SOL9: Workshop Updated

If you saw my post yesterday, you know I am a co-moderator of a workshop on women’s activism and gender rights in Eastern Europe. Our next speaker was scheduled for this coming Friday the 13th. I’m not (really) superstitious, but that should have given me pause.

            Our speaker was planning to come from Turkey, where she is doing field research. Last

night she e-mailed me to ask whether NYU was still accepting international visitors, because she had noticed that some U.S. institutions were canceling events with international people. Today I checked with the NYU center, where our workshop is hosted, and at first the communications the Center had received were inconclusive; it was “recommended” that such events be postponed or canceled, but the school was still open. But my contact at the center was not confident that this was the final call, especially since Columbia University and Barnard College (in the neighborhood where I live) had announced they were closing their campuses for Monday and Tuesday and would re-evaluate after that. So perhaps NYU would also close, especially since its spring break is next week.

            I decided to let our speaker decide whether it was worth it for her to come all the way to the States on the off-chance that perhaps NYU would be closed when she arrived.

            Later this afternoon, however, NYU sent out a new announcement. Now all non-essential events are requested to postpone or cancel, and all classes are to be held remotely from Wednesday on. (NYU also has its spring break next week.)

            So I had to inform our speaker that her presentation was canceled. Perhaps she can be rescheduled in the future, but we’re full up this spring, and who knows whether we’ll be able to hold our April and May workshops. Stay tuned...

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I’m participating in the 13th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 9 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!

SOL4: Skip, or Catch-up?

Yesterday was too busy a day, even though I had some time in the morning, but because I feel tied to the idea that a “slice of life” has to be a slice of TODAY’S life, I didn't post then. So here’s what happened yesterday.

            There was a movie I wanted to see, “Beanpole,” a Russian film that was the topic for a movie discussion group I missed while on vacation. So that was my first activity of the day. More about movie later. Next, I had to eat lunch. Third, the gym. By the time I was done there, it was almost time to meet my women’s group, but fourth, a stop at the bank.

            Then, women’s group at a restaurant, where we discussed politics, travel plans, and then our topic of the month, which was continuing through a series of life assessment questions that one of our members uses with her undergraduate class on Biography. This evening’s questions included “What is your biggest regret?” “What would your friends say is your best trait?” and “What would you say is your worst trait?”

            The three women who were divorced all said their biggest regret was marrying the man they later divorced. My biggest regret: leaving my second Antioch College co-op job in L.A. (if you don’t know, this school alternated three months of school on campus with three months of a job anywhere in the country; the college was resurrected nine years ago after being killed off five years before that); it was fall 1961, I was barely 19, there were only two other Antioch students in jobs in the Los Angeles area, and I knew no one else. If only I had recognized my fear and loneliness as severe homesickness instead of an incipient nervous breakdown. Fortunately, I made it back to Antioch that winter, and two more jobs in the spring and summer of 1962.

            Once home from the women’s group, I had another project to work on for a workshop on women in Eastern Europe I’ve been co-moderating for almost 30 years. It wasn’t until almost 11:30 that I realized I hadn’t sliced yet. And there was so much I could have offered.

            And about the movie? I’m going to slice twice today, and hope that is not cheating.

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I’m participating in the 13th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 5 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!