Getting to know one another

As Tai recommended, we - or at least you - need to get to know one another. I may know you from lessons and e-mail, but you don't really know each other. Even those who have posted and read one another's introductions in the discussion group would benefit from "renewing" acquaintanceships.

You can introduce yourselves in new posts or as a comment to this post. You can also complete your profiles to include more information if you wish. The downside there - it's more public. I have a few student introductions in a .doc file and can pull more from the students folders. Gosh that sounds like unnecessary work, doesn't it? I'd much rather you introduce yourselves.

Even though you know me and I have introduced myself many times, I'll set an example by going first. Besides, we change over time so our introductions should too.

Now 63, I still live in Mountainair NM - in the same house in the same small town. I am not the town and the town is not me but my continuing to live here may say as much or more about me than my interests or even my reading habits. Louisiana and California seem worlds away now ... and the overseas haunts of my youth further still, as though in another quantum continuum.

The population of Mountainair grew since my first introduction and then lost population. No one here can agree on whether the town is booming or dying. The demographics have shifted somewhat just since I moved here almost six years ago. That is bound to affect the character of the town. The "old timers" are closely split between Hispanic and Anglo. Both groups are very insular and suspicious of change. Some new comers are retirees looking for cheaper land and who grew up in small towns and now want to retire to one. Others are somewhat younger, more prosperous, and fleeing urban areas. Most of these I would say are from California.

I chronicle all this on my blog, my web page and the Chamber of Commerce web page that I maintain. The Mountainair Vanessa used to teach college - face to face at UNM Valencia (actually a 3rd rate community college masquerading as a branch campus of NM's flagship university) and then courses at for-profit online colleges. I am pretty burnt out with that teaching. The pre-Mountainair Vanessa used to teach horseback riding in Lafayette, Louisiana and then comparative literature at the University of California. The current Mountainair Vanessa has a couple of local, part time sources of supplementary income but wrote the first draft of a novel last month (the third in as many years) as is now trying to spend more time writing. I have thought about substitute teaching at the high school and may still have to do it, but I would not be able to pace myself . Working a full day without control over pacing invariably leaves me wiped out for the next 2-3 days.

I live by myself and have two ponies, a dog, and a clutch of outdoor cats (the numer varies). My daughter lives in Albuquerque. She has a baby - my first grandchild - and got married last month. She also works full time as a lawyer on the NM Labor Board and usually so busy that I do not get to see as much of either her or Deacon as I would like.

These days I rather feel as though I am in yet another transition period. I do not know where it will end up but doubt it will take me away from Mountainair.

Now it's your turn...