13 November 2025: Thinking about my dad tonight, who isn't doing well. I have such a clear memory of him singing along to the radio with this when I was little.
11 November 2025: A couple of snapshots that seem to sum up this marathon of days.
First, a kind of symbolic representation of my relationship to my house during this stretch in which I am both birds.
Second, a picture I took moments before I told Jo, "I'll be back right after trivia, I promise!" My heart sank as she settled down on my legs when I was home for about 30 minutes before heading back out again. She's clingy as heck when I'm gone a lot.
I also told her that I'll be home all evening tomorrow--and even get home before 5:00, if all goes as planned.
10 November 2025: Fourteen hours of pretty-much non-stop work/keeping busy! Got to campus early, got to work right away, kept going until 6:00. Then straight to a substitute shift hosting trivia at Benders. Home by 9:00.
Goodness--it's a lot and I am tired and there's so much more to do.
But it was a pretty decent day after all. And I got some good news about folks I love who are going through health stuff or who have loved ones going through health stuff.
9 November 2025: Didn't sleep too well at the hotel last night, so ended up sleeping in more than I meant to. But I also kind of loved not having to rush out or set an alarm. Made it home by 12:45 and have been a bit non-stop since then, handling the weekend's usual housework and laundry, hitting the grocery store, and getting ready for the week ahead. Almost through my very long list and taking a little Grey's Anatomy break while Jo sleeps on my legs.
I think I am on the downslope of the marathon, but now I am thinking it's more like five weeks rather than three. At the very least, I am half-way through it, which feels pretty good.
8 November 2025: Kicking myself that we didn't take any pictures, but after my presentation and a couple of panels this morning, I spent the rest of the day with Vogel. As always, it was awesome.
7 November 2025: Back at my favorite conference! Already had several quiet "fangirl" moments. I attended a session about how author societies can collaborate and speak to our current moment(s). What a perfect encapsulation of the kind of meaningful work these scholars do.
6 November 2025: Today at the BoG meeting, we voted (well, not me, since I am not a voting member) to approve a mechanism to reinvest in faculty and staff salaries. The road to this point has been really long and hard and painful. But this? It feels great.
2 November 2025: As the darker fall days settle in and I work through some Big Thoughts, I find myself contemplating Brandi Carlile's new music, particularly the title track to the album.
"And I was born to love you
I love you and you and you
Oh, returning to myself is such a lonely thing to do
Returning to myself is just returning me to you
And that's the only thing I wanna do"
That "you and you and you" in the second line above gets me every time--that sense of overwhelming love for so many people hits me sometimes.
And then the "lonely" in the next line hits hard. Because it's just the way it is and nothing hurts quite the way that loneliness does.
1 November 2025: I had the pleasure of hanging out with Theo today when his mom worked the Open House on campus. He and Jo got along quite well. And having him fall asleep in my arms? That's the good stuff.
31 October 2025: So tired I can barely see straight, but I'm home, can catch up on sleep, and am proud of all that got done this week. No way to list it all without being tedious, so I'll just add a picture of a sight that made me burst out laughing when I saw it.
Someone is feeling a bit neglected, I think. In the 90 minutes I was home late this afternoon, she was ready to go to the Sigma Tau Delta Halloween Party disguised as party meatballs.
