Trivia hosting...

31 July 2018: Tonight Amy and I took over hosting trivia at Cafe del Sol. Our own trivia team was sort of dying down and it was harder and harder to field a team every week. This keeps us in the loop, gives us something to do on a weeknight, and is still (so far) lots of fun. The first night went pretty well as the restaurant was packed and I only made the mic make that awful screechy noise once (ugh). On to week two!

Payback! (The best kind...)

30 July 2018: When I owed Jane money for theater tickets, I sent her a check in a silly card. When she owed me $50 for tickets, she sent me 10 cards over ten days (not counting Sundays), each with $5 in them. She wins this round of "which friend is more fun."

Sunday morning blueberry picking...

29 July 2018: Amy and I went to Frog Eye Blueberry Farm this morning. The season is wrapping up so the pickings were a bit slim, but we still had fun. And when we went to pay, the woman didn't charge us because our hauls weren't that big, a lovely (and unnecessary) gesture. The patch was full of butterflies, too, which made it all even nicer.

"Barter"

28 July 2018: Two poem posts in a row, but that's okay. This one works just fine on a quiet and reflective Saturday night.

"Barter"
Sara Teasdale

"Life has loveliness to sell,
   All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
   Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children’s faces looking up
Holding wonder in a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,
   Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
   Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit’s still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,
   Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
   Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstacy
Give all you have been, or could be."

"Domestic"

27 July 2018: Stumbled across this poem, "Domestic," by Carl Phillips, the other day and have been thinking about its depiction of domestic happiness quite a lot. Its humor (toilet humor!) comes from the familiar--this couple knows each other--which feels real. I also love the little flashes of insecurity that run through the speaker's mind. That seems real to me, too. Anyway, here are the closing lines:

"I thought this is another of   
those things I’m always forgetting   
to tell you, or don’t choose to   
tell you, or I tell you but only

in the same way, each morning, I
keep myself from saying too loud I
love you until the moment you flush
the toilet, then I say it, when the
rumble of water running down through
the house could mean anything: flood,

your feet descending the stairs any
moment; any moment the whole world,
all I want of the world, coming down."

"I Belong to You"

26 July 2018:

"I know I could be spending a little too much time with you
But time and too much don't belong together like we do
If I had all my yesterdays I'd give 'em to you too..."

Four years...

25 July 2018: It's been four years since Ryan died. Not much to say that is all that profound. I miss him. It is still very sad. I wish he were here.

It's been very rainy here, almost unbelievably so. The lawn, which was brown and dying just a few days ago, is springing back to soggy life. So yeah...metaphors abound. We've got a little break in the rain this morning so I am going to take this chance to mow the grass. I've got some of my favorite podcasts queued up and the perfect hat for the job.

Even more Middlemarch

24 July 2018: "What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?" --Dorothea, in Middlemarch

Thanks to some essays I have been reading, I've been thinking a lot about what Eliot is saying about what matters in life. The quotation above, simple as it seems, works quite well and isn't bad advice for how to live your life.

"the experience which we call emotional"

23 July 2018: "What seems eminently wanted is a closer comparison between the knowledge which we call rational & the experience which we call emotional." --George Eliot, in a notebook entry.

A moody, broody day here, no doubt in part because of the rain, a rapidly disappearing summer, and (as usual on these moody, broody days) big thoughts. I spent some more time reading about George Eliot and found myself struck by these words, which shed some light on Middlemarch, but also hit close to home on moody, broody days.

"Our Mental Health Stories"

22 July 2018: Caught up on some podcasts during my 12 hours in the car over these past two days, including this really moving and important episode of Sawbones. Justin and Sydnee are always great, but to hear them being so open and honest and real with their audience and with each other just elevated them to another level for me. What wonderful people.

Meeting the new guy...

21 July 2018:

[Catch-up post]

Drove up to NY yesterday to meet the newest nephew and celebrate his 4th birthday. Can't post pictures yet as he is still a foster child, but rest assured, he's fun and sweet and a welcome addition. 

Beautiful night at the ballpark...

20 July 2018: It was "Jimmy Buffett Night" at the Suns' Park tonight, which was silly and fun. The Suns also won BIG. And then there were fireworks after. That's my kind of summer night. 

Hamilton!

19 July 2018:

[Catch-up post]

Hamilton with three of my favorite people with a bonus gorgeous sunset at intermission? Sometimes the universe seems very kind.

Austen and Eliot

18 July 2018: "When Jane Austen died, her last words were 'Pray for me, oh pray for me'; when George Eliot died, she is reported to have said 'Tell them the pain is on the left side'. The shift which took place between the two novelists is movingly registered in those two utterances: to have gained all the scientific ability to measure and locate human pain without the redeeming belief in any ultimate remedy for that pain — that is the predicament George Eliot 'gave out in intensified form' in Middlemarch, and it is one of which we too, living in a later century, have an intimate knowledge" (Wilhelm 56-7).

Preparing for my seminar on the nineteenth-century novel, I read the lines above earlier today and found them quite persuasive and moving.

Work Cited

Wilhelm, Cherry. "Conservative Reform in Middlemarch." Theoria, vol. 53, October 1979, pp. 47-47.

More laughs from researching...

17 July 2018: Another line that made me laugh out loud as I work on this project...

“No one has initiated ‘just say yes’ workshops for men, and so the likelihood that men will spontaneously begin to pick up the work that women will begin to say no is doubtful." --KerryAnn O'Meara, et al., on ideas for solving the gender discrepancies in faculty service loads. Here they are specifically calling out the "solution" of "just no no" workshops for women. Amazing.

First phone call...

16 July 2018:

Excerpt from my first phone conversation with Evan, my new about-to-be-four-years-old nephew, who my sister and her husband are in the process of adopting. Notice his gift for keeping it real and asking the tough questions:

Evan: Are you coming to my birthday party?
Me: Yeah! I sure am!
Evan: What about Isla? And Krista?
Me: Oh, those are Tante Erin’s kids. This is Tante Heidi. I don’t have any kids.
Evan: What? Why you don’t have no kids??? BYE! [Gives phone back to Tara.]

Sunday night researching...

15 July 2018: I am working on a project that is about lots of things--academia (specifically balancing the demands of scholarship, teaching, and service), gender, and nineteenth-century poet Lucy Larcom. (That last one sticks out, right?) Anyway, I've got a stack of articles I wanted to get through tonight, including this one, which considers a kind of glass ceiling that keeps women from getting promoted to full professor before their male peers. The authors argue that service work gets in the way--service work that their male colleagues don't do as much of.

Like any good study, it asks why women do more. And this passage made me laugh out loud. First, they speculate: "Perhaps women associate professors enjoy service more, while men prefer research?" Then, immediately: "None of our data fits this interpretation." Well, then... Ha!

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

14 July 2018: Believe everything good you have heard about this movie. It's such an important and moving story. Even hours later, I find myself moved to tears just thinking about certain scenes.

Friday night dinner...

13 July 2018: Had dinner this evening at the home of one of my favorite former students, along with her sister, another favorite. Bethany, the older sister, is due with her first baby in about a month, so it was lovely to see her, especially since I missed her baby shower because I was in NYC. Rebecca, the younger sister, is always a blast to spend time with, and we eagerly talked about TV and podcasts, two of my favorite topics. So it was a lovely evening and yet another reminder of how many blessings come from my job.

Belated reaction to good news...

12 July 2018: Since I got the news about my promotion to full professor, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how it will change things for me. Will I go a bit easier on myself in certain areas? Relax a little? Become an even more prickly woman? Say "no" more? Swallow fewer volcanoes?

I still don't know how it will all shake out, but--fully 24 hours later--I am stopping to have more of a reaction to some good news I got yesterday: an article I submitted to Transformations has been accepted for publication. It's my first sort-of-big post-promotion achievement. It won't get me anything substantial--no more promotions to be obtained, no raises in the near future--but it still feels great. Maybe a different kind of great? Like, here's this good thing that is just good in and of itself. Something I can be proud of just because it is good and I like it and I worked hard on it. That's kind of cool.

"for a a couple of teenagers..."

11 July 2018: Did my due diligence as a pet-owner today and took Bing and Wes in for their yearly visits. For some crazy reason, I took them together. As usual, they were fine until we got in the exam room. The vet and her assistant were lovely and kind, even when Wesley made the vet tech bleed. The good news? For "a couple of teenagers," in the vet's words, they both look great. Yay! And now I can not think about doing this again for 365 days.

(Yes, Veronica goes soon for her appointment, but she's actually easier, which is baffling.)

Here's Bing about 5 minutes after we got home, already back to normal, sitting next to me as I type. They are so weird.

Little Women

10 July 2018: Finally got around to watching the Little Women mini-series on Masterpiece and really enjoyed it. I thought the series did a good job with the Jo/Laurie dynamic (and I could write a lot about my own complicated feelings on all of that). And, of course, it was visually quite beautiful.

"Simple As It Should Be"

9 July 2018: Sweet, wistful, sigh-inducing song for a quiet and pretty Monday morning.

"So put your lips to my lips
Why not go on and take all of it
And just run as fast as you can
Just 'cause you can..." --Trista Prettyman, "Simple As It Should Be"

A weekend of meeting cute creatures...

8 July 2018:

Friday: met Anna and Josh's new puppy.
Saturday: met Jane's new kitten.
Sunday (today): met a friend/colleague's baby.

All of these little dudes and dudettes are adorable and reminders of how lucky I am to have their people in my life.

Henry and Max...

7 July 2018:

[Catch-up post]

Though I didn't get any really decent pictures (too distracted by the cuteness), the clear highlight of my Saturday was meeting Henry and Max, Jane's new kittens. Everyone in that group is very lucky.

These girls...

6 July 2018: These girls always make me smile.

"Could You Lie"

5 July 2018:

"Could you lie and say you love me just a little
One more wrong will keep us one more night
When quiet fades at the light of day
I see the truth
It's on your face again
When morning breaks my heart won't understand
Spend a lifetime raising houses on the sand
The rain outside is shifting in the wind
The road is looking lonelier
Alone again" --Alison Krauss, "Could You Lie"

Busy Fourth...

4 July 2018:

[Catch-up post]

What a weird, packed Fourth of July it was! Amy and I started the day off in Point Pleasant, waking up from an (uneventful) night spent at the "haunted" Lowe Hotel. Then it was off to Weston, to visit the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Along the way, we stopped at Mike Fink's Grave (a bit hard to find!) and drove through Glenville, Amy's old stomping grounds. The Asylum was almost overwhelming in terms of its size and the stories it hold. Well worth the trip. After that, it was home to Shepherdstown before taking in a terrific fireworks show in Hagerstown. Slept very well last night, as you might imagine.

Meeting the Mothman

3 July 2018:

[Catch-up post]

Road trip to Point Pleasant! Met the Mothman and stayed at a "haunted" hotel. (Nothing to report on the latter front...)

"It Ain't Cool"

2 July 2018: That Reba concert has got me on an 80s country kick.

Reba!

1 July 2018: Three shows in three days! This one is closer to home: Reba at Wolf Trap. What a fun show!

Escape to Margaritaville

30 June 2018:

[Catch-up post]

This show didn't get the best reviews and will have a short run (it closes today), but it sure was fun. Sometimes, that's enough.

The Band's Visit

29 June 2018:

[Catch-up post]

“Nothing is as beautiful as something you don’t expect.” --The Band's Visit

Saw this amazing show on Friday. All of the adjectives you've heard applied to it--beautiful, touching, ravishing--hold up. What a show.