Disarming Zack

Who could have imagined that the sweet talking son of peace loving woman who won't kill an ant (or weeds or even a fly) demonstrates a talent for weapons engineering and assembly at the ripe age of 5.

He calls me to play with him to admire and also fear him and his weapon.

He corners me and takes aim.

I stand still in non-violent protest, expecting he will not really shoot me, and take this picture, distracting him.

As I type this on my balckberry and slip the story to you like a note passed between friends at desks, he is moving his offensive front in another direction, rolling down the hall towards his sister.

As far as I am concerned, she's on her own. (No mutual defense pacts here.)

Now I'm going back to folding laundry, peacefully as usual.

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Dear New Students....

Required reading:

http://laughingmelissa.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-i-like-my-late-lattes.html

Time

Twelve hours from now, Zack starts kindergarten.

.
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Random Acts of Love and etc

Friends (real friends) don't let friends shop for clothes at Cracker Barrel restaurant.

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Awkward Match.Com-ish Introduction Thing

No, I'm not really on Match.com or anything like that. My life is full enough, and I've got to make room for 250 new students on August 24.

This semester I will be teaching another online class.

In the past I haven't given much of myself to my webstudents, but this semester I've decided to be a more active presence on their Discussion Board.

Their first assignment is to post a Discussion Board introduction.

It felt weird while I wrote it, but I forced myself to post the first "introduction." In past web-based classes I have neglected to introduce myself, then was bored to death by student introductions. Maybe if I go first and set the pace, things will get interesting.

I'll let you know*

***********************************

Hi! I'm Dr. Soldani.

I have been teaching college history for 15 years, and I am a tenured professor of history at Tallahassee Community College.

In the past years I have taught at Barry University, St. Thomas University, Nova Southeastern University, Broward Community College, Loyola University and Florida State University.

I am Cuban-American, born in New Orleans the same year of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the year that Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and our country rocked with violent riots.

I grew up in South Florida (33060) and remember the 1980 Miami Riots and the Mariel Boat Lift.

I was raised to be University of Miami Hurricane Football fan, but that was the 1980s and really UM had a great team worth my devotion back then. (I have since moved on.)

As soon as my over-protective parents allowed me to leave the house unchaperoned I left for college at 17 (they sent me to a city where I had relatives to chaperone me, of course) earned a BA in History from Loyola University in 1990.

After that I earned my MA in History from Univ of Colorado, Boulder in 1992. Before you ask, the answer is no, I didn't ski when I lived in Boulder. I was a poor graduate student who didn't see snow until late in my life. Besides that, I lived in the library. Oh! I did go to the library at Vail once and study while other people hit the slopes. That counts for something, right?

I arrived in Tallahassee in 1992 -- the same week Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida -- and earned and my PhD from Florida State University (1998).

My dissertation examined the role of the Cuban Revolution on Miami's emergence as an international banking center (and also, money laundering... good stuff!) and my current research is on War Orphans and Internation Adoption.

My areas of special research are Latin American History, Immigration History, Foreign Policy, International Banking History and History of Women & the Family.

The best book I read the summer was "Bright Shiny Morning" by James Frey. I love everything by Amy Tan, Marian Keyes, Lisa See, and Wally Lamb.

I've never left the continental United States, and I have no plans to do so soon, unless something *really* exciting happens in Cuba or I get an offer I can't refuse. My kids would notice if I skipped the country, so it would have to be a really great offer.

I have 2 kids -- Zack (5 years old, just started kindergarten) and Zoe (8 years old, 3rd grade, and my friend on facebook), and a blog, http://laughingmelissa.blogspot.com

I love running, writing & telling stories, watching Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Grey's Anatomy, Entourage, Real World (no joke, I haven't missed a single one since the first episode.... I am the same age as Beth, the older chick who keeps coming back on the show for the challenges).

And most of all -- more than any of that -- I have an awesome career because I have the priviledge of teaching history to community college students.

Gruesome Sight

Popcicle corpse.

Inside job?

Global warmng?

Deserticide?

Investigation pending.
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Got it?

We are dogsitting an angel named Bella.

After a long afternoon in muds and chasing lizards, Bella lays happily on my cool floor grooming herself.

"Bella is licking her penis!" Zack announces.

I take a deep breath, shake my head and jump in to correct him.

"Zackito, boys have penises, girls have vaginas."

He nods his head and says, "I know Mom, but Bella isn't a girl, she's a DOG. Got it?"

I nod my head, thankful for the lesson.
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Yielding Moon

The moon blazed full 

and gloriously generous

this morning,

first white and high 

as I began my run

then

yellow orange round ripe

sinking behind the trees 

as I crested the last hill

yielding the sky

gracefully, generously

to the purple violence of dawn.

Certain the moon had left,

I, too, disappeared

from under the sky

marching myself back

 into that house box

yielding myself 

to the day.

My Dad and the Coconut Tree