HAPPY NEW YEAR! Year of the Snake!

Happy Lunar New Year (usually called Spring Festival in China). It's the year of the snake and we hope it brings you all good luck. The snake is also sometimes called "the little dragon" and symbolizes wisdom and intuition--qualities of good leadership. Since a snake sheds its skin, it is also a symbol of transformation. May we all find wisdom and intuition this year to transform our fears into hopes.

I'm behind on my annual missives, and our family has suffered some difficult losses in the past two years. Michael's father, Jack, passed at the end of May last year. We feel very lucky to have had a good visit with Jack and Babs and the whole family in the spring. Two of my father's sisters, Aunt Kate and Aunt Annamary passed on. We also lost our beloved neighbor, Jim (who is related to Mary's family by marriage). All of this happened while Mary was in China. We said a sad goodbye to the brown dog, Cullen, who, at sixteen, had lived a long and happy life, accompanying us (with his sidekick, Ursula) on sailing trips on Lake Erie and backpacking treks in the Porcupine Mountains. Ursula's hiking days are past, and she rests at home with our aged cat, Shiva, and the new kitten, Prince, who loves to groom Ursula--or anyone who will sit patiently with him. Prince showed up in our corner meadow one day and nestled his way into our home and our hearts.

Last July we celebrated Ellis and Dev's wedding. The festivities were cross cultural since the couple brought traditions from both families, and lasted three days. Mary was honored to be invited to write something for the ceremony. The wedding was a highlight of the summer (of the year? of the decade? of our lives...?) to stay in a little house for nearly a week with all three of our boys and their sweethearts, and we decided to prioritize family time. Dylan and Michelle joined Chandra and Lila in Scotland for Thanksgiving; Mary and Michael joined Chandra and Lila at Ellis and Dev's in San Francisco for Christmas; and Mary and Michael joined Michael's family for sailing in the Caribbean. The Caribbean trip was in memory of Jack, who was a sailor. We visited his favorite island and sat at his favorite bar ("Jack's"), telling stories and remembering him.

Speaking of sailing, we bought a sailboat which is moored on Catawba Island in Lake Erie. It's just west of Cleveland. Michael enjoys working on it and has fitted it with solar panels and has done some magic with the electrical system so we can enjoy modest appliances even when we're not plugged into shore power. We are learning about the nearby islands and love to host visitors, so if you're up for a sailing trip, hit us up. We have been spending several weeks each summer at the boat.

Mary will go back to China for one last tour of duty this semester, and then will return to teaching at home in Illinois. She's very grateful for the opportunity to dip her toe into Chinese culture, even if she never made much progress on learning the language.

Michael has moved his private practice to Urbana and studies physics in his spare time. He will travel to China in May this year for one last chance to explore. We'll be home in mid-June.

We hope you are all well in these uncertain times, and finding ways to enrich your communities. We wish you peace and joy and courage in the coming year.

P.S. click on any of the links above for more detail or to see more photos.

Happy New Year! YEAR OF THE TIGER

 

Year of the Tiger

Happy Lunar New Year! We wish you all well in this new year.

It's been a rough ride, hasn't it? We hope you are all healthy and safe, and hope that 2022 shows us an end, or at least a calming, of the pandemic.

Ursula and Cullen
enjoy the snow

I'm writing from a 70s-era hotel on Lake Fanny Hooe in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We are here to enjoy the winter weather. Yesterday we cross-country skied at Keeweenaw Mountain Lodge built by the CWA in the 1930s.

Meet me at the corner
of Haight and Ashbury

In November, we went out to San Francisco to visit Ellis. He is an excellent host! He took us sailing, and we explored the Palace of Fine Arts. We missed Dev, who was visiting her own parents at the time.

The Rotunda

Because of the Covid, both Ellis and Dev were working from home. Ellis is a compiler at Meta, and Dev does something techie at Redfin.

Claude
our Royal Palm Tom

What is Michelle cooking up?

Here we are getting ingredients

In October, Dylan and Michelle came down to visit, and we processed poultry. There is always a lot of cooking going on when these two are around.

They are busy with their new(ish) enterprise, Bananaphone Treats, where they make wonderful sherbet, sorbets, and other deliciousness. You can follow their instagram at bananaphone_chicago to learn about their pop-ups. The Chicago Reader featured them in an article, calling Dylan "some kind of MNF MVP." 😃

In August, we sailed in Grand Traverse Bay with our friend, Elaine and her daughter, Addie. Next time we hope Matt, and their other daughter, Marlys, will come along.

Elaine and Adelade

Mary getting some sun

We took our annual backpacking trip in the Porkies (just about 100 miles west of where we are now). Every year we think it's the last time for our geriatric dogs, but at 13, Ursula and Cullen are doing great. They love being on the trail.

Cullen, the pack dog

Michael found me these wonderful
birch firewood holders
I found the charcoal pencils in the fire pit

dog tired

We try to get a site next to the lake for easy access to water. This time we had to book a campsite half a mile from the lake for our first and last nights. Because of the drought, all the streams were dry, so Mary and the dogs set up camp while Michael hiked to the lake and back to collect water. Our lakeside campsite (which we called paradise) was another six miles in. Mary got confused about the dates, so on what we thought was our last night, we hiked back to the previous site, only to realize we had one more day in the delightful lakeside site. We had to turn around and hike back again. No real problem, just...um...12 extra miles ... with packs on our backs. The dogs were a little confused about why we were doing this, but they took it in stride. The next day we had to repeat the whole six miles and then some to get to the trailhead.

camp kitchen

Mary and Lila ready to fly!

In July, we visited Chandra and Lila in Seattle. It was the first time to see them since their Covid Wedding (only their Seattle"pod" attended, but we saw the beautiful pictures. They got married on the beach with the two dogs in attendance.) and they took us on a parent trip to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. We got to meet Lila's parents, Ana and Roberto, who are delightful. They are both artists and a lot of fun. We stayed in a very sweet B&B in a Victorian house.

Mary and Ana, Lila's Mother

Fresh Fish!

Flying over the Sound

Mary, Michael, and Chandra

Isn't he fierce?

Bobblehead Monk in a taxicab

Old Town has beautiful light shows

Here I am at Hogwarts--er ZJU

In June, Mary returned from China, where she'd been teaching since February. She spent four weeks quarantined in a hotel, but then lived on Zhejiang University campus. The grounds are  picturesque and the students and faculty are friendly. She was supposed to get back to campus in the fall and then in the spring, but she had a string of bad luck, from the visa company losing her passport to an increase in COVID leading to cancelled flights, and she has had to teach two more semesters online. She loved her stay there and hopes to get back next fall

We wish you all a happy and healthy Tiger year. The web oracle says that it's a water year, and the Tiger always finds a way out, so we should expect that this year we will be courageous and may expect adventure. Please let us know how you are doing. Drop us a line, or leave us a comment here.

Much love,

Mary and Michael

SHANGHAI QUARANTINE

Mom, point your camera at this square, and
my Instagram should open up.

 

I'm sitting in a lovely hotel room in a western Shanghai suburb. Every day I get three delicious meals delivered. You can find more photos on my Instagram account @BirdlandLetters. Someone comes twice a day to check my temperature, and calls me to make sure I'm okay. In a few days I'll go to another hotel for an 11 day quarantine. I'm taking it one step at a time. Just about halfway recovered from my jet lag. I will take a little nap after my afternoon temperature check.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MARY LUCILLE?

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MARY? 

(to see new updates, click on Mary and Michael 2.0 at the top of this page)

After a 4 week quarantine in various hotels in Shanghai and Zhejiang, Mary will be on the beautiful international campus of Zhejiang University. She will continue to teach the Rhet class for freshmen that she has been teaching for the last year--only now she will get to meet them in person!

HOW CAN I GET IN TOUCH WITH MARY?

Email should work once she gets on campus in mid-March, and probably also in the quarantine hotel before that. Try her at mary.lucille.hays (at) gmail.com. She should also be able to get messages at facebook messenger, WhatsAp, and Facetime (if you let her know ahead of time so she can have Facetime on her computer open). The only thing that won't work is texting or calling to her old phone number.

WHAT ABOUT THE TIME DIFFERENCE?

Great question! China is ahead of us by about half a day, so my mornings will be your evenings and vise versa. In the middle of your days I will be asleep. And China doesn't do daylight savings, so the difference will change when that happens. Here is a handy time converter from CST to China time.

CAN I SEND MARY A LETTER?

I think so. But I think it may need to be addressed in Chinese. I'll find out more when I get to campus and update this page with my address in Chinese that you can print out. Use international stamps. You can get them at the post office. (Don't try to buy them from anyone else. I almost paid $7 apiece for them from a third party, but they're only $1.20 from the P.O.)

WHEN WILL SHE BE BACK?

Michael will meet me in Seattle on June 1, and we'll spend a few days with Chandra, then be home around June 5. 

WHAT ABOUT BIRDLAND?!

I'll send dispatches from the far east and hope to be able to make my deadline every week. I'll try to do a better job of keeping my blog updated as well. 

WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?

Put a question in the comments, and I will answer here!

Happy New Year 2020! Three Year Summary

Can we have really let our letters go for three years? A lot to catch up on!
Ellis is about to graduate from Stanford with a Master's in Computer Science. They have some wacky quarter system there, so he graduates in March or something. Then he'll start his job at Facebook soon after. His sweetheart, Dev, also has a job in San Francisco. You can take the boy out of the Prairie, but you can't take the Prairie out of the... Nope. He's a California boy now. But that's okay because Michael and I don't mind visiting the west coast at all. In fact, we spent Christmas with Chandra and Lila in Seattle. Ellis came up to join us.

Fun in Seattle

Chandra and Lila have some news of their own. They are engaged. Plans are still in the making, but we think they will set a date soon for 2021.

Dylan and Ellis at Pink Salt

We got to see Dylan on both sides of our trip, but working in the restaurant business, he has a harder time getting away on holidays. Dylan is the sous chef for Pink Salt, a wonderful restaurant specializing in Thai street food. He and his chef, Palita, do a lot of pop ups in interesting places. Dylan also continues his own pop up project, The Dinner Table. If you're in the Chicago area, check out his schedule. He usually serves a rustic soup and bread in a local bar. Good times!

Michael continues his private practice in Watseka, but he has started thinking about opening a second office closer to home. But that will have to wait until he returns from China.
Yep. You read that right! Michael Hoag will be joining me in China where I will teach for the spring semester. Our College of Engineering has a partnership with Zhejiang University, and our department teaches Freshman Rhetoric to prepare ZJU students to come to UIUC later in their college career. We leave February first, and Michael will stay for three weeks. I'll be there until June, and he will join me for the last month of my stint.
For fun, we travel a bit, and for the past few years, we've sailed on Lake Superior. Our nephew, Justin, went along as first mate.

Captain Mike teaches Justin on the arts of wind.

We also take a backpacking trip in the Porkies in U. P. Michigan. The dogs go with us on the trail, but not on the boat. The dogs love the trail and keep us safe from bears.

Mary thanks her lucky stars that she did not win the election to County Board, or she may well have landed in the County Jail as her opponent, Ray Spencer, did. Though maybe not, since she probably wouldn't have forged an email from the State's Attorney and then forwarded it to the media, though you never know because power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Mary ran for County Board in 2018 and got her clock cleaned.

However, she is proud that she garnered 300 more votes than the number of her party's voters in her district. Also Ray spent a pretty penny on glossy mailings that he didn't need

when running unopposed.

Two silly snow dogs

Ursula's Happy Spot

View from a Tent

Happy New Year ~ 2017 (with Highlights of 2016)

Hello, Friends.

It's been a hard year of losses for our family. In February, Mary's beloved father passed, and his sister, Aunt Jane (who, with her sister, Aunt Kate, was our nearest neighbor) followed him in June. We have found comfort in good memories and the love of family and friends, but we miss them immensely.

Here are the highlights as they occur to me (Mary) in no particular order:

Here Dad reads at our wedding.

In January, I wrote about my dad in my column, and I'm really happy that he got to see it before he passed. I wrote about Aunt Jane, too, but

Aunt Jane

her death was very sudden, and she never got a chance to read it. Don't wait to tell people in your life how important they are. (A cliché, maybe, but one of the true ones.)

Ellis is now a Junior, majoring in Computer Science in the College of Engineering at UIUC. I hear he

Ellis

is making pretty good grades, too, especially in his ice skating class. He enjoys school so much that he's thinking about grad school.

Michael reads a few poems.

Michael is still working up in Watseka in his therapy private practice. He's done a lot of renovations on his office, making the back room cozy. He's been working on projects at home, too, putting the floor on our new front porch. Soon we will be able to set a little table and a couple of chairs out there to enjoy our morning coffee. He's also been doing body work on my car--pounding out dents, sanding, and painting. It's like having a new car. You live with someone for 30 years + and never realized they could do body work. Who knew? Michael's talents seem to be limitless. He is still writing poetry, and we go up to Chicago fairly often to read in an open mic or visit the museum or go to one of Dylan's Recovery Soup events.

Dylan tweets his soup!

Dylan is a busy one, cooking and baking at Café Marie Jeanne, a delightful rustic French restaurant in Humbolt Park. He is perfecting his sourdough technique and hosting his pop ups (the Recovery Soup events linked above). We're really proud that he uses these events to raise money for various charities, from the Chicago Food Bank to the ACLU to Chicago House and Social Service Agency. If you'll be in Chicago check out his Facebook page at The Dinner Table to find out when his next event will be.

Chandra is still in Seattle, and he and his partner, Lila, have just adopted a huge puppy. Freya is a Bernese Mountain Dog. Michael and I visited in October, just before Freya joined the household, so we had to content ourselves with hiking, and wandering around Pike Place Market. But we look forward to meeting her in the coming year, maybe when we go on

Mary and Chandra

our backpacking trip somewhere in the Cascades. Stay tuned for news of that trip next year. To prepare, we have been exploring trails closer to home, and in September spent a couple of days hiking at Devil's Lake in Wisconsin.

On the trails in Devil's Lake

Hiking at Little Si in Seattle

Fresh Veggies at Pike Place Market

Seafood in Seattle!

Mary and Michael buy their traditional bouquet from the Market

It's hard to believe, but I am about to defend my thesis for my MFA. For two years I've been going down to Kentucky for 10 day residencies and writing long distance during the semester. I almost hesitate to say it, but my little book is nearly finished. I just have one story to heavily revise and then polish the rest. I've had a little good luck with publications. My first book review appeared in our school journal, New Madrid, (Okay, I had to write it to graduate, and they sort of had to publish it.) and I have a short story upcoming in Quiddity's 2017 issue. I studied abroad in Ireland for most of the month of June, and Michael got to come for a week. As part of my schoolwork I contributed to this blog: Murray State Irish Literature Study Abroad. You can read about what my classmates and I were up to, or you could read my posts: Q-Con in Belfast and Earthenware Pot Oven: and Artifact of Hospitality, and The Vivid Face of James Connolly. You could also check out my friend, Ryan's, blogposts on our trip, especially The Summit Kept its Promise, and How we learned so much from an exhibit that's not open yet.

Irish Castle

Irish Tower

Mary and an Irish Wall

A Walk in the Woods 

Mary and Michael at Sandycove

James Joyce Tower

Wishing you and yours a happy new year filled with light, love, community, and hope.