Mrs. Gottrocks

"Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each slice."

Barbra Streisand


I grew up in a middle class family.  My father worked full time outside the home; my mother worked full time running our home. Actually, both put in significantly more than full time hours. Two parents, three children. One income.

We owned a home in the "old suburbs" and went to good public schools. We could go to the doctor and dentist for regular check ups. There were piano lessons, dance lessons drama lessons--depending on which child. My mother worked ceaselessly to economize in order to make the money stretch for that.

Some years we had a family vacation. Most years, though, we did day trips to the beach or amusement park. We didn't go out to eat very often, and if we did, it was often to Howard Johnson's, not a fancy place.  My mother scanned the weekly grocery ads, clipped coupons, made every penny count.

We were not rich. My mother used to use the moniker  "Mrs. Gottrocks" to describe what rich people did. Rich people, not us. This was not to denigrate our position in life, but to remind the kids that this is where we we are, so be realistic.
You are not going to boarding school, or getting the enormous stuffed pony you can ride on from FAO Schwartz. Getting treats from the ice cream truck is for rich people.

I say all of this to adequately prepare you for this announcement: today, I am rich. I am rich because I can now afford to stay home in the summer when I'm not teaching. We can afford to join Lifetime Fitness in the summer and work out and swim whenever we want. I am rich because, once in awhile, I can go out to dinner and have the steak, loaded baked potato and the lettuce wedge with blue cheese dressing, $1.00 extra. And Margo can go to two session of summer camp--what riches!

We are going on a family vacation to the beach for five whole days.  These are the things of riches, to me.

I was raised by a frugal mother. This means that sometimes I stress over whether I can afford to buy the name brand product in the grocery, or whether it is okay to buy new clothes for myself when the family might need something more. It also means that I struggle to believe I have money to put in the collection plate.

But, when it comes the bar I set for being "rich", it means I am easily pleased. Sure, it would be awesome to win the lottery and buy that million dollar-plus home with room for an in-house arts space. But, give me time to spend with my family, a refreshing swim on a hot day, with a little money left over for the ice cream truck, and I am rich beyond my childhood dreams.

I am, in fact, Mrs. Gottrocks. Because it's all in how you look at it.

An Oakland Mills Farewell

It is the last day of school.  My husband is finishing his eleventh year as a teacher in the Howard County School System. I have just finished ten years teaching music and movement in the Howard County RECC Program.  Margo is finishing sixth grade, her first year in Middle School.

All of us are looking forward to the rejuvenating days of Summer vacation. I don't know what we would do without the time to recharge.  For some reason, the past school year has felt incredibly long. We have been inching towards the finish line.

I have worked on an academic schedule for my entire professional life.  Until recently, that meant getting an additional job for summers. Through all of Alice's childhood, I had a church job as a paid chorister year-round, as well.  Still, working on a school calendar has always meant certain seasonal rituals for me: end of the year activities, parties, farewells.

I have just learned that Oakland Mills Middle School will be saying farewell to Principal Shiney Ann John. She is being transferred as Principal of the new Middle School, known at present as Middle School 20.  We have only had one year to get to know her, but from my experience I can tell you that she has done a brilliant job at OMMS, and she will be missed.

Principals can make or break a school.  They set the tone for how the school operates. They set boundaries for how staff interact, how students are treated, how parents can be involved in their children's educational experience. Yes, the school system sets the overall goals, but the principal carries them out, either well or poorly.  Ask any parent or teacher; I am reasonably certain they will concur.

I pray that the new principal for OMMS will have the most important quality of all: that she will appreciate our school and its population, that she will be happy to be here. It would be easy to see our school as a set of problems to be overcome, or a rough spot in one's professional life that one must survive. How can we welcome her to our school and our Village in a way that will start her tenure on a positive note?

Farewell--may you fare well. Goodbye--God be with you. Interesting origins of words we use so often. Adios, Adieu--also a touch of the Divine. Hasta la vista--until we see each other again. A bientot--see you soon. As Mrs. John moves on to her next assignment, all are appropriate.

As we put this school year to rest, though, we may need a different word or phrase. We have faced our challenges, completed our work, and tied up loose ends. We are ready to let this year go, and carry the best of what we have learned with us as we move on. Perhaps it is best said as an exclamation of joy and relief.

Roll on, Summer!

hocoblogs@@@

Summer of Neighbors

Bill Santos of Columbia Compass suggests using social media to let the community know about how you are celebrating this summer, by using the hashtag #summerofneighbors.  He gives some examples; I'll share a few here:

Girls night out and dancing under the people tree - #summerofneighbors

Monday movie night at #lakekittamaquandi.  Mr. B is awesome #summerofneighbors

Impromptu house party last night, I <3 living in #Longfellow #summerofneighbors

I am intrigued by this idea. I can't wait to see how it unfolds. But when I woke up this morning, I realized that I have a problem.  My tweets would invariably look like this:

Family Game night with take-out from Maiwand. #summerofneighbors

Cooking up a storm with A. after picking up CSA share. #summerofneighbors

Finally meeting up with the ice cream truck at Hopewell Pool. #summerofneighbors

Notice anything? A complete lack of neighbors. I spend almost 100 percent of my social time with my immediate family. I'm happy about that. I love my family. But somehow I don't think that spending the summer encased in the familial bubble was what Mr. Santos had in mind.

So, I have a challenge. Put a little more neighbor into my Summer. I'm really good at being shy and a homebody. Plus, I tend to withdraw into a shell during times of high heat and humidity. But the journey of a thousand miles begins...well, with a walk to Walgreen's. (Now, that's another story altogether.)

I'm determined to give it a shot because I am even more interested in what happens after the #summerofneighbors. Aren't you?

hocoblogs@@@

Hashtag ColumbiaMD

Seen on Twitter...

According to the following tweets, the Harpers Choice Tuesday Morning store is closing. As of this post, it may already have closed. Have you ever been there?  We used to love noodling around there before a trip to Maiwand or Rita's. When Margo was little, it was a great source for an inexpensive toy or a stuffed animal.

@ingloriousBOH: Per Tuesday Morning employees, @Kimcorealty's longstanding neglect of maintenance issues is why they...are closing. #ColumbiaMD

@ingloriousBOH: Easy to believe, if you've been to @KimcoRealty's #HarpersChoice Village Center. The store has buckets all over the store to catch leaks.

@ingloriousBOH: Maybe that's why stores and restaurants rarely rarely start up in west #ColumbiaMD: @KimcoRealty owns WL/HC/HR, & runs them like slum lords.

I don't know much about Kimco. But I do know that the Harpers Choice Tuesday Morning has been plagued by leaks as long as I have been going there. It's absolutely true about the buckets.  It always struck me as odd that a store in a Columbia Village Center would be in such bad shape.

I'm not an investigative reporter; I'm a curious community blogger. I know there must be more to this story. But I do think it is too bad that the store is closing, because it was a refreshing change from the usual village center fare. Bargain hunters will move on to similar stores in strip malls like Ollie's, Big Lots, Tuesday Morning...a loss for the Village Center model, indeed.

hocoblogs@@@

See You at the Movies

Yesterday my daughter watched five movies at school. Five.  She is a GT student in the sixth grade in Howard County. Four of the movies were educational, and they were required to do worksheets while watching them. The fifth was Chicken Run, which was shown at lunch.

I have read various complaints online about how the end of the year at school amounts to "babysitting."  I have thought a lot about this. As a teacher and a parent, I wonder how it has come to be like this.

Since the advent of No Child Left Behind, the pressure put on teachers to get results on high stakes standardized testing has been immense. Every year more emphasis is placed on test results, and less time is left for creative teaching. More paperwork, more data, less teaching. Teachers are belittled, interfered with, condescended to, and judged by people who know absolutely nothing about education.

So, once the testing and assessments are over for the year, what's left?

I would love to see experiential, hands-on learning activities. It would make the end of the year something to look forward to. And kids would carry those memories through the summer, because multi-sensory experiences are the ones you remember. But, if you don't encourage teachers to work like this, how can you expect that result? Our system is not set up to reward teachers for creativity.

If you don't foster it, if you don't reward it, it won't happen.  Look at health care, where the rewards have been based on doing more billable procedures, rather than patient interaction and wellness. You get what you reward.  By this time in the year, teachers are completely wrung out from jumping through all of the administrative hoops they are required to complete.

I would also love to see activities that encourage kids to make the most of their summers. It's great that the library comes in to promote the summer reading program. So, what else could be done to get kids thinking about making interesting connections during the summer? Teachers could help students begin a journal, create their own blog or website, design a building project or write a proposal for an environmental project. I can imagine ways to kick-start long-term activities in math, science, music composition, art, service, language arts, foreign language...

Just one thing: there probably are some teachers out there doing this. Despite rigid requirements, pressure to teach to the test, humiliating rubrics for evaluation, there are some teachers who are putting it all on the line for their students. I know because I have worked with them, and I am married to one. The bad news is that our system is set up to chew them up and spit them out.

Teachers want to teach. They want to make those connections and share their talents to help students. The more they care, the more likely they are to burn out. And that's what movies are for at the end of year, folks.

When do we stand up and say "No more" ?

hocoblogs@@@

Synergy?

Good morning, Monday. I'm sick. I was up all night coughing and I have two days left to teach. So I'm tossing this one out to you, readers.

Take a look at Frank Hecker's blog post from this weekend and see what you think.

A good part of creativity comes in combining things that haven't been put together before. A Whole Foods in the Rouse Building. An Arts Village in Symphony Woods. Central Library at the Mall.  I love it.  I love the combinations that will bring new energy and new ideas to our community.  In these ideas we see not a desire to destroy, but to transform.

What are some other combinations that would transform Columbia?

hocoblogs@@@

Out of Shape

I woke up this morning and my blog didn't fit. I mean, it was all tight and bunchy and it just didn't feel right. Okay, so it's been creeping up on me here and there, but I just didn't want to pay attention to it.  I mean, it's the only one I have. I don't have time to go out and get a new one.

I was starting to think of myself as a lean, mean, blogging machine, and now this. I feel intellectually flabby, out of shape, lethargic. My nouns and adjectives are listless, and don't even get me started on my verbs...

You take one day off and boom! there goes your focus.

I'm thinking I need to get out and have more local experiences. When Alice was growing up in Baltimore, we went to:

Towson at Night concerts at the courthouse
Towson farmer's market
Bolton Hill Festival
Fireworks at the Inner Harbor
Flower Mart
Maryland State Fair
Storytelling at the top of Baltimore's World Trade Center
Honey Festival, Oregon Ridge
BSO Fourth of July concert at Oregon Ridge--/with fireworks

Yet I have lived in Howard County since 1999 and I have never gone to:

Howard County Fair
Wine in the Woods
Lakefront Fireworks
Clyde's Craft Beer Festival
Family Fun Thursdays at the Mall
Columbia Foundation* Spring Party
Columbia Archives Walk About
Dancing Under the People Tree
Sheep and Wool Festival

No wonder I'm feeling flabby!  It's all good being a homebody until your brain breaks down and your blog looks like a bowl of jello...

Summer vacation is almost here and I'm feeling adventure calling. A healthy balanced diet of local experiences should get me back on track. I'm going to start this weekend. Tonight's the Damon Forman Concert in Oakland Mills, and tomorrow's the annual Abiding Savior Flea Market. Sunday morning is the OM Farmer's Market.  I'll be back in shape in no time.

For now, though, I think I'll curl up in my comfy chair and have another cup of coffee...

hocoblogs@@@



*Yes, I know they changed their name.