DeKalb, IL Corn Festival, August 2014

So every year, labor day weekend, I used to go to the On the Waterfront Festival in Rockford, IL. It was practically in my backyard, had great music, and plenty of action for the kiddies. On the Waterfront = Family Fun Time. I even wrote about it here a couple years back as an example of What’s To Like About Rockford.

Last year, after 29 years, the city of Rockford cancelled On the Waterfront.

Since I do try to make an effort to keep my blog upbeat and positive, I won’t discuss how politics, management, and lack of vision had a role in this historic festival’s demise. A festival that brought millions of dollars into our community. Or how Instead of scaling the festival back to something more reasonable for the economic times, those in charge kept it too huge to support itself. Nope, not gonna go there.

Instead, I took my family, and my money, and went to DeKalb for Labor Day Weekend.

The Corn Festival in DeKalb, IL, (a less than 30 minute drive from Rockford) is one of the last remaining free music festivals in Illinois and has been around since 1977. Musicians such as Lady Antebellum, Joan Jett, Survior, Night Ranger, Blue Oyster Cult, .38 Special, The Marshall Tucker Band,Jefferson Starship, The Smithereens, and Eddie Money have performed there over the years.

The kids like the carnival rides, the kids activities, and the rummage sales. My daughter brought home an embellished jewelry box she found for $1.00 and was to-the-moon happy about her find. It’s also cool to see the historic Egyptian Theatre (picture above) which is said to be haunted and was investigated by paranormal researchers a few years back.

And of course, there’s plenty of corn at the Corn Festival. As well as other carnival food I was not brave enough to try, but I took a picture of the signage, because, you know, seeing is believing.

Chocolate-Covered Bacon, DeKalb IL, Corn Festival 2014

Who knew bacon dipped in chocolate was a Greek thing, right? Can you feel your arteries clog just thinking about it?

So until Rockford gets its act together, if you’re looking for something to do next labor day weekend, the DeKalb Corn Fest is a great place to spend a day or two.

Partially packed, but ready to go.

This month my family and I returned from our LONGEST ROAD TRIP EVER. Longest in duration (one month), if not in miles (3,033).

We started from our home base in Rockford, IL and drove through eight states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, stopping in various towns along the way. What were some of the biggest differences between all these states? Well the gas price for one thing: varying by 60 cents, and the temperature: a high of 104 ° F in Georgia and a low 48 ° F in Illinois. Our journey looked like this:

The long and winding road.

Did I mention there are five of us? By the time we were done, as you can imagine, we pretty much had had enough “family time”. There is a phenomenon known as too much vacation. When we finally got home we didn’t even unpack. Instead we separated to our individual rooms.

Although we were glad our trip was over, we did accumulate some great memories along the way. Like when we went to the Driftwood Beach at Jekyl Island. Very hot day, very cool views.

Driftwood Beach, Jekyl Island, GA

And walking the beach while the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico. Phenomenal. I’d honestly never seen sand turn pink before.

Sunset at the beach, St. Petersburg, FL

And of course a trip to Florida is never complete without a jump over to Orlando. For . . . you know . . . Harry.

Hogwarts castle, World of Harry Potter, Universal Studios, Orlando, FL

My enthusiasm at World of Harry Potter easily trumped my kids’. One of my favorite memories was having a woman’s portrait in the Hall of Portraits blink when I took her photograph using my flash.

Hall of Portraits, Hogwarts Castle, World of Harry Potter, Universal Studios, Orlando, FL

On the other hand, one of my youngest daughter’s favorite recollections wasn’t eating at great local restaurants, swimming in dozens of different swimming pools, or exploring southern architecture. Nope. It was rescuing someone’s Barbie from a perilous fate.

Tortured Barbie left at the beach, owner unknown

She (Barbie) is currently in quarantine.

Mad cat photo © Nikolai Nikonov, text added; all other photos © Karin Blaski; route map © mapquest

Imagine this nut is your head. And this vice . . . is a migraine.

According to Migraine.com, “In the U.S., more than 37 million people suffer from migraines. Some migraine studies estimate that 13 percent of adults in the U.S. population have migraines, and 2-3 million migraine suffers are chronic. Almost 5 million in the U.S. experience at least one migraine attack per month, while more than 11 million people blame migraines for causing moderate to severe disability.”

I have been battling migraines since my early twenties. Unfortunately, as I get older, my migraines have gotten more frequent and more debilitating. In fact, today, I had one while on vacation with my family and had to be left behind in a darkened hotel room with ear plugs in place and a sign on the door, no housekeeping please. It’s not the first time I’ve missed out on something with the kids because, “Mommy has a headache today,” and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

“Take some Excedrin and get back to business.” If only it were that simple. If you get migraines or know someone who does, you understand that over-the-counter pain relievers do not even make a dent in the pain. Sometimes Hydrocodone can knock me out long enough for the migraine to pass, and a couple times a shot of morphine at the ER has done the trick.

Preventive medicine has had mixed results. For a while I was taking Topimax (normally prescribed for folks who suffer from seizures) . It worked at keeping the migraines at bay, but the side effects were miserable: kidney stones and liver cysts, hallucinations, tingling hands and feet, and horrific brain fog. They don’t call it “Dopimax” for nothing. When I first started taking it, I snapped out of one stupor to find I’d been brushing my teeth for twenty minutes. Despite my uber-white smile, I decided to trade out the Topimax for rational thought.

These days I’ve been managing with daily high doses of magnesium and Vitamin D and Imitrex shots and pills. It works. But only if those shots and pills are timed just right. If I don’t catch the migraine when it first starts, I just end up with the dizzy, racing-heart side effects of the medication on top of the migraine pain.

A strategy that has been semi-successful is the headache diary. It’s been helpful to keep a log of the things that I’ve eaten and the things I’ve done on the days preceding and during a migraine. The result? A crazy-long list of headache triggers, which I share with you now in no particular order:

Dehydration, Aspartame, Sucralose, Alcohol (especially wine and beer), Flashing lights, Wearing 3D glasses, Monosodium Glutamate, More than 26 mg of caffeine in 24 hours, Grape juice, Monthly hormone fluctuations, the Summer Solstice, the Winter Solstice, Cigarette smoke, Staying out in the hot sun for 5+ hours at temps greater than 90 degrees Fahrenheit, Sinus infections, Mold, Not eating for 10+ hours, Stress lasting multiple consecutive days, Vigorous workouts, Pinching neck nerves, Lima beans.

OK, lima beans don’t trigger my migraines. I just hate their nastiness and avoid them at all costs.

So, some of these triggers are completely within my control and I successfully avoid them. And others, not so much. As an Earthling, it’s a bit difficult to avoid the solstices.

If you have a migraine sufferer in your life you can help by listening and avoiding insensitive comments such as, “It’s just a headache” or “Get some sunshine and fresh air” or “Reduce the stress in your life” or “have you tried XYZ? It worked for a friend of mine”.  Because a migraine is not just a headache, and going outside can often be a trigger or exacerbate the pain, and even a stress-free, meditation-filled, yoga lover will still suffer from migraines, and chances are, the person has been afflicted with migraines for decades and has tried everything. Every. Thing.

Hypnosis. Been there. Acupuncture. Done that. Biofeedback. Yep. Drugs. Tends to be the first recommendation from the medical professionals, so, yes. And too many other “remedies” to mention.

The best thing I’ve done recently for myself is find a doctor who specializes in migraine treatment. It’s nice to have a physician who speaks the language of migraines. It’s nice to have a physician who doesn’t look at me like I’m a nut when I tell him I can’t drive underneath the canopy of a tree-line road while the sun is shining. “Perfectly understandable,” he says. “I bet you can’t watch the new Transformers movie in IMAX 3D either.”

Photo © Robert Faric

Ever notice when you pick up a bad habit it’s easier to keep it than shed it? Yeah, my bad habit is ignoring my blog. This time, for a couple months. I know. I give no warning. Disappear. Then try to pick up the pieces of a blog that’s feeling the pangs of rejection from it’s very own mama.

Here I offer up my top 5 excuses; or as I like to say to that sweet police office writing me a speeding ticket, my “Mitigating Circumstances.”

1. That cough-up-a-lung illness that was going around. I am a germ-magnet. Not only did I catch it, but it decided we needed to have a “relationship” that lasted 5 weeks.

2. Normally, I teach 2-4 independent studies in the Spring Semester on top of my regular credit hour load. This Spring I did 9. *Thumps Head*

3. Three kids. The oldest is a senior in highschool, the middle one runs on Energizer rabbit batteries, and the youngest is currently channeling Cersei Lannister (the attitude, not the extracurricular activities). I know, it could be worse. Could be Joffrey. Or that Ramsay guy.

4. I started a children’s publishing company with my parents, because you know, I don’t have enough stuff crammed into my life. Then I wrote 2-1/3 books for the publishing company to publish. Yeah, that 1/3 is a WIP I’m still working on.

5. When faced with the choice of writing for the blog or taking a nap, I’ve napped. Because, well, see excuses 1-4.

So why are things different now? Well, my semester is over. My oldest is poised to get his drivers license and his HS diploma. *Fist Pump* My other two kids can play outside all day because the temperature in Rockford is finally above freezing. With a renewed respect for germs, I’m starting to rub elbows instead of shaking hands. And that little publishing company is in its third trimester, ready to birth some books into the world.

LET’S BLOG!

Picture © Iqoncept

My college semester is in full swing. I know this because as of Valentine’s Day I’ve conducted 306 assessments (in lay person’s terms, that means I’ve been grading a lot) with no end in sight. So how’s the writer part of me get the time to, you know, write?

I’ve always had to squeeze writing into my life which already bustles with teaching, parenting, husband-time, driving, cleaning the house (okay, only once in while for this one–I’m not a cleaner, I know this about myself), and fighting off illness. Then there’s those other distractions: cats on the internet, Game of Thrones on HBO (all the characters in various stages of bat-sh@# crazy, with swords), The Walking Dead on AMC (all the characters in various stages of dead, plus bat-sh@# crazy, some also with swords).

So, I didn’t write for almost three weeks. And like an addict, I went through withdrawal. Constantly musing about my not writing. Muttering under my breath, “I need to write something”. Talking about writing and then not-writing. Reading about writing and then not-writing. Writing a blog post about not writing. Wait. That sorta counts as writing.

My angst reached critical mass last weekend. I woke up at least a dozen times Saturday night with a brand new fully formed story playing in my head that would not let me go. I kept pushing back, whining, “I’ll get to you in the morning. Please, just let me sleep!” At 3 AM I finally gave up the fighting and the sleeping. I scribbled out that story from start to finish in one five hour blazing burst. Then I went back and revised and edited another five hours.

Which is completely unlike me. My usual writing style is to rough draft a little, pick a little, rough draft some more, pick some more. The same pattern over the course of weeks, months, (yes, years for my first novel). Critiqued, revised, beta read, fine tuned adds on another four to six months. My creative burner is normally “slow and steady wins the race.” I am the tortoise who gets there eventually.

But not this week my friend. This week I was the hare.

Photograph © Silviu Matei

Plasma Frequency Magazine, Issue 9, December 2013/January 2014

SO excited to announce my adult sci-fi short story DUST, just published in Plasma Frequency Magazine! It was by far one of my favorites to write, and I’m so glad it found a home with Plasma Frequency.

Interestingly, I wrote the story while I was getting used to a new migraine medicine. One of the side-effects of the medicine was vibrating gold spots behind my eyelids whenever I closed my eyes. This side-effect, among others, became the inspiration for some of the side-effects of DUST. Luckily, I’m no longer taking that med, so the pharmaceutical-induced hallucinations and periodic brain fog are long gone.

I did get a nice story out of the experience. You just never know what’s going to get that imagination stirring.

You can get a hold of a copy for Kindle here or a Print copy here. Just remember kiddies, this is an adults only story…

Let’s Eat, photo by Karin Blaski

Happy Thanksgiving!

She got summoned for jury duty and never came back . . . well, it felt like that for a while at least. I got called in for jury selection on the morning of September 18 and wasn’t released until the afternoon of October 3rd. Would you believe I was juror 46 out of 51 and I still ended up sitting as an alternate for the trial? I think by the time they got to me, they were desperate.

And what a trial. 1st degree murder. I won’t go into the details because honestly, the people involved don’t need any more publicity. AND the sooner this event fades from my own memory the better. Let’s just say I know more about deciphering blood splatter evidence than your average citizen. For all you fans of trigonometry, this is your field!

So, I’m back going through the motions of my normal routine, thirteen dollars a day richer, with the thanks of the county, worn out and weepy, trying to catch up on the mountains of grading that piled up unattended while I was attending to my civic duty.

You see, substitute teachers teach, they don’t grade, so tests, reports and assignments waited patiently for me to get back and NOW THEY ALL NEED TO GET DONE. Yikes! 112 hours got sucked out of my life; it’s already two weeks later, and still I haven’t figured out how to squeeze them back in.

Photo © Aleksandar Radovanovic

My monthly series on Rockford, originally created to help persuade my husband that Rockford isn’t so bad after all, has focused on places to go, things to do. When it comes to the “do and see” in Rockford, I haven’t even scratched the surface.

But this particular post is long overdue. It’s the one where I tell you about Rockford’s people. And not the ones who are close to my heart, they travel with me wherever I go, whether I’m in Rockford or not. No, it’s about the people who’s names I don’t know, who’ve reached out to me during the thirteen years I’ve lived here.

Rescue Angel #1. In the spring of 2012, I locked my keys in my van while buying gardening supplies at a nursery. I was due to pick up my kids from school in 10 MINUTES! Panic doesn’t even begin to describe my state of mind. A woman, a stranger, also shopping at the nursery, observed my distress in the parking lot. She offered to drive me to pick up my kids from school and bring me back to my van. She offered for me to use her cell phone to call my husband so he could meet me with the spare keys. I took her up on her offer. We only exchanged first names. She wouldn’t take any gas money from me, only my heartfelt thank you.

Rescue Angel #2. In the summer of 2001, I locked my keys in my van at the post office (oh shush, there’s an eleven year interval, it’s not like I do it ALL THE TIME). The lady at the post office let me borrow her car, drive to my husband’s work to get his house key, so I could drive home and get the spare van key, then drive back to the post office. Wow, right? I didn’t ask if I could. She offered. She would’t take any gas money either. Although I wrote her a thank you card later ’cause I knew where this lady worked. PS, she doesn’t work there any more, so I’ve kept her privacy.

But wait, there’s more. The woman who got out of her car in high heels and helped push my car up the icy hill. The man who cheered my daughter when she was inconsolable after falling in the parking lot. The man who held my hand when we both pulled over on the side of the road after I ran over the raccoon and I cried. Whoever keeps paying for my coffee in the McDonald’s drive through (I just go ahead and pay for the next car’s). This post could go on and on.

The point is . . .

I expect this behavior from my friends, my family, the neighbors who know me, the people at my church, my colleagues at work, current and former students . . . not from strangers who’ve never seen me before and will never see me again. Aren’t they supposed to be, oblivious? Jaded by high unemployment, runaway property taxes and miserable weather? But, no. Spirit is something the statisticians don’t measure.

So thank you Rockfordians, for your kindness over the years. I think I’ll stay a while longer.

Photo © Irina Brinza

A normal summer is me recovering from the hectic pace of 60 hour college semester work weeks. The only time when I get to put the word normal back into my life. Like, normally doing laundry once a week. Normally sleeping eight hours a night. Normally seeing my friends and family on a regular basis. Summer = three months of soul rejuvenation before the nine months of crazy takes over.

Only this summer, was not normal. This was the dreaded every third summer. This was the summer the faculty at my employer changed their Learning Management System (LMS). Again.

Yes, I’ve taught online for nine years and this will be the third LMS we’ve used.

Nothing to it. Take everything from the old system: syllabi, course structures, presentations, 100s of files, links, videos, quizzes, assignments, rubrics, announcements, discussions, e-mail history, grade books, blah blah blah, and copy it all into the new system. Voila!

But. No.

In the real world, systems don’t always play nice and there are plenty of surprises along the way. Two hundred hours, seven live classes and two archived for Spring, I hold my breath and hope everything works as planned Monday morning.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m good with change. Often a change leader, sometimes a go with the flow gal, rarely a complainer. But when 2016 rolls around . . . I really don’t want to link back to this post.

Photo by Phil Date

This is a personal weblog. Opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

Lockwood Park, Rockford, IL, Photo by Karin Blaski, July 17, 2013

From its entrance, Lockwood Park appears deceptively small. The park actually takes up a sprawling 146 acres of woods, prairie, and parkland featuring winding trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding. Park your car, bring your picnic, and be prepared to spend the day.

Children’s Farm, Lockwood Park, Rockford, IL, photo by Karin Blaski, July 17, 2013

A covered bridge beckons you over a bubbling stream. On the other side you’ll find playground, picnic shelters, and the Children’s Farm complete with Rockford’s only resident mountain goats. My kids especially like to see the pigs who come running from their pens whenever visitors arrive. In and around the barns are swans, ducks, lambs, bunnies, donkeys, a retired race horse, chickens . . . well, you get the idea.

Why yes, that is a giant cow. Lockwood Park, photo by Karin Blaski, July 17, 2013

Bet you didn’t know that Gertrude, the Giant Guernsey Cow who stands just inside Lockwood Park, is one of America’s largest fiberglass bovines. She’s 19 feet tall and 21 feet long. Her hefty rump points toward the BMX race track across Safford road; her horned head overlooks the playground. So, if you are one of those folks who likes roadside attractions . . . you gotta come see the cow.

There’s also a night sky observatory on the premises and garden plots that you can rent. But what Lockwood Park is best known for is its Equestrian Center. Riding lessons, hay rides, rodeo shows, and horse camps are favorite activities. All my children have participated in the annual summer week long Saddle Up summer camps where the kids are matched to a horse for a week. They groom, ride, and learn about “their” horse all week long, then show off their skills to friends and family on Friday. My daughters finished their camp last week and will be imagining and discussing their lives as future rodeo queens and/or veterinarians for months.

Willie, Lockwood Park, Rockford, IL, Photo by Karin Blaski, July 26, 2013

In the summer, Lockwood Park provides volunteer opportunities for kids 12+ who can do tasks from groundskeeping (if they’re volunteering for the first time) to caring for the horses (if they’ve gone through the volunteer certification program). Contact Lockwood Park for more information regarding their volunteer opportunities at 815-987-8809, or learn more through their website.

Magic Waters, Rockford, IL, Photo by Karin Blaski, July 17, 2013

Go to the water park of course. It’s half price Wednesday, why not? $12 to get in. A few thousand of us lunatics lined up at 10am, July 17 to spend the day alternating between baking in the sun, dashing for our scraps of shade, and diving into heavily chlorinated water.

If you live any where near Rockford, you really need to take advantage of Magic Waters. Crammed onto 48 acres are attractions for daredevils to toddlers. I’m a lazy river fan, but my girls love Typhoon Terror (daddy takes them) a partially enclosed slide you ride with 2, 3, or 4, that spins you nearly upside down. On a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being “Relax” and 5 being “Makes You Scream,” Typhoon Terror is rated 5.

Managed by the Rockford Park District, the Magic Waters park rates are inexpensive. The park even allows you to bring in one cooler per family, so you can save by not having to purchase the park food. Additional coolers can be brought in at $10 each. We usually splurge and rent a cabana which includes a refrigerator stocked with bottled water, a ceiling fan, eight free tubes (normally you have to rent these if you want unlimited laps in the lazy river), a private entrance into the lazy river, a satellite T.V., patio furniture with table, and a locker with key. It’s $100, but if you split the cost with another family, it’s well worth it.

My only, only caveat, is you must time your restroom breaks. Especially us girls, ’cause as is the case with most public venues, there are not enough ladies restrooms. Right after lunch, there were lines a block long. IMHO, another restroom at Magic Waters would be money well spent = fewer people peeing in the pools = less money spent on chlorine. It’s the business woman in me; always thinking of the “bottom” line.

Tiki Island at Magic Waters, Where more adults stand under the dumping bucket than kids, Rockford, IL, photo by Karin Blaski, July 17, 2013

Restroom issue aside, we love Magic Waters. Even before we lived in Rockford, we made a summer weekend day trip to enjoy this award winning Water Park. The park is smoke and alcohol free. The season is June 8 through August 25 (closed August 19 – August 23). Hours 10am-6pm, except Mondays and Fridays when they stay open until 9pm.

Grand Marais, Minnesota, Lake Superior, July 2, 2013, photo Karin Blaski

Last week my family and I spent time at our little cabin off the Gunflint Trail between Grand Marais, Minnesota and the Canadian border. The cabin’s been in my husband’s family for three generations. BTW, only one and half of those generations has it had a bathroom and not an outhouse. So, I’m very glad to be on the receiving end of the indoor plumbing. Built in the 1940s, to describe the place in one, carefully chosen word? RUSTIC.

We did have a marvelous time. Well, the kids and I did. I was put in charge of the entertainment committee. We visited the little arts & crafts stores in Grand Marais, skipped stones in Lake Superior, walked on the pier, ate pie. My two daughters fished for the first time which was a hoot with their matching pink fishing rods. I had the privilege of putting the worms on their hooks, taking the hook out of the one fish we caught, and releasing him back to his fishy friends.

Grand Marais Harbor, Minnesota, July 2, 2013, Photo by Karin Blaski

The hubby, mostly worked. Six hours to get the water running: pumped from the river, up the hill, and through the cabin’s pipes. A shout out to the magic of mechanical engineering. Two hours to demolish a rotten back deck that you could stick your thumb through. Eight hours to build another one. Yes you can strap lumber to the top of a mini van.

Demolished deck rubble piled in borrowed trailer, July 2, 2013, photo by Karin Blaski

He did take time off to celebrate the 4th of July. We watched the Grand Marais Independence Day Parade at 8 PM. All twelve minutes of it. Followed by the fireworks display at 10 PM. Twenty-five minutes. Twice as long!

While in Minnesota I made many, many new friends eager to get to know me better. They’d press against the screens as soon as they saw me coming. A couple snuck into the shower and into the bedroom every night. Truly, they couldn’t get enough of me. And they left me with many, many take home presents to remember them by. A gift on my thumb. One gift on my eyebrow. They were camera shy, so I had to borrow this picture from an expert so you could get a good look. I’m sure she’s a cousin of my friends in Minnesota. Do you recognize her?

Ma Squito

A classroom that seats 30 with hundreds of empty chairs.

A restroom without a single toilet.

A drinking fountain that spews hot water.

Walking to a classroom where I’ve taught every semester for the last eight years, and instead of a door, finding a cement wall.

Forced to teach biology for eight hours when I’m a business professor.

Forced to teach Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations to a classroom of non-english speaking kindergartners, and none of us can leave until I’m successful.

Happy New Year! I started a new college term. Spring semester 2013. Six courses, five preps, a little under one hundred students. The scenarios listed above are some of the dreams I had this week. Happens every semester. Probably stems from previous trauma.

Cue music.

I’m nineteen, living in a college dorm, and I set my alarm one hour early by mistake. Down in the cafeteria, I don’t even notice dozens of mostly empty tables. After coffee and carbs, I’m first to arrive at my first class. That’s not unusual, I’m an overachiever after all. Sitting in my usual spot, center back, I tuck my book bag under my chair, notepad and pencil at the ready. Then I start getting that something isn’t right feeling when bodies fill the seats around me and pull out a strange purple text. Awkwardness is reinforced when “wrong gender professor” settles at the front of the room. And ultimately my doom is sealed when I sit through, too embarrassed to leave, an entire 50 minutes of Intermediate Italian instead of Introduction to Philosophy.

Yeah. So I get these anxiety dreams at the beginning of each semester that go away once I’m settled into the new routine.

Although, I will say as I’ve gotten older, my dreams are increasingly vivid. Must be the B6.

Photograph (c) Gerdien Monique Samsen

An annual holiday tradition in Rockford, The Nutcracker is performed by the Rockford Symphony Orchestra and the Rockford Dance Company. This year the dancers and musicians were exceptional, the choreography whimsical and lovely. A review can be read here.

The venue contributes the rest of the magic and still manages to take my breath away every time I go, whether for The Nutcracker or for one of the many Broadway shows that travel through Rockford. Built in the 1920s, the theater first opened in 1927. After falling into disrepair over the years, the theatre was completely renovated and re-opened in 2001. You can read The Coronado’s Wikipedia entry here. There is also a terrific book about the history and restoration of the theatre by Gwendolyn Quirk, which can be found at Amazon here.

Dubbed Rockford’s Crown Jewel, photos can’t completely capture the grandness of this theater, but I tried:

Chandelier at the Coronado Theatre, Rockford, IL, hanging between Southwest and Southeast stairwells.

The stage and audience at The Coronado Theatre, Rockford, IL, as viewed from the left lower balcony.

The ceiling of the lobby, Coronado Theatre, Rockford, IL.

Photographs by Karin Blaski 12/2/12

My Students Gave to Me:

Twelve harried phone calls,

Eleven hours grading,

Ten sleepless nights,

Nine more hours grading,

Eight homemade cookies,

Seven failing grades,

Six thank you e-mails,

Five homework due date extension requests,

Four calling cell phones (during final exams!),

Three requests for reference letters,

Two handwritten thank you cards,

And one job I hate to love

Photograph Andrew Taylor

Tonight I hold my children a little closer, a little tighter, and I pray for your children. For our children. For all of us.

Looking for a way to help, no matter how small? The Red Cross is a good place to start:

http://www.redcross.org/news/press-release/Red-Cross-Provides-Support-after-Connecticut-School-Shooting

as well as Newtown Youth and Family Services:

http://www.newtownyouthandfamilyservices.org/donate.php

Photo by © Danil Chepko

Yes, Rockford has a roundabout. Just like all those other cosmopolitan cities: Melbourne, Dublin, London, Calgary, and Clearwater Beach, FL.

Designed to *calm* traffic, the roundabout is supposed to be safer, once you get used to it. And as you can see from the picture, it’s a busy, happening place. Well, no, it’s not. In fact if calm is the goal, I’d say it was long ago achieved.

I pass through the Rockford Roundabout at least twice a week and 50% of the time mine is the only vehicle there. And many of the vehicles I do see, stop. Just stop. Even when there are no other cars. Driver looks at the sign. Driver looks at the road. Driver’s face looks a lot like this…

But then, he takes a breath, and plows on through.

Which is one of the things I like about Rockford. You may have to drag some of the residents kicking and screaming into that “new-fangled circular road thingy”, but they’ll get on board eventually and even support the next one. Bring ‘em on…

Coming soon to the Auburn and N. Main intersection. And it will be two lanes this time!

Roundabout photo © Karin Blaski 11/24/12, Scowling boy © Andrew Taylor

“Hubert the Lion was haughty and vain

And especially proud of his elegant mane.” ~Bill Peet

One of my favorite picture books as a child: HUBERT’S HAIR-RAISING ADVENTURE, and I still love, love, love it today. My kids will even request it as one of their pre-bedtime books.  All thirty-eight pages. Over two-thousand words. A dozen characters. And . . . it rhymes.

Rhyming picture books get a bad rap. Lots of writers and agents I’ve spoken with at conferences and corresponded with via blogs say the same thing: rhyme is a hard sell, no one likes to buy it. Some discourse on the topic can be found here and here.

It basically comes down to too much bad rhyme makes the gatekeepers wary of all rhyme. Plus, the fact it’s difficult to translate into other languages which limits potential sales. Not a good selling point for business-minded publishers.

I don’t write rhyme these days, but I do appreciate rhyme done well. I’ll even shell out my hard-earned dollar to purchase rhyming books for my family and as gifts for my friends’ kids. Some favorites over the years include: SOME DOGS DO by Jez Alborough, ROOM ON THE BROOM by Julia Donadson, and ZIN! ZIN! ZIN! A VIOLIN by Lloyd Moss.

There’s nothing more magical than the cadence and lyricism of a beautifully illustrated, impeccably rhymed story. How about you? What are some of your favorites?

Picture 20-Nov-2012 by Karin Blaski

My heaven smells like an apple orchard…

Autumn means apples, and no October is complete without a trip to Edward’s Apple Orchard . It’s a family affair and we always leave laden with a few bags of fresh tangy apples (among other things). Lots of fun places for the kids to explore, including a petting zoo, pony rides, wooden train, and several tractors sunk into the earth. One of my daughter’s favorites this year was this cute guy. . .

And just in case you didn’t believe me about the tractors…

Now Edward’s is not the only apple orchard around Rockford and I would be remiss if I did not mention Curran’s Apple Orchard. They have fun things to do too, and *whispers* I like their apple donuts just a little better. The best thing to do is go to both places and decide for yourself

(more…)

Umm, yeah. Your eyes do not deceive you. It’s a picture of a pair of slugs hanging out on a leaf . . . inside a pickle jar that my daughter made into a terrarium.

They were captured separately, but they must have discovered they have a lot in common because they are now inseparable. There are other slugs in the jar, but these two, they just seem to click. My daughter says they’ve made a “love connection.”

I haven’t observed any slug lovin’ (not sure I’d recognize gastropod mollusk mating if I saw it), but they sure do like to spend time together. If one climbs up the side of the jar, the other soon joins him (her, it). When one chows on one side of a leaf, the other can be seen chowing on the other side.

Maybe I’m anthropomorphizing these poor slugs. I like to write about friendship, especially when it’s found in unusual places or between unusual participants. I like to read about friendship too. One of my absolute favorite books I read this year was The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater which shows the intense friendship between a boy and his man-eating horse (I know there’s more to the book, but that’s my favorite part). So maybe I’m projecting what I want to see.

What do you think?

Photos 10/2/12 Karin Blaski

My latest WIP is now in the hands of my agent after a month-long round of edits. Fingers crossed that it will make it to the submission phase before the year is out. We’re working on a pitch, which is a good sign.

The interesting thing about this latest round of edits is that I added words instead of editing them out. And it was challenging, and tricky, and time-consuming (yes, I spent 90 minutes on two sentences that I can recite in my sleep), and dare I say–fun. It appears that my first few go a-rounds had left out important details.

My excuse? I’m a get to the point kinda gal. When I read the work of author’s burying me in atmosphere I have been known to skip to the juicy parts. (Unless the atmosphere is completely captivating, an important part of the mystery, or I’m enamored with the writer’s skill, then I’ll dawdle over it.) In turn, when I write, I try to follow Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing, or at least I follow number ten, which is “. . . leave out the parts that people skip.” And it’s predecessor 9. “Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.” So most of my writing comes out lean and mean, fresh and clean.

But what I failed to realize is my short stories/flash fiction that’s been published is the writing that has those little details. Those details are what draw out tension, add character flavor, and make readers feel like they’re right there in the pages of the story.

My duh moment.

So while BAD MOJO winds its way through Veritas, I’ve started something new: a middle grade sci-fantasy novel, sort of a Super8/ET meets The Secret Garden, with the Blaski spin of course. It’s WIP title is BLUEFLY. And you can bet those little details are spinning earlier rather than later.

Now if I can just get a handle on rule number 5. “Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.” Kinda tough when your protagonist is an enthusiastic eleven-year old.

Photo by Jack Schiffer

As promised, here is my first monthly post about what makes Rockford a special place to live.

On The WaterFront is an annual music festival that takes place in downtown Rockford over Labor Day weekend. Starting Thursday evening, the festival runs through Sunday night. This year over 80 performing artists were featured on five different stages including: The BoDeans, Creedance Clearwater Revisited, Smokin Gunz, Casey James, Guy King, The Lovehammers, and lots of local groups. In the past, I’ve seen Ted Nugent, Daughtry, Styx, Cheap Trick and Buddy Guy at this festival.

In addition to the music, there are lots of special attractions. Carnival rides (1/2 price before 2 PM), food vendors serving your standard carnival fare (corndogs, elephant ears, BBQ turkey legs, lemon shake-ups) as well as some specialty items (crab rangoons, the walking taco, pulled pork nachos)–this year, The Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor from Forest Park, IL was there, the Cupcake Ice Cream was a favorite–and lots of community booths, including the ComEd Kids Castle, where a parking garage is turned into a free game/craft emporium for kids under 12.

The festival has gotten smaller over the last couple years, another casualty of our economy. But it’s still cheap to get in (I paid $10 for a three day pass, even though I only went on Sunday). Kids under 9 are free. The festival advertises $15 for a three day pass purchased ahead of time or $15 for a one day pass at the gate, but there are lots of employers in Rockford who purchase passes in bulk for discounts they pass along, as long as you get the passes ahead of time. Parking is extra of course, but the further away you park, the less you pay. Lazy me parks in the garage across the street for $5.

Less crowded, great music for cheap, beautiful weather, tasty food, and you can throw your kids inside these inflatable plastic hamster balls on a pool of water and watch them try to stand up…

What’s not to like?

Photos by Karin Blaski 9/2/12

Every day this week my computer at work greeted me with the ominous message above. The photo doesn’t do it justice, since you might not be able to see such flavorful sentences as “Collecting data for crash dump”, “Initializing disk for crash dump”, and “Beginning dump of physical memory”. Any time you see the word DUMP on your computer screen it’s not a good thing. Seeing the word DUMP half a dozen times, you’ve gone from bad to worse. Lucky for me, rebooting temporarily solves the problem, until this beast of a machine decides to start dumping while I’m working.

Of course this being the first week of a brand new college semester, did not help the situation.

*sigh*

At home, I am blessed to have a Macbook Pro who greets me every day with a heartfelt chime and an eagerness to get the job done. You see even when the PC in my office at school is working, it takes so long to boot up I can go to the copy room and back before I have access to a cursor. Coffee? Sure. Plenty of time.

The Mac? He’s ready, willing and able the moment I pop his lid and press ON . . . and I love him for it.

Now if someone could invent a remote start for the PC (like some folks have for their cars) so it’s all warmed up by the time I climb two flights of stairs… Or maybe the rest of the world, including my college, could just switch over to Apple computers and we could stop this nonsense.

Photo by Karin Blaski 8/20/12

It’s true. My family adopted a lovely, sweet and spunky mutt from the shelter two weeks ago. The dog has settled into our home nicely.

However…

the cat,

is not amused.

Photo 8/8/12 by Karin Blaski