Wood-working...

30 September 2019: I just finished up a very cool introductory wood-working class at Shepherd’s awesome FASTnER lab, where I learned how to use three saws. My reaction? “Look at this cool little piece of wood I cut!” Amy's reaction: “We can totally rebuild your deck.” Wow. Also, shout-out to my friend Kay for being such a great and patient teacher. And what a fun way to spend my lunch break!

"Like You"

29 September 2019: Came across this poem today in a mailing from the Academy of American poets celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month. Love it.

"I believe the world is beautiful
and that poetry, like bread, is for everyone.
And that my veins don’t end in me
but in the unanimous blood
of those who struggle for life,
love,
little things,
landscape and bread,
the poetry of everyone."

Homecoming...

28 September 2019: What a day! Rode in a parade in the morning and sold concessions at the football game to raise money for Sigma Tau Delta. Wiped out, but it was fun.

Founders Day...

27 September 2019: I gave a (short) speech at Founders Day today, focusing on how much our alumni, students, faculty, and staff inspire me. If I am being very honest, it's been really hard lately at work. Morale is low (to put it mildly). But I meant every word I said about how much these folks mean to me and it felt good to say it.

Baby ram...

26 September 2019: News you can use/hot gossip from the Shepherd University Foundation Board of Directors meeting: J.C. the Ram is going to be a daddy. (And his girlfriend is named "Lulu.") We also talked about other stuff, but this is what excited me the most.

"Underbelly"

25 September 2019: Really liking this poem, from the poem-a-day email.

Here's an excerpt from the beginning:

"Wouldbelove, do not think of me as a whetstone
until you hear the whole story:

In it, I’m not the hero, but I’m not the villain either
so let’s say, in the story, I was human

and made of human-things: fear
and hands, underbelly and blade..."

This is a weird picture...

24 September 2019: A lovely event today--the Library's annual "Breakfast on the Porch." They also used it to unveil my "READ" poster, something I posed for last spring. It was a very strange experience (when you don't exactly love looking at yourself), but also quite nice and sweet.

Family Feud

23 September 2019: Another homecoming week, complete with me serving as the faculty member on a sorority's Family Feud team. It was fun, but made for an awfully long day.

"Old Soul"

22 September 2019: Kind of a perfect soundtrack for "Sunday contemplation mood."

Saturday balance?

21 September 2019: I haven't written about my great "balance" initiative in a long time, which certainly says something about how that's been going. But I made some attempts today. Slept in (good for getting over the cold I've been fighting), took a long walk, met up with some work friends at a local brewery I've been meaning to try forever, got my haircut, watched some episodes of the new season of Mindhunter, and got some serious work done. Not bad, I guess.

Last night I found myself reflecting on...everything? The sadness/funk that lurked over me most of the late summer seems to be lifting, but I am not sure why. Or about what's taking its place. And I am still kind of afraid it could come back...or that, maybe more accurately, it should be back, since the things that caused it are still the same. Nothing is "fixed," after all.

All very vague, I know, but it feels that way, too. So if I find myself fighting off that sadness/funk and dealing with all the anxiety and tough stuff at work, I have got to do a better job at that balance thing, I think. I just have to.

Downton Abbey

25 September 2019: Do we need a Downtown Abbey movie? Do we need just over two hours of low-stakes, not-much-happens, gently-troubling-politics-depicting, rich-people watching?

After this week, my answer is yup, I sure did. Look, it's not a terrific movie, but it's terrific at being what it is. And I sure did enjoy it.

Tired troops...

19 September 2019: I mean, I might just be projecting onto him, but I am pretty sure that when Wesley watched me change into "public clothes," as opposed to "laying around the house because you don't have to teach today and you are sick" clothes, he looked at me like I was crazy. And then, when he noticed I was putting on not just "public clothes," but fairly nice (for me) clothes, he looked even more confused. But yes: I am getting dressed up a bit to head to campus on a non-teaching day, and when I am kind of sick, because things are so crazy on campus and we need to show up in full force at the BOG meeting today.

The troops are rallying, but man...we are tired.

And yeah: the cat wasn't thinking that. He just wants to nap. That's all.

Hanging in...

18 September 2019: Really struggling with a cold today, but got through it. Even managed to do all of my office hours and get my steps in down by the C&O after. Whew. But I need to get to bed soon and hope I wake up feeling better. (Not much a post, I know, but I have had this window open for about 30 minutes and cannot think of anything else to write about.)

Sounds good?

17 September 2019: "I think there's nothing wrong with a headless horseman." --Andrea, the current president of our Sigma Tau Delta chapter, wrapping up a discussion of what the group will do for the annual "Shep O' Treat" event. Made me laugh!

(For context, every year, the group does a "pin the tail on the donkey" type game for the kids coming through for the event, but with a literary twist. Past entries have included "pin the mustache on Poe," for instance. For this year, this was some discussion over whether a headless horseman would be too scary for little ones, but we decided so long as the heads that were being pinned were pumpkins, it would be okay.)

Mondays...

16 September 2019: A long and busy Monday that finds me still fighting whatever this sickness might be if it ever decides to fully arrive. But "long" and "busy" are different from bad and whatever this sickness is, it isn't bad. So all in all...a decent day. The best part? Grabbing an iced coffee with Hannah after a (long) Senate meeting and catching up for an hour or so. Awesome.

So long, Ric...

15 September 2019: Heard the news this evening that Ric Ocasek died. I've got lots of memories from my childhood set to Cars' songs, but let's go with one that I find endlessly appealing (and have blogged about before).

What the Constitution Means to Me

14 September 2019: Settling into what I think will be the cold/cough/whatever that I've been fighting for a couple of weeks (at least I think I am?). So that sort of stinks. But I am so grateful that I didn't start feeling truly cruddy until after seeing this amazing show today at the Kennedy Center with Cory and Hannah.

It is so good--smart and hilarious and moving. It's mostly a one-woman show--always amazing and impressive. And when it isn't it is even more technically innovative and smart. I wish everyone could see it. I feel so grateful that I did.

Hustlers

13 September 2019: I really enjoyed this film. Great performances, a terrific script, smart directing, and just a lot to think about. Kind of fighting off some sort of sickness at the end of a long and at times tough week, but this was a nice way to spend the evening.

Revolution and the Word

12 September 2019: "As the first critics [of novels and novel-reading in early America] intuited, readers could claim the power to pass judgement for themselves on cultural forms 'without asking the opinion' of those who, from the landing of the Mayflower onward, had been schooled in asserting judgment without waiting to be asked." --Cathy N. Davidson, Revolution and the Word

I assigned some pages from Davidson's classic book to my American Fiction class for tomorrow. Re-reading those selections today, I am reminded of some of the reasons why I love the book so much. It isn't just its fascinating insights, clear explanations of tough subjects, and great melding of theory and practice. It also made me laugh quite a few times, like in the passage above. 

"We See Wednesday"

11 September 2019: Did the "We See Wednesday" thing today. It was actually a lot of fun. But man, it wiped me out (creatively, imaginatively)! It must be exhausting to be a young person these days. Ha!

Tiny triumphs...

10 September 2019: Survived Veronica's annual vet visit with no bloodshed so I pretty much already won this day. She did lead an impressive chorus of unhappy cats as we waited to check out. We are talking full-on call and response. If I were a day-drinker...

It's back! (Again)

9 September 2019: Three years in a row now that the return of My Dad Wrote a Porno earns the spot as the thing I blog about that day. Today was a long and kind of rough day. I didn't get home until almost 8:00. But all day, when I would think about listening to it on my walk (which transformed from an early evening walk to an 8:30 walk as the day wore on), I would get so excited.

And when I did listen? Pure stupid joy. Loved it.

Learning new tricks...

8 September 2019: I ain't quite an old dog yet, but it does feel a bit tough to learn certain new tricks. Specifically, I am trying to learn Snapchat really quickly so I can do this Student Affairs take-over thing ("We See Wednesday") that I've been asked to do. Lordy...there's a lot to learn, but it should be fun. So far, I've sent a couple of test runs to Hannah, starring Wes and BabyCat, of course.

The Goldfinch

7 September 2019: "Yet even a child can see its dignity: thimble of bravery, all fluff and brittle bone. Not timid, not even hopeless, but steady and holding its place. Refusing to pull back from the world." --Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

Finished this veritable tome just a little while ago and seriously enjoyed it. Some of that enjoyment was due to experiencing again those familiar feelings of having a book waiting for you to get back to it, always sort of hovering there in your mind, kind of calling to you, as look forward to the time you'll pick it up and dive back in. But that isn't the only reason. The passage above, one of the final descriptions of the titular painting, explains a lot of the rest.

Step Show: The Musical

6 September 2019: Got to see this amazing show--still a work in progress--tonight. The dancing is stunning. The music is beautiful and moving. The story is important. What a cool thing to see coming together!

"What Happens Right Before Your Best Employee Quits"

5 September 2019: A colleague posted this a couple of day ago (and a good colleague, so yikes!) and I can't stop thinking about it. We barely two weeks into the semester but, boy, I've never seen morale so low and so many folks beaten down and frustrated. Let me say that the teaching part and the working with students part (i.e., the reason for the job!) remains the best part for all of us. And that love for our students makes everything else harder...

So what do you (we) do? No easy answers, but I think tonight I am going to go to a happy-hour thing that a colleague organized and hang out with people who believe in the work we do, people I care about very much, people who make my life better. That will be a good reminder of what we've got going for us.

Roller-coaster day...

4 September 2019: Some parts of today were so good--my classes, a meeting with my practicum students, and, most wonderfully, an invitation to serve as the speaker at UNCG's December PhD hooding ceremony. That last one made me so happy. Within minutes of getting that email, though, all employees also got a seemingly out-of-nowhere email about a travel-funding freeze (yikes). And there is/was other stuff that isn't so great.

But I still made myself leave work when my office hours were over at 6:00, though I could have stayed later--and would have stayed later not too long ago. I had brought a change of clothes with me so I could stop by the C&O and walk before I went home. So I changed, left campus, got a good walk in, and came home.

So yeah: a roller-coaster of a day, indeed, but focusing as much as I can on the good stuff and taking the time to treat myself/practice some self-care.

Late afternoon Larcom thoughts...

3 September 2019: "I am so glad to be, to live, to feel myself advancing year by year into the heart of nature and humanity; and I believe I love all human beings better than I once did, for it was in me to isolate myself, to feel that there were some with whom I had nothing in common. I have forsworn that and am amazed at my past self for not supposing that there was one of God's creatures who was not worth getting acquainted with." --Lucy Larcom in an 1856 letter

This afternoon finds me working through a rather ambitious to-do list with lots of success. One of the last items on the list before heading to trivia was to read an article with some of Larcom's letters included.

The letter quoted above provides another example of how much she moves and fascinates me. I think my own progression in life mirrors hers in this way; and let me be clear--she will (in other writings) retreat a bit from this position, or, more accurately, write about how hard it can be. That only makes her more human and interesting to me.

iZombie

2 September 2019: Almost exactly two months after it aired, I finally watched the finale of iZombie, a show that I really enjoyed over its five-season (!) run. I must confess that I couldn't follow the complicated mythology of the show, how all of the players were related, or even give you a good synopsis of it overall. But it was fun and funny and well-acted and such a weird little show. This interview with Rob Thomas, something that sat in my bookmarks folder waiting for me to read it, also helped me think of some new dimensions for the show's significance, including its commentary for our times.

"Fun" reading...

1 September 2019: "...in the very act of turning away I knew he would have run after me and hopped in the car if laughing if I asked one last time. / But I didn't. And, in truth, it was maybe better that I didn't--I say that now, though it was something I regretted bitterly for a while. More than anything I was relieved that in my unfamiliar babbling-and-wanting-to-talk state I'd stopped myself from blurting the thing on the edge of my tongue, the thing I'd never said, even though it was something we both knew well enough without me saying it out loud to him in the street--which was, of course, I love you." --Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

Working my way through this almost 800-page tome, which has sat on my nightstand for at least four years, I am reminded why reading "just for fun" happens so much less than it did when I was younger. Like so many things I enjoy, I cannot stop myself once I get started.

Well, no matter that. I am working on getting back to it more regularly. It's good for me, I think.

As for this book, which I started on Tuesday evening: I am trying to get it done before the movie opens. At this point, I am feeling pretty good about achieving that goal, since I am on page 409 and about to dive back in.

So far, I find it utterly captivating. It's slow at times, but not in a bad way. More like I just want to push through so I can see what happens next, but even as I do, I want to slow down for the rich details. I've read Tartt's other two books and find this one much more sentimental (need a better word here, I know) and moving.