25 years

11 September 2026: It seems foolish to even try to say something significant 25 years later. Most of my students weren't even born then. They've grown up hearing their teachers talk about "what it was like" every year. Today I just said to them, "It was awful. It sucked. It was really sad." That's all I've got.

Otherwise, grateful today for how much I've grown, changed, and learned since then, even as I know acutely how far I still have to go. 

Grateful for a full day of teaching, progress on some projects, two fresh vaccines (COVID and flu) in my arm, a fun stop at a faculty happy hour, and a night at home with the girls.

Living up to its name...

10 September 2026: Stopped when I got home from work today to admire the butterfly bush doing its thing. Perfect little moment. 

3 weeks in a row...

9 September 2026: Three weeks in a row of playing trivia at the casino. Three weeks in a row of us coming in second and winning $50. Three weeks in a row of feeling pretty good about having something fun to do in the middle of the week. 

Tomatoes and sweets...

8 September 2026: Walked out of trivia this evening with a couple of home-grown tomatoes and some sweets from London and Paris, gifts from two of my favorite teams. (They are all my favorites...) 

At least once a month, I leave with little gifts the teams give me. It's just a lovely reminder of how kind they all are.

Grateful, grateful, grateful. 

Labor Day Breakfast

7 September 2026: Really wonderful to start the day with breakfast at Hannah, Cory, and Theo's. Good food, cool cats, two of my best friends, and their super-fun baby? What more could I ask for?

Rednecks

6 September 2026: "Sid had dug the black veins of West Virginia cola that made hte companies rich that hired these men. Money that could buy mansions on teh shores of cold, clear lakes and twelve-cylinder Italian automobiles and murder in muddy streets behind the gleaming badges of private detective agencies. Coal money, God-strong in Mingo County. Sid smiled because he was risen from the mud of this place, born to meet such men in the street" (9).

Started reading Rednecks, my book club's current selection, today. Digging it so far. And just in time for Labor Day.

Work Cited

Brown, Taylor. Rednecks. St. Martin's, 2024.

Catching up on the social front...

5 September 2026: I've got a list (admittedly not very long, but still) of friends I need to catch up with because I didn't get a chance to see them this summer. Get-togethers delayed, canceled, never scheduled to begin with because I felt too uncertain about where I'd be on any one day.

Got a chance to cross a couple of names off the list tonight, meeting my friends Steve and Kit for dinner in Frederick. We talked for hours, like we always do. Felt wonderful.

Literacy Narrative proposals...

4 September 2026: I spent a big portion of this afternoon reading through my ENGL 101 students' proposals for their literacy narratives. So many good ideas percolating and real depth hiding in some of them. Already, too, evidence of rich and complicated lives.

Lots of work to do--both for them as writers and me as their teacher. But we can do it. 

Sometimes it hits you...

3 September 2026: I really am managing everything well and have been since December. I'm kind of proud of myself about it.

But sometimes it just crashes into me. 

Both gone in less than nine months. So much...just gone. 

I think the thing to do is just feel it. 

And I'll be okay.

Out again on a "school night"

2 September 2026: Second week in a row that I've played Wednesday night trivia at the casino with some friends. Second week in a row that we came in second and won $50. (My friends have been playing every week for longer, but this part of the experience is still new and exciting to me.)

Low-key proud of myself for going out on a school-night and making myself have fun. 

Writing progress...

1 September 2026: I am pleased to be making good progress on a writing project that isn't fun, but is kind of satisfying--and pays. I got to spend most of today making my way through it at home, a luxury I want to both appreciate and protect. 

Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the Soul

31 August 2026: My goodness, this Mary Oliver documentary precisely the right thing for me to watch right now. 

Such beauty. 

Such attention to the self and the world. 

So necessary.

Annie's Burgers

30 August 2026: Another sign that Annie is settling in as an official member of this family (despite the fightin' with Jo and Veronica): she has been the subject of a "cat and Bob's Burgers" picture.

"Can I get some of that?"

29 August 2026:

ENHANCE!

One week down...

28 August 2026: One week down...and it went pretty well. I was anxious about the usual excitement not coming back, but it did (mostly). Very grateful for that.