It's been a long time since I've written anything, so to anyone who cares, I apologize! I just don't really think our lives are all that exciting, but if you like hearing about it, then, here you go!
I've been doing everything I can think of to find a job, but no real luck yet. I have been accepted as a teaching artist with the Arts Council of Santa Cruz County, which means that local schools that do not have art programs can hire me from among a pool of about 8-10 other artists to come in to teach workshops or residencies. I have developed three possibilities for schools to choose from, ranging from a mixed media identity unit, a mural project and an "I Can't Draw" workshop. This could be a lot of fun, but it's not something that brings in regular income. I have also been chosen to be a sub in another arts council program that teaches high school students to teach art to elementary students. That's a pretty cool idea, don't you think? I'd love to be a regular in that one....maybe someday!
I was invited to a "meet and greet" at the Fusion Academy...a private school in Los Gatos. It was a series of informal interviews with administrators and teachers there, much like speed dating! Apparently, I did well, as the head of school has invited me back for a formal interview. There is not a full time Art position, but I am going to propose piecing together a few different things, such as some clubs, leadership training and possibly my course called Contemporary Issues...something I've been wanting to teach again for a long time. We'll see. It would be a fantastic opportunity...a really cool school! All of the people there are young enough to be my children, but apparently, they feel they might be able to put up with an old lady on their faculty.
I just applied for a job as Activities Director at the school I originally fell in love with here...the Pacific Collegiate Charter School. I really, really want to work there! I'm also waiting to hear if I get an interview at Scott's Valley High School, an International Baccalaureate school about 20 miles away that would be a fabulous job. So, some irons are in the fire, and hopefully, something will come up very soon. We really need income!
I start my summer gig at the Gateway School on Monday, which I'm looking forward to. I'll be teaching Kindergarteners and first graders the first week. We're doing art from around the world...drums and adinkra cloth from Ghana, yarn paintings and pinatas from Mexico, origami from Japan, Inuit style printmaking from the Pacific Northwest, and mardi gras masks from our very own New Orleans. Should be a lot of fun!
Our house is pretty well unpacked, except for some finishing touches. I'll post pictures soon...gotta get going now, though.
We miss everyone and would love to get emails or calls from you when you get a chance. We're making friends, many through our Unitarian Church and others from the barn. Everyone is very nice and we feel super welcome here.
We love you!
Judy and Chris
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Goodbye POD!
Today was the day that our dear friend, the POD, left us. We worked our tails off for the last week to get it emptied, and the man came this morning to take it away. I tried to upload a video, but it won't work. Oh well...just imagine a big white box driving off into the distance and us waving good riddance to it, and that's what it looked like. We are NOT sorry to see it go. It has been the focus of our lives (and this blog) for weeks now, and we are sick of it!
The house is really starting to look like a home. I will upload pictures once the last box is put away. Right now, it's a little crazy around here, and messy. Soon, though, it will be lovely!
I also made a video today of Quincy in the round pen. On days when I don't have time or energy to ride, I can give him some really good exercise in the round pen. It's like lunging, without the lunge line, and he is so good at it. He knows voice commands, and he is so much fun to watch. Here he is:
We are hoping to get all our work done by this weekend, so we can relax and have a little fun. I'm dreaming of a motorcycle ride on my new Harley!! We want to go to Moss Point...a beach a little bit south of here, where they allow horses. I want to check it out and decide if I want to take Quincy there soon. He's never seen a beach or the ocean, so the first time, I probably will not ride him...I'll just walk him around to let him get used to the crashing waves and the sounds and the sights that are all new. This is a real bucket list kind of a thing for me. I always wanted to ride horses on the beach, and now, I've done that. But to do it on my OWN horse...that will be the best!
It's great living so close to Grayson again. We see him almost every day, and that is wonderful. He loves it here and he is in his element. He's working out at CrossFit, and he looks so strong and healthy. We got to watch him challenge the gym owner in a workout. The weights he lifted were all based on his body weight...and the workout did repetitions starting at 10 and working down to 1. It took him 17 minutes, a lot of sweat and a lot of great support and cheerleading from his friends at the gym, but he got through it and it was incredible. I had no idea he was so strong! I couldn't believe this was my little boy! Well...used to be my little boy, I guess.....
The house is really starting to look like a home. I will upload pictures once the last box is put away. Right now, it's a little crazy around here, and messy. Soon, though, it will be lovely!
I also made a video today of Quincy in the round pen. On days when I don't have time or energy to ride, I can give him some really good exercise in the round pen. It's like lunging, without the lunge line, and he is so good at it. He knows voice commands, and he is so much fun to watch. Here he is:
We are hoping to get all our work done by this weekend, so we can relax and have a little fun. I'm dreaming of a motorcycle ride on my new Harley!! We want to go to Moss Point...a beach a little bit south of here, where they allow horses. I want to check it out and decide if I want to take Quincy there soon. He's never seen a beach or the ocean, so the first time, I probably will not ride him...I'll just walk him around to let him get used to the crashing waves and the sounds and the sights that are all new. This is a real bucket list kind of a thing for me. I always wanted to ride horses on the beach, and now, I've done that. But to do it on my OWN horse...that will be the best!
It's great living so close to Grayson again. We see him almost every day, and that is wonderful. He loves it here and he is in his element. He's working out at CrossFit, and he looks so strong and healthy. We got to watch him challenge the gym owner in a workout. The weights he lifted were all based on his body weight...and the workout did repetitions starting at 10 and working down to 1. It took him 17 minutes, a lot of sweat and a lot of great support and cheerleading from his friends at the gym, but he got through it and it was incredible. I had no idea he was so strong! I couldn't believe this was my little boy! Well...used to be my little boy, I guess.....
Saturday, July 13, 2013
The POD arrived!
Yesterday, the POD arrived! We have been living for 3 weeks with just what we brought on the road, and it has been fine. So, what do we need all that stuff in the POD for? I had half a mind to deny delivery and tell them to take it back, but I guess that's probably not allowed. Now the unpacking has begun. Chris and I have very different ideas about how the process should go. He would bring everything in, pile the boxes in the right room, and be done with the unloading. Then, he would work on unpacking the boxes as he got the time or felt like it. I know better....with this method, the boxes could potentially sit there for weeks, months, or possibly even years! My method involves bringing in one box at a time, unpacking it, putting all the stuff where it belongs, and going back for the next one. Luckily for me, I have won this one, and we're doing it my way. I have a very serious psychiatric condition called BTSD, or Box Traumatic Stress Disorder. If I see boxes in my home, I become agitated, anxious, angry, aggressive, shaky and generally very distasteful to be around. The only good box, in my mind, is an empty one.
A lot of things shifted in the drive across the country. We had this thing packed so neatly and tied with a million ropes to keep things in place, but that did not work very well. So far, though, nothing has been broken, not even some lightbulbs that were inadvertently left in lamps. Amazing.....
I've been spending an inordinate amount of time on my computer, looking for jobs. For the people out there my age or older...remember "pounding the pavement"? Well, that's is NOT how it's done anymore. Everything is an online application, uploading my resume and letters of recommendation and taking online exams to judge my suitability for the position. It's so different than the last time I looked for a job. I haven't mailed a single cover in an envelope with a stamp! It's strange to put all that stuff out there into cyberspace and trust that someone is actually going to see it and respond.
The part-time job I interviewed for was given to someone else, unfortunately, because I think I would have really loved it. But, at the end of my interview, the principal said, "The wonderful art teacher we have right now, pretty much just lets the kids do whatever they want, and that's how I'd like to keep it." Well, that is NOT how I had interviewed. You know me....it's all about curriculum development, aligning to the state standards and the Common Core, writing lesson plans, devising rubrics for formative and summative assessment, oral critiques, etc.... I think that's what turned them off to me. They seem to want a much more laid back, laissez-faire teacher, and I definitely did not present that way. If only I had known! I could talk that talk, if I had to!
I came back from that experience more determined than ever to find work, so back on the computer I went, and I started applying for all kinds of jobs, in teaching and otherwise. I've applied for positions with online education companies, doing virtual teaching, overseeing programs, and some that I don't even know what they do, but I applied anyway! Then, I found a job that just sounded like a whole lot of fun, so I applied for that too. In fact, I am about to leave the house for my interview for it! Probably no one else applied for it. It's at the Skylark Ranch...a Girl Scout Camp. The job is 20 hours a week, doing general grounds work, maintenance, carpentry and get this: LLAMA CARE! They have 4 llamas that I would be responsible for taking care of. Doesn't that sound awesome! The only problem is that I think this ranch is pretty far away, and the pay might not even cover the gas to get there. So I'm going to check it out, but I may not even be interested once I see where it is. It'll be a nice day trip adventure anyway.
More later!
Well...the job interview went great, and guess what? I GOT THE JOB! Guess what else? I'm not taking the job. I'll tell you why in a minute. First, let's look at the day.....
This is the road to the Girl Scout Camp. It was 2.5 miles of dirt road, winding up into the Santa Cruz Mountains, all the way to the top of one of them. Arriving at Skylark Ranch, all we could think was, "How would you feel taking your little daughter up here and leaving her there for a week or two weeks or whatever?" It's sooooo remote...so invisible...no signs to the camp, nothing, just this sketchy looking place on top of a mountain with gorges on both sides of the road that we were afraid the car was going to fall into. They have all these sand bags on the road to divert the water, to keep the road from getting washed away completely. It's one lane, no way to pass by another car, but maybe there are never two cars on the road at the same time anyway. We saw deer, wild angelica, usnea, also known as old man's beard, (which is the west coast version of Spanish moss), lizards, ravens, mazanita trees, madrone trees and redwoods EVERYWHERE!
When we arrived there, we met John, the ranger and one-man show at the camp. He is responsible for all the building, maintenance, grounds work, custodial work, etc.... for this camp, as well as supervising the rangers at something like 13 other camps around California. It is enough work for at least 5 people. The Girl Scouts have finally agreed to hire him a helper for 20 hours a week, at $14/hour. That COULD be ME! I would absolutely love it. But the first thing he told me was that the llamas are gone. Two of them were recently killed by a mountain lion. The Girl Scouts reacted by sending the other two to a horse boarding facility in Soquel, nearer to Santa Cruz, to protect them and to remove the "bait" from the camp, for the safety of the girls. I was pretty disappointed, but it's good to keep them safe, for sure.
The camp is 50 miles from our home, so at that rate of pay, with two hours of commuting each day, (on a good day, with little traffic, which is not typical), it is simply not feasible. I am so sad, because I would absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE to work there. There are also horses there for the summer months, but the job doesn't involve their care...they are taken care of by the people on the camp staff. Here are some of them:
Chris says he would love to work there too. The ideal situation would be to have John's job...he gets to live there for free, plus get paid to do the work. I would be in heaven....here is the best spot of all, Inspiration Point:
We had to get here by four-wheeler. No truck could go up the narrow, rutty, steep "roads" to the top of this mountain. The horses go there, though. We could tell by the telltale road apples.
On the way back home, we stopped at Waddell Bluffs. This is a beach where there were people surfing, belly boarding and swimming. The water is very cold, so you have to wear a wet suit all the time. It was so beautiful!
They let the cliffs collapse to build the road, up to a fence that keeps it all off the road, and once a year, they bulldoze the loose stuff over the road to the beach, where it is washed away by the tides, mimicking the natural course of things. The Monterey Aquarium scientists monitor the process and it's pretty cool! At area restaurants, you can "Tip the Ocean". That means leave an extra tip that goes toward maintaining the beaches and the ocean, for conservation of the land and animals there.
This is a huge marine sanctuary that extends from San Francisco down to Santa Barbara, about 500 miles, all supervised by the Monterey Aquarium. Some restaurants advertise that they only serve fish that are raised in a sustainable way. We ate at a great place called the Davenport Roadhouse. When we pulled into the parking lot, a black Ferrari, with cameras all over the roof, pulled over to me and asked if they could take a picture of our Ithaca is Gorges Car. Of course, we said yes. The woman, driving, said she went Cornell Law School. It was pretty cool to have them, in their own amazing and eye-catching car, want to take a picture of our little Honda Fit! Chris offered to trade up, but they declined. Oh well.....
This is an incredible back yard. Any of you who come to visit us will be taken to the aquarium, for sure! It's a world-class, must see, attraction!
Yesterday, I went to the Gateway School, where I will be working this summer, starting on July 29. I had to meet with my boss, Jackson, and the supply manager, to get all my supply orders ready so I'll have what I need to start teaching. Talk about beautiful! The school is literally one block from the ocean, so when I do my lesson about Andy Goldsworthy, we will be walking to the beach to find shells, stones, and driftwood to work with. It's incredible. I always brag about IHS having a waterfall in our backyard, but this is pretty cool as well!
I've been spending an inordinate amount of time on my computer, looking for jobs. For the people out there my age or older...remember "pounding the pavement"? Well, that's is NOT how it's done anymore. Everything is an online application, uploading my resume and letters of recommendation and taking online exams to judge my suitability for the position. It's so different than the last time I looked for a job. I haven't mailed a single cover in an envelope with a stamp! It's strange to put all that stuff out there into cyberspace and trust that someone is actually going to see it and respond.
The part-time job I interviewed for was given to someone else, unfortunately, because I think I would have really loved it. But, at the end of my interview, the principal said, "The wonderful art teacher we have right now, pretty much just lets the kids do whatever they want, and that's how I'd like to keep it." Well, that is NOT how I had interviewed. You know me....it's all about curriculum development, aligning to the state standards and the Common Core, writing lesson plans, devising rubrics for formative and summative assessment, oral critiques, etc.... I think that's what turned them off to me. They seem to want a much more laid back, laissez-faire teacher, and I definitely did not present that way. If only I had known! I could talk that talk, if I had to!
I came back from that experience more determined than ever to find work, so back on the computer I went, and I started applying for all kinds of jobs, in teaching and otherwise. I've applied for positions with online education companies, doing virtual teaching, overseeing programs, and some that I don't even know what they do, but I applied anyway! Then, I found a job that just sounded like a whole lot of fun, so I applied for that too. In fact, I am about to leave the house for my interview for it! Probably no one else applied for it. It's at the Skylark Ranch...a Girl Scout Camp. The job is 20 hours a week, doing general grounds work, maintenance, carpentry and get this: LLAMA CARE! They have 4 llamas that I would be responsible for taking care of. Doesn't that sound awesome! The only problem is that I think this ranch is pretty far away, and the pay might not even cover the gas to get there. So I'm going to check it out, but I may not even be interested once I see where it is. It'll be a nice day trip adventure anyway.
More later!
Well...the job interview went great, and guess what? I GOT THE JOB! Guess what else? I'm not taking the job. I'll tell you why in a minute. First, let's look at the day.....
When we arrived there, we met John, the ranger and one-man show at the camp. He is responsible for all the building, maintenance, grounds work, custodial work, etc.... for this camp, as well as supervising the rangers at something like 13 other camps around California. It is enough work for at least 5 people. The Girl Scouts have finally agreed to hire him a helper for 20 hours a week, at $14/hour. That COULD be ME! I would absolutely love it. But the first thing he told me was that the llamas are gone. Two of them were recently killed by a mountain lion. The Girl Scouts reacted by sending the other two to a horse boarding facility in Soquel, nearer to Santa Cruz, to protect them and to remove the "bait" from the camp, for the safety of the girls. I was pretty disappointed, but it's good to keep them safe, for sure.
The camp is 50 miles from our home, so at that rate of pay, with two hours of commuting each day, (on a good day, with little traffic, which is not typical), it is simply not feasible. I am so sad, because I would absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE to work there. There are also horses there for the summer months, but the job doesn't involve their care...they are taken care of by the people on the camp staff. Here are some of them:
Chris says he would love to work there too. The ideal situation would be to have John's job...he gets to live there for free, plus get paid to do the work. I would be in heaven....here is the best spot of all, Inspiration Point:
We had to get here by four-wheeler. No truck could go up the narrow, rutty, steep "roads" to the top of this mountain. The horses go there, though. We could tell by the telltale road apples.
On the way back home, we stopped at Waddell Bluffs. This is a beach where there were people surfing, belly boarding and swimming. The water is very cold, so you have to wear a wet suit all the time. It was so beautiful!
They let the cliffs collapse to build the road, up to a fence that keeps it all off the road, and once a year, they bulldoze the loose stuff over the road to the beach, where it is washed away by the tides, mimicking the natural course of things. The Monterey Aquarium scientists monitor the process and it's pretty cool! At area restaurants, you can "Tip the Ocean". That means leave an extra tip that goes toward maintaining the beaches and the ocean, for conservation of the land and animals there.
This is a huge marine sanctuary that extends from San Francisco down to Santa Barbara, about 500 miles, all supervised by the Monterey Aquarium. Some restaurants advertise that they only serve fish that are raised in a sustainable way. We ate at a great place called the Davenport Roadhouse. When we pulled into the parking lot, a black Ferrari, with cameras all over the roof, pulled over to me and asked if they could take a picture of our Ithaca is Gorges Car. Of course, we said yes. The woman, driving, said she went Cornell Law School. It was pretty cool to have them, in their own amazing and eye-catching car, want to take a picture of our little Honda Fit! Chris offered to trade up, but they declined. Oh well.....
This is an incredible back yard. Any of you who come to visit us will be taken to the aquarium, for sure! It's a world-class, must see, attraction!
Yesterday, I went to the Gateway School, where I will be working this summer, starting on July 29. I had to meet with my boss, Jackson, and the supply manager, to get all my supply orders ready so I'll have what I need to start teaching. Talk about beautiful! The school is literally one block from the ocean, so when I do my lesson about Andy Goldsworthy, we will be walking to the beach to find shells, stones, and driftwood to work with. It's incredible. I always brag about IHS having a waterfall in our backyard, but this is pretty cool as well!
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Housewarming!
Carla and her friend, Florence (Flo) arrived at 2am, having driven cross country over the last several days! It's great to have them here...Carla will stay with us for about 6 weeks before heading to Colorado for her internship. Flo can only stay until Sunday, as she has to get back to work in Ithaca on Monday. They were in on the planning that Grayson masterminded to throw us a wonderful housewarming party today. They got us to take them to a nearby bakery for coffee to get us out of the house so Grayson could set up. When we got back home, there were a bunch of cars in the driveway and the sign I had made to welcome Carla and Flo had been changed to say, "Welcome Home, Mom and Chris". Out on the deck, the grill was stoked, there was a massive spread of food, beer, sodas and tequila, and the following people were here to help us celebrate our big move:
Kaiya, Emily, Sean, Ethan, Natalie, Viktor, Bridgette, Brandon, Carla, Flo, Bridgette.
It was SO nice to share our new home with everyone. There was music playing, beer pong, dogs romping in the yard and great conversation. It was really, really awesome and we are so grateful to Grayson for making it happen. Thank you, Gray!
Tonight, we went to the beach near Grayson's house to watch the fireworks. They are not sanctioned, but everyone just brought their own, rather impressive fireworks and set them off all around us. It was intense, because some of them were so close to us that we were actually nervous about them hitting us. But, it was really fun to watch!
Quincy went out for a few hours in the gelding pasture again today. Yesterday, he did well for the time that I was supervising, but after I left, he must have gotten into a battle, because he has a pretty good bite on his back with very clear teeth marks. No deeply broken skin, thank goodness, but the hair is stripped off and it's quite swollen. I feel so bad for him, but it's normal for horses to go through this as they work out the herd dynamics with a new horse. He is playing it pretty smart...keeping out of the corners and being on the alert all the time for attacks. But, he must have let his guard down and he got hurt. He was very happy to see me and to come inside with me. Today was better, but when I returned to him, I found him waaaaaayyyyyyy back in the furthest away part of the pasture, all by himself. I really hope he will make some friends soon, or at least one good buddy, so he won't be so lonely.
I rode him yesterday, and he was great. We went on the trail that goes all the way around the olive grove and the apple orchard, so we saw the entire property. It's very nice....except for the ground squirrel holes that you have to watch out for. They are such a problem that the ranch owners have a guy who comes to shoot them three days a week, and he averages something like 50 per day! I'm not a fan of that method of control, but I also don't want my horse falling into a hole or a tunnel and hurting himself!
Chris is getting pretty comfy here...he knows his way around the neighborhood quite well from the 8 weeks he spent out here before. He is sleeping well in our awesome bed, except for the night that I leaped out of bed at 3am because a massive spider crawled (and by that I mean ran really fast) up my back! Then, I made him tear the bed apart looking for the damn thing, but we never did find it. Anyway, I read up on it and learned that peppermint oil is a good spider repellent, so we bought some pure oil at Whole Foods, and I soaked about 50 cotton balls with it and put them all over the house, and especially around the bed. I also bought Dr. Bronner's soap...peppermint scented, and washed with a TON of it so now I smell like a candy cane. But I don't care, as long as it keeps the spiders off me!
We miss everyone! Please email or call us...we'd love to hear from you all!
Kaiya, Emily, Sean, Ethan, Natalie, Viktor, Bridgette, Brandon, Carla, Flo, Bridgette.
It was SO nice to share our new home with everyone. There was music playing, beer pong, dogs romping in the yard and great conversation. It was really, really awesome and we are so grateful to Grayson for making it happen. Thank you, Gray!
Tonight, we went to the beach near Grayson's house to watch the fireworks. They are not sanctioned, but everyone just brought their own, rather impressive fireworks and set them off all around us. It was intense, because some of them were so close to us that we were actually nervous about them hitting us. But, it was really fun to watch!
Quincy went out for a few hours in the gelding pasture again today. Yesterday, he did well for the time that I was supervising, but after I left, he must have gotten into a battle, because he has a pretty good bite on his back with very clear teeth marks. No deeply broken skin, thank goodness, but the hair is stripped off and it's quite swollen. I feel so bad for him, but it's normal for horses to go through this as they work out the herd dynamics with a new horse. He is playing it pretty smart...keeping out of the corners and being on the alert all the time for attacks. But, he must have let his guard down and he got hurt. He was very happy to see me and to come inside with me. Today was better, but when I returned to him, I found him waaaaaayyyyyyy back in the furthest away part of the pasture, all by himself. I really hope he will make some friends soon, or at least one good buddy, so he won't be so lonely.
I rode him yesterday, and he was great. We went on the trail that goes all the way around the olive grove and the apple orchard, so we saw the entire property. It's very nice....except for the ground squirrel holes that you have to watch out for. They are such a problem that the ranch owners have a guy who comes to shoot them three days a week, and he averages something like 50 per day! I'm not a fan of that method of control, but I also don't want my horse falling into a hole or a tunnel and hurting himself!
Chris is getting pretty comfy here...he knows his way around the neighborhood quite well from the 8 weeks he spent out here before. He is sleeping well in our awesome bed, except for the night that I leaped out of bed at 3am because a massive spider crawled (and by that I mean ran really fast) up my back! Then, I made him tear the bed apart looking for the damn thing, but we never did find it. Anyway, I read up on it and learned that peppermint oil is a good spider repellent, so we bought some pure oil at Whole Foods, and I soaked about 50 cotton balls with it and put them all over the house, and especially around the bed. I also bought Dr. Bronner's soap...peppermint scented, and washed with a TON of it so now I smell like a candy cane. But I don't care, as long as it keeps the spiders off me!
We miss everyone! Please email or call us...we'd love to hear from you all!
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