So two weekends ago I went back to visit my parents in Michigan. This was the first time I've been back there in 3 years! They come to visit me here and we travel to Arizona once a year to visit them in their snowbird home.
But going back to Michigan was awesome. My parents are getting ready to sell their house and downsize since they are retiring. The last time they moved was 15 years ago when I was a senior in high school. The task for the weekend was to go through dozens of boxes that we packed up 15 years ago and moved into the basement in their current home. Most of these have not been opened since then!
My brother (Brian), who lives in Oregon also made the trip. We all had a blast going through all the memories, and then throwing most of it away. I used my iPod to take tons of photos of things I want to remember, but don't need cluttering up my (or my parents') house.
The weekend was especially awesome because Brian and I had a lot of time to hang out without kids and spouses. We are very close friends and it has been a while since we've had time like that together.
I also went to see my mom teach! She is a law professor in her last term of teaching before retirement. Between her years as a high school English teacher and later a law professor, she has been teaching for nearly 45 years. I have never sat in on a class with her before, and it was awesome to see her in that role. She is such a natural and engaging instructor. In many ways, I can see where I get my style, even though I've never actually watched her before. I was mostly struck by the way she engaged students in a rich Socratic dialogue about some seemingly mundane material (wills and estate law). The students were talkative, reflective, and making connections. I attribute a lot of this to the way my mom framed the experience.
Then, over Thanksgiving weekend, we went to Angie's parents' house (my in-laws). LOTS of turkey, warm beverages, and mindless television. Oh yeah, and other people to watch our kids! I had planned to blog over the weekend and get caught up with some coursework, but the in-laws' internet was out, so I took an extended forced vacation from the tech world. Although I did play quite a bit of Angry Birds Rio.
Well, that's all for now. Looking forward to seeing our cohort family next week!
I'm so glad you were able to unplug and spend time with family! Sounds like you had fun. Reading your blog here made me miss my dad so much (he was also a professor). I bet it meant a lot to your mom to have you watch her teach, and for her to read what you wrote about her in your blog. I am really good friends with my brother, too, and feel so blessed that we are so close.
ReplyDeleteI know that if I start playing Angry Birds I will get totally hooked, so I haven't let myself try it after my first time using it. I know this for sure, because I also downloaded Cover Orange when I downloaded Angry BIrds, and spent hours playing it before I got myself under control!!
Danny,
ReplyDeleteThat was a cool idea to take pictures of some of the items you want to remember but don't want cluttering up your house! I wish I had that kind of discipline when it came to things tied to memories...
Also, that's really great you got to see your mom teaching in action. She sounds like an amazing woman and given the character of her son, it's not really surprising. :)
I'm looking forward to catching up next weekend...
It was great to see you this past weekend, have a nice holiday season!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of documenting things, so one does not have to keep the physical thing... Takes up a lot less space! In addition, looking at the "thing" on i-device allows one to zoom in to see detail, helping the viewer to truly remember the thing in question.
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