G.L.O.W.

30 December 2018: ""You let somebody in, you know? And then you make room. Then they go and yet...the room is still there." --Sam, to Ruth, in the Season 2 finale of G.L.O.W.

After waiting forever to watch it, I finally got to the second season of G.L.O.W., finishing the last episode in the early hours of this morning. This isn't a novel opinion, but it was so good. I loved it--so funny, so smart, and sometimes, so moving. The quotation above represents one of those moving moments, but the humor is even more pervasive--and so great.

Some friends and I have been talking about end-of-the-year "top ten" or "top five" lists of various kinds of culture. If I had a "best woman-centered shows," this would be so high on the list (right there with Call the Midwife, Killing Eve, The Handmaid's Tale...).

"Every Time I Hear That Song"

29 December 2018:

"By the way, I forgive you
After all, maybe I should thank you
For giving me what I've found
'Cause without you around
I've been doing just fine
Except for any time I hear that song..." --Brandi Carlile, "Every Time I Hear That Song"

This (excellent) song is on President Obama's "favorite songs of 2018" list and, well, dude has good taste. It's on my mind, too, tonight, as I think about someone I used to be quite close to.

"Beloved"

28 December 2018: Syllabizing on a foggy and kind of gloomy Friday night has me reading and thinking about Michael Field. (If you don't know about Michael Field, you really should click that previous link. What a story!)

Anyway, in my contemplative mood, here's one poem that moves me tonight.

Robot Invasion: It Begins..

27 December 2018: I left the new robot vacuum doing its thing (for the first time) while I ran up to the office. Based on the way they were watching it and stalking it when I left, I figured there was a 50% chance the cats would have destroyed it by the time I got home. But perhaps their bravery wanes when I am not here. I got home and they were all upstairs (not the robot--it can't climb stairs...yet?). Also the robot *might* be a bully. It has pushed their food bowls around and suspiciously finished its cycle and docked itself *just* as I got home. Will keep an eye on the Pixar movie in the making...

Veronica's new bird

26 December 2018: One of the three things I asked for this Christmas (the others being a robot vacuum and socks) was a new chirping bird for Veronica. She absolutely loves the ones she got the past two years--and the one from last year has lost its chirp. So, she got one. Here's the early introduction. The video even opens with a bit of drama and (perhaps unexpected?) villainy from Wesley.



So she isn't batting it around like a maniac yet, but she will soon enough.

Christmas 2018

25 December 2018:

[Catch-up post...]

When you get the perfect gift, you prepare precise instructions.

Christmas Eve 2018

24 December 2018:

[Catch-up post...]

Didn't get too many pictures this year, but here are some highlights.

Attempt #1 to get a picture of all the kids. Please note that Erin must airlift her uncooperative kid into the shot. 

Attempt #2. Also noted: nephew who cannot resist making hand gestures.

"Underneath the Tree"

23 December 2018:

The Favourite

22 December 2018: What a wickedly fun movie The Favourite is, with a trio of knock-out performances. I saw it today with Amy, Hannah, and Cory in Frederick. When we came out of the theater, a group of carolers sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," which was almost Rockwell-ian. Then we walked over to Lucky Corner, a Vietnamese restaurant--which was delicious, as always. So yeah: break life continues to impress.

"Publicity" Photo...

21 December 2018: Get you a friend who will meet you at the university library the moment she finishes her last day of work before the holiday break so that she can take the “publicity” photo you need. It helps if said friend worked for a photography business while she was in school. And if she can give you advice about what to wear for the photo. And if she can fix this slightly “out of control” piece of hair you’ve got. And can tell you how to stand. What a gem Hannah is!

"Winter Song"

20 December 2018: Kind of gloomy day around here today, but this song brings a kind of comfort and light.

That Winter Break Life...

19 December 2018:

Some of what I did today:

• Paperwork droppin' [had to take care of some stuff at the office...it can't be all fun...]
• Hair choppin' [got my hair cut]
• Christmas shoppin' [hit some stores in Hagerstown with Amy]
• Mary Poppin'(s) [yeah--that one is a stretch!]

[other fun stuff, too, but I am losing the gimmick...]

Last game of the year...

18 December 2018: We hosted our last trivia game of the year tonight. (Our teams voted to take the next two weeks off rather than moving our Tuesday games to a different night.) So it seems worth pausing and reflecting on the experience so far. And my verdict? It's still a lot of fun and our teams are just the best. One of them even gave us Christmas gifts.

A good day...

17 December 2018:

Things that pleased me today, in chronological order:

• End-of-the-semester tidying up (real and metaphorical) at my office.
• Stopping by to see Hannah for a few minutes and being so glad (again!) that she works on campus.
• Six of our majors getting accepted to the Sigma Tau Delta International Convention.
• Getting the news that I am a finalist for West Virginia Professor of the Year.
• Taking a walk on a pretty evening.
• A celebratory dinner with Amy at Finn Thai, followed by a surprisingly fun trip to Walmart.
• Realizing--once again, and for the hundredth time today--how amazingly blessed and lucky I am.

Housing contest...

16 December 2018: So Amy had this idea to do gingerbread houses (from scratch!). She did the really hard work: making the cookies and cutting the pieces. I showed up in time for the decorating, which, in order for everything to dry and be stable, took several hours yesterday and a couple more today. Here are the results:

I think they are both pretty cool, but she had this other idea to ask Facebook which one is better. The votes are still being counted. Ha. 

Tiki Cat...

15 December 2018:

[Catch-up post...]

How do you convince your 16-year-old cat to get in the ridiculous $7.99 cardboard Christmas Tiki Hut you bought (out of guilt) for him? Add a comfy blanket...and wait three days. And now--and only now--Wesley wants in, too.

Fall 2018 Grading: Done!

14 December 2018: Just hit "submit" on my final set of grades. Commence chair-dancing...

Last day of GWST...

13 December 2018: What an inspiring final session of GWST we had today! The students discussed their overall experiences in the class and their reflection papers. Our main aim in our revisions to the class this semester was to get them to see themselves as agents of change in the world. We added a service learning requirement to the class and made some other changes. And today? Well, it sounds like it worked as student after student talked about seeing herself as someone who could make a difference, no matter how small And rather than stay discouraged by setbacks, they are determined to keep going. Amazing.

Your "weirdness"...

12 December 2018: I got a lovely hand-made thank-you note from a wonderful student in my ENGL 204 Honors class. This class has had a lot of (good, innocent) fun with my weird comments this semester, a fact verified by her P.S.:

I am also okay being "hands down, the wokest professor [she's] ever encountered."

Nasreddin

11 December 2018: On my walk with Amy today, she told a little story about Nasreddin (who she called Hodja, another name for the character. This one involved giving a good tip for a bad haircut, and then, after a great haircut (by the same guy), giving a small tip. His answer: "That tip last time was for this haircut. This tip right here is for the last time." Ha! Quite a character! Here are some of his hits.

Marshmallow World

10 December 2018: A busy day today, with a couple of meetings, a final exam, grading, and countless other tasks. But boy, I am feeling that holiday break vibe approaching. It is in the air.  And that vibe was typified by this song, which ran through my head all day. So if this was the soundtrack of my day, it must have been a good one.

Stained Glass and Midnight Breakfast

9 December 2018:

[Catch-up post...]

Sunday was a pretty great day. I got work done in the morning, took a walk with Amy in the afternoon, and then had two great events in the evening.

First, I participated in "Stained Glass Night." Organized by a former student of mine, the event featured artists and musicians sharing their work, each illuminated by lights that turned on while they performed. (I read two poems.) It was really lovely.

Second, Midnight Breakfast! This time, since she's an official full-time Shepherd employee, we got to have Hannah on our line. Midnight Breakfast with two of my favorite people? What's not to love?

Boy Erased

8 December 2018: Saw this powerful and important movie today. I am a big old movie crier so it got to me a lot, but even for you non-criers, I suspect it will be quite moving. Terrific performances, too.

Holiday Party 2018

7 December 2018: It's that time of year: the Sigma Tau Delta holiday party. It's also the one time a year Bing and Wes wear their Christmas bow-ties. They stayed downstairs the whole time, even when there were like 25 people here. Photos courtesy of Hannah.

The last guests left at 11:08. I checked my watch. By 11:11, look who was under the dining room table.

"The Last Thing"

6 December 2018: As someone who a) worries she talks too much, b) worries she talks about things people find insignificant way too much, and c) makes lists of seemingly minor things to tell my favorite people every time I see them, I really feel this poem by Ada Limón. Here's the ending:

"...I know
you don’t always understand,
but let me point to the first
wet drops landing on the stones,
the noise like fingers drumming
the skin. I can’t help it. I will
never get over making everything
such a big deal."

Last set of capstones...

5 December 2018: "Was there anything about writing from the perspective of a sock puppet that was especially difficult?" --a question one of my colleagues asked a student who presented her creative writing capstone today.

What a great variety of presentations we had this year! Tonight's were no exception.

"Iceberg" students...

4 December 2018: I've been thinking most of the day about a student who came to talk about her status in my class. I know this student has been struggling with "outside of class" stuff all semester long, but only today did she fully explain it all. What she's dealing with--not just classes, but a job, a new baby, and a very sick older child--is staggering. And she has been moving through the semester trying to do it all without telling us.

Some students will make every excuse in the book for failure to do the simplest things. Some will make a mountain out of a molehill and expect us to move heaven and earth to accommodate them. But then there are students like this one who are like icebergs: we sense something is going on, but they keep the whole truth hidden, not wanting to share with us or burden us. Or they think we think they are playing us.

"You all [professors] don't want to hear it. You probably hear it all the time. You don't want us to dump it on you," she said. This even after I repeatedly told her to let me know if I could help. Sometimes you just can't do anymore. They have to come to you on their own time. But I also think I could have tried a little harder.

"Drown," again....

3 December 2018: Almost a year ago to the day, I posted about teaching "Drown" and how I almost replaced it but was glad that I didn't. And a semester before that, I wrote a similar post. With all the controversy around Diaz, I really considered not only moving it so it wasn't the last new piece we discussed  but even just dropping it from the syllabus

I didn't and today it was the last new piece we read for my ENGL 204 classes. I am still not sure if I should have included it or if I will include it again, but darn it, did it go well today. Playing it all over in my mind, I hear the voice of one student, who in his discussion of the unnamed narrator said, "It worked for me because this guy? I know three guys just like him." I love that connection: Diaz is writing about Dominican American men in New Jersey and this student is talking about white folks in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. But there's a poignant, painful, and important connection there.

Sunday calm before the grading storm...

2 December 2018: Actually had nothing to grade or prep this weekend. All the papers start coming in tomorrow. So--besides answering some panicked emails from students and reading one Honors Capstone proposal--I spent the entire weekend without doing any work. Today I cleaned the house a bit, finished decorating for Christmas, read the paper, paid the bills, baked some cookies, tried a new recipe, and did a walk, dinner, and a few rounds of Pandemic with Amy.

Like I said, tomorrow the craziness starts, but I feel as ready as I can be for it.

Beautiful

1 December 2018: As part of the package we got to see five musicals at the National Theater, Jane and I saw Beautiful today. I had seen it before, a couple of years ago at the Kennedy Center. It was so nice to see it again, this time with my BFF. Afterwards we took in the holiday market by the National Portrait Gallery and ducked into the museum itself to check out the (kind of) new Obama portraits. A wonderful day!

"Dreams"

30 November 2018:

Wrapping up GWST...

29 November 2018: I taught my last solo-section of the Gender and Women's Studies class today, wrapping up by looking at some poems by contemporary LGBTQ+ writers. The students especially loved talking about "Dear Gaybashers," which is a fun, proud, and silly (in a good way) response to a ridiculous act of hate. Selected lines from our discussion:

"I mean, they are RAW hot dogs, which is so much worse."
"I just think...floppy."
"No. I get that part. That's just about dildos. It's this part I don't get..."

Ha!

We read these poems, too.

What fun it has been to work with these students on my third of the class this semester! They are bright, creative, open, and just an all-around good group. And when they talk about these kinds of topics, they give me such hope.

Whitman on the brain...

28 November 2018: Even more than on a normal day, Walt was on my mind today. First, we talked about "A Supermarket in California" in my 204 classes. Then this evening, a student I've been working with on her capstone project on Whitman and Hamilton had her presentation. She quoted some of these lines from "Song of Myself," which will serve quite well for today's post:

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels."

"Sister Josepha"

27 November 2018: "Perchance, had Sister Josepha been in the world, the eyes would have been an incident. But in this home of self-repression and retrospection, it was a life-story." --Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sister Josepha"

This excerpt from "Sister Josepha," one of the texts we talked about in Gender and Women's Studies today, has always stood out to me. Clearly Camille/Sister Josepha is making so much out of nothing here. She sees a pair of sympathetic eyes across the church and falls in love. It's sad and misguided, but we ought not to see it--or more importantly, her, as ridiculous.

Dunbar-Nelson's compassion towards her character--and by extension, her plea that we feel it, too--moves me, as so much Regionalist writing does. Again and again, these texts ask us to just be compassionate and understanding towards people who are different, strange, or have simply had lives we don't recognize. Though they are about very specific people in very specific places, this gesture seems so very timeless to me. 

"Thanks"

26 November 2018: This W.S. Merwin poem arrived in my inbox on Thanksgiving Day (courtesy of the Poem-a-Day email) but I only read it closely today. And it works quite well for what has been on my mind today: a sort of mixture of anxiety about the world and for people I know and care about and a deep sense of gratitude for what I have and for the chance to keep working in/with/through the darkness. I thought about it when I met with a student who is really struggling and for whom I had no easy answers. I thought about it while Amy and I took a cold walk through campus as the sun went down and the cold winds kicked up.

This is a strange season for me every year. It gets quieter. I get quieter. And more serious. But the idea of this poem--that we keep saying "thank you"--really appeals to me. Not a bad strategy for getting through it all.

"we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is"

LED upgrade...

25 November 2018: A bit early to put the lights up, but the weather was so nice and I had some time (which I won't have enough of in the coming weeks), so up they went. Thanks, Aldi, for a deal on some new LED lights, which are much brighter and, as they came rolled up on a wheel, where much easier to deal with.

"The Foundations of the Earth"

24 November 2018: "How curious the world had become that she would be asking a white man to exonerate her in the eyes of her own grandson; how strange that at seventy, when she had all the laws and rules down pat, she would have to begin again, to learn." --Randall Kenan, "The Foundations of the Earth"

I am getting ready to teach this story in GWST on Tuesday. It's an extraordinary story on religion, aging, race, and sexuality, but above all, about a woman learning that she still has more to learn. Inspiring and important.

(Just checked and I already blogged about this story in March.)

More thankfulness...

23 November 2018: A day late for a "what I am thankful for" post, but this showed up in my inbox today and I am grateful. So much fun to write/research/publish outside of my comfort zone, mostly because of my amazing co-author, Amy.

Thanksgiving

[Catch-up post...]

22 November 2018: "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." --Philippians 4: 5-7.

Until Book 5...

21 November 2018: Hard to ask for better entertainment for the drive up to NY than the finale of My Dad Wrote a Porno (Book 4!). Amazing, as always.

Three good sights...

20 November 2018: Sort of a gloomy day outside today and then I really leaned into that vibe by finishing up a depressing TV series. Impending holiday stress/gloom didn’t help, either. But I did take a good walk in the neighborhood and started counting things that made me smile:

1) The five very different-looking and very lovely cats I saw along the way. Quite a variety!

2) The big yellow dog that dashed out of a house to greet a young woman who lived there when pulled up. Just for good measure, he ran over to me, too, and happily accepted my pets and “good boy” praises. He looked up with me and I could see his eye-sight wasn’t very good, which made the whole thing even sweeter

3) On the block right next to mine, the little kid waiting at the front door, sitting on his knees, with his dog beside him. Not sure who he was waiting for, but what a nice sight for that person to come home to.

Win some...

19 November 2018: Took in our second women's basketball game of the season today, this time with Hannah coming along. (Her first Shepherd game ever!) Shepherd lost, but it was still a fun time, especially with Hannah's commentary.

Widows

18 November 2018: Widows is a heck of a movie: great performances, a fun storyline, great visuals, and some smart commentary on politics, race, and gender.

A welcome return...

17 November 2018: Amy and I went to see our first Shepherd women's basketball game of the season today. Unlike Thursday's snow, which brought back the unpleasant side of winter (for me), this felt much better. There wasn't a huge crowd (Shepherd is on break), but we were pretty loud and the women played really well.

Made it...

16 November 2018: We made it to Thanksgiving Break. It's been quite a semester so far, so this feels like an achievement. Celebrated with a movie (Overlord, which was interesting but not something I want to watch again) and dinner at this little Italian place I like. I've got lots to get done over break, but I am looking forward to catching my breath.

Snow Day...

15 November 2018: Nothing like a way-too-early snow day to make you remember that you aren't always comfortable spending a day exclusively in your own head/on your own and that you are entering the season where that threatens to happen semi-regularly. Still...I got a lot done today, so there's that.

Streetcar

14 November 2018: Here's a bit of fun dialogue from one of my classes today:

Student in my 204 Honors section (about Blanche DuBois): I love her.

Me: Great! Can you talk about why?

Student: I love a dramatic woman like that. I love a crazy woman.

Me: Me, too.

Student: I mean, I am one.

"Only You"

13 November 2018:

"All I needed was the love you gave
All I needed for another day
And all I ever knew
Only you..."

This song's been playing in my head today. Not a complaint.

Adventures in Peer Reviewing...

12 November 2018:

Workshop/Peer Review session in ENGL 204 today. The Honors section was particularly boisterous, illustrated by the exchange below…

Student #1 to his partner in a peer review session: You use the word “crepe,” a delicious treat of course, when you meant “crape”…

Student #2: I know! Sorry about that!

Student #3, who is in a separate group, pointing towards her partner: That’s okay. She wrote “asses” instead of “assesses.”

They needed a lot of support to get back on task after that...

SSAWW: Day 4, heading home...

[Catch-up post...]

11 November 2018: After my last presentation (which also went pretty well, I think!), Amy and I headed back to the airport and then back home. Snow in Denver complicated things just a bit, but I pulled into the driveway in Shepherdstown just before 11:00 p.m. Whew!

One last (snowy!) Denver photo.

SSAWW: Day 3

[Catch-up post...]

10 November 2018: The fact that I don't have any photos for today's post perhaps indicates that it was (mostly) all business--not that that's ever a bad thing at SSAWW. Vogel's panel (in the morning) was great, as were all the sessions I attended. Amy and I had our presentation in the afternoon and it went really well, too.

We ended the day with dinner at a little Vietnamese restaurant (very good!) and a drink in hotel bar. Not bad!

SSAWW: Day 2

[Catch-up post...]

9 November 2018: Day 2 of SSAWW 2018 started off with the Mentoring Breakfast, where I chaired a table on the Academic Job Search and attended a session. Then I headed out for some Denver adventures with three of my favorite people on the planet...

At the state capital with Tim and Amy.

At dinner with Vogel. 

SSAWW: Day 1

[Catch-up post...]

8 November 2018: Hands down, SSAWW is my favorite conference. It was even nicer this time, not having an administrative job! Day one of SSAWW 2018 ended wonderfully, with a screening of Wild Nights with Emily with a post-film discussion featuring the director.

Wearing them out...

7 November 2018:

During office hours today, a student dropped in for a quick conversation about her Honors Capstone project. She's also a student in my British literature seminar. And she's graduating this semester. And everyone is exhausted.

Here's how it played out.

[We address the actual issue quickly.]

Student: Okay. Well, thanks! I'll let you get back to work.

Me: [Feeling bad about possibly making her feel rushed.] Oh, you don't have to rush out. It's office hours.

Student: [Literally backing away.] No, it's okay. I need to go home. I'm really tired. 

Me: [Laughing.] Okay!

Student: [Like she needs to escape but also doesn't want to get in trouble.] I've been doing a lot of work for you lately. 

Me: [Feeling both guilty and proud of myself.] I get it. 

A little bit less than two weeks to Thanksgiving Break, people. We can do this.

Got the sticker...

6 November 2018: "I've been waiting two years to get this sticker." --the guy in line at the polls ahead of me when the poll worker asked him if he wanted one. Heck, yeah.

No idea what will happen tonight (saying lots of prayers), but I got my sticker.

"Unwedded"

5 November 2018: I re-read my dissertation chapter on Lucy Larcom this morning. (It has been a long time!) What a pleasure it was to read some of her poems again. This one, "Unwedded," about a woman who never marries, stuck out to me, especially its closing line: "You waste your pity on such as she."

As You Like It

4 November 2018:
"Love is merely a madness;
and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a
whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are
not so punish'd and cured is that the lunacy is so
ordinary that the whippers are in love too." --Rosalind in As You Like It

Really enjoyed the Rude Mechanicals' production of As You Like It today.

Open House

3 November 2018: Worked a Fall Open House session for Shepherd today with my friend/colleague, James. We had a small turnout (just two students interested in English), but they were two terrific and engaged students. Fingers crossed that we helped seal the deal.

Mystery Duck

2 November 2018:

[Catch-up post]

The very fact that this is a catch-up post should indicate that things have been busy. But this little story about Central Park's beautiful mystery duck just delighted me when I heard about it yesterday. That's the kind of news we need.

Autumn warm-up...

1 November 2018: A busy and productive day today, capped off by a lovely walk through campus as temperatures topped 70 degrees. Even now, the window in the living room is still open. (As I type this, BabyCat is sitting in it and meowing in happiness...)

That will do...

31 October 2018: I can't share it here, but my brother-in-law just sent pictures and videos of the girls on Halloween, ending with a little video of Isla eating gummi bears. It's been a long and sometimes frustrating day, but seeing that...well, it made me happy.

"The Balcony"

30 October 2018: "Each story is different, or appears so to her; each has some unique and peculiar pathos in it. And so she dramatizes and inflects it, trying to make the point visible to her apparent also to her hearers. Sometimes the pathos and interest to the hearers lie only in this - that the relater has observed it, and gathered it, and finds it worth telling." --Grace King, "The Balcony"

Taught this little sketch this afternoon in the Gender and Women's Studies class. It's always such a satisfying piece to teach, especially to open up discussions about women and storytelling. I am especially fond of the sentiment above, in which the narrator explains why the women on the balcony value the stories others share: they matter because the storytellers think they do. That's enough.

Dress those babies up!

29 October 2018: "It has come to my attention that not all baby owners dress up their babies for Halloween. This is wrong…Have you been on social media and/or in the real world lately? Things are very bad there. We need this. Do your part and create some content."

This article speaks the truth! I needed it today.

Little Shop of Horrors

28 October 2018: Had a blast seeing this show at the Kennedy Center today.

Beetlejuice

27 October 2018: Today in Pittsburgh, we saw again how much the world can suck sometimes. Words fail. In fact, all of the news this week (month? year?) has raised the levels of despair even more.

So I was grateful to spend the day with someone who always makes things better, even if we are just talking about how much things suck. Jane and I saw the new Beetlejuice musical at the National Theater today. It was silly and funny and bawdy and looked amazing. A bit of light in the midst of the sadness...

The Bride of Frankenstein

26 October 2018: "An audience needs something stronger than a pretty little love story. So, why shouldn't I write of monsters?" --"Mary Shelley" (the fictional version of her) in the prologue to The Bride of Frankenstein.

Our department co-sponsored a screening of this film tonight as part of our "200 Years of Frankenstein" celebration. I hadn't seen it before. It's a lot of fun. Not a bad way to wrap up the work week and start what will be a busy weekend.

"Taking Out the Trash"

25 October 2018: Love, love, love this poem, which reminds me of thoughts I have every week when I drag the trash can down to the curb on Wednesday evenings and pull it back up the driveway on Thursday mornings.

Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?

24 October 2018: Big thoughts swirling around my head these days, tinging a bit darker thanks to our Gender and Women's Studies class's visit to the women's prison in Maryland. It's the fourth time I've gone and it only gets harder each visit.

Back on campus, I found myself trying to get ahead on plans for my Young Adult Literature class, where we start YA poetry next week. What a treat to go back to Kenneth Koch's Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? and be reminded of what kids can do with great poetry. (Koch's book is about younger children than we address in my class, but his basic ideas transfer.)

Here's just one that stood out to me today, by Andrew Vecchione, who was in 5th grade, I think, when he wrote this (probably 50 years ago). It's inspired by Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning."

"Love is a Scissor"
Love is a like a scissor
When it's together it's happy
When it's apart it's sad
When it's rusty it has a sore throat.

Andrew gets it.

Even more from Aristotle and Dante...

23 October 2018: "They were all over me, hugging me and saying nice things, and I wanted to cry. Because their affection was so real and somehow, I felt I didn't deserve it or felt maybe that they were hugging the guy who had saved their son's life. I wanted them to hug me just because I was Ari and I would never be just Ari to them. But I had learned how to hide what I felt. No, that's not true. There was no learning involved. I had been born knowing how to hide how I felt."

This darn book. Had me tearing up in Panera this morning. Amazing how much of yourself you can see in a character that is so very different from you.

More from Aristotle and Dante

22 October 2018: "Another secret of the universe. Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer morning could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder." --Benjamin Alire Saenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Ah, this book. It's almost too much. And today has been a day...so this really spoke to me.

"No One Else Is Singing My Song"

21 October 2018: Catching up on the new episodes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend today and this song arrived just when I needed it. So smart, so funny, and hits just the right amount of "too close to home."

Metal and poetry

20 October 2018: After returning from Cape May, there were still two excellent events on my schedule.

First, the Women for Shepherd University Metal Pour with four of my favorite people...

Then a poetry reading from another of my favorite people, a former student who wrote this book and who continues to amaze me with her talent.

What a life I get to live. Feeling very blessed.

Cape May, Day Two

19 October 2018:

[Catch-up post...]

Packed a ton of fun into Day Two of our trip, starting off with this perfect sunrise.

Cape May, Day One

18 October 2018:

[Catch-up post...]

Fall Break trip to Cape May. Kind of perfect.

Fall Break, here we come...

17 October 2018: A long day, but a good one. (I know I use that construction a lot, but it's often true, so...) Carrie helped me finish up (almost) a big project today and then to thank her, I bought her dinner at Bistro 112. We sat and talked for a good long time, which always makes me happy.

Tomorrow and Friday are Fall Break and I am so ready. And for the first time in forever, I am actually going somewhere. Add that to the positive side of the "balance" chart. (There is no chart.)

Back to Aristotle and Dante

16 October 2018: “When I looked through the telescope, Dante began explaining what I was looking at. I didn’t hear a word. Something happened inside me as I looked out into the vast universe. Through that telescope, the world was closer and larger than I’d ever imagined. And it was all so beautiful and overwhelming and—I don’t know—it made me aware that there was something inside of me that mattered.” --Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Starting this beautiful book once again in my YA lit. class tomorrow. 

Finishing up Middlemarch

15 October 2018: "It had taken long for her to come to that question, and there was light piercing into the room. She opened her curtains, and looked out towards the bit of road that lay in view, with fields beyond outside the entrance-gates. On the road there was a man with a bundle on his back and a woman carrying her baby; in the field she could see figures moving—perhaps the shepherd with his dog. Far off in the bending sky was the pearly light; and she felt the largeness of the world and the manifold wakings of men to labor and endurance. She was a part of that involuntary, palpitating life, and could neither look out on it from her luxurious shelter as a mere spectator, nor hide her eyes in selfish complaining." --George Eliot, Middlemarch

Finding myself so moved (again) by this amazing book.

Cute little weirdo...

14 October 2018:

Helped this cute gap-toothed weirdo write a (kind of dark!) little song today. Watch your back, Lin-Manuel Miranda!

“Once there was a mayor.

He had really bad hair.

He was so very mean.

The meanest you have ever seen.

He stole from a girl her ice cream cone.

He stole from a dog his very last bone.”

Midterm grades: DONE!

13 October 2018: After spending the morning and early afternoon burning through take-home essay exams, I just hit "submit" on the last set of Fall 2018 midterm grades. Now heading home to get some chores done before taking the rest of the day off. But first, let's finish chair-dancing to this killer song that came on right as I entered the last grades...

Poetry Festival

12 October 2018: Sigma Tau Delta hosted our third annual Poetry Festival today. These kids always put on a good show and I am proud of them.

Thank you notes...

11 October 2018: Year after year, my niece’s thank-you notes delight me. And if you are taking notes as you plan your own parties, note her closing line and adjust your guest lists accordingly: If I had been there, her fiesta would have been a DANCE PARTY. That's what I offer, my friends.

"Throw It All Away"

10 October 2018:

"When you're near me I have no fear
When I'm untrue you see right through me
You know me as deep as the sea goes
Calm my head whenever the storm blows..." --Brandi Carlile, "Throw It All Away"

Thinking of the little moments today when, even in the midst of stress and rushing and a never-ending to-do list, I felt it would all be okay.

Slow Heat...

9 October 2018: So this book and accompanying note were in my department mailbox today. I have no idea who it is from, but I am perplexed and delighted.

It's also my brother's birthday today. He would have been 44. He also would have laughed a lot about this book. Always nicer to focus on the laughter on days like this than the sad stuff.

Midterm Week Monday!

8 October 2018: A long and busy day, but a good one. Taught my classes, had a bunch of meetings, and even got some midterm grading in. Then Amy and I covered a trivia hosting gig over at Captain Bender's since the regular hosts are out of town. It was a blast.

So here I am: exhausted but contented. A good day.

More Middlemarch truth-bombs...

7 October 2018: "Instead of wondering at this result of misery in Mr. Casaubon, I think it quite ordinary. Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self. And who, if Mr. Casaubon had chosen to expound his discontents--his suspicions that he was not any longer adored without criticism--could have denied that they were founded on good reasons? On the contrary, there was a strong reason to be added, which he had not himself taken explicitly into account--namely, that he was not unmixedly adorable. He suspected this, however, as he suspected other things, without confessing it, and like the rest of us, felt how soothing it would have been to have a companion who would never find it out." --George Eliot, Middlemarch

Not sure why 41-year-old, umarried, too-invested-in-work me is so drawn to Casaubon on this read-through of Middlemarch, but it's undeniable.

Moody Saturday evening...

6 October 2018:

"The storms are raging on a rolling sea
And down the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free, yeah huh
But you ain't seen nothing like me yet..." --Bob Dylan, "Make You Feel My Love"

Feeling a bit restless, moody, and anxious this evening, so this song, particularly this version, is on rotation.

"...never stop doing right..."

5 October 2018: What a day. Spent part of it talking about Middlemarch and how one person's deciding vote (Lydgate voting on the hospital chaplaincy) can have ripple effects he couldn't anticipate right as Susan Collins was about to declare her Kavanaugh vote. Taught The Hate U Give on the very day a Chicago police officer was convicted of shooting a black man who was running away from him. Left campus a bit earlier than usual to make it to an early screening of A Star is Born, which was amazing, if not exactly uplifting.

So it's been a lot.

Here's what I want to post for today: just a little bit from The Hate U Give. Lisa, Starr's mother, is trying to tell Starr to let go of guilt over her friend's death. She tells her about the day Starr was born--how Starr wasn't breathing and her mother wondered what she had done wrong, how it might be her fault. She explains, "One of the nurses took my hand...looked me in the eye and said, 'Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.'"

"The Shannon Niehaus Lobe Fan Club"

4 October 2018: It's been just over a year since Shannon died. It is still hard to believe. But a final gift she gave my Roanoke friends and I was making us all closer, putting us back in daily conversation with each other. Back when she first got sick, the rest of us started this group text (actually on Messenger) and named it "The Shannon Niehaus Lobe Fan Club." That thread is still going strong and continues to be a place where we share updates and stories of our days, get support and advice from each other, and make each other laugh. Tonight is no exception. One of us texted that she needed some good vibes. The rest of us happily sent them her way. And now we are texting about silly stories from years past. The thing is, I didn't realize how much I needed this tonight until the messages started coming in.

What a blessing to have these women in my life 24 years (!) after we met.

Paper Walt...

3 October 2018: A gift from a student in my ENGL 204 class. Not even at midterm yet, but they get me. "I'll put it next to my Whitman finger puppet!" is a sentence I, a real adult human, said out loud.

Back to Middlemarch

2 October 2018: "Poor Mr. Casaubon had imagined that his long studious bachelorhood had stored up for him a compound interest of enjoyment, and that large drafts on his affections would not fail to be honored; for we all of us, grave or light, get our thoughts entangled in metaphors, and act fatally on the strength of them." --Eliot, Middlemarch

I first read Middlemarch in college in my junior year, I think. Now, 20 years later, I find myself seeing Casaubon in a different light, the compassionate light Eliot wants us to see him in, I think. Having gotten caught up in more than a few similar metaphors of my own, I feel a particular pang of recognition in the passage above.

(And "old Casuabon" is about 45. Yikes.)

The Girl with Seven Names

1 October 2018: Shepherd's Common Reading program was able to bring Hyeonseo Lee to campus this evening to talk about her book. Hearing her speak was quite powerful, especially as she admitted that her hopes for Korean unification in her life time have diminished in the past year.

"Closer to You"

30 September 2018: Another lovely Sunday featuring an appearance by this lovely song...

"Someday we might learn to tell the truth
We might even find the fountains of our youth
We all needed something real we all need proof
I just want to be closer to you."

Service learning...

29 September 2018: After I got some work done this morning, Amy and I spent four hours this afternoon doing some service-learning hours with our GWST students at a women's shelter in Martinsburg. The students painted a long hallway on the first floor and Amy and I cleaned four apartments and got them ready for new inhabitants. We closed out our shift organizing piles of donated toiletries. (I loved that part the most because I am, well...me.)

It was such a cool experience. I never really thought about the fact that the people who work at these places often do all of the work and that includes the cleaning and maintenance. To be able to pitch in for just a few hours made a difference in their work load. And I can't stop thinking about the three women who will soon move into those apartments we got ready for them today.

Founders Day 2018

28 September 2018: 

[Catch up post...]

Celebrated Founders Day 2018 with one of my favorite people. After the procession and ceremony, we got take-out Thai, went to my house, and watched a rom-com double feature. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night after a long week.

Look for the light...

27 September 2018: It's been another really rough run of news stories. But, through it all, I have been reminded of the wonderful community of women that surrounds and supports me--and how lucky I am to have them. I am working on a major project and three amazing women I work with--from three different disciplines, none of which is English--have taken time out of their schedules to meet with me individually, give me advice, and encourage me. Their kindness and support makes me hopeful for the students they teach and for the world.

Wasn't in the job description, but...

26 September 2018: In a little while, I am heading back up to campus to judge a Broadway-themed Homecoming lip sync competition. Add this to the list of things I never anticipated being part of my job. And as with so many of the items on that list, this is not a complaint. I mean, part of me has been waiting for this moment my whole life.

More from Jane Eyre

25 September 2019: "We were born to strive and endure--you as well as I: do so." --Jane to Rochester, in Jane Eyre.

What a pleasure to re-read this intense and crazy scene from Brontë's novel. 

"The Fire Thief"

24 September 2018: A good (if a bit strange) day here for the most part. Feeling kind of frustrated by the combination of a busy day and non-stop rain; that's a one-two punch that will keep me from taking a walk for the second day in a row. (I love walking at night, but doing so in a rain like this seems just a bit dangerous. Drivers aren't expecting pedestrians.)

So I was feeling a bit restless/tense, especially when I first got home. This song somehow came to mind. It calmed me down..

"Sometimes a heart can break and make it's own relief
The way a cold dark night invites the fire thief
He wants to show us how
So we can take comfort now
We can take comfort now
We can take comfort now
Leave the light on"

This is certainly a look...

23 September 2018: It's like he is trying to become a meme... (Don't worry. He cheered up in a couple of minutes.) Meanwhile, I had another pretty decent Sunday, working most of the morning and early afternoon, reading (for fun!) in the afternoon, and spending the evening at Amy's for dinner and Pandemic. Not bad...

"Balance" Update #3

22 September 2018: Feeling like today was a pretty good day for Project Balance. (We'll keep workshopping the name. Ha.) Got a lot of work done this morning on a big and intimidating project and finished my course prep for Monday. Then Amy and I spent a couple of hours finalizing revisions for a journal article we've got coming out soon. All of that gave me a good enough excuse to take a long walk with her, go see a movie, and get dinner after. Now I am back home, doing laundry, and taking care of some (albeit work-related) odds and ends.

So I think this is good?

Sigh...

21 September 2018: "No sooner did I see that his attention was riveted on them, and that I might gaze without being observed, than my eyes were drawn involuntarily to his face; I could not keep their lids under control: they would rise, and the irids would fix on him. I looked, and had an acute pleasure in looking,—a precious yet poignant pleasure; pure gold, with a steely point of agony: a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draughts nevertheless." --Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Working my way through the pre-attic-revelation section of the book again. Continually awed by Brontë's ability to capture so perfectly what this kind of longing and love can feel like. The scene a chapter or so earlier, where Jane tears into herself over ever imagining that Rochester could love her? Brutal.

"On Small Talk"

20 September 2018: Almost on cue, I engaged in some hard core (inner) freaking out today over the precise issues I had convinced myself would be okay the day before. In the midst of all that freaking out, little moments of light and peace would find their way through:

• The distraction of the podcasts I listened to as I mowed the lawn on a rather pretty day. 
• The kindness of a colleague who took time out of her day to not only have lunch with me to talk about a big project I am working on (the source of a lot of this anxiety), but gave me great advice and insisted on paying. (I was going to treat her, but she beat me to it.) 
• The panel I attended tonight where WV teachers (including a beloved former student) talked about why they stay in this difficult, amazing, frustrating, wonderful state. What an inspiring group they are.
• The dinner I had with Amy where she let me get right to the point of tears without making a big deal out of it, basically pretending she didn't notice, which was actually what I needed at that moment. 
• The phone call with Jane, which always works for what ails me. Even more impressive on her part since she was dealing with some sad news about a friend.
• The news that Veronica Mars is coming back.
• And this poem...

"Balance" Update #2

19 September 2018: [Maybe there will be a series of posts on this subject? We'll see...]

I made myself a ridiculously long to-do for today. Like a list that guaranteed coming home to a couple hours of work (or staying in the office until 8:00). And for most of the day, I was plugging along, getting stuff done.

At about 2:00, I got an email from Amy (who was also in the midst of a long and frustrating day) suggesting that we take care of an errand in Martinsburg and then go see a movie we knew would be bad but that she still wanted to see.* I took a look at my list and said, "Yeah. Let's do it."

Still worked until 6:30, but then hopped in her car and off we went. Got home by 9:45 or so, took a walk, sent some emails, watched Jeopardy! on the DVR and, well, here we are. Those items on the list that I didn't get to? Well, they'll get done tomorrow. It will be okay.

*Only $5 at the cheap theater--totally worth it.

American Vandal: Season 2

18 September 2018: Lots of things on my mind lately...big deadlines approaching, to-do lists getting longer. Doing my best to keep my head above water and stay calm. You know what's helped? Season 2 of American Vandal. This show is so freaking smart and funny and the perfect mental break.

These students...

17 September 2018: I attended a presentation today about the generation of students we are seeing in our classrooms these days. I tend to feel a great deal of skepticism towards generalizations about Shepherd students, but darn it if this assertion didn't feel so right: "They want to be involved in something important. They want to change the world for the better. But they may not know how."

Beating those blues back...

16 September 2018: The trick to combating the Sunday blues so far this semester is pretty straightforward. Do something fun. Last week it was Sunday-Nunday. Today, after a productive day work-wise, Amy came over for dinner, a walk, and then a couple rounds of Pandemic. Chase, chase, chase those blues away...

Balance...

15 September 2018: This is the third weekend of the new semester, but in lots of ways, it feels like the first real weekend. That "semester pace" has kicked in. I've got lots of work to get done: grading, course prep, revising an article, making progress on a conference paper, and--in the back of my head--this other huge task that I just picked up (still keeping it vague). And then there's the other stuff: the lawn, cleaning the house, taking care of bills and paperwork. So what's different?

Well, my determination to live life a bit differently now. Take it easy more. Have more fun.

I left the office yesterday right after my last class ended at 3:00. Dashed off to a 4:00 movie. On the way out of the building, a colleague was surprised to see me leaving so early ("You're leaving now? Is this a New Year's Resolution?") And, dork that I am, I felt proud and guilty. Like a bad kid who didn't really want to be bad. When the movie was over, I thought about heading back to campus. (Didn't do it, but I was tempted!) And I found myself back at the office this morning...so there's that.

But I did take a few hours off to watch the Shepherd football game. Then I came home and got the lawn done. Now I am making my way through the papers I have to grade. Five more to go...

I guess what I am realizing is that a big old change in the way you approach the work-life balance doesn't happen overnight, especially when you still love the work part so much. And when it is the one thing you know you are good at. And when you can run towards it when the other parts of your life are hard or confusing. So, three weeks in, this "new" way is...strange. But we'll see. 

"Only in Dreams"

14 September 2018: Broody, moody Friday-night work soundtrack...

Happy news...

13 September 2018: Two very nice and good things happened in the past day or so. One I can talk about: Amy and I had an article we wrote accepted for publication. That's two publications for me that were collaboratively written, something I used to think I'd never be any good at doing. And this is a fun one, too: an examination of the female monster in Disney movies. So that just makes me smile. I am going to keep the other good thing a bit private and vague for now. It's also work-related, but still really new and surprising. So stay tuned, I guess.

Ah, Wuthering Heights...

12 September 2018: "I hate this book. And I love this book." --a student in my Nineteenth-Century British Novel Seminar, summing up a popular response (at least in our class) to Wuthering Heights. Another student--who is getting a real kick out of Heathcliff's villainy--said, "I am just waiting for him to start eating people."

So yeah: it's going well.

Petals on a wet mower...

11 September 2018: While rushing to mow the still-wet lawn between days of rain, I did get a kick out of this strange beauty: crape myrtle petals sticking to the bright green mower. Not quite Ezra Pound's "petals on a wet black bough," but still a welcome sight.

Rainy walk...

10 September 2018: It's been raining here since Friday (more or less), which has made it hard to get my walks in. This evening, though, I was determined and got out there, mostly walking through mist. Amazing how much it gets my mind right.

Sunday-Nunday

9 September 2018: This semester I am trying to do what I can to avoid the Sunday evening blues that tend to plague me. Today's strategy was pretty effective, no small feat given the rainy and cold weather: went to see The Nun (which was pretty terrible, but fun) with Amy, Cory, and Hannah.

Day trippin'...

[Catch-up post]

8 September 2018: Jane and I visited Berkeley Plantation yesterday and then caught up with Mike for dinner. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Franken-panel

[Catch-up post]

7 September 2018: This event, an interdisciplinary discussion of Frankenstein at 200, went off without a hitch on Friday. One of the questions we got when we opened it up to the audience was, "How did you decide to do this?" Everyone looked at me. And I was thrilled to answer it: beyond the anniversary itself suggesting the need for a commemoration, all I had to do for the rest of the planning was think about my wonderful, talented, amazing friends. They each said yes right away and nailed it. Just another reminder of why I love my job.

Tell me everything...

6 September 2018:

"But, Mr. Lockwood, I forget these tales cannot divert you. I'm annoyed how I should dream of chattering on at such a rate; and your gruel cold, and you nodding for bed! I could have told Heathcliff's history, all that you need hear, in half-a-dozen words."

Thus interrupting herself, the housekeeper rose, and proceeded to lay aside her sewing; but I felt incapable of moving from the hearth, and I was very far from nodding.

"Sit still, Mrs. Dean," I cried, "do sit still, another half hour! You've done just right to tell the story leisurely. That is the method I like; and you must finish in the same style. I am interested in every character you have mentioned, more or less."

"The clock is on the stroke of eleven, sir."

"No matter—I'm not accustomed to go to bed in the long hours. One or two is early enough for a person who lies till ten."

"You shouldn't lie till ten. There's the very prime of the morning gone long before that time. A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone."

"Nevertheless, Mrs. Dean, resume your chair; because to-morrow I intend lengthening the night till afternoon. I prognosticate for myself an obstinate cold, at least."

"I hope not, sir. Well, you must allow me to leap over some three years, during that space, Mrs. Earnshaw—"

"No, no, I'll allow nothing of the sort! Are you acquainted with the mood of mind in which, if you were seated alone, and the cat licking its kitten on the rug before you, you would watch the operation so intently that puss's neglect of one ear would put you seriously out of temper?"

"A terribly lazy mood, I should say."

"On the contrary, a tiresomely active one. It is mine, at present, and, therefore, continue minutely..."

We are starting Wuthering Heights tomorrow in my seminar. While preparing/re-reading, I found myself charmed by the passage above. The Nelly/Lockwood dynamic is standing out to me this time, perhaps because we are starting this multiply-narrated book right after reading Frankenstein, which also has embedded narratives/narrators. Anyway, what Lockwood is saying here--basically, "Tell me everything. Don't leave a thing out!"--is such an understandable impulse when you hear a good story.

And yeah: the kitten analogy got me.

Plus, I like the connection to yesterday's post and my own enthusiasm for lots of details/seeming digressions.

Back to Catcher

5 September 2018: "The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It's more interesting and all." --J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

We are reading The Catcher in the Rye again in my Young Adult Literature class. It isn't one of my absolute favorites, but something different jumps out at me each reading. I am thinking about how, when I am talking with my favorite people, I relish all their digressions, little slips of what matters to them..

New roof...

[Catch-up post]

4 September 2018: Yesterday was a heck of a day (thus, the catch-up post). Lots of things went wrong, but the big things (ultimately) went right. The new roof, which I put a deposit down on in late April, went on yesterday. There are still a couple of little things to get done, but I am breathing a bit easier about that. I also had a couple of minor crises that resolved themselves in part because I am blessed to have good friends who put up with me, help me out when I am in a pinch, and keep me sane.

Labor Day...

3 September 2018: The idea that Labor Day is the semi-official "end of summer" always depresses me a bit, but you know what helped? A little cook-out with one of my favorite people. (Also helping? That we are in the midst of a heat wave and it sure still feels like summer. I don't like that kind of help so much...)

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

2 September 2018: Finally got to see this movie today when the local(ish) Alamo had a single screening. I think this Slate review makes lots of valid points, but I'd put more emphasis on the good work the film does. (And this review is a direct refutation to very title of the Slate piece, which is pretty darn interesting...)

National Book Festival, 2018

[Catch-up post]

1 September 2018: Some lines that stood out to me at this year's Book Festival:

Tayari Jones:

• "Who am I now versus who I was seven years ago?" 
• "What happens when people are forced to make choices they should never have to make?"
• "How much of yourself do you devote to a relationship and how much do you hold back for your dreams?"

Min Jin Lee:

• "I had no intention of writing this book." 
• "What is it like to forgive people who hated you?"

Tracy K. Smith:

• "Poems bring unlikely language to things deep within us."
• Poets "go to the wrong context to get the right feeling."

Robert Hass:

• "Poetry is the place where you wake up to yourself."

Celeste Ng:

• We should be "advocates for empathy."
• Books "open spaces for ambiguity."

And I got to hang with this great crew again. 

One week down...

31 August 2018: The first week of the new semester ended on a pretty good note, with a solid day of teaching, dinner at a new (to me) restaurant, and a fun movie. Nothing too complicated or novel, but I'll take it.

"Another Day"

30 August 2018: A friend linked to this poem today. Love it/really needed it.

Nephew time...

29 August 2018: Had dinner with my nephew, who though he will always be "Little Man" to me, is on Instagram with a hilarious/mildly disturbing name that includes the words "hot Russian." "That's what people call me," he shrugged, as I nodded like I understood.

It's back!

28 August 2018: "You can't put God as a character in Belinda Blinked." --James, in the first episode of this season of My Dad Wrote a Porno. This was just one of the many times I burst out laughing listening today.

I'm still in a bit of funk today, so the 40+ minutes of joy that this podcast brings are so very appreciated.

"Right Here"

27 August 2018: Feeling this one tonight...