Journal of a Sabbatical

January 2, 2001

irresolute

Today's Reading: Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian by Sara Anna Emery

Here it is day 2 of the new year and new millennium (if you count from 1 rather than from 0) and I have not made a single resolution nor pondered the goals and accomplishments of my life in any meaningful way. Does that make me irresolute? I did check in Bird Brain to see how many species are on my life list. What that measures about me I'm not quite sure.

Life List Totals as of 1/2/01:

World	328
ABA	161
AOU	193

I didn't realize there were that many species that count in the AOU North American area that don't count in the ABA North American area.

The world list is incomplete. There's about 5 species I saw in Japan on the '97 Hokkaido trip that were world lifers but I misplaced the notebook and my paper journal from that trip so haven't entered them in Bird Brain yet. Come to think of it, I forgot to enter the China part of the China trip! I entered the Himalayan Griffon I saw in Tibet but forgot about the magpies and sparrows of the botanical garden - my home away from home. Hmm, maybe I should make one teensy New Year's resolution after all: to clean up my birding records.

State Year List Totals:

Year	Massachusetts	Rhode Island
2000	135	43
1999	118	48
1998	92	49
1997	43	41
1996	9	33

I started listing in 1996 and my first list got blown away by a bug in the program I was using before I got Bird Brain, so there may be a few pileated woodpeckers and the like missing from that list ...

Let's see, what else can I count? Life list of continents visited:

Antarctica
Asia
Europe
North America
South America

That leaves Africa and Australia for completeness.

Since I seem to have run out of the resolution to make resolutions, not to mention become drained of all creativity, I herewith offer bizarre comparisons and commentary on other people's lists.

Things on Miriam Nadel's to-do list that I've already done:

4.Go to the Galapagos Islands (this also appears on Douglas Shumaker's list, and Greyson's Adventures list)

See my Galapagos trip report

32.See Shackleton's grave on South Georgia Island

See "a toast to the boss"

34.Go to a minor league baseball game

I've been to many minor league ball games including such defunct franchises as the Maine Guides and the Nashua Pirates, as well as current teams like the Portland Sea Dogs, the Pawtucket Red Sox, and the Lowell Spinners. Here's a photo of the Lowell Spinners at sunset in July of 1997:

35.See Niagara Falls

The first time was on a family camping trip in I think 1964 or 1965. The second time was in 1974 when I drove to Michigan to visit my childhood friend Nikki. My brother Thomas went with me for company, and some where in the archives I have a picture of him standing by Niagara Falls.

36.Have my photo taken straddling the equator

1995 outside Quito, after the Galapagos trip
I wish I still had those shades! I loved those sunglasses. The bastards who stole my car got those cool shades - but they can't use 'em 'cause they're my prescription. So there.

 

42.Take a "volunteer vacation"

See Earthwatch trip to Russia in 1996 and Earthwatch trip to Hokkaido in 1997. The Hokkaido trip changed my life. Besides developing a strange fondness for (identification with?) blue tarps, I met Zsolt and István and my life has not been the same since. Do subsequent trips following the conifer guys around the globe count as "volunteer" or have I been brainwashed into a cult?

1.See a total solar eclipse (this one's on Joanne's list too)

See August 11, 1999. Wicked worth seeing.

Totality at Lake Balaton, Hungary

2.Teach somebody to read

It was a long time ago and I got paid for it. Does that count? Besides my job in the financial aid office, and baby-sitting jobs every night of the week, I picked up yet more pennies for college by tutoring in phonics. One thing I'll say for Dubya is that he's the only presidential candidate who made phonics a national campaign issue. Anyway, one kid I taught had to prove to his Dad (now wait, it was his uncle who was his legal guardian) he could read in order to get some privilege or other back. At the end of our work together I checked a random book (at his grade level) out of the public library and had him read it cold in front of his uncle. I would never do it that way now. I was kid myself, what did I know? Anyway, he passed. Thank goodness.

20.Go snorkeling

1995. Photo of my first dive courtesy of Guy Boily. I got way better after that. Best place I ever snorkeled was Devil's Crown in the Galapagos. Second best, just 'cause I had so much fun - not so much interesting marine life - was off Renecke Island (some day I should look up how to spell that) in Amur Bay off Vladivostok. Oddly, I have never snorkeled in the Caribbean. Maybe I should make a resolution about that.

21.Read all of the Bible (in translation) (this also appears on Crystal's list)

Andrea, under the impression that I did this at her age, decided to read the entire Bible straight through. I actually think I was in high school, not 4th grade, and I think I skipped Revelations. Andrea got extremely bored with Numbers - too much repetition - like reading the census she said. Hmm. It is reading the census. Anyway, Miriam is off the hook for Revelations because I assume by Bible she means The Bible, the Hebrew one (in translation) not the New Testament, but she does have to get through Numbers. Good luck, Miriam.

24.Work on a political campaign (this also appears on Douglas Shumaker's list, Monique's Escapades list, and Joanne's list. I predict a huge upsurge in political activity coming soon.)

Let's see, since I got politically active at the age of 9 I have done house-to-house canvassing, phone canvassing, poll-watching, visibility, leafleting, and handing out Democratic slate cards. Campaigns I've worked on: Congressman Robert Drinan (his first campaign and subsequent reelections), Matt Jefferson (Newton Board of Aldermen), Bill Carmen (unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Newton), Ethel Sheehan (Newton School Committee, Board of Aldermen too I think), George McGovern presidential campaign ("Don't Blame Me, I'm from Massachusetts"), Betty Taymor (State Representative) ... can't remember the rest. Worked hardest and longest for Congressman Drinan who's a family friend in addition to being somebody whose platform I totally believed in. Although I met Barney Frank several times in my parents' living room I never campaigned for him because by then I had moved out of that congressional district. Eventually work took over my interest in politics, as it did my interest in just about everything else. Somehow the interest in politics has never come back to its old level.

 

26.March in a parade (this one's on Monique's Escapades list too)

My Brownie troop and later Girl Scout troop marched in the Memorial Day parades in Newton. Once I had to carry the flag because I was the tallest girl in the troop. This is odd because I am the shortest person in the world. But I was my full adult five-foot-one by age 12, well ahead of my peers. I remember going to Mass with the Girl Scout troop before the parade that year. Nothing else sticks out in my mind.

27.Taste a durian

Does a durian shake at a Vietnamese restaurant count or do I have to actually have braved the smell of an actual fresh whole durian?

28.Take a martial arts class

I studied Tai Chi for something like 7 years. I gave it up when my knee got really bad. I miss it in a lot of ways, but I actually disliked the "martial" part of it. As I got further along, instructors were forever reminding us that this is a martial art. I was more interested in the flow of energy than in fighting. Once a peacenik always a peacenik I guess.

Guess it's time for me to make a new list, eh?