I Have a Cold

This is terrible. I NEVER get a cold. Or I guess I'd better say I RARELY get a cold since I have a cold. This is the first cold I've had in years. If I had a job to go to, I'd call in sick. I'm well enough to do some easy things around the house (I washed the dishes yesterday, scoured the kitchen sinks, and began reading for Saturday's class), but I'm definitely not at my most productive.

I woke up yesterday with a stuffy head. All day I sneezed a lot and blew my nose a lot and drank a lot of hot tea. By evening, my shoulders ached and my skin hurt. I thought I was coming down with the flu - and I had declined to get a flu shot because I NEVER get the flu.

Last night, I took an aspirin and went to be early. In the wee hours of the morning, I was having trouble sleeping (that stuffy nose thing) and felt chilled (not a good sign) so took 2 more aspirin. This morninging, I feel much better though not 100%. I'll do what I can today, but not push myself. And I'll continue to drink a lot of hot tea.

I should be all right to lead the senior exercise class tomorrow. How would it look if I can't keep up with women who are 10 - 20 years older than I am?

MY Classes

This is my third semester teaching LIS415 - Information Organization. I've started making serious changes to the notes and slides I was given and I'm really feeling as if this course is MINE. The class last Saturday went really well; I had a good time and the students responded.

In a few minutes I'll be leaving to teach my senior exercise class. This is also beginning to feel like MY class. I have a structure to follow (like LIS415), but I can make adaptations and I'm getting to know the students and we're all having fun.

On another note, I've nearly finished Julia Child's My Life in France. What a wonderful book! It's been on my virtual "To Read" list since I saw the movie Julie & Julia. Now I understand why Julie was so adamant about trying all of Julia's recipes. With all of the cooking I do, I've never actually used the cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but I want to read it. Being a semi-vegetarian and traveling the low-fat route, I'm not sure how many of her recipes I'll actually use, but the cookbook sounds fascinating. The kind of work Julia put into it (10 years!) is incredible. Now that's passion.

Julia Child had such a wonderful spirit and love of life. The book, as its title explains, focuses on the years she lived in France and continues a little beyond with the publishing of the cookbook and the production of her television show on WGBH (neither of which would have happened if she had not lived in France). While she comments occasionally on her somewhat stormy relationship with her father (they had very different political views and he felt betrayed by her because her opinions were different from his), there is a lot of personal information left out. Julia was 6' 2" - that's very tall for a man and even fewer women reach that height. What was it like for her growing up? Was she teased by her schoolmates? What other challenges faced her especially in an era that had never heard of Universal Design? She must have spent a lot of time bending over kitchen counters built for people of "average" height. Because of her travels, she flew a lot; how did she deal with lack of legroom? That sort of situation is never mentioned in her book. I'm so curious about the other aspects of her life.

I strongly recommend My Life in France. I'll be sad when I've finished it. I wish someone would write Julia Child's biography - but it would have to embody her style. Is that possible?