Archive for the 'creative practice' Category

Looking Back

amywink December 31st, 2009

My favorite holiday of the year is New Year’s, and the week leading up the the new. I try to take a positive look on what I accomplished during the last year and think about what I hope to move toward accomplishing in the next year. I don’t make resolutions, but rather think about goals and aspirations, writing down things I’d like to consider for the new year. This year, I am also try to take a long look back, especially since this past year was a “5 year” mark on several things I’d aspired to do.

The course to accomplishing many of those goals was a complete surprise. I never imagined I’d be able to spend my summer working at Haven Hill, learning as much as I could about driving and horses, and in tandem, learning as much about myself in the process. But that experience (and all the amazing people I’ve met through this new hobby) is what made driving Will at Agarita on our 5th anniversary entirely possible. And with that experience, I now have what I hope to be the makings of an interesting book–something that was not on the horizon 5 years ago!–which I plan to begin writing in 2010.

The book that was on the horizon then is now in print as Tandem Lives: The Frontier Texas Diaries of Henrietta Baker Embree and Tennessee Keys Embree, 1856-1884.. The publication in April 2009 was a long awaited event and I am looking forward to the presentation and book signing in March 2010. That project was also full of Providential surprises, including the eventual discovery of the original diaries. . . . or, I should say, the eventual discovery of *me* by the owner of the original diaries!

These accomplishments represent a interesting convergence: my own recovery of a long-desired and long-denied relationship with horses (a self denied) along with the completion of a writing project which I think of as both the end of the pursuit of academic writing– writing about self (auto), life (bio), writing (graphy)– and the beginning of writing for my own life. The resolution of each story line required a combination of sheer will and individual effort as well as many fortuitous events and unimagined blessings.

It is an interesting pairing, one which I hope will move me forward into the New Year and many more wonderful experiences.

Dressage Notebook

amywink December 4th, 2009

Since Will and I are beginning to work more specifically on dressage, I have been thinking about creating a dressage notebook in which I can collect exercises we can try and something I can refer to while driving. This week, I picked up a nice binder and page protectors and today, I began creating.

Now. It’s really cold today.

We even had snow (34 flakes) and so I can’t drive.

And I don’t have a lot to do except think about this dressage notebook.

So what happens when a trained academic decides to really focus on creating a dressage notebook?

Behold the product of The Driving UberNerd*:

On the inside cover, I’ve listed the Six Elements of Dressage, then I have a Section for with each element:

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Then, in each section, I have the exercises for that particular element:

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And the sections are in the appropriate order:

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I plan to put velcro strips on the binder cover so I can strap the notebook to the dash or seat. But I haven’t done that yet. :)

~~~~~~~
* In case you’re doubting my academic nerdiness, consider this: I know that the “U” here should have an umlaut over it. An umlaut is the two little dots over a letter indicating a specific pronunciation of a vowel in German. It’s not the same as the two little dots used in English (like over the e in Bronte) which is called diaeresis. Behold the Nerd.

Hands: “On”

amywink September 21st, 2009

I spent my morning today in an “hands-on” workshop learning how to use the education software known as “Blackboard”. It’s not really very difficult if you are able to read instructions and click “okay” as needed. And I think it will be very helpful for my students when I get everything set up for my classes. It’s the kind of hands-on work I do every day, sitting at the computer, brain in charge, type-ity-type-type, click-ity-click-click.

After my workshop, I met up with a longtime friend, a fellow Southwestern graduate and colleague at Austin Community College, for lunch. We ran into, almost literally, each other last week, rounding a corner near the elevator, both of us rushing to get somewhere else. Over e-mail later, I sent him my blog and he sent me his and we entertained each other with our obsessions: carriage driving and knitting.

Who would have guessed?

These new hobbies befell us both about the same time, the magical age of 39, though I think it took longer for me to move my theory into practice. After reading his blog, Knitting Sweaters and Sitting Still, I looked forward to our lunch together and a discussion of how we’d both learned our “hands-on” hobbies.

I have a great deal of respect for what’s required in hand work like knitting, crochet, tatting, and lacework. I once tried to learn how to crochet. Dis-Mal Fail-Ure. My hands refused the instructions. I might as well have been trying to work with oven mitts on my hands. But I do collect antique linens–doilies, table linens, etc, etc–and have written about the appreciation I have for the hand-created items of our history. I have friends whose skill at this type handiwork is astounding to me but it is not work for my hands.

Or perhaps, I did not want to learn it enough. Because my hands have learned new work, without pen, without computer.

When I came to driving, I had long since decided I was not a very good “physical learner”. I had spent years in intellectual work, knowing my aptitude for physical dexterity was limited–though now I think that really just something I was telling myself because I couldn’t do it perfectly the first time. Perhaps knitting was something I just wanted to do, but not to actually learn. Driving, on the other hand, I wanted to learn. I wanted to drive and I wanted to drive well (sometimes too well, too soon!). It took my brain a few months to decide that I really did want to learn and perhaps it should open up some new neural pathways and turn those hands “on” instead of letting them flounder alone with the reins. I’m still working on those connections, getting my ‘good hands’ working well with my ‘good brain’.

Steve had similar story and now knits “continental” style, or left-handed, because his right-hand simply refused to learn the ropes–or yarns, I should say! har-har. We had a delightful lunch catching up, talking about our new handiwork and where it’s taking us. It’s the sign of a truly good hobby when it leads you to renew old friendships, find new ones, and head forward into unknown adventures of creation.

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