Non-Financial Accounting: Time Regained

I am beginning to recover from the end of the semester. I like every part of my job except grading. The worst part is assigning grades. I have a headache from the start of finals week till grade turn-in. Even after, since I get numerous sad and/or mad emails from students--only two so far, but the numbers may grow.

I am close to achieving a life goal: to read all volumes of Proust's "A La Recherche." I am on the last volume--"Time Regained"--and have 432 pages to go. It is a difficult read for me. My reading style (fast) does not coordinate well with Proust's complex sentences. Sometimes I can read only a handful of pages before stopping. Can I read 432 pages in two weeks, when I will go on vacation? I hope so.

The thing about reading Proust is that you forget what you've read almost as soon as you read it. My in-house expert, Mr FS, says that is to be expected. I asked him what to do when I've finished. He said "Start again." He's been doing that for over forty years.

Is anyone else reading a long and difficult masterpiece? I have many more on my list. Time is running out.

Frugal Duolingo: Progress Report

Like many, I spend too much time noodling around on the internet. Since noodlers are the product being delivered to advertisers (via blog links and those tempting ads that track your habits), I occasionally succumb to the "good deals" that pop up. I am a weakling for bargains, even if my spending remains in control. I waste a lot of time and add to the clutter with which I always struggle.

I have been trying to shift my noodling from Nordstroms to Duolingo. I am not always successful, but I am wasting a lot less time. After my initial rush of success, my progress is slowing down. I have trouble with some negatives and some adverbs. And, unlike my French teachers M. Giordano and M. Moore (how I wish I could thank them), Duolingo does not give partial credit. How awful to hear the buzz of failure for a careless error--like saying "the" instead of "that"--in a lesson on adverbs, even when you get the adverb right. I never thought I would miss the mere quarter point deducted by my red-pen-wielding French teachers for each tiny mistake.

Duolingo rewards you with virtual currency of lingots. So far, I have not spent any, not because I am a natural saver (though I am), but because I am not really motivated by the gamification of the site. I am, however, motivated by the percentage that pops up: according to the site, I can now read 45.7% of French articles. I can actually read more, because my French goes beyond the lessons I've completed.

I have spent more than thirty years lamenting the deterioration--the near demise, probably--of my French. Last year, Miss Em said "How much French did you have?" I answered "Four years."

I should say that this was four years of the excellent New York State Regents program. My high school French enabled me to pass out of French via placement exam not only in college, but in graduate school. If I hadn't left high school after my third year and had taken French my senior year, I would have read Madame Bovary along with my class.

The wise Miss Em said "Then it will take you four years to get it back." It's looking like it will take me a lot less than that.

The French has become more of a struggle ("une lutte"--wow! popped right into my head!). I was doing a lesson in my office and a colleague dropped by. When I told him what I was doing (and this fellow is a trained linguist), he said "Why do you want to do that?"

But I do; I do.

Frugality Index: many lingots stashed away PLUS less money spent on the "bargains" that bombard us on the internet.

Who Shops at Big Lots: Me and Philip Starck

As a break from grading exams (soon to be done!), I accompanied Mr FS when he went to the drugstore to pick up a prescription. I had him drop me off at Big Lots, which had sent me a coveted $5 off $15 coupon. The prices are cheap enough as is (at least on some things: know your prices) but at a further discount! A thrilling experience for a frugal type like myself,

With my coupon, I got some graham crackers, lots of canned diced tomatoes, an Ahh Bra. Two more exciting things: I got some Mario Batali pasta, the exact same kind as is sold at Eataly, only at Big Lots it was $1 instead of $3.20. Mr FS got a dvd of Mean Streets, one of his fave films. Total spent: around $11.

OK. That was about as much excitement as I can take. However, when I got home, I did an internet search for something about Big Lots and came upon an LA Times article from 2008, the depths of the Great Recession, when frugality was all the rage. the only thing I miss about the Great Recession: all the frugality articles that fed my frugal soul. This particular article featured the great designer Philip Starck as he filled a basket at Big Lots. Maybe I can buy one of his famous Ghost chairs if I keep shopping at Big Lots. Love those chairs.

My favorite part of the article consisted of this pithy saying, with timeless wisdom that goes beyond the panic of the economic downturn: "We have been sticking our money into the fan," he says, miming a stack of bills being shredded by the blades of a ceiling fan. "We must be more intelligent now."

Thrift Store Fun, Thrift Store Folly

Unlike many of the financial "experts" in the blogosphere, who counsel us to "make more money" (as they did, by selling their blogs for several million dollars), I am a big believer in saving dollars here and dollars there. The financial bloggers, many of whom have retired on the proceeds of their blogs, also counsel us to "negotiate for more money." Hear that legislators???? My pennies and dollars are all that remain in my control.

Hence my killer grocery shopping skills and my thrift store acumen. Perhaps I was karmically sent to my town because we have--no question--about the best and cheapest thrift stores I have encountered. Plus, in a small town, you see the same people every time you go to a thrift, so one has some social interaction.

Today, when I got home from administering my last final, I was completely exhausted from sucking up all the panic and misery of my students. I HAD to go to a thrift store for the spa experience. A trip to Goodwill--about 3 miles--was too much, so I contented myself with the little Food Bank thrift, which is about 1/2 mile away.

Well! Paul, the former manager of the thrift shop, who has since been promoted to an administrative position at the food bank, was at the register and boy was he crabby. You see, the people working at the thrift have been running 1/2 price sales and playing "let's make a deal" for a few weeks. They also missed a Dooney and Bourke bag and put it in the $1 bin. Paul saw that. (No, I was not the lucky buyer.) He told me that REVENUE WAS DOWN. WAY DOWN.

EVERY SINGLE customer whined about the renewal of full prices (i.e. $2.50 for most clothing). EVERY SINGLE customer asked Paul to lower the prices. I was too scared to ask him! I did point out that prices had to be low at thrifts because people made a lot of mistakes in purchasing. Some items have damage that one doesn't see till one gets home. ETCETERA. He finds me rather amusing, so I did cheer him up a tiny bit.

Anyway, I bought some beautiful fabric samples. Don't ask me why. I can't sew. I do have a love for fabric and seeing gorgeous linen blend fabrics--some toiles, many printed in England-- just wiped me out. I could not resist. I'm hoping the creative Miss Em will help me figure out what to do with them. Some of the pieces are pretty big, 18" by 45," though most are smaller.

The one useful thing I got was a little cuisinart mini-prep processor. I have one, but I got it for Frugal Son, a fabulous cook. I even plugged it in to see if it worked.

When I got home, Mr FS sighed about the fabric. He took one look at the mini-prep and said, "There's no blade." OOPS. I, the usually careful shopper, had just wasted a few dollars on a defective item. Just as I had told Paul. If he's not too crabby, I'm going to tell him next time I see him.

Still, I helped support the food bank.

Grading, Grading: Grossly Material Things

I sometimes think that as there are stages of grief, there are stages of grading.  Sadly, I often forget this and experience the stages anew each semester. Grading is a difficult task, at least for English teachers, who grade essays and papers and don't just run some multiple choice exam through a scantron machine.

First stage: irritation. Why do so many students hand things in late? Why do so many students hand in bunches of loose sheets. I have more than 100 students: try dealing with all that paper!!!
Second stage: anger. Why didn't those students listen? Why didn't they do the reading? Why didn't they read my email?
Third stage: empathy. This is evoked by all students, but most especially mine. I used to teach at a private college. In 1988, the median income of student families was $80,000/year. I now teach at a state college, where many students have their own families, jobs, and serious money issues. Not to say that my affluent students didn't have emotional and other problems. My current students have those too. But they also have financial issues that are often overwhelming.

So as always, frequent meltdowns. One student--a mother of 4--had her husband ask for a divorce right before finals (I recommended the counseling center and gave her a hug). Another student broke down and mentioned that a relative had been a victim of horrific violence (same response as to student above).  Another student sent an email about a severe medical problem that would make her late for the final. She wasn't supposed to drive, but ended up driving herself since no one else was around.

And those are just the students who tell me what's up. Most do not. Yes, I know that students will lie about disasters for various reasons (though the ones mentioned above are all true events). And that doesn't even account for students working 30 or more hours a week to support themselves, while they are supposed to be full-time students.

I read that one value of reading literature is that it helps us develop empathy. Click the link to the left for an array of articles on that topic. I have always been a reader and, of course, I've been teaching literature for many years now. And, teaching at my current place of employ, I am reminded often of Virginia Woolf's wise words, which remind us that material things can keep us from doing what we're supposed to be doing.

I asked myself; for fiction, imaginative work that is, is not dropped like a pebble upon the ground, as science may be; fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible; Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, seem to hang there complete by themselves. But when the web is pulled askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the middle, one remembers that these webs are not spun in mid-air by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human beings, and are attached to grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in.

Decluttering the Freezer: What We've Eaten

I recently made a vow to clean out my freezer. One of the pillars of my frugality is saving money on groceries. This is easy for me because I am a lover of the "food of the poor" and chow down on lots beans from various cuisines. Also, food bargains just leap out at me and are heard to resist.

Looking back at this blog, I noticed that I made the same vow each year. With little success owing to the aforementioned food bargains throwing themselves at my feet. This time, I meant business. I lowered my food budget to $20 a week. That will force you to use what you have.

Here's what's been on the menu, from the fancy to the more mundane.

--shrimp with tasso and mushrooms on cheese and jalapeno grits (not as hard as it sounds)
--STEAK with baked potatoes
--roast chicken cooked a la Zuni Cafe (with the trademark bread salad)
--pumpkin and sausage pasta sauce
--African peanut soup
--chicken stew on couscous
And other stuff I can't recall at the moment....

Some freebie leftovers came my way. From a bit of the ubiquitous spinach dip (pot luck party leftover), I made a frittata, using eggs that a colleague gave us. A double freebie!

Then, with some freebie chips, I made taco soup. Except for the chips, everything was a freezer clean out item.

Part of the trauma of Hurricane Katrina (for those of us a bit out of the city and its flooding who were spared the brunt of the tragedy) was caused by the pain of throwing out tons of  food in our electricity-less weeks. We were gifted with so much salmon and steak that we couldn't consume it or give it away. Everyone around here starts cleaning out the freezer at the beginning of summer, just in case the electricity goes out again.

Bon appetit!

Destressing While Grading: French Lessons

Could anything be more dispiriting than reading research papers which are a pastiche of copied and pasted primary and secondary sources? And the sources are found--sadly--on sites with names like schmoop and gradesaver. Every now and then, the sites present dubious information (like the "fact" that Shakespeare was depressed about the closing of the theaters and so wrote sonnet 29. Or the "fact" that  clowns and fools  are markers only of comedy. Really? Only? Isn't there a fool in King Lear?) Enough! My mission in life is to develop assignments that help the students learn to read the material. Alas, I am required to assign traditional research papers in certain courses, assignments that were developed before EZ COPY PASTE (should I trademark that?).

So, to take a break, I am playing with Duolingo, the language learning site I first read about on Frugalshrink. How I wish I had had this before. I last studied French around 40 years ago. One kind woman we met in France told me that she could tell the language was in there, trying to get out.

I hope so. I don't know if I could learn a language from scratch on this, but I am tearing through the lessons and will hit the more sophisticated and difficult Foreign Service lessons later.

 Today I even had to translate a frugal saying.

Acheter mieux, jeter moins.

Well sort of frugal. Could one also say Acheter moins, jeter moins? Je crois que oui.

I am so happy! Back to the grind.