Studio Ruthe

The week that was

Raja left a comment telling me to go to New York for my spirit. Since I always listen to Raja I'm now on the Megabus heading for New York. Seriously, I've been planning the trip for awhile. One of my Israeli friends whom I haven't seen for a long time will be there and we'll spend a few days together.Last week was busy and good; I continued to feel as well as I did before I took that fall.

Monday evening, six other Osher members and I participated in an undergraduate psychology class. The kids seemed to enjoy hearing our life stories, mostly in 500 words or less, and then told us about papers they had written about elder issues. I was impressed with how varied our experiences were, but I imagine it would be true for most Osher members.

On Tuesday I attended the fourth in a series of talks on preparing for death; this one about hospice and palliative care. I'll miss this week's talk about grieving, but hopefully I've done my share and won't have another turn. The talks all emphasized the importance of talking to your family and your doctor about what you want done at the end of your life. They also recommended a guide called Five Wishes. You can download it here. I've had a healthcare advance directive and living will for many years, but I plan to supplant it with this new document. It makes much more sense to me.

My book-making group will have a holiday party on Sunday, right after I return. The highlight of the festivities is to exchange books with each other. I've been working on mine all last week. I'm not quite finished but I'll have time on Saturday afternoon. The picture of the media delivery box that seemed to be recognizable no matter how I turned it, will be on the cover of a box. Inside will be little one-sheet books with pictures of mosaics that were down the street from the box. I'm calling the box and the little books Burning Box Imager. I'll post pictures when I get home and finish the box.

 

I have no excuse

I just didn't feel like writing.

My infection seems to have gone, although I won't be convinced for another week or so. My Osher classes began this week. I wasn't taking anything for the last month because I expected to be away; I'm glad the new term has begun. Tuesday morning I'm in a class called "Representing the Devil." Last week we looked at readings from both the old and new testaments. This week we are reading Christopher Marlowe's, "Dr. Faustus." We will also read "The Master and Margarita" and "No Country for Old Men." I started reading M & M and it's excellent. So is the professor; I'm very pleased.

Tuesday afternoon is a film class. We watched "Sunset Boulevard," which I saw back in 1950 or 51. I remembered absolutely nothing except the shooting scene. Amazing how completely these things disappear.

Wednesday afternoon is a journaling class. You're probably laughing. How can I keep a journal when I can't even keep up with the blog. We are supposed to write three pages a day. I wrote something yesterday, but not three pages. There are many things I don't want to put in the blog. Keeping a journal would be a good thing if I wasn't so lazy.

Thursday afternoon's class is called "Behind the scenes at the Carnegie Museum." I don't think this will be the best class. We only get behind the scenes once, the rest of the time we're in lectures. I've spent lots of time volunteering at the Field Museum in Chicago and often got behind the scenes. It was fascinating. I'm sure the Carnegie would be also. Maybe I'll look into volunteering there.

I got back to the health club. I've been walking (even did the 5k Race for the Cure last weekend) but avoided other exercise because of taking Cipro. I don't know if I'm happier with or without all the exercise. I'm certainly happier without the Cipro.

Freezing rain and beautiful music

The rain is  my excuse for staying home this morning, although I'm not sure it's even raining--just dark and dreary. Each year I'm finding it a little harder to deal with winter. It doesn't mean I'm off for warmer climes. Just more suffering. I think we are lucky here in Pittsburgh. This storm seems to be all over the country but we are seeing very little of it.

On to better things: the music. Yesterday was my first Osher class for this year, and it was fantastic. The teacher is Jim Cunningham, a host of our classical music station, WQED, who brought three members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to introduce us to the music of Erwin Schulhoff, a Czech composer and pianist. Schulhoff worked between the first and second world wars, was classified as "degenerate" by the Nazis and died in a concentration camp in 1942. Along with many other composers and musicians of the time, his work was essentially lost and only now is slowly being brought to light. Among other works we heard his concertina for flute, viola and double bass. The music was beautiful and there is something very special about listening when you are within 30 feet of the performer.

Working on my term paper

I struggled for two weeks to restate the goal of my project, following the  professor's comments. I sort of knew what I wanted, but I didn't know where I was going with it. Finally turned in this statement:

Japanese Gardens are the subject of poetry; poems are created and read in gardens. They appear as backgrounds in scroll paintings, and emaki painters designed many of the earliest gardens. Japanese gardens grew out of reverence for nature, but trees and plantings are shaped to conform to a Japanese ideal of nature, making gardens a true art form. In some, the viewer can appreciate the scene from a special place, a frame, in others the viewer can be more interactive, he or she can enter and stroll along, each few steps presenting a different view, much like walking through a museum and stopping to examine and appreciate each picture.

 Rocks, water, stone lanterns and decorative bridges, sometimes a tea house, and plants are the elements of a Japanese garden. In addition, the two concepts: illusion/shakkei or captured scenery, and replication of famous places, are often used to organize the garden space. I will explore the use of those elements and ideas to create aesthetically pleasing spaces. Then, using maps and photographs I propose to examine Kenroku-en in Kanazawa, Koraku-en in Okayama, and Shirotori in Nagoya and two gardens meant to be viewed from within a building, Chishakuin and  Nanzen-in, to determine what constitutes an aesthetically pleasing space for me.

Now I have to begin writing the paper. I have several free hours after my Osher music class this morning, then lunch, then just missed the bus so walked a mile or so instead of just waiting for the next one. Of course, a cup of tea was necessary as soon as I got home. Listened to phone messages. The Republicans have the wrong number for someone. Opened Word. Did you know National Geographic has jigsaw puzzles you can play with on line? Last night was a reception for a Gigapan exhibit David arranged in the US Steel lobby. If you zoom in on the right side you can see Ivetta's head, my back and Qing, one of my ESL students. Because the camera keeps moving, if the person moves, only part of her will show up.

Only an hour before I have to leave. Guess I better start writing.

Wrap up of the week's good classes and events

It's a dark, rainy, somewhat chilly morning and I don't have to be anywhere until 4 pm. I went back to bed for awhile, then read blogs and finally took a long, hot shower. Amazing what that does for all my aches. It doesn't seem to matter where the water hits me, usually on my back and the back of my neck, and all of the pains in my hip and legs go away. It's better than Tylenol, the only thing I'm supposed to take.

I've really had a busy week. On Saturday, Ivetta and I went to the SPF Expo--Small Press Festival. It was very nice to see all those publishers, but the best thing for me was the venue: AIR: Artist Image Resource. They have open studio time; I could go and make silk screen prints if I can work up enough ambition. Something to keep in mind, anyway.

We went to another festival: Little Italy Days in Bloomfield. As with most large city ethnic neighborhoods, identity is anchored more in nostalgia than in reality. It was fun, a little like a New York street fair.

Sunday night Robin served dinner in the sukkah--a Jewish holiday tradition. We had dinner in Dina's sukkah on Friday night. Miraculously it didn't rain either night--the usual sukkot event.

Monday I went to my World War I class. That one is good. We are not fighting each battle, but rather, examining possible causes. Excellent presentation. Tuesday was Japanese art history, then an open house at the Intel lab at Carnegie Mellon. I find I can understand about half of what they try to tell me.

Tuesday evening there was a lecture by Rev. Tom Johnson, Jr., who runs a school, the Neighborhood Academy, for children living in poverty. His goal, which he mostly has met, is to have 100% of his children graduate and go on to college. He explained his philosophy and his methods. I wish I had his talk written out. He's an amazing man.

Yesterday was infectuous diseases, another great class. I can't say I have any special interest in diseases, or in World War 1, but a good teacher can really capture me. That's the best part of these OLLI (Osher LIfelong Learning Institute) classes. Yesterday was also my next to last cardio rehab session. Friday is the end, but there are ways to continue and I may do it. First, I'll see if I can get religious about going to the health club.

In the evening I went on a walking tour of some of the art in East Liberty and in Mellon Park. I enjoyed the teacher and will be taking a class with her next month.

Back to school

This was the first week of my new Osher classes. I now belong to two Osher programs: Pitt and CMU. Most of my classes this time are at CMU. I'm taking tai chi with a different instructor; estate planning; Gulliver's Travels; a cooking class; Gigapan photography; and auditing another art history class at Pitt: Women in East Asian art. I volunteered (hah) to give a presentation on Tuesday at the art history class. Keeps me busy.

Originally I signed up for another class: Spanish conversation. I'd really like to learn Spanish. On the morning I was supposed to have the first class I overslept. I took this as a message from my body and dropped the class. Maybe next year. I may drop Gulliver, also. All we seem to be doing is reading aloud to each other. I'll see how the second class goes, but I'd really like something more than that.

Estate planning is good. Not that I have much of an estate, but I found out there are some laws here in Pennsylvania I ought to pay attention to.  Gigapan photography is really special. Did you see the amazing picture of the inaugural that you can zoom in on and see peoples faces and all kinds of detail? A robotic device takes pictures on a grid and stitches them together. We'll get an opportunity to borrow the robot and take our own pictures. Should be great fun.

Falcons and Skunk Cabbage

This week is spring break, but I've had wonderful OLLI provided experiences, all having to do with that additional level of awareness Alice mentions in her comment to the last post. After the geology walk on Wednesday, there was a class about the peregrine falcons that call Pittsburgh home. There are nesting boxes on the Gulf Tower downtown and the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, both evidently look like cliffs to the falcons. You can see a webcam and learn about the Gulf Tower pair here. There is one egg in the nest already. That website from Pittsburgh's National Aviary has links to the Cathedral of Learning webcam and to a bird blog written by Kate St. John, who was one of the presenters at our class. Our other presenter was Dr. Tony Bledsoe of the Biological Sciences Dept. at Pitt, who did a great job giving us all the facts about falcons.

Yesterday we went on a bus trip to the Powdermill Nature Reserve, the biological research station of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. You have to understand: I am very much a city person. I haven't had a lot of contact with "nature," and I approach each event with a mixture of curiosity, awe and fear. I wasn't sure what I was going to see at this time of year, possibly more mud, but I figured I had nothing to lose.

We spent the morning learning about the sustainable facilities development project and the Marsh Machine, their waste water treatment greenhouse. Powdermill Run is one of only a few streams in Pennsylvania considered excellent quality, never having been polluted by mine drainage. Here is an excellent article from the Post Gazette about the new facility, which, incidentally, uses carpeting made from recycled plastic bottles, counter tops made from compressed paper, flooring tiles from recycled tires.

After lunch, we took advantage of the beautiful spring day and walked on some of the trails at the reserve. I got my first good look at skunk cabbage,

loved the little ferns just beginning to grow,

and marveled at the rushing stream filled now with rainwater and melted snow. (Our guide, Theresa, is speaking with one of the members of our group.

My friends in Chicago used to tease me--I was never lost in the city, but take me out where there are no street signs and I'm immediately lost. I need a lot of help learning to see in the natural environment.

Very satisfying day

This is Spring Break, but my geology class met today for a geology walk in Frick Park. It was a little gray and cold, and a lot muddy, but a great experience. This is the park I walk through fairly often. Today was completely different. I always look at the trees, the birds, the flowers. I've noticed the rocks, but never given them much thought. So, it was almost magical when Al Kollar, from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, showed us the evidence of how this area was under water, at least twice, and how the sandstone eroded to create the hollows and ravines in the park.

I was amazed to learn that the stones in the path were formed somewhere else two million years ago and deposited by the water. Huge boulders I had walked past many times had fossils from sea water creatures. Still hard to see, but who knew! Alongside the path there was a fast moving stream--never there in summer or fall. It was almost like I was in a different park. Here's an island beginning to form from the sediment in the stream.

There was lots of mud. You can see all the traffic: bikes, dogs and people. The red mud is from the Pittsburgh red beds. Everything has a name.

Here are my muddy shoes. I haven't had so much mud on my shoes since I was a kid.