Scientific Ink

Author: Dunrie

  • Dance that lifts the spirit – Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Detroit (gratitude week 5)

    Last night I saw the spectacular, athletic, precise, and joyful Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Detroit Opera House. On the way in, I marveled, as always, at the looming ruins in Detroit – burned out and boarded up homes adjacent to the freeway, the Amtrak building, tall and empty. The desolation makes me wistful and sad.

    I met my mom at the Opera House and we walked to dinner. Our restaurant overlooked grand Comerica Park. Kids and parents and Elmo balloons streamed by the window, leaving Sesame Street Live at the Fox Theater. Foxtown was vibrant.

    Back at the Opera House, the first piece, “Love Stories” (2004) paid tribute to Ailey’s legacy. Ailey wanted to “hold a mirror to our society so people can see how beautiful they are.” The piece was a celebration of dance, of the dancers, of beauty and achievement, of power, precision, athleticism, and grace. As usual with Ailey, the night closed with Ailey’s trademark Revelations (1960), choreography to gospel music that is both sorrowful, courageous, and transcendant. The audience rose to our feet and clapped time during the encore. As we left, couples laughed and touched each other affectionately, families chattered happily. In the afterglow of the dance, all felt whole and luminous.

  • Grateful for old friends – gratitude week 4, 2008

    Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold….

    So this week I’m grateful for old friends, the friendships that grow deeper with time and don’t seem to suffer from neglect or distance.
    me and dina 1992

    • for Dina in New Jersey (pictured with me outside her parents home in Ohio in 1992, friend since probably 1989) who called late Friday evening to talk about a book she was reading. Wonderful to hear her voice, to rediscover some parallel threads in our lives and thoughts.
    • for Heather in California, my first friend at college, met in 1988, and probably the most faithful and loyal friend I’ll ever have. She emailed “I’d like to come visit with my family and we’ve picked out some dates in August.” Knowing I’d be thrilled to host her, she took the initiative to start scheduling her visit.
    • for Andy in Ann Arbor, known since 1993, who knew I’d love to visit a granite wholesaler in Wixom with him yesterday. We both marvelled at the astonishing variety of color, grain, pattern, flow in the granite slabs. A feast for the eyes.

  • Encountered on the flyleaf of a Shakespeare anthology

    InscriptionLast night we were looking for a Shakespeare sonnet at dinner, so I pulled down The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Annotated from the shelf and opened it to discover this inscription

    “To my darling Deedee, Xmas ’87. The greatest author in the English language! From the greatest Dad.”

    I’m Deedee, my dad has been dead for a decade now, and this still makes me laugh out loud. He’s captured perfectly.

  • Winter photography class at Matthaei Botanical Garden

    I very much enjoyed today’s Winter Photography Class at Matthaei. It was taught by Mark O’Brien. We had a little bit of instruction and then all went out and wandered together in the winter woods, playing with exposure, watching our batteries drain exceptionally fast, shivering a bit, and having fun. At the end of the day, it was 11° F, -12° C. Mark has some nice photos from the event on his Flickr, including this one which has me in it so it is my favorite.

  • Grateful for time alone – gratitude week 3, 2008

    This past week my husband was overseas on business. He’s back now, I’m grateful for his safe return and the chocolate he brought, of course, but I’m also grateful for the time apart.

    A Sailor’s Suitcase, originally uploaded by Bob AuBuchon.

    I am grateful for the little pleasures of having the house to myself: sleeping diagonally across in the bed, using his pillow/invading his space, having the cat all to myself, for my clock dictating my schedule. I’m grateful for takeout food: Jerusalem Garden, Eastern Flame, Zingerman’s Roadhouse, Washtenaw Dairy.

    I’m grateful for modern technology that means I can get his cell phone in Europe by dialing a local number. I’m grateful for the time difference: when I was upset and couldn’t sleep and it was 2AM and there was no one here to talk to, I was able to reach him in his morning in Europe. Not for long, but for a moment, and it was good.

    I’m grateful because absence makes the heart grow fonder. We get enough time apart to miss each other a little bit, and it breaks our routine just enough we take each other a bit less for granted.

    Folks at my office teased me that the “honeymoon must be over” since I didn’t rush home to greet him the moment his flight landed. He has always traveled for work, now less so than previously, but a week apart is normal enough for us. In fact, we both kind of like the first few days. It’s hard to explain, but for the two of us, that little distance is entirely required to maintain our equilibrium between independent and partnered, the rhythm of cyclic downtime and togetherness.

  • Mad because I was sick? Or sick because I was mad?

    So, last week I hit the wall. After standup on Thursday, I paced around the office, feeling my face get red, feeling angry, frustrated, and near tears. I didn’t want anyone to notice this, so I grabbed my coat and stormed around the streets of downtown Ann Arbor until the cold air, the exercise, and the distance braced me enough I could face my colleagues.

    While I was stomping around, I wondered what the heck had killed my composure. Sure there was stuff going on, but there’s always stuff going on. I was cranky at standup, and feeling slightly embarrassed for having been snappy, and mostly feeling overwhelmed. The only answer I could come up with was to buckle down and get stuff done. So, I worked hard that day, late in part to make up for my 1/2 hour stomp around town, but also to complete the set of “urgent” tasks. I had lots scheduled for Friday, and I squeezed in a breakfast meeting with a former colleague, knowing I was pushing it, but trying anyway. Friday was more fun than Thursday, but then on Saturday I was a complete dial tone.

    After a pretty relaxing weekend, I woke up today (Monday) actually sick, as opposed to wrung out, headachey, and cranky. Now I think I have an idea of why I was so brittle last week, just didn’t have the energy to maintain my equilibrium. Of course, there’s the alternate explanation, that my emotional state invited in the illness. I’m thinking that since I had to work to figure out why I was so mad, that it is the former. But who knows.

    So, trying to learn something from this:

    • when stressed, prioritize and underschedule! Yes, I could fit in that last minute breakfast meeting, but that doesn’t mean it was a good idea.
    • better to take care of myself by listening to my mood and my body, rather than soldiering on, bullying myself through whatever it is.