He will be living at CC Lowell's art store on Park Ave in Worcester as of the end of this week so drop in and say hi to him:)

I hope you are all doing well and having wonderful experiences, creating lasting, lovely memories and living life to the fullest!

Till we meet again.... 

Sparker

The picture to the left is from my Instagram and if I am correct I titled it "Post swimming BLISS" Getting back into the pool has been a blessing in many more ways that I thought it was going to be. The obvious one is that I am more active and getting healthier by the second (hopefully) In general I feel better though my shoulder is a bit sore thanks to me over doing it just a bit and I am sleeping better. Those are benefits that I knew would be coming my way if I started swimming again. The kicker is that I also seem to have less chaotic mood swings and my even keel is happier than my norm. Of course, that makes me sound like I am normally an emotional, moody wreck which I am not (generally) but everyone has their own baseline for mood and emotional stability. Mine seems to be changing for the better. YAY swimming! 

There is also something about being in the water that is simply profound. For that bit of time I don't feel heavy. I don't feel the pull of gravity on my body, the weight of my body doesn't stress my joints and I can move easier, almost effortlessly. To say that it is the same for my mind would be an understatement. For the time that I am in the water I don't have the lists of things that I should be doing running through my head. I'm not playing "What if" scenarios in my mind and wondering what new issue is going to land in my lap. I can hear my breathing (sometimes a bit too loudly) and the movement of the water around me and that is enough. Besides the odd mental reminder to swim using full strokes or tighten my stomach or watch out for the wall, all I hear is water and breathing. It's elemental and calm and exactly what I need every day. Unfortunately I can't go every day, but at least 4 times a week is a pretty good start. YAY swimming!

In other news...

I am still working on the stone. It seems that we have come to a place in our relationship where things are a bit strained. I don't want to say that we are taking a break, or that divorce is in the future, but we might need to do a little therapy to work through our issues. I am sure in the end it will all work out... 

My digital photo class is over and I think it was a resounding success. My goal was to learn how to use my camera, take better photos and know what to start looking for and paying attention to when I am taking photos. I can say without a doubt that I met all those goals. Would I call my self a photographer at this point? No. But I can take some pretty decent photos and for what I need right now, that is a good place to be. I have more confidence and more fun when I do take photos because I can be more assured that I will get what I want rather than just hoping and praying that at least one of my shots will be worth looking at. In short, I'd love to take more classes in this area (especially if it were with the same professor as he is a wonderfully great friend and amazing teacher) and hopefully I will get better and have more fun documenting my world as I see it:)

Next time I will put up a picture of "The Scarf" It's my "I'm sitting here watching TV and I have to have something for my hands to do or I will go mad so I am going to knit but I don't like to follow patterns so I will make something simple with random patterns and yarn" project. I am almost done with it and I find it absolutely hilarious. It's almost wide enough to be a small blanket and is completely random in pattern. I am sure that come next winter it is going to be fabulous but for now all I can do is laugh. 

With that to look forward to for next time I will say goodbye, hopes for health and happiness and please for all that is worth anything in this world do something silly at least once a day!

SParker

Progress report: 

I didn't wake up early this morning because I totally forgot to actually turn my alarm on. I set it but now I know that if you don't turn the darn thing on it really just doesn't do you any good. So I missed my chance to go swimming today as there was a pool party scheduled for the afternoon with WAY to many kids. OY! But come Monday look out because I have my swim bag ready!

The image at the top is one that I took today for my last digital photography project. I have been taking the class for a few weeks now and absolutely love it! It took me a bit to get back into being a student again and let me tell you it is fantastic. I had actually forgotten just how much I loved being a student. Not that I don't learn new things every day but being a student is a perspective and responsibility load that I adore. It just reinforces my plan to continue to take classes in things that interest me for as long as I can. I can't wait until I retire and can join the other elderly who get to take classes for free! What a great thing!

So, I have to say that I like the image at the top there. I was interested in the light and how it pulled me down the hallway. I took a few photos but wasn't really getting what I wanted until I had the genius idea to us my dress form to give it a focal point. AH HA! Yes folks, I am bloody brilliant! At least once a day anyway... 

We will have to wait until Tuesday to see what my digital photo professor thinks but until then I will bask in the slightly creepy glow of the light at the end of the hallway beckoning me to give my poor dress form a name. Any thoughts???

I watched an episode of Stargate SG1 while eating lunch today. Man I forgot how much I like that show. I was laughing so hard at one point that it was making it difficult to eat. Almost made me choke but it was worth it!

It's been raining all day which had made motivation hard to find but considering everything I have gotten done today I think I fought the battle and won... for the most part. Here's to hoping that tomorrow is even better:)

Have a great one my lovelies! 
SParker

I decided that I need a new plan. After the chaos of the last semester (yes my life revolves around semesters. Since I am a University Professor it sorta makes sense no?) I got into the habit of doing as little as possible. At first it was to recover, then it was indulgence and now it is just plain pathetic and destructive! I feel like a big, fat, steaming pile of POO!!! And not the cute, chubby, honey loving bear either! So what does this mean you might ask. For now this means that I have to go back to getting up with my alarm. This sucks on a whole bunch of levels but if it is going to get me into a more productive and less sloth-like pattern of activity then I am going to have to do it. This also means that I am going to have to get to bed at a much more decent hour. Going to bed at 2am and expecting to get up before 10am just isn't going to happen in this girls world when she needs AT LEAST 8 hours of sleep to be something even close to human. So... early to bed for me from now on. Early, of course meaning before midnight generally. 

First step, better sleep patterns! Check... (in theory at least. We will see how things go tonight.)

Second step, eat better!!! Holy banana balls have I been eating badly! I don't know if it was stress that made me not just slip off  but dive off in massive cannon ball vigor and determination from the eating better wagon, but boy o boy do I have to climb back on, strap in and hunker down for the ride. Sheesh! What the hell was I thinking?!? Now I know a lot of people say this, but it is actually true. I am not doing this just to lose weight (though I know that will happen as I am seriously overweight) but I want to get healthy. I want to feel better! I want to be able to spend a whole day in the studio working hard and getting shit done without having to take major breaks because I don't have the stamina or physical ability to keep going and then when I get home all I want to do is fall into bed and sleep away the hours because I am so tired. That has just got to go! Also, I need strength in my limbs to do the kind of work that I do and I have been noticing that my strength is growing more and more pathetic. That is NOT cool. So, time to make sure that what goes into my mouth is better in quality, smaller in quantity and will give my body what it needs and no more or less!!! This of course means that I have to hit up the Weight Watchers to start with while I do some research on my own to gain knowledge about what is good for me and all that jazz. I will be employing the help of my Doc as well to make sure I do this right!

So Step 2 is making with the eating well and getting healthy, check. (again in theory at this point as it is going to take a while to see results but this is the face of a determined woman!)

Step 3 is to up the activity in a major way. I am heading to the gym tomorrow to get a membership and hit the pool again for the first time in a long time. I can't wait! I miss swimming and I know it's something that I can do without wanting to quit before I even start. I am not someone who likes to get hot and sweat and when I swim I don't notice that I am hot or sweaty because I am in the water. Yes, when you think about that, it's pretty gross, but I am going to sweat like a pig in that pool and revel in every damn minute of it! I plan on adding some cardio and such after a few weeks to up the anti as I get more in shape. I'd love to eventually pick up a Karate/Martial Arts class and actually be able to do it someday (someday being before my 42nd birthday as my 41st is painfully nigh!)

I am also going to try to do this blog thing more often. I have found that if I write things down I pay more attention and things seem to stick better. I won't say that I will do it every day, but wouldn't that be nice!

So that's me for now. Summer is here, the studio is a mess, the plan is laid and the potential for great things is there.

sparker

It is the end of another semester, another school year and I am no where near done. I have grading to do, emails to respond to, student to meet, reports to write, a studio to clean, student work to return and don't get me started on all the domestic stuff I haven't been able to attend to in at least 3 months! But even with all that, I can say that in general I think it was a good semester. As of next Tuesday I hope to be able to say that 10 students of mine have completed their VPA major and are off to continue this grand thing we call the life of a creative being. Well, that's what I call it anyway. 

Sometime in the following couple of weeks I will have (hopefully) finished up all the other things that still need to be done to wrap up this semester and I can start on my summer projects. The first summer project is spending the grant money I received from ArtsWorcester and getting to work on the luminary sculptures that I will be creating with that grant, (that will be in an exhibition next year) I am so very much looking forward to that. I have a few other projects I hope to get to work on this summer. One being a community project involving donated domestic fabrics (clothes, bedding, curtains, etc) and weaving. I have already started this project with a few of my students and we have our work cut out for us over the summer. I am also looking forward to spending a little time on another project making large cement vessels using balloons. Like many folks these days I spend time now and again searching the net for interesting things and recently I found a video of this fella who makes vessel forms using colored plaster, balloons and a little bit of luck. It looks like so much fun that I have decided to give it a go myself but of course, I want to make them HUGE and out of cement because I can never do anything the easy/small way:)

But, before I really get to get into any of that, I have Commencement to go to,  a Summer Institute to present at which I still have to prepare for, grades to submit and a senior studio to clear out of it's current residents and a gallery to staff for a reunion brunch and that same gallery to empty of all senior thesis work that very same day. I am also working this summer doing transfer student advising and I have a summer sculpture course to teach. Oh... and I have to clear out my office on campus so that they can do construction this summer. Damn.... my summer seems to be as busy as my semester was!

So with all that going on and to look "forward" to, one would think that I am busting my rear to get my "to do" list done so that I don't get jammed up with due dates and deadlines. But, as you can see from the images I am in fact NOT doing that at the moment. To deal with stress and the frantic energy of the end of the semester I decided that this was a perfect time to start another stone sculpture. I have spent a few days on it now and it has gone from a rock to what you see to the right. I still have a bit more carving to do before the sanding stages commence, but so far I am pretty pleased with it. 

It has created a bit of an issue thought. Now when that little voice in my head (the one that tries to keep me on track with work and what not) tells me that I have to get to work, it starts an argument with another little voice in my head (the one that just wants to make art) and they start yelling at each other. Unfortunately for the work voice, the art voice seems to be winning out more often than not. It could be because I have had to ignore the art voice for so long but I still have work that needs to get done! 

For example, here I sit taking a break from carving stone because my shoulder was starting to hurt and instead of going over some grading I am posting to my blog. Now that is the voice of procrastination. She is often the loudest voice in my head and 8 times out of ten will win the fight simply because she won't let anyone else get in a word edgewise. Normally I don't mind. Today I don't mind but tomorrow may be a different story.

So for now I will let the voices in my head battle it out and go back to carving stone and try to ignore all the millions of things that I have to do before I can get into the swing of summer and making art. 

Everything is in progress.... even the arguments between the voices in my head.

Go forth and be BRILLIANT!

Stacey

Today I am sitting in an office (mine for the semester as I am the Interim LASC Coordinator... trust me, you don't want to know) I have gone through all the piled up emails, responded to those that needed responding to, deleted those that I could, and filed away those that need to keep for later. Students have been taken care of (and not in a killed dead sort of way but a productive, questions answered, problems solved sort of way) 
In the middle of all that I get a text on my phone saying that there is a bomb threat in one of the buildings on campus! (I am on campus but not in that particular building) Seconds after I get the text, I hear a student outside my office (my door is open) talking on the phone to a friend or family member about who knows what. She sounds emotionally invested in what ever the topic is but there aren't any auditory warning signs that she is in distress and in need of assistance so I ignore it and continue to do my work. But then.... TRAGEDY STRIKES!
Somehow she is made aware of the bomb threat (that I had found out about through a text at least 10 minutes before) and her voice climbs into the stratosphere in both sound and octave levels. Many choice words come barreling out of her mouth as she exclaims to whoever she is talking to that there is a BOMB ON HER CAMPUS!!! Her voice then began to fade away (though I could still hear some interesting combinations of words and sounds including her stomping down the stairs ) as she fled the building like her arse was on fire.
I sat there listening as she faded away wondering just what exactly had gone through her head in the millisecond before she reacted to the information of a bomb THREAT in a building that SHE WASN'T IN. Did she truly fear for her life? Was she actually running out of the building so that she could go and stare at the building in questions and watch with all the other looky-lou's as the police (who were reportedly "on the scene") milled about most likely doing nothing? Was there someone in the building that she was worried about? There were actually quite a lot of possibilities but what struck me the most was the contrast between her reaction and mine. 
When I heard about the bomb THREAT ( I emphasis THREAT because that is important to my reaction and the whole reason why I find this interesting) I thought for a very short second about what to do and then continued to work on my emails, the information filed off in the back of my mind but relatively unimportant as it was at that time a THREAT only, the people who needed to be addressing it were doing so, and it didn't effect the building that I was in. I found myself confident and comfortable in the fact that things would be taken care of and if they indeed turned out to effect me, I would be made aware. About a minute later I sent an email to someone who I thought might have been in the building (as she works in an office there) with my well wishes and concern but knowing that she is a responsible adult, I am certain that she evacuated when she was told to and that all is well. 
Looking at my response in contrast to the student's response I just shake my head in wonder at how different we are, what drives us and how comical basic daily life can be. There are other things that have gone through my head as you can imagine, but those are best left out of print.
So now I sit here finishing up the blog post so that I can prepare for a meeting even though I have no idea if anyone is going to show up due to the bomb THREAT. 
We move forward as we can. My website is going through a face lift but all info is still there. 
Have a wonderful rest of Winter and I am sure I will share new insights with you soon!
Go forth and be BRILLIANT!
Stacey