Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in kynthos333's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, January 19th, 2008
5:57 pm	New look For various reasons . . . well, one big reason that some of you know about . . . I decided to get my hair cut very very short. I walked into Great Clips across the street from my office and said "Make me look like Sinead O'Connor." My stylist did a great job. Much to my surprise, I found that I look really good in an almost crew cut!! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
8:41 pm	Gotta dance! And drum! I had a wonderful time last night at the January Pratt hafla. Just three musicians this time, due to illness / family issues / traveling, etc. by the other musicians. It worked out fine, though. For a change, Charlie was not the main melody instrument. Dave played electric guitar for the "pre-show" music while Charlie and I were on drums. Totally Northern Tribal danced right after that. Dave played lap steel while Charlie played chefti-telli on drum for the slower music, then they both played drums for the fast number. The two of them are tight enough and are good enough musicians that this worked really well. One nice part about being in the band, was I then had a front row seat to watch the rest of the hafla. It was amazing -- there was not one bad dancer the whole night. One of the soloists was an old friend from Renaissance Festival who I had not seen for years because she had stopped dancing for awhile. In the last few months she has started again, and did her first solo in a long time last night. She had a self-assurance and a feel for the music that I just loved. Charlie and I played a duet after the intermission to start the second half. He played alto recorder and I played my lovely Raquy drum. We were brave and improvised together in a slow 7. The first dancer after this was Bonnie, who we've played for many times before. She started her number with a short little pantomime of a woman working at her computer -- staring at the screen, hunching her shoulders, moving the mouse around, rubbing the back of her tired neck, things like that. Charlie then started a Bolero rhythm on drum, and I joined in on riq. Dave started playing electric guitar along with us. The dancer got out of the chair, took off her business jacket and started dancing and losing herself in the music. Dave was responding really well to the dancer -- I've never heard him play better. In fact, it felt like the four of us were reading each others' minds. It was very magical. The other dancers in the second half were just as fabulous as the dancers in the first half. Dave's daughter danced to one song, and his wife did a modern cane dance right after that. His wife is one of my favorite dancers in town to watch. She does some of the most innovative belly dance I've seen, really classy stuff that pushes the envelope of what belly dance can do. The drum jam at the end was very satisfying. The first few times that we did a drum jam at a hafla, a lot of the dancers spent that time simply sitting around and talking. Last night, they got up and they danced! People dancing to live music is one of my favorite things -- and I like both the dancing side and the drumming side of that equation. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
12:24 pm	Mellow is good I had a very mellow New Year's Eve and enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to my friends Mr. Undercrypt and his lovely wife for deciding to have a party that ended at 10:00 pm, so we could get home before there were too many drunks out there. New Year's Eve in a local coffee shop was a great idea. Charlie and I played drums and Mr. Undercrypt played keyboard for awhile. Playing music is always good. I got a chance to also talk with some friends who I haven't seen for awhile. Just a block from our house, hubby and I saw a group of teenagers who were out walking around together. When they saw us, they started jumping up and down and waving and yelling, so we honked and waved back. They were very cute. When we got back home, we were still awake from the coffee, so we welcomed the new year by listening to re-mastered CDs of Fats Waller. BTW, I share a birthday with Fats Waller, and I'm very proud of that. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 26th, 2007
8:52 pm	Cheap opera is a good thing I had a wonderful time last night with a friend who is another opera freak. She got a coupon or something for two-for-one tickets for a showing of La Boheme. The show was put on by a small, local company called Theater Latte Da. Since it was a preview besides, tickets were REALLY cheap! It was fabulous! The theater was the Southern -- small, intimate theater. They dealt with orchestration by having a small ensemble of piano, guitar, violin, and synthesizer / keyboard set to an accordion sound. It fit the story and the stage setting really well, and whoever did the re-arranging did a great job. All of the singing was fabulous. And, of course, the music is some of the most beautiful ever written. A plus with the intimate setting is that none of the singers was miked. There was no sound system and no electrical ambiance to get in the way of the human voice. The sets and costumes gave a feel of artsy types in Paris in the Thirties and Forties. I was especially blown away by the tenor singing Rodolpho. A really good tenor who can really hit the high notes just about makes my toenails melt -- and this guy could do it. He had the resonance and the timbre to really add passion to the role. Interestingly, his blurb in the program was very short. The impression I got was that he is very young, maybe only a couple of years out of college. If so, I could have been watching a future star. Of course, most of the audience was slightly weepy at the end. Part of the point of opera is getting to cry at the end when the soprano dies of consumption. No dinner or drinks afterward, though, because it was a work night. Still a lovely evening. I'm glad I went. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
7:59 pm	Crafty stuff I've gotten a couple of crafty projects done recently. I finished a top-down raglan cardigan sweater, crocheted. I was inspired by Luna's sweater in "Order of the Phoenix" but ended up with something that looked different (does that make sense?). The sweater is gray acrylic with a solid double crochet yoke and a slightly lacy v-stitch body, three-quarter length sleeves, one button on top. I also finished a BRIGHT RED hat and scarf. The wife of one of the professors at work is due to have a baby right around Thanksgiving. They're refusing to say if it's a boy or a girl, and I hate pastel baby blue and pastel baby pink anyway. So, I decided that vivid, in-your-face red was a perfectly good baby color. (Comment on this)
Friday, September 21st, 2007
8:35 pm	Back to work Yes, you may have heard on the news that the strike is ended. And a lot of people are not real happy with the U right now. I'm almost afraid to say / write too much while it's still this fresh. I guess my overall reaction is: - my co-workers at the dental school are sweet people - the people I met on the picket lines were strong and loving and I loved being with them - it felt good to me to stand up for something I believed in, even when it meant the risk of losing pay - the students who were involved with us are amazing, and I feel hopeful about the generation coming up now - the University administration is cold-hearted and mean-spirited The University Human Resources website is still insisting that the raises are 4.25% for clerical and technical and 4.5% for health-care workers for each year of the contract. That is such a lie that even the normally anti-union mainstream TV stations and newspapers are saying (correctly) that the pay increases are actually 2.25% / 2.5% per year. From what the negotiating team told us at the meeting, the state-appointed mediator was not very happy with the University negotiating team by the end of the 15-hour-long session. She was tearing her hair out and asking the union negotiators what the heck was up with these people. One last thing - I looked at a video from Channel 11 about the end of the strike. They did a good and fair job of showing the striker's disappointment and reporting exactly what the offer consisted of. The announcer then quoted the written statement from Bruininks saying how glad he was that the strike was over and that the union was presenting the University's proposal for a vote. Mr. Obempls' reaction was, "Wow, they made Bruininks sound pretty lame!" (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 20th, 2007
4:22 pm	Send good thoughts AFSCME and the U of M are both in mediation / negotiations right now. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
4:15 pm	The power of silence I attended a very unusual event today. A large contingent of faculty at the U held a silent protest in front of the administration building. Faculty members were simply standing and looking at the building. Some were holding signs, many had surgical tape over their mouths. The presence of that many people being very deliberately silent was eerie and powerful. A lot of non-faculty were there, and almost all of them were so caught up in it that they also became silent. The silence lasted for exactly one-half hour, followed by one minute of LOTS of noise. Wow. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
1:30 pm	A lot of whatever Yes, I get discouraged sometimes. Friday was a difficult day, even with the strong positive note of meeting Keith Ellison. I was picketing a loading dock at 7:00 am, then it turned out that we had a meeting of everyone on strike at 10:30, another meeting at 2:00, and yet another meeting at 4:00. I didn't get home until 6:00. I was physically and emotionally tired at the end of this. Part of what went on was a pseudo-settlement from University administration. They keep coming up with offers that are nothing more than the same offer that we turned down before, but with slight changes in contract language or a bit of a lump sum that won't really help anyone long-term. Then they act surprised when the union members aren't thrilled about their "wonderful new offer" that's really the same old offer with a little bit of sugar added. Sigh. Over the weekend, Mr. Obempls and I did some drumming together. We've been having fun with an exercise where one of us plays an eight-beat pattern and the other repeats the pattern back. This is a lot of fun, and takes a fair amount of concentration. Yesterday evening's dance rehearsal was something new. The Sword Diva Lady in our dance troupe is getting tired of being the only one brave enough to lead with a sword on her head. So, she brought two wooden swords for people who didn't have their own swords and we reviewed three simple steps that can be done with swords on your head. Then we broke into duets and practiced leading and changing the lead. Not quite ready yet to get a sword of my own, but I'm getting closer. I spent today mostly at home, doing things like knitting and exercising. (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 16th, 2007
2:05 pm	Quick note, because it was cool We had a very special guest join us on the picket lines on Friday morning. U.S. Representative Keith Ellison visited the University to show his support. I got to shake his hand and talk to him briefly. He carried a sign for awhile and gave a short speech. Of all the politicians I've ever met in person, he reminds me the most of Paul Wellstone -- a warm and caring human being with a lot of fire when he stands up for the little guys. I'm even more happy that I voted for him. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 15th, 2007
5:49 pm	My life as a drummer Some of the people in the Pratt community ed drumming class performed at a little community festival in Waite Park this afternoon. We had a lot of fun and were very well received. Waite Park is in lovely Nordeast Minneapolis, close to our house. This is good -- Mr. Obempls and I are now known as drummers in our own neighborhood. One of my troupe-mates came to see us and to get her husband and son out of the house on a lovely September day. She tried to get her son to try out some belly dance moves with her. He wanted none of that, though. He wanted to do cool dancing, so he ended up doing break dance moves on a sidewalk that had been heavily chalked. He was very cute. After the event, a whole bunch of drummers and dancers went to Crescent Moon to eat and talk. It made for a fun and relaxing afternoon. I needed that. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 13th, 2007
3:33 pm	Financial logistics, and a few random things In case anybody is interested, yes, the financial realities of a strike can be hard on a lot of people. I'm (relatively) lucky -- I have a spouse who works somewhere else, and I have some savings. Some of the other people aren't so lucky. A lot of other unions and a lot of generous individuals have donated to a hardship fund. Anyone who's got potential financial problems because of the strike can apply for funds out of this. Some people are applying for temp work. Part of the money donated is used to buy food to make sandwiches, and bags of sandwiches get brought to the picket lines every day. That way, nobody needs to buy lunch. Co-workers who are not in the union who are sympathetic bring donuts and muffins and cookies and coffee. A few random notes: I saw my boss today, and he stopped to talk to me for a bit. He asked how things were going, and if talks had been scheduled again yet. I said, no, unfortunately nobody was talking, but he should call his state representatives / senators. (Background on that: A lot of Minnesota legislators are very angry at the upper-level University management right now. The State appropriation for the University this year included a supplement specifically to give pay raises to EVERYBODY working at the U. EVERY employee group except the AFSCME unions got a decent pay raise, even though some AFSCME workers lobbied very hard right along with other employee groups to get that supplement.) Yesterday, a lot of people more ambitious than I am were picketing loading docks at 5:00 am. Somebody high up got so freaked out about this that they had a fancy University lawyer in her fancy car driving from one loading dock to the next to try to convince people that it's illegal to picket loading docks. It isn't, but they tried that anyway. Barack Obama canceled a scheduled speaking event at the University and sent a very nasty letter to the President of the University. He closed the letter by saying that he was going to "monitor the situation very closely" and that he was looking forward to a positive reply very soon. Some Teaching Assistants did not get paid. The clerical workers who normally process the paperwork required for Teaching Assistant payroll are out on strike. Some of the supervisors trying to fill out forms did something wrong and no paychecks were issued. There were some nasty dark clouds in the sky mid-morning today. Another woman and I spent some time taping plastic wrap to a bunch of the picket signs so that they could hold up in a downpour if need be. We did get some rain, but not a downpour. Whew! I got to the picket lines shortly before 7:00 today, and Mr. Obempls was nice enough to come get me at noon and take me out to lunch. We went to the Middle Eastern buffet at Holy Land grocery and deli. Yum! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
3:26 pm	Students are getting into it! The student supporters of the strikers are getting even more into it and even more creative and goofy. While two of us were picketing a loading dock, a group came up that had formed a small marching band. They had a drummer and some whistles and other noisemakers and most of them were wearing skeleton masks. It turns out that they were a theater arts class, and this is what they were doing for class today. The person banging on the drum was quite a bit older, so I'm assuming that he was the professor. While picketing later on Washington Avenue -- a very busy street that runs right through the middle of campus -- a large group of students walked by chanting "Pay Up Now!" When I was resting for a bit in a nearby coffee shop, I ran into one of our former student workers. She's in Dental School now. When I told her that several Coca Cola truck drivers had refused to cross our pickets lines, she said, "Good! That crap is bad for you!" (Comment on this)
Monday, September 10th, 2007
1:32 pm	Update on the students who were arrested The students who were arrested at Friday's Board of Regents meeting were released the next day (Saturday) at about 1:15 pm. They ended up being jailhouse celebrities! The other people in jail thought that what the students had done was a really cool thing. There were even requests for autographs. A lot of the deputies were also very sympathetic. After all, every cop that I've ever met was in a union, and a lot of them have been through their share of wage freezes and nasty contract battles. (Comment on this)
1:08 pm	Yes, I do still have a personal life Relaxing weekend, and I took today off from picketing, too. On Saturday, drumming / music rehearsal at our house. The music group that we've got this year is not as smooth or polished as last year's group. We're getting pretty tight, though, and we've got a fun and somewhat rowdy rock-n-roll type of energy. I'm turning out to be one of the two or three lead doumbek players, and I'm getting a nice Vulcan Mind Meld thing going with the other female doumbek player. After rehearsal, we met hubby's daughter and her husband for lunch. He was in an accident! He was riding his bicycle and was hit by a car. Luckily, the car had been turning left, and was moving very, very slowly, and he's a young and healthy guy. By this time he's only got a slightly reddish spot on his upper lip and a somewhat more reddish spot on his chin. Step-daughter is doing very well, and got a new hair style that's very cute. On Sunday morning I met a friend for breakfast. She works downtown in a law office and can see the wreck of the I-35W bridge from her window when she looks east. I work at the University and can see the former bridge from my office when I look west. Neither of us had been to look at the site close up, though, so that's what we decided to do together after breakfast. The Tenth Avenue Bridge is now re-open to traffic, but with one lane closed so that pedestrians can easily get on to the bridge to look down at the river. It's weird enough to see the debris from far away in my office. It was a whole other deal to see a multi-lane highway twisted up and in the river down below. Last, but most important, the wedding anniversary of Mr. Obempls and I is today! I had been planning on skipping the picket line today anyway, since I have a dance rehearsal tonight. We decided that this morning would be a good time to go out for brunch to celebrate 19 years of marriage. We had planned on a trendy brunch, but the trendy brunch place didn't open until 11:00 on weekdays. We ended up instead at a little neighborhood Mexican place that has huge, tasty breakfast for not much money. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 8th, 2007
2:46 pm	Student supporters Both of the times that I have been out on strike, I've really enjoyed meeting student supporters. They have ranged from very sweet and mellow about it to extremely feisty -- some of them even switch between the two, depending on context. I already mentioned the two medical students who came to talk with us bright and early the very first day out. They were both the very clean-cut, serious-yet-friendly medical student types, calmly supportive. The two of them gave a presentation to some of their fellow medical students later that same day. A nice young woman in med school came out to talk with us the next morning, based on that presentation. The student newspaper, the Minnesota Daily, published a staff editorial on the first day of class that came out very strongly in favor of the striking workers. Among other things, they asked that students be respectful of people on strike even if they don't agree with the strikers. After all, once the strike is over, these are the people who will do the thankless, day-to-day jobs that keep the University running. And, of course, there are the students who smile or wave or give a thumbs-up as they hurry by to get to class. The ones who have a bit more time bring us things like candy or cookies. These are all relatively mellow examples of student support. We had a GREAT example of really feisty support during a late morning rally on Friday. One student spoke about what a group of them had done earlier that morning. During the University Board of Regents meeting, about 120 students went in to the meeting -- which is perfectly legal. By definition, those meetings HAVE to be open to the public. When the Regents opened the floor to questions, a student asked why University administration isn't willing to pay a living wage to the four unions on strike. When the Regents hemmed and hawed and really didn't answer, there were suddenly 120 students pointing at them and chanting "Shame on you! Shame on you!" The Regents ended up trying to exit through the back door, and five students jumped up, ran to the door, linked arms, and sat down. They were arrested and taken out of the building. Only one of the Regents, a former union man himself, was brave enough to stick around and talk with the students for awhile. The guy who told us about this was magnificent! To say that he "told" us about it was an understatement. It was more like a performance art piece. He had the hip, Black, urban youth thing completely DOWN. He had the rhythm and the cadence and the moves and the drama. If he would have pushed all of these things just a bit more, it would have been like a one-man, one-act play told with rap and break dance. Dang! After the last strike four years ago, I was happy to have a chance to show some support to some students during one of their protest actions. When tuition went through YET ANOTHER double-digit increase, some students wanted to have a rally. What they did was very cute. The news about the increase happened in February, which is a VERY COLD time of year in Minnesota. They had a "Freeze My Tuition" rally -- outside -- in bathing suits -- in February -- and wrote "Freeze My Tuition" on their bodies with black magic markers. I remember a guy in a van honking to try to get through the blocked driveway. He got out of the van with a scowl on his face. Then he saw about 10 cute, college-age men and women outside in the cold in bathing suits. Then he started smiling and he stayed for the whole rally. I feel sorry for anyone who has to go on strike who doesn't have hundreds of college students around to help. (Comment on this)
Friday, September 7th, 2007
6:25 pm	Who DOES and who DOESN'T One of the more interesting aspects of being on a picket line is watching to see who DOES acknowledge your existence, and who DOESN'T want to deal with the fact that you're there. It can be quite surprising and quite revealing, both. The dean of the dental school has not been out to the picket line once. However, he did postpone the all-school retreat until after the strike is over so that the entire school is actually available to be there. One of the administrators who is only two or three levels below the dean (he would be a senior vice president or something in a corporation) has been out every day and has been very pleasant. The dean of the Medical School walked past the picket line today. He was very animatedly talking into his cell phone. Perhaps a good excuse to not see us? Some of the accounting types who are a little bit above union-level workers have been out to see us a lot, and have even brought us coffee and donuts. One of the higher-level accounting guys has also come to say hello. Same with one of the computer network help-desk guys. Number of people in my office who have come out to talk with the strikers? Zero. No, this doesn't surprise me. When I was out four years ago, my boss walked right by the picket line on the first day of the strike and ignored everyone. The only person from my office who came out the see me that year was the young laboratory scientist who's at about the same job level as I am. A woman from South America who is a lecturer and scientist comes out to see us every chance she gets. Every dental student who has ever worked in one of the Oral Path labs has come over to say hello and talk for a bit when they have seen me. A young guy who's a clerical worker in the nearby hospital walks by me on his way to work every morning, and he always smiles and wishes me luck. Other people from the same hospital act pretty much the same way. I briefly saw the FedEx guy who usually delivers our packages. He talked with me for a bit, and said, "I wish we had a union! Good luck to you!" And now we get to the random people walking by. A big part of picketing is talking to people about why you're there. Picketing is not a "Minnesota Nice" thing to do. It freaks a lot of people out. I'm a friendly person who enjoys smiling and saying Hello to people. Many, many people refuse to make eye contact, or to acknowledge in any other way. Some people smile nervously and keep walking. Some are more than happy to stop and talk. Many foreign students are fascinated by how strikes work in America. A young Italian student asked if he could take a picture of one of my co-workers and I with our signs. Reason he wanted the picture? In Italy, when people strike, they all just go home. The American tradition of carrying signs in public was new to him. Another student was sitting in a boat in front of Coffman Student Union to tell people about the U of M water-skiing club. His dad was a union member, and he was very friendly and a lot of fun to talk to. A few people even end up joining us on the picket line. A few students have enthusiastically joined in. Some even ask to take a picket sign with them to carry to class. One person who I met this afternoon is a truck driver for Coca Cola. He is a union driver who was stopped from making a delivery by one of our picket lines. So, he parked his truck and joined in for awhile. This was while some of us were picketing by one of the U of M loading docks that happens to be right beside a hospital (non-U of M) loading dock. The hospital sent a security guard out to just stand there for awhile. He was a big, muscular, imposing guy who looked like he might be Native American. At first he just stood there and looked extremely serious. After a bit he started to smile. Within fifteen or twenty minutes, he was talking with some of the U of M strikers and making jokes. He was out there for maybe an hour, then gave a friendly wave and went away. In some ways, picketing has been amazingly similar to Renaissance Festival. You have to be outside, no matter what the weather is like, and you have to be willing to risk making a fool out of yourself in front of complete strangers. The pay is about equally bad in both cases, too. And, in both cases, the people that you meet can range from real jerks to completely amazing. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 6th, 2007
7:02 pm	Bus conversations Because my picket captain didn't want to haul 150 picket signs around in her car, she asked as many people as possible to take their picket signs home with them and bring them back every day they would be on the picket line. I have found out that a picket sign on a Minneapolis city bus can be a very good conversation starter. Both days of the strike, young oriental women have asked me why my union is striking, and they have always been amazingly sweet and polite about it. The one who asked me today (she was sitting right behind me) happened to be sitting beside a woman who worked at the University some years back. She very much liked the work she did and the people she was surrounded with, but got to a point where she was no longer willing to deal with the low pay. We had a very nice short conversation about different aspects of working at the U. Last night, the young woman next to me had heard about the strike on the news, and wanted to hear about it from one of the striker's point of view rather than University Administration point of view. As I was talking to her, two teenage boys joined in the conversation. They thought I was really awesome for working at the U and also going on strike against the U. I happened to have two "I Support U of M Workers" buttons with me, so I gave them each a button. They thought I was even more awesome! Then there was the young woman who was a student. She and I talked for awhile and decided that Bob Bruininks (President of the University) must have personal problems. My final conversation tonight was with a man who works for the Minnesota State Government who lives just a few blocks from me. His job involves writing legal descriptions of land clearances needed for things like, oh, re-building the I-35W bridge. His work unit does have a collective bargaining agreement, but is not allowed to go out on strike. What this normally means for him is that the State bargains with the other unions and then his bargaining unit gets the same or very similar to what the unions got. We continued the conversation for a couple of blocks after we got off the bus, then he wished me luck as he turned down his block. A sign that says "ON STRIKE" = interesting bus conversations. Who knew? (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
7:33 pm	Strike! Day One I'm exhausted, but at least my feet don't hurt anymore -- I've been home long enough. The first day of the strike at the University. Wow. Frankly, I'm sort of surprised that a strike is happening at all. Thanks to a tactical error on the part of University management, four different unions were able to walk out on the second day of class. I was expecting a last minute deal at the negotiating table, but that didn't happen. Warning, this post may be kind of random, because it felt like a very random kind of thing to experience. ( lots more ) These were the highlights in a day of walking around, talking to people, shouting slogans, and getting worn out from being outside on a hot, humid, late summer day. Side note to Mr. Undercrypt -- I saw quite a lot of Michelle! She was doing a lot of wandering to a lot of different picketing sites on campus. (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
3:17 pm	Unexpected support Mr. Obempls and I were just at Eastside CoOp here in lovely Nordeast Minneapolis. The young man behind the counter was someone who we have chatted with before, who knows that I'm in one of the unions on the U of M campus. He told me that he's starting one class at the U this coming week, and wanted to know what he could do to honor the picket lines. So, we talked about some of the professors looking for off-campus sites to hold classes, some professors being willing to have people turn in assignments via e-mail, and about simply acknowledging the people on strike rather than ignoring them and hoping they won't notice you. I also told him to Google on AFSCME 3800 to find the clerical workers' website, and that they had news and ideas pertaining to the strike. A very good conversation, especially since the hardest part of being on strike and picketing is keeping your spirits up (at least for me it was; having a very supportive hubby helped a lot). Current Mood: grateful (2 Comments |Comment on this)