Creativity 101

Good News

Heard from Ev yesterday after he had several job interviews...and a job offer! Landed with an upscale school. It's a part-time gig that pays well and starts tomorrow. Then weekend/night classes of his choosing in another school that will start after this week.

Good news for mom...: }

I found this foto in a junque shop last weekend and it pretty much nailed the theme of an assignment due in my construction materials class. We were supposed to research (explore? discover?) a playground surfacing material and write a report about the surface we selected.My first inclination after perusing the list of rubber-this and synthetic-that was to stick with good old-fashion sand, but there are issues of critical height and accessibility. I have to take these design considerations to heart given my chosen profession.

My next choice was 'engineered wood fiber'. This surfacing material addresses fall zones, heights, and access AND it also has a more natural look and feel for those little bottoms to land on. I cannot speak for all LA's, but I think this is actually one of the more important issues for the kiddies today. The profession has addressed the consequences of raising a generation of 'nature deficit' children and yet we 'play' along when are offered these suspect products to coat their playgrounds. Yek!

Most serious playground injuries are caused by children falling from heights sufficient to do damage to their heads and bones. The emergency room stats prove it. However, replacing parental involvement with rubber products on the playground just seems to be feeding into this childhood sensory deprivation of the natural world.

I talked with a mother of a 3- and a 1-year old. She thought the rubber mats on the playground were wonderful, except....they got too hot to play on when the temperature climbed; they were too slippery when wet. Tests of these recycled rubber products also indicate dangerous levels of zinc and lead...serious drawbacks considering these are supposed to be safe places for children.

My kids learned to climb trees and rocks and they busied themselves in their sandbox for hours on end. Tess discovered an old serving spoon buried in the sandbox one day. She was delighted when she pulled it out of the sand. She pretended to 'sip' sand from the bowl of the spoon, then quickly emptied the contents of the spoon into her mouth. OK. I would not freak. I figured this would be a one-time thing, an experience in the discovery of the grittiness of sand in one's mouth! I was wrong. Next day, she tried it again. More crunching and spitting. When I asked her why she was eating sand, she told me she wanted to see if it was still crunchy. I assured her that every spoonful would feel the same in her mouth...every time. And to the best of my knowledge, she has never tried it again. What parent would deprive their child of such a great sensory experience : {

Ev's favorite climbing structure still grows down the street. I have, on occasion, seen him walk down there as a high school-er and college student, swing his leg up and over the lowest branch to hoist himself up into the crotch of that Amur Maple. It has grown along with him over the years and he still talks about those early Sunday morning walks which always started and ended at this tree. He would crawl out of the stroller, (jump off his trike, dismount his tiny bike decked out with baseball cards/clothespins and training wheels) to wait for a boost, so he could swing his leg up and over that lowest branch. His experience included having me there to spot him, to catch him if he slipped, but mostly to bolster his confidence as he mastered this natural climbing structure of a tree.

Call me old-fashioned, call me a mother, but sand and pea gravel, grass and wood fiber mulch, boulders and trees offer a more natural playground than metal/plastic play structures and synthetic surfaces. Falling into the arms of a parent or guardian seems a much safer fall zone from critical height than landing unattended on a 30-pound chunk of recycled rubber tile.

Safe and Sound

Ev has Facebooked. Skyped. And gmailed. He arrived and is safely tucked into a beautiful townhouse with a friend. Has been job-hunting. Is hopeful.

His words were re-assuring....in fact, he sounded wonderful. I am always amazed at that kid's way with words. He weaves a beautiful story. And this was just his first day!

Waiting....

We are in the final countdown, waiting to hear that Ev has arrived safely in Saigon, South Vietnam. I am staying close to the phone today; I don't want to miss his call.

The first three messages on our answering machine have been there for what seems like forever. Each time there has been a missed call of Ev's from some distant land, we have saved the sound of his voice sending his love. Rather than skip thru them to find our real messages for the day, I always listen to each one, again, treasuring my son's humor, listening to the background noises from far away...and hearing the changes in this maturing young man.

The first one is Ev calling to wish me "Happy Bastille Day" (my birthday) from the salmon factory out on the Alaska Peninsula. The next message carries snarky panic in his voice as he tries to figure out what the *&%# he is going to do as he stands in a northern airport in India far, far away from his waiting entourage in southern India. That call came at 2:14 a.m.; we missed it because we were sleeping. When we found it the next morning and were unable to get ahold of Ev, I starting a slow steam directed toward my husband for ever allowing him to travel by himself. He sensed that I was about to spout, so he placed both his hands on each of my shoulders, looked me in the eyes, and assured me that "he will figure this out."

Ev figured "this" out, but as I recall, there were a couple of panicked phone calls placed by my husband to the Institute where Ev was supposed to land for the semester. The timing was perfect on the third call. The desk attendant announced that Mr. Hudson had just arrived and the celebration on his behalf was commencing. My husband patiently explained that we would like to talk with our son, so we waited as the gentleman ran to retrieve him. Ev came on the line out of breath and full of joy and love. He had arrived safely, tired and hungry; everyone was attending to his every need. "Guys, guys, I am OK....besides there is an elephant at my party and I want to meet him!

The third message arrived on March 17, 2009. I had driven to Iowa City to take my son to lunch, then to the airport in Cedar Rapids so he could spend Spring Break in DC with a high school friend. They were going to go to a political rally on The Mall. When I found this message later that evening, his voice was full of gratefulness. He wanted us to know that he had arrived safely. He also wanted to say thanks for the plane ticket and the extra $$$ I had slipped him for food/cab fare...just in case....and that he had figured out the bus schedule to get to Drew's. "I love you guys."

My husband received a text message on his phone at noon yesterday. Ev was about to board plane #2 for Seoul, South Korea on his way to Vietnam. In his "last purely American act", he had just consumed a MacMeal...food he normally never eats. But then this was not a normal day for him. His departing words, which I am sure Paul will keep on his phone, reads, "And I am off!!!!"

A Mother's Goodbye

This morning at 3:54 a.m. I woke to face this day which has brought both excitement and tears over the last few months. My son Evan is traveling to Saigon, Vietnam to find his adventure after graduating from the University of Iowa this past May.

This last week at school has been grueling and it wore me down physically. Thinking about sending my son to the other side of the planet has worn on me mentally. It has caused such mixed feelings that I have had moments of panic tempered by deep breathing. I have had long conversations with myself that these feelings are perfectly normal 'mother-sending-her-son off' emotions. I have to believe that he will be safe and that this young man will find his most excellent adventure.

Ev is a world traveler. Eighth grade took him to Japan for 10 days to visit our sister city. The summer after his junior year in high school found him in Uganda for a month to build a school in a small village. As a junior at the University of Iowa, he studied abroad for a semester in Mysore, India; he taught in a village school for 3 weeks before he traveled home. Since that first trip to the mountains of Japan, he has wanted to teach English as a second language overseas. This morning we sent our son off to follow his dream.

A lump sits in my throat as I type this. He just turned 22 years old. I watched his back as he approached the ticket counter to check in. He seemed relaxed and ready to go. When he turned, however, I could see both excitement and strain on his face. Once his bag was turned over to the agent, there was no turning back. He spotted me and kind of shrugged with a whimsical look on his face. Pure Ev.

His journey to this world away takes place over 2 days on 3 airlines. He is a world traveler and he has always managed to get to where he needed to be. However, these next 26 hours will be hell until we hear from him....that he has arrived safely, that his determination to embrace this new adventure is intact...and that he is still in possession of his passport and money!

LA401 Lake Delhi Project - Alternative Futures

Another week down. Professor1 mentioned that today completes the 4th week of studio. Yes! This is my last studio in my academic career and I am ready to be done with these 6-credit hour behemoths.

This weekend brings semi-joy. I still have a concept plan to do, but the instruction today from Professor2 mandates that we let go of Concept One and Concept Two and go for something completely different. I am trying, but it is hard to fore-go my values and beliefs. I will make myself explore new territory. We will see. I am envisioning floating homes....house boats, maybe stacked to make condos! This is the last opportunity to go for pie-in-the-sky.

We heard yesterday that the lake district is asking for $9.9 M for a three-phase project of stabilization/restoration/rebuilding for the generation of hydroelectric power. This price tag represents Lake Delhi Recreation Association's pie-in-the-sky and they want the taxpayers to pay for it. OK. The dam's purpose for the last 37 years has been recreation and now they are showcasing this plan as one for clean, green energy production. Things will have to change if the LDRA wants that kind of cash from the government. What needs to happen to satisfy the stakeholders, the taxpayers?

Let's see what happens with Concept Three by Monday. I'll keep you posted.

Hand Drawing YEAH!!!

I have been tethered to my laptop these last few days, working thru the process that comes with tackling assignments...AutoCad drawings for Construction Materials class; a technical report and presentation for studio on Lake Delhi, Delaware County (the dam breach last July, 2010); a 2nd concept plan for the design (it didn't change much from my thinking for the 1st concept plan); and a field trip to Pella, IA to study the site of an historical Dutch village museum. It seems like it has been non-stop since Labor Day. Oh, there were also the two academic papers that needed to be read before Monday and I haven't even started on the assigned readings for my preservation class and construction materials class.

This is when I get crazy. I cannot think straight anymore. I cannot complete a sentence because my mind goes blank mid-thought. It's embarrassing when I am trying to ask a question in class and I just forget. Life should not be this fast-paced. I am too old for this. I am doing it, but I don't like it very much. In fact I resent that the only time I am outside is when I am riding my bike back and forth to campus. It has been a beautiful autumn so far and I want to be in my garden, talking long walks, tromping along Worle Creek!

Well, late this morning, I said enough. I should have been studying for my quiz in Construction Materials, but decided instead to go upstairs to my drafting table and do some sections for my PowerPoint presentation. I get lost behind that table and in a matter of minutes I was feeling great. In fact, it was just what the doctor ordered! Two sections whipped out in about 30 minutes....and I was a new woman.

The topic is not the most captivating...Streambed Ownership in Iowa! But I put my ideas down on the vellum, added some color with the PrismaColor pencils. I think I got my point across graphically.

Stepping Back into My Other Life

Fall classes resumed last Monday and now I can scratch off Week One of my last year in the LA graduate program. I am taking a community design studio and our project for the semester will evaluate and offer alternative design scenarios that address the Lake Delhi dam breach that occurred July 24, 2010. The implications of that disaster are all over the map both figuratively and literally. The earthen spillway blew out after unprecedented rainfall in the Maquoketa River watershed and now there is once again a visible river flowing in its channel where, for the last 80 years, there was a 9-mile long lake.

This past Friday three vehicles headed down the road carrying my studio-mates, two professors, me, and a trailerful of bikes to the project site to experience this altered landscape. We listened to stories, attended a formal presentation, and wandered the backroads searching for clues that might inform a design solution to offer these folks who are lost without their landmark waterbody, Lake Delhi.

Having taken several classes in hydrology and stream study, I found the natural course claimed by the water of the Maquoketa River fascinating, aside from the devastating loss of home and property. Water knows where it wants to be and it goes there. This truism was never more obvious to me as when I stood on the bridge that looked out over the newly formed sandbars dotted with broken boats, their twisted hoists, and other floodwater debris half-buried along and in the now visible river channel.

It was a long day with lots to take in. I was tired when we arrived back at the College of Design...not only physically, but in a world-weary way. I wonder when we as a society will learn to live with the forces of Mother Nature, to become more adaptable to her ways, and be done with this thinking that building bigger, taller, and stronger will dominate and tame. We only end up with a larger pile of debris to clear and a more expensive tab. Enough said.

I am also taking a construction class which should prove interesting. A failed attempt to install AutoCAD on my laptop brought it to its knees. The operating system crashed and I was without a computer for several days. Aside from that technical glitch, the content of the course will be an overview of materials...wood, concrete, stone, and metals. I love the idea of color, texture, and finish, so this should be a fun class.

I am taking a graduate seminar in preservation...a sister course to the one offered last semester. I enjoyed that class, so I am looking forward to our study site of Pella, IA and the Dutch heritage museum grounds there.

I will be backing off the thesis research and writing this next semester....only 1 credit to keep my toe in the water. I am thankful that I did the road trips this past summer so I could get that experience on the ground to better understand the turn-of-the-century Midwestern rural cemetery. Also, I stayed on top of my readings, so that has taken off the pressure this semester. I look forward to the actual writing of the cultural landscape report and treatment plan for Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids, IA, which will happen over the next year. : |

So, today I clear the drafting table of the piles of books and papers from this past summer's research. I will work with pen and colored pencils to create a concept plan with both graphics and narrative to begin my process for the Lake Delhi project.

Cancer Horoscope for week of August 19, 2010

This would be an excellent time for you to get aggressively inventive about your education. It wouldn't be too crazy, in my opinion, to launch your own school, with you as the only student. You could design your own course curriculum for the coming years. Decide who your teachers will be. Think about where you can get the stuff you'll need to expand your mind, enhance your skills, and just plain increase your intelligence. You could call your center of higher learning the University of Wily Exuberance or the Academy of Astonishing Grace or the Institute of Getting Down to Business.

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