For the last couple of years, my church has been engaged in supporting a neighborhood in Northfield that has been threatened by large corporate housing management company. The community is mostly Hispanic and many don’t speak very good English. There is also a Spanish church that meets at my church. Occasionally my church will have Read More…
Category: Musings
Reflection after 10 years of marriage
Around this time of year, Bryan and I set aside some time to talk about how our marriage is going. Recently I’ve been thinking about several formative events of our marriage that I think can serve as little pieces of wisdom for those looking for lifetime partners. I am choosing four of them and framing Read More…
My Time On The Stage
I love theater. When I was in high school, I was heavily involved in the music program. As it relates to theater, I mostly did pit orchestra. Pit orchestra was hard! The key frequently changed. Going from 3-sharps, to 4-flats, to 6-sharps over 10 measures (or less!!!) was not unheard of. The time signatures weren’t Read More…
I thought you hated pink!?!
People who know me, know that I hate the color pink. I don’t really know why I hate pink…Maybe because I want it to have more personality. To me, it is a washed out, de-saturated red. I want it to have a stronger identity. That is not to say that I like red either. It’s Read More…
Marty Meets The Balloon-Animal Guy
So this is what happens when you ask a balloon animal person to make you a laser…
Healthy Human (Post-Tenure)
One of the things I have come to appreciate over the course of my life is that in order for me to effectively contribute to a community, I must be physically, emotionally, and psychologically healthy. Although I have certainly made contributions to community (Carleton, Northfield, my family, professional organizations, etc.) when I am not fully Read More…
Inquisitive Investigator (Post-Tenure)
When I was a kid, I had a composition book that was full of questions that no one present had an answer for when I asked them. These were questions typically based on observations that I making, such as “Why don’t ants like to walk on baby powder?” If I didn’t have my book with Read More…
Empowering Educator (Post-Tenure)
Although as a child I was unknowingly drawn to teaching, I feared standing in front of people and not knowing the answer. As I have taught over the years and even more during my time at Carleton, I have learned that I can stand in front of people when I have to and that my Read More…
The Engaged Introvert (Pre-Tenure)
I was an extreme introvert as a child. I spent most of my free time in my bedroom studying or reading and in general I wouldn’t speak unless spoken to. When asked a question, I would use as few words as possible to respond. I preferred reading about and interacting with dead things, preferably non-human Read More…
The Accidental Physicist (Pre-Tenure)
I wanted to be a paleontologist since the age 5, ever since I pointed to that word in the dictionary and asked my mom what it meant. From then on, I was obsessed with learning about dinosaurs. Living near Washington DC, I was able to attend lectures by leading paleontologists at the Smithsonian and in Read More…
