Continuing my recall of the fall, Nikita (right) participated in the National K-12 Championships in Dallas, TX. He did pretty well. Among 2nd graders (132 of them!), he played the best in his rating group, and placed in the top 25% overall. Igor was particularly impressed with how well Nikita could maintain concentration during the 3-hour games, often against players whose ratings were much higher than his. For relaxation, Nikita would go climbing at a rock gym, with Igor as belayer.I actually got some bonding time with Nikita as well this month because we went to the Friday After Thanksgiving (FAT) Chain Reaction sponsored by the MIT Museum. I thought Nikita would like the engineering feats of the participating teams, and I wasn't wrong. He loved pointing out the use of Legos and K'nex pieces, and also had a good time making his own structures out of toothpicks and Dots candy (which we were warned NOT to eat).
Speaking of sweets, Ivan was so sweet this month, bringing me little gifts he made at school such as drawing or food. He had to miss a few days at school, however, because he could not shake off his cold from the month before. Indeed, it seemed that he coughed all month, but finally got better at the end of the month when he started taking antibiotics. I had brought him in because I was afraid he had strep, and it turned out he had an infection in both his ears! Finally, Ivan started climbing as well, but not as often as Nikita because he tends to nap when the others go climbing. I once found him asleep on the couch while wearing a climbing harness. In any case, when Ivan was home (and awake), I enjoyed hearing his stories and ideas: "Mommy, when I grow up, I'm going to grow a mustache. I don't know why..."
As for me, I finally came down with a couple of the viruses that were circulating about the house. I was hit with laryngitis at the beginning of the month, then a sinus infection at the end of the month. I was so grateful to be able to work from home during these times, as it allowed me to rest - at least until the boys came home from school. Indeed, I needed all the energy I could muster: soon after I got laryngitis, I provided feedback on 11-10-7-14 assignments (sounds like a locker combination) in 4 days. Still, being a commenting machine is easier than getting my boys to sit down for dinner. And thankfully, I had some good graphic novels on hand for decompression: the fabulous works of Lynd Ward and Wonderstruck by Bryan Selznick.
As you can see on the left, this month also marked my birthday. Igor bought me two dozen red roses, and Nikita made me a cake. The boys made pictures, which are now hanging in my office. For dinner, we ordered in food from a local Greek restaurant. The food was good, but not as good as the Uzbek plov I made the next night. I was in a particularly reflective mood on this birthday because the beginning of the month saw the death of one of my high school math teachers, Mr. Geller (see the graduation speech he gave last spring), and my scheduling of an alumni interview with a college applicant. Both events made me think about what I had accomplished over the past 20 years. But that I'll try to revisit this in another post.
Perhaps the coolest birthday present was getting an invited to TEDx Cambridge. My favorite session was called "Mind". I was struck by how such topics as meditation provided an interesting contrast to the tech-heavy TEDx Boston. More importantly (as someone who teaches presentation), all of the talks in the session were solid, and amazingly flowed into each other even though the topics were very different. Plus, the session ended with a fabulous poet, Vanessa German. I also had a good time meeting new people and catching up with my "TEDx friends." One of them (fellow high school and college classmate, Omar Wasow) sent me the photo below from the event. I get a kick out the fact that my new pen/pencil combo features well, too.
(credit: ftwopercent on Flickr via a Creative Commons license)
Finally, November wouldn't be November without mentioning Thanksgiving. As my posts around that time demonstrate, Thanksgiving week is all about pacing: first the dinner preparation, than the first drafts for one of my classes - not to mention the leaf gathering in the backyard (over 750 gallons!). It was a good thing I finished Ann Patchett's State of Wonder for bookclub the week before. In any case, the five days/evenings of preparation paid off: after over 10 years of cooking Thanksgiving meals, I was able to get everything on the table by noon. It was well worth the effort. Not only was I able to relax in the morning, watching the Thanksgiving parade, but I took a long nap after the meal. I also learned that I can replace mashed potatoes with sweet potato casserole, and ditch the gravy once I make a moister stuffing (next year, oysters!)
The cherry on the top was that my photograph (below) of the dinner became the Fan Photo of the Week on the Cook's Illustrated Facebook page. Yes, Nikita is out of focus, but it was either him or the food.
