I have become a mixture of administrator and scholar. It's not always an easy balance. The authorial impulse urges me to habits of thinking, creativity and solitude that live happily in the pre-dawn hours I can give them. I *like* what I think of as "my dead people," the women and men who inhabit the late medieval world I'm seeking to understand and reconstruct. I'm interested in their politics, their human foibles, and their personal contributions to the broader cultural conversation. I like figuring out their lingo--why they describe one another in the social categories they do, and why the particular categories that matter to me (musician, teacher, scribe, reader) sometimes mattered to them and sometimes didn't. I wouldn't have been at home in the monastic communities I'm investigating -- not the least little bit -- but I'm passionately interested in figuring out how "that crowd" came to know their music, learned to read, chose to spend their spare time, and so on.
In the meantime, I function too as an administrator. I juggle more topics than are good for me; think creatively on the fly; problem-solve in passing in ways that later leave me stunned; and learn, learn, learn, all the time. I love what I do. I love the figuring out how to phrase something so that it is (I hope) clear. I thrive on planning for long-term change, and relish the "lightbulb moments" when an immediate and urgent problem is answered to the best of my ability. There is never, ever, ever a day in the office when I am bored. I like that, and think it's exactly what happy people aspire to achieve.
What's funny about the two is that on the one hand I'm introspective, detail-focused, footnote-oriented and data-driven, and on the other hand, I thrive on improvisation, on change, on new answers emerging because they HAVE to. I work in isolation, and I work in committee (after committee after committee); I value my solitude, and (even more) I value my friendships. I schedule and list and plan, and yet I love the spontaneous, the unscheduled, the crisis mode that inevitably comes my way. My work suits me, and if I tire of one aspect, I've always got a list of other kinds of things I could usefully be doing. It's busy, but it's varied. Plus, I have such wonderful, creative, generous thoughtful colleagues. Who knew that professional life could be this much fun?
I am, at my professional core, a musicologist. As I've said before, I consider musicology to be a form of cultural history, in which music is used as a door to peer into the past (or for some scholars, the present). As such, it includes an almost innumerable set of sub-disciplines: biography, iconography, codicology (studying manuscripts), musical analysis, genre study, political/social investigations, etc. It is an umbrella discipline that covers a variety of sins; it virtually demands interdisciplinarity. There will never be enough time for me to learn everything I think I should--which is exactly why I like the discipline. I am also, as it happens, a medievalist and monastic scholar, depending on the day of the week and the project of the moment.
Teaching is an aspect of my career that I especially enjoy, though I no longer have as much time for it as I once did. Having grown up as a professor's brat, I knew what was in store for me. I like the challenge of bringing music alive for people, but I especially treasure the times when an "explanation" of the music and its context changes someone's understanding of how the music can be understood and interpreted.
I prize my time away from teaching/writing/research too much to waste it on tv (well, unless it's Dr. Who). I relish my family time and have adopted a "work hard, play hard" motto. It isn't "slower" at home (by any stretch of the imagination) but it's different than the kind of pacing I keep at work. My husband Tom and I enjoy one another's company; in fact, we talk together more than any other four people we know. The family unit has three smaller members, shown below. (Taken in 2007 at Cape Lookout, our respite from the Oregon Trail and a three-day answer to the unseasonable heat. The Oregon Trail was an AWESOME 7-week 7,000-mile RV adventure!)
Nathaniel is a sculpture-building bundle of energy with a fondness for books and for making his own sound effects. Amelia has books on the brain, but she's also undertaking a "trainable chicken" breeding program and wishes there were more time for backpacking. Nissa likes camping, playing soccer and playing on the computer; she's also a dynamo with her math book. They're all cheerful and energetic, and we enjoy spending time together. Our family life involves adventure, love, laughter, conversation, and regular trips to the library.
Our family life also involves, um, chickens. Feeding, collecting eggs, watering, fetching feed, scolding, calling, and putting them to bed for the night.
We're homeschoolers, so we do a lot of thinking-related activities, including math card-games, field trips, making nature videos ("Kid of the Backyard Jungle"), exploring of various sorts, or heading out to one of the zillions of school-related activities. Much to my great pleasure, "Come look what I found" is a family cliche. Cooking (from scratch, of course) and baking are happy activities, and I've uploaded some favorite recipes, including my no-fail recipe for brownies.
My "down time," such as it is, typically involves either reading or hiking. The log of books that I have read dates back to September 1992. I used to read 200 or so books each year, a mixture of professional books and pleasure reading. Now I read when I get a chance, which is all too rarely. (Children's books don't count.) I read a lot of science fiction and mysteries, a fair number of classics, and other items that catch my eye. I've provided a (not-very-up-to-date) list of personal favorites.
I also enjoy the occasional frivolous activity (also known as Cynthia's online temptations):
Last, but not least, I manage much of the homeschool activity in our family.
| 1st and 2nd grade links | 3rd and 4th grade links | 6th and 7th grade links |
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| Spelling and Thinking practice | German sites for kids | Music sites for kids |
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