Sagamore: Day One

We had a great visit with Kitty over the weekend. Saturday, we met her on campus and went to pick up some of the computer stuff we are having repaired in Amherst (great resources at a great prices that we do not have in Ithaca). Then we took her and a friend to the Korean Restaurant to have dinner and catch up.

She is in fine feather—all is right with the world. We are delighted as she has settled and is herself again. Not fretful and finicky (the pronouncement day one that she will need to change dorms) has dissolved and she is loving every minute of work and play that is being handed her way. Surprisingly, her favorite course is the Indian Epic course (The Ramayana) with the Penguin book translator (abridged) as her professor. She cannot get enough of it…and she is reading and recounting, talking about mythology and culture…alll those things that makes me crazy with glee. I love the stories but even more, I love the nutty pictures that depict all this Indian Superhero on steroids type of content. It will be interesting when Kitty gets around to thinking across topics from Indian Epics to animation. This is when the real fire will engage. She was quite pointed about ideas and points of view she has developed over the years on the topic of art which really lights her fire…and she will take no prisoners when it comes to that. So our girl with no opinions might have a few of her own. It is wonderful to see our girl blooming in this new culture of growth, learning, talking, trying. I know its premature, but it feels like great things might happen out of this experience. You all know that I certainly hope it does…but it really has energy behind it.

Yesterday, before our trip, we had breakfast with Kit at Atkins Farms, the wonderful grocery store just across the cornfield from Hampshire College.  They have a great breakfast, plus we get a chance to poke around the store and buy great stuff we cannot get at home…so a gigantic bottle of maple syrup on special, some bee capsules (magic feelgood energy etc…I believe!), some gourmet pancake mix for competitive discussion on a project, and a brine for pork and/or turkeys that came in a really nice, basic foil pillow pouch (two color label on matte silver).  It was nice sitting outside and watching Kitty talk and update us on the wheres and whatfors of her friends and life while watching something go on that we do not have in Central NY (and seems to be a waaaay easy way to fundraise).

Fee: $15. to get a pair of used pants, old shirt and all the hay you can stuff into it. There were hats (fromWilliamsburg Snack Shack, Q. Cassetti, 2010 Oriental Trading Company or the like) for the scarecrow’s head. No huge skills out there for the making and stuffing of these hay beings. And little and big around here cannot get enough of this entertainment. The local fire departments (as posted at the Williamsburg Snack Shack) even get into this holiday offering fun. Lunch was good at the Snack shack. So, this sort of selling seasonal fun hasnt crept into Central New York. People were tying corn sheaves onto their roofracks yesterday along with the odd carrying of these haymen under calm daddies’ arms…limply wiggling, deadweight figures that were a bit eerie in  their likeness….but well worth considering to do in our Tburg Farmers’ Market space.

We visited The National Yiddish Book Center at Hampshire. The Book Center is remarkable from the moment you park in front of the asian inspired facility, framed by beautiful gardens with meaning with comfortable places to park yourself with in the sunshine or in the soft pine woods with adirondack green chairs in a circle around a generous table. There is a pond and an orchard with a garden devoted to Yiddish literature and writers. There are performance spaces that we saw peering in through the windows. Combined with the Eric Carle Museum, the book world, illustration, imagery, photography, storytelling all hugs our little Hampshire giving the students an amazing source for their own work, their own stories, their own images and illustrations.

Sagamore Rooftops from our room, Q. Cassetti, 2010We drove across Massachusetts and up 87(?) to poke into the Adirondacks at Exit 23. It was a beautiful blue green drive with golden light and trees beginning to turn. There were ski gondolas as lawn ornaments the minute we turned off. The drive was inspired into and up the mountains to arrive at Sagamore just in time for dinner, a gathering of all the interesting people on the Museumwise board and then cold, cold sleep.

Today has given us blue skies and a cool day. I am surrounded by historians, curators, conservators, preservationists, organizers and planners. It is a most wonderful group of active minds, passionate about their topics, their work, their learning, this group. There is such vibrancy that there are glimmers of the travel with Hartford and Syracuse. I have needed some time to think and reflect. As much as I have brought project work to do, which I will do, it is nice to have an expanse of time to think, to do, to draw. Tonight there is a “meet up” at the Adirondack Museum (which I love)—and more ideas and interesting people.

One more thing>> take a look at this>> the Eye Fi>> too cool for school.

Work in Progress, Rooster, Q. Cassetti.2010Too wild here. The stuff hit the fan…and I am trying to bail water and keep the boat afloat. Here is the chicken as it keeps evolving…

Holiday card mania. Endless variations and alterations. Phone problems, technical booboos. I am ready to rip the hairs out of this aging head.

I think I am going to knock off , drink some cherry tea and wind some wool to peel myself off the wall.

Sorry for my lack of interest today…its just I have maxxed.

Early Start

Rain at the Sagamore, Q. Cassetti, 2010Yearbook this a.m. I have “sales tools” created for the team to use to sell books right out of the gate. We have pricing, examples and the works….so maybe we can generate a bit more interest while parents and students are focused on writing checks and getting things done for the seniors before the crush of college applications happen.

Alex needs to be dropped off at 7:15 for the second half of his music theory class. So, we have been rolling since the early side of things this a.m. Rob got up in the middle of the night to the clanking of the radiators which had heated up to winter strength due to one of the back doors blowing open and changing the heat in the house. Shady got a midnight break to do her business too…So its been an up and down sort of morning.

I have a massive hunk of pork crockpotting and the soup is ready for the team (prepped last night). I got all of Alex’s paperwork done (school pictures and a sheet with phone numbers and the like). So, at least I am not starting the day at a deficit like some days.

I need to get my stuff together for next week’s Adirondack charette. I have my new beautiful (and amazing battery life) powerbook, I have my mini scanner (size of a piece of paper and about 1/2” thick) and my wacom that all fit into a totebag. I am planning on illustration illustration and illustration along with some walks in nature. I have a little stack of electronic reference…and am getting excited about vectorizing a bit…along with sketching. I have a few books on the Kindle and need to check to see if my audible collecction is up to snuff. Will be listening to books on tape as I work (which I love to do). There is an internet connection at the public library outside of the confines of the Camp, so I will be making trips to see what is boiling here…and whether phone calls need to be made, or projects to be amended.

The Society of Illustrators Show submissions opened this week along with those for Society of Illustrators LA. I think there will be some of the Hangar Posters (def. The Man of La Mancha), a cat, and some of the decorative stuff (home sweet home, nutcrackers, and one or two of the fraktur inspired pieces). Feeling less than confident these days, so we will see.

Gotta go to class…and more coffee…

Let the Sunshine In

Phoenix rising from the flames, Q. Cassetti, digitalRefinement coming on with this bird. Not finished yet. Some of the shapes are not working…and need a bit of the retouching white out and some reshaping. Rob thinks he looks cranky. Cranky works for me. Rising from the flames takes determination and crankiness. So there.

More birds planned for this project. Only, instead of them being the whimsical birds, they will be fauxcuts like this. Getting my reference for the trip next week so as to focus on the Hangar illos. I hope this can gel. It would be great to nail this stuff early.

The back hallway sketch (placing windows in place, working with the open area) is getting interesting and real. I will cut in a picture so you can see what is happening on the construction front. I have been cooking down pork in a crockpot to make pulled pork (which is absolutely the easiest, nicest way to slow cook the meat…and to that, cheaper than cold cuts for the crowd I am feeding everyday. We have David and John and their new team member and wonderfully interesting Henry. There isBack porch redux. Q. Cassetti, 2010 Bruce and Erich and sometimes a few more depending on who is on site to work on the project. So, fast, hot lunches are my expertise. I will make a gigantic pot of soup and have it drained by the end of lunch. With it getting colder, the hot things will be more and more important. Note the new roof. and the pulled back dimensions. Also, you can see the rubble and the gigunda dumpster (second one) to just clear out the crap that has been bolted on, taped to and retrofitted to this hallway which,, now we are back to the original dimensions and roofline, we are getting tons of light in the first floor of the house. The Cave has gone. Let there be light…and there was light (after a big hot lunch of pulled pork).

Henry is interested in all sorts of things…permaculture in particular. There is a permaculture expert here in the Tburg environs who takes on apprentices to teach them about permaculture practices, and putting those practices into use. Wikipedia describes Permaculture in a clear way that even weak minds can grasp (like mine):

Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies.

Permaculture is sustainable land use design. This is based on ecological and biological principles, often using patterns that occur in nature to maximise effect and minimise work. Permaculture aims to create stable, productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its inhabitants. The ecological processes of plants, animals, their nutrient cycles, climatic factors and weather cycles are all part of the picture. Inhabitants’ needs are provided for using proven technologies for food, energy, shelter and infrastructure. Elements in a system are viewed in relationship to other elements, where the outputs of one element become the inputs of another. Within a Permaculture system, work is minimised, “wastes” become resources, productivity and yields increase, and environments are restored. Permaculture principles can be applied to any environment, at any scale from dense urban settlements to individual homes, from farms to entire regions.

The first recorded modern practice of permaculture as a systematic method was by Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer in the 1960s, but the method was scientifically developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and their associates during the 1970s in a series of publications.

The word permaculture is described by Mollison as a portmanteau of permanent agriculture, and permanent culture.

The intent is that, by training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals can design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society’s reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and systematically destroying Earth’s ecosystems.

While originating as an agro-ecological design theory, permaculture has developed a large international following. This “permaculture community” continues to expand on the original ideas, integrating a range of ideas of alternative culture, through a network of publications, permaculture gardens, intentional communities, training programs, and internet forums. In this way, permaculture has become a form of architecture of nature and ecology as well as an informal institution of alternative social ideals.

Here is the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute >>

Certainly something to think about.

Rain with a chance of more rain.

Edge Lit Mr. White, Q. Cassetti, 2010Here he is. Mr. Percival B. White (be is for Barry as Alex couldn’t handle the prissy Percival name). Rogue cat. Rabbit killer. Mr. Making Friends with all the Bed and Breakfast Guests So They Give Him Tuna Fish. Mooch Meister. I liked this shot as the screen sets up a scrim of the background facing the quadrangle and the clearing with his pink ears complementary with the bright green in the foliage.

Working on a phoenix. You got the first shot last night. Working into it…more tone, more flames, twistier, better curves (at least I hope). Its a nice respite to be among my vectors while I brew and stew in the world of the handdrawn. Next step, really focus down on the Hangar posters…and spend some time on them. Time, which I will have next week!. News is that I will go with Rob to the Great Camp Sagamore for his week of conference with Museumwise. I thought I would stay home, mind the shop and tend to Alex (which is a good thing) but the time in quiet would be a break and a chance for me to really think about things with a pencil…or without. I think I will take an iPod along with my phone with books on tape…and settle in with Hangar, illustration and some other work to not dash it off…but draw it and have the time to do it. Need to make some lists too…but the ISDP/Hartford travel schedule and enforced getting out there needs to switch to my life. Thus, the decision to do this for me..to temper my thinking and sharpen my pen—and push ideas around in that beautiful place.

Have meetings tomorrow. One regarding the Annuals for Cornell along with a new piece for Ithaca College. Good stuff. New stuff. If I have time, I will search my images next week too for the Cornell piece. Should be good.

News from Kitty Section: (quoted from Facebook)

Kitty Cassetti  thinks its funny how we all go through high school saying “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do!” but once one gets to college all we can say is “I wish we had more time.” Fifty pages of the Ramayana left and several new documents on dancing on the way. DO I EVEN HAVE TIME FOR HAMPFEST????

Kitty Cassetti  gods cursed with a thousand female organs all over their body, the room of anger, scheming wives, beds feeling like rocks and birds being too loud all because of a spontaneous love. Oh Ramayana, you are so hilariously awesome… I think that Hampshire needs a Room of Anger to just go into and rant…

Kitty Cassetti  has had two separate conversations today about how misunderstood sharks are and how evil dolphins are. God I love this place…

Please note. All seems good in Amherst.

 

All Creative Work Is Derivative


“Our second “Minute Meme,” illustrating how all creative work builds on what came before. Photographed and animated by Nina Paley. Music by Todd Michaelsen (“Sita’s String Theory,” a Bonus Track on the soon-to-be-released Sita Sings the Blues soundtrack CD!). Photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

More information at http://questioncopyright.org/minute_m… High-res and Ogg versions at http://www.archive.org/details/AllCre…

Overcast but not dreary.

Treasure from the Firemen’s Parade, Q. Cassetti, 2010We had an unplanned dinner last nights. We saw friends out walking and we had extra burgers—so a party happened. Not fancy in the least bit, but it was nice to visit with them. Paula, our landscape architect friend is working on some pretty magnificent, paradigm shifting stuff through Cornell in Utica. Her initiative is called “Rust to Green” with some magical relationships with everyone from the mayor down to the various department heads to establishing a consortium of colleges in the area to lean into her big ideas….it will change things, people, and life to the positive. Paula has a big project that she can champion with the right support, some funds, and her big brain filled with ideas. Check out the fab site and some of the legwork that is happening under the Utica tab.

Today is Porchfest in Ithaca. Porchfest is a free festival of music with all sorts of musicians playing between 11-5 on the front porches of various houses in the Fall Creek neighborhood. It would be a good thing to do here in Tburg. Wish we could lift something off the ground here.  Rob and Bruce and Alex will go. I am more into quiet and puttering. Last week sucked the life out of me…with a ton of rush work, the stress of letting my little bunny go, and the construction crew to feed and goad with the work being done on the back of the house. Now that I write about it, I guess I am not as big a weenie as I am feeling.

I have been making a ton of soup for the team for lunch—recycled soup, reconstruction soup, and of course white bean soup, mushroom soup. All the leftovers from the single flavors get folded into the recycled soup along with leftovers from dinner and a dose of stock or a can of diced tomatoes and we have another variety for the gang to devour. And devour they do. Again, my new favorite book (I ordered 6 copies at less than $12 a piece from Alibris for Xmas this year) has an extraordinary cornbread recipe which I make to go with the soup and that is sucked down in an instant. On today’s roster is the sweating of leeks and cooking of bacon to make a version of a friend’s torta (an italian pie in a springform pan, wrapped in puff pastry. I hope to get some logs of pizza crust going too….as its a lifesaver during the week. So, now with the lovely cool weather, it is a welcome to turn the iron dragon on and see what I can devise without breaking the bank.

Future Ithaca Art Trailer(?) from Fletchers Vintage Trailer Sales and Service.There is talk about buying a trailer and making it the Ithaca Art Trailer… Whaddah think? We could drag this thing to street events, music festivals and we could show my stuff ….think of the buttons and tattoos we could sell. I hope this leaves you thinking of the opportunities and of all the projects we “could” have. Ha.!

Saturday activities.

1948 Zimmer from Fletchers Vintage Trailer Sales, Trumansburg, NYJust did a bit of Christmas shopping via Alibris (used/discounter for Books). I really want to get ahead of the curve this year…and have it done before mid November. Really takes the sting out of the season. I think and know I can do it. Its a beautiful bluesky day today. I just finished a double order of granola as the crew is devouring it. I think I will leave a container for a granola fan at the High School on Monday. Just because Kitty graduated doesnt mean his stream of grain has to stop? Right?

There are plans afoot after Bruce and Rob come back here with the lawn tractor (repairs) and then to Stellar Stereo—to go to Fletchers Vintage Trailers  and see what’s there. They have a bunch of AirStreams which you know I adore, and this Bobba Fett Zimmer (see left) which I love how it looks…might be a mountain too high for this gal. They have some “lunchbox” Scotty style ones that are cute…and all affordable if you want to have a winter project.  Even Fletch sez in one of his write ups:

“A rare old trailer that is not for the faint at heart. Everything should be taken 1957 Tour-A-Home, Fletcher’s Vintage Trailer Sales and Serviceapart (to the frame) and rebuilt. I would recommend not to tow this one home.” 

I know about the faint of heart. We’ll see. Either the cute little red and white or an airstream is in the mix. Could be fun for the music fests. Might make the events far more fun.

Alex is going to a bonfire tonight and napping now after a long workout with the Cross Country team this morning. I talked to S. about the extra secret special job…and we are making progress on this project. I have learned about new people and brands in the world of bread and flour that are interesting and very tangible which is exciting.

I have been worked up about Fracking. WSKG yesterday ran a glowing “life is beautiful” story about how fracking and the drilling of our Marcellus Shale is going to create jobs for people and how wonderful life is going to be. I thought things were pretty great now. Why must we pollute the future for short term cash in the hands of banks and single generations. I heard a pretty nasty rumor about a local bank doing some pretty below board things to their real estate transactions with regards to mineral rights etc. The “Man” definitely has short term profits in mind as he dips into something they do not have the morals to even understand. I am working on some poster/illustration images that speak to my horror and fear of what almost seems inevitable unless everyone starts screaming. I wish I knew where Cuomo stood on this.

More later. Off to see campers.

Bright Skies

Dear Deer, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digital.It has been cold and rainy…a bit dreary. But here we are, on a Friday afternoon, and there is a beautiful, high blue sky with Maxfield Parrish clouds rising out of the brilliance. Can make a girl giddy.

I am going to morph back to being ink girl again. I am not charged up by this graphic stuff. I am intellectually, but emotionally, its not grabbing me between the ears…and after posting the Home Sweet Home image, I got all shivery about how much I love this technique and need to take it further. I am a bit concerned about the shows coming up for the next year. I have not been cranking the vector portraits recently, so my handful of show hopefuls are more limited as I have been stretching out a bit more as a decorative illustrator, and not as  the vector Queen that I have been in the past. I should get my eye back into that— freshening up my viewpoint, and building that book back up. Granted, I have some new images for the Hangar that could be submitted, but frankly, I am a bit concerned about not getting into the shows with the more diverse body of recent work. I did get some of the advent calendar work in American Illustration (a decorative approach) that was the hint that the Memento Mori work could take off (the willow skull got in American Illustration and Society of Illustrators (along with the traveling show to universities). So I should have some hope that the decorative stuff may possibly get recognition as well. It comes out of the same head and out of the same hand. Different technique..but still me. We’ll see.

Phone is ringing with new work. Some paying. A lot not paying. I got a wild bundle of “due immediately” work from the theatre (a quarter page, a small poster, a large poster, two banners, a playbill cover) and I whomped it out yesterday. Not much time to pfutz the details..but its all done and at an okay level. Another rushmo was a package for some flourbased mixes (a canister layout) that will link to the bread bakery in a way…so the need for a levelset was there. Albeit is was very quick—I am pleased with the general direction that is going too. And! Two pieces for Cornell is happening. And, a brand new something for Ithaca College too. Bizzzy me.

Alex is wild with school, training and hanging with the bros. There is a cookout/tailgate party post training today associated with the soccer game. Rob and Bruce are knocking off early to go to Watkins Glen for the antique/ vintage cars. Kitty news from Facebook reads:

Kitty Cassetti: dancing modern was absolutely intense. A semester filled with Kabuki, Ballet and Indian Dance are in the near future. I’m so excited!”

Kitty Cassetti The professor is this adorable little old lady who kind of threw us into the class first thing. It was pretty marvelous.

So, she is good…and loving it. Already has read a play for Theatre class. I need to go work on relaying out a brochure (miscommunication from the client). Ah well.

More later.

The Verge of Fall

owl sketch, Q,Cassetti, 2010, digitalNelly Charbonneaux featured me on her blog, “Nelly’s Blog” today. Nice write up. Nice exposure. I am very grateful to her attentions~! And further down on her list is another Syracuse ISDP MA in Illustration graduate, Dave Devries. Connecting again…The marvel of the web, it’s reach and the new people I have met through this wonderful connective medium is truly amazing. I can live in the country and reach the world. This is from the girl who, when graduating from college, used a miraculous machine called a fax that we had to shave our mechanical artwork off the boards to then wrap the art around this large glass cylinder to then have it scanned (took hours) to send to another place. Faxes are so passe with the internet and mail. No more high jinx like that!

School started yesterday as did yearbook. It was great seeing the teachers who I love and the new faces around the room. This year it is going to be tough going (100 pictures a week edited to 10 for presentation to the room)…with cameras we are providing. I bought some refurbished Olympus cameras for DIRT Cheap from Bargaincell.com over the summer to contribute to the pile. And, the Day In The Life books are there too—as a source of inspiration and ideas for good pictures and how to just keep shooting. Every other day from 8-9 is the class. We will see….we also have homeroom which means I get to hear the daily events (and menu) to my delight. It was pizza yesterday.

Alex is back in the swing of things. He proactively got in front of his schedule and switched out his English for a more advanced one as well as pursuing AP Music Theory in one of his two study halls. Impressive. We are bidding on a synthesizer on ebay for composition and fun—and I have his attention fully on that.

Kitty starts classes today: Dance, Theatre Production, Women in Animation and Indian Epics. She is doing swimmingly well and talks about the insanity around how everyone is befriending each other in an extremely competitive way. She calls is “competitive friending”. The dorm is great. The dorm friends are great and they all love tea….so there is lots of tea drinking in the hallway (and an opportunity to provide biscuits for this event). She sounds tired…but good and fully ensconced. Loves her room, her sanctuary. She has made a few “go to” friends and hopes to find more. This is all good given her quiet year here in the burg….a shot in the arm. More on her as it evolves.

The Fire Commissioner is enjoying that role. The Museum’s attendance has been very good (to his delight). He has dinner out tonight (for me to sketch and bake), a village meeting tomorrow and then the antique car show at the Glen on Friday with Bruce and Alex (no thanks!)….So, I have some me time in the near future to make stock, make soup (mushroom on the stove today using up all the slippery leeks and celery on the edge). I think a trip to Sauders in the near future will be on the list. Maybe Friday night?!

Holiday card for my big client to go out today. Need to talk to my contact at the Cornell Vet School about the Feline Health Annual Report and the Baker Annual Report. We are doing both books and I have some content ideas that should be interesting to push around with my associate.

Was talking with Deirdre C. about tees and a totebag for the Tburg Farmers Market using the derivative illustration from the work Durand did with the weathervane. We are pushing around an idea to celebrate the people who contributed (time/money) to build the market and bandstand…for sometime in October. More on that later. I need to wrap up a sketch for her today for the shirts.

More later>

There is nothing compared to a good night’s sleep, a dose of television with football, and a trip to the grocery store which will put things at least temporarily to right. I have a massive pork hunk in the crockulator to make pulled pork. I bought cornmeal to make some cornbread. And we finally have milk and parsley to make whatever we want to since our coming home. Rob is busy being the IT specialist here chez Camp. I am busy backing up computers (itunes and iphoto) as the great switcheroo (Alex gets my old powerbook, Mary gets the computer that drives the scanner until the old ones come back from the shop (we took to Amherst as they have amazing and inexpensive apple fixers there..here…forgetaboutit).

I know I could dwell on the changes in circumstances, but won’t. It’s sickly mesmerizing for me and tedious for everyone else, so move on and have reflective moments…but keep moving. Even Shady Grove is looking for our girl—wandering into her room and seeing if our favorite lump of girl is snugged in her bed. But she isn’t. Same with MeiMei and Mr. White. Weedles could care less. We all need to focus on Alex. Its tough on poor old Alex. He has his new toeshoe type running shoes going and is busy making plans to eat a cookout with a friend. He was my companion at the store which wrapped a trip to a yard sale (with drums in the front yard) and ended with a three for five bucks offering of old records (he scored 9 albums…with at least 5 of them old Beatles originals that he adores). So, the lyric, “love the one you’re with” is a good guide during this odd transition. It was fun hanging out with Alex—talking and paying full attention to him. We are making plans for cookouts with his friends…and trying to focus on what is good for him and his pals.

Need to restart the other computer. I am fearful it is on it’s last legs too.

Momento! Memento!

Kitty before the Prom, Q. Cassetti, 2010It’s funny that life is this long strand of time that sometimes just keeps going on it’s own without a definite time or date to tag things around. There are dates that are significant that one really doesn’t have any control over.Your birth and death happen outside of your control. But some you can impact and fix a time and date to. The day you enter college and graduate. The day you got your first apartment. The day you were engaged. The day you were married. The day you gave birth. The day your child went to school. Every Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and birthday. Each date a thread that twined with the next to infuse the continuum with color and note, annual comparisons but blending with the main thread and becoming one with it.

Then there are the times that things change significantly. Deaths change lives of those left behind for good or bad. Births do the same by changing the family dynamic through causing everyone to budge up and make room (in their time, pocketbooks and attention) for the new member. This new one, a child leaving home has for me, caused the clock to stand still. She is gone from us. Not for summer camp but has crossed the threshold into her own life independent of us. Sure, she will always be our daughter and one of our most amazing God-given treasures , but she will not be late for breakfast every morning or floating in the bathtub late at night. She will not be singing at the top of her lungs as she walks the dog at night. She will not be here every day to tease the cats and cheer her brother. The wild,extreme outfits and hairdos every morning and the wonderful, kind humor every night. Her insights and observations, her ability to see the good and obvious, her delight in everything and everyone is no longer here. Our dancing girl, our laughing princess, our gentle girl has gone to grow and expand. She has moved forward to be her own person and to infect the world with her kind, rational spirit—and we have been bumped out of her direct sphere of life to another ecliptic path that has the occasion to be in her vicinity versus daily or hourly to monthly to an occasional week here and there. We have to share now, whether we like it or not…there is no choice in this matter. 

We can fix a date to this change (09/02/2010) which none of us saw coming. No preparation, no warning but this sort of thing can creep up on you. And it did.

And left us all winded as our light moves on. 

Group Hug

Kitty at the Parade, Q. Cassetti, 2010Wow. What a last few days. I do not think I will not run down the blow by blow as it seems irrelevant other than we got to Amherst, stayed at a Holiday Inn Express (thankfully with comfy beds and air-conditioning), and were embraced by the spirit and community of Hampshire College, its friends, families, faculty, staff and the blooms of this wild rose, the lovely, bushy tailed students. 


It was hot going—with the temperatures in the mid to high nineties. But, as we approached Kitty’s dorm, a swarm of black shirted orientation guides, surrounded the car and deftly made light work of getting her stuff to the second floor of her dorm in short order. Then it was the fam doing the furniture re-arrangement, making of the beds, identifying the things to buy, and buying them, and finally leaving Kitty to empty her totes and really settle. She was worried and fretful, anticipating failure (my daughter, entirely). However, after the speechifying, the clapping and nice dinner under the big white tents in the central quadrangle (lets not forget the biodegradable corn starch cups filled with frosty water), and before her first floor meeting, we said goodbye and watched her introduce herself to a pair of women sitting outside who were formerly being chatted up by Mr. Younger Brother. After that, the texts got better and since then, silence. So, silence is good. I know she is happy and having a ton of fun.She might even have a few friends (do you think>?) and maybe not have to move out of her dorm (that was in the last hour of our visit). My guess is no change will be necessary.

 There were apple trees all over campus. Many dropping big red orbs (so early) that were rotting which scented the air from a sweet apple-y smell to the pungent reminder of vinegar…not all together unpleasant, but memorable. Many of the buildings and grounds had facelifts since the spring, so the property seemed really nice and tidy…a little less ramshackle and far more presentable if physical plant was key in the decision-making of future students and their parents. However, the spirit of the place was the same.

 There is something about the Hampshire Community, which I now feel fully entitled to talk about as I am now part of it. There is this ephemeral essence of smart, questioning, embracing and empowering. There is a push pull of ideas which can be (I am sure) strident (as with new ideas) to skills…and the approach that why not “try it”. Try philosophy, try rock climbing, try dance, try joke writing, try astrophysics, try it all, taste it all, question it all…and its all okay. There is no right way, its all right. There are no grades, but evaluations which can give you better feedback because it’s not about competition. The race is all between you and you (something I wish I had known sooner) and that the person you should concern yourself with is you. What makes you happy? What makes you think? What makes you expansive? What kind of person are you? How are you going to engage in your community and make a difference? This is what the Hampshire students learn along with the nuts and bolts of how to learn things, try things, grow and grow and learn until you are no longer. And these simple things are for me, a hallmark of an educated person. Empowered, confident, engaged in one’s community, growing personally, spiritually, physically and contributing with a happy heart—would be real lessons (the one’s without grades) that I would hope my children could learn and exemplify in their lives.

Kitty and Robbie at Hampshire, Q. Cassetti, 2010There is this embrace, as we experienced this weekend of students with students, faculty with students, staff with students, staff with faculty, parents with students with faculty and so on… which outwardly was expressed by the speeches and generous and thoughtful gestures on move in day. They had watercoolers in the quads and piles for paper recycling mid hallway for pick up. There were the onslaught of troops of happy helping new friends. We had visits from bouncy students just coming in to say hello and remark on something nice in Kitty’s room. We  met the new hallmates (kindred spirits to Kitty) and more upperclassmen who confirmed that this was her tribe. We were delighted by the details from the regular, vegetarian and vegan options for the nice lunches and dinners offered to the completed ID badge, kit and key that was easily handed over to Kitty hour one. The new president was enthusiastic as a new president and parent of a Hampshire student as well. Her remarks were thoughtful and meaningful. And no one felt the need to be a JK Rowling character from the Harry Potter books (thank goodness).

The next day was the beginning of orientation for the students and a full day orientation for families. I had signed us up “to be responsible parents”—and it turned out to be a pleasure without the least bit of pain And Mr. Younger Brother sat through the whole thing and was thrilled. So, much so, that he could easily see this sort of program for himself…so he can study music composition, film, and run cross country for the school. I think it def could be in the future mix too. He was on fire…and wanted to enroll for January term. I wish it could be that simple.

The family program had open panels on topics such as the program of study, of life beyond the classroom, ofNew Crew, Q. Cassetti, 2010 the dorm/dorm issues which were lead beautifully by members of the faculty with lots of question and answers with the parents. The families weren’t slouches with good questions (there were a few nervous nellies getting into the details of the bus routes etc as a for instance). We had a nice time during the lunch time meeting other parents and learning about their students (that’s what we call our kids)—their interests, backgrounds and where we all sit on the alternative scale. We are pretty mainstream/mild compared with the range. We will see these folks again in October and so on until graduation, so I know there might be some new friends in the bunch. If Hampshire pushes community, then we are there to embrace the whole thing.

 I just wish I could do it all over again on this campus, sitting between grain fields and the beautiful bowl of mountains that surround the school. The gold and pink, green, purple and blue were quite breathtaking now at the height of the season. I know October will be wonderful as will the cool winter. The opportunities and friends abound.