"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...)