Sunday on the downslope...

31 October 2021: Spent most of today at the office. Got a decent amount of work done: a ton of grading, senate prep, and practiced/revised my two conference papers. Even attended a Zoom training session for moderating a hybrid panel at SSAWW this week. Look: it's not an ideal way to spend a weekend day, but it wasn't awful and I got home by 5:00 and have been taking it pretty easy since then. Breathing more easily on the downslope of this semester...

Out at the Farm

30 October 2021: Some Sigma Tau Delta students and I helped out at the Tabler Farm Open House today. So much exciting potential out there!

Pun'kins!

 29 October 2021: Carved pumpkins with some of my favorite people tonight. Perfect way to end a busy week.

Who Would Have Thought It?

28 October 2021: "What would the good and proper people of this world do if there were no rogues in it,--no social delinquents? The good and proper, I fear, would perish of sheer inanity,--of hypochondriac lassitude,--or, to say the least, would grow very dull for want of convenient whetstones to sharpen their wits. Rogues are useful." --Rev. Hackwell, in the opening paragraph of Maria Ruiz de Burton's Who Would Have Thought It?

With both of my conference papers ready to go, with the Scarborough Lecture done, and with the Provost search winding down, I can finally turn my attention back to my book, I started reading Ruiz's novel today. I knew almost nothing about her or her work before, but so far, it's a fun and quick read. I am writing "ha!" in the margins quite a bit. 

Fall sweetness...

27 October 2021: A sweet early autumn day where moments of sweetness and delight abounded: good classes with smart students talking about great literature, conferences with them about their project and paper ideas, a fun Wednesday lunch, a haircut in the late afternoon, and working on some fun(ish) stuff this evening. 

Guilt trip...

26 October 2021: Came out of the shower today and found guy making himself comfortable on my shirt. The message seemed clear: "You shan't leave today. Stay with me." As I pulled it away from him, he just kept stretching out his arms on it. Nothing like starting the day off with a guilt trip from this sweet little dude.

Contemplating...

25 October 2021: Doing some thinking these days about pursuing a new opportunity at work. Still not sure, but beginning to lean towards throwing my hat in the ring. The whole question has me thinking about the things I am already doing, what I get out of/from them and why, and what I might achieve in the days ahead. In some ways, regardless of what happens, that exercise is a good thing. 

Fall looks...

24 October 2021: Drove out to Orr's today to get some mums and some cider donuts. Decided to plant two out of three of the mums (as opposed to putting them on patio furniture). Looks pretty good, I think.

Two parades in two days...

23 October 2021: Homecoming parade this morning!

Founders Day 2021

22 October 2021: So much fun to be able to have a real Founders Day again.

New little wheels

21 October 2021: One of my advisees gave me this little car today. Since it's only his second year, it was the first time we actually met in person. He was like, "Your office is pretty cool. I've only seen the wall behind you before!" Noticing the little toys and tchotchkes I have, he handed me this sweet blue ride, saying he and his friends collect them. Made me smile.  

Spring 2022 Advising

20 October 2021: Today I met with advisees for the first in-person scheduling sessions in two years. (In-person office hours have been happening all semester, but advising just started.) Though they could choose Zoom or in-person, all but one have opted for in-person. I get it. 

Conference paper progress...

19 October 2021: Today I finished a decent draft of my MAPACA paper (still some revising and polishing to do) and started practicing my SSAWW paper. I hadn't touched the latter since July (!), when I finished a really polished draft and set it aside. It feels very good to see both projects nearing their conclusion. 

Family Feud

18 October 2021: It's always fun when Tri Sigma asks me to be the faculty member on their Family Feud team during Homecoming Week. Even more fun when we won first place *and* when I saw the #1 answer for "who is your favorite professor at Shepherd?" Reader, I hollered.

"Lover"

17 October 2021: 

"and what I do not say is, I trust the world to come back" --"Lover," by Ada Limón

Kind of in love with this sad, hopeful, restless, and playful poem. That combination of adjectives is hard to balance, but Limón (as usual) pulls it off. 

Feels like Break...

16 October 2021: No commitments today and no extremely pressing work has translated into a day that feels like Fall Break. Took my walk early this morning before the rain started. Since then, it's been little chores, dumb TV, and just chilling. I can't do this very often, but it feels okay today. 

Little steps forward...

15 October 2021: It took about three months, but today our new admin assistant said to me, "Do you live here? You are always here." Yup. That's my brand. In my defense, my goodness: this week saw me making some progress on all kinds of projects, both big and small (and some happening off campus): 

• Two of four provost semi-finalists visited campus.
• Scheduled the last (I hope) meeting of the search committee (a big feat for a committee this big)
• Gave the Scarborough Lecture.
• Dropped off my car, got it fixed, and picked it up. I was basically car-less for almost three days. Not that big a deal as I live close to campus and Amy was very helpful.
• My new bedroom furniture got delivered (today) and the old stuff is either gone, relocated, or scheduled to get picked up tomorrow. 
• Prepared for all of my advising appointments.
• Made, hung, and posted (online) fliers for my Spring 2022 classes.
• Finally got back to working on my MAPACA paper.

Don't want jinx anything, but feeling pretty good about being on the downslope of a very busy semester.

The sequel...

14 October 2021: So happy to receive this today. Just finished teaching the original again yesterday and, as always, it went so well. Bonus Veronica cameo...

Made it to Fall Break!

13 October 2021: It's not a completely work-free Fall Break, as I have a lot to do and some on-campus meetings, but the pace will slow down a bit for Thursday and Friday. And we've made it half-way. Not bad! Celebrated the milestone with dinner outside at Lilah with Amy, Eva, Hannah, and Cory. A wonderful time. 

150 Years of Middlemarch, 150 Years of Shepherd

12 October 2021: Delivered my presentation on Middlemarch, George Eliot, and Shepherd tonight. I think it went pretty well. The q&a portion was so much fun and the reception after was just lovely. 

Whew! Glad to have it done, too. 

Project Balance on a Monday

11 October 2021: Got to campus very early today (before 7:00) and did a million things before leaving at 3:30. I dropped my car off in Hagerstown to get some minor repairs. Amy met me and we had dinner and saw a dumb movie. Let me be clear: I am right in the midst of one of the busiest/most stressful stretches I can remember. But I am managing it all and taking the late afternoon and most of the evening off feels pretty darn good. 

Midterm grading: DONE!

10 October 2021: Just hit submit on the last set of grades. Long day so far, with a lot more to get done, but getting these done feels very good. I am almost certain this has come up as a chair-dancing song before, but this was literally playing on Pandora when I entered the last number and is still playing now as I type this. It always makes me happy, so we'll use it again.

Tree planting

9 October 2021: Busy Saturday! Planted some trees with the Sigma Tau Delta students at Tabler Farm, which is starting a sustainable food forest. Spent the rest of the day cleaning, grading, moving furniture (long story!), seeing SU volleyball win again, and attending another concert at Dow and Annette's. Tired but in a mostly good way.

End of midterm week...

8 October 2021: Made it to the end of midterm week. I've got two classes worth of grading to get done and a kind of ambitious to-do list for the weekend (including some fun stuff for Project Balance). Still feeling overwhelmed, but slightly less so. A couple of things that helped tonight: dinner with Amy at Kome followed by an SU volleyball game. (They crushed it.)

Caveats noted, this helps...

7 October 2021: In these very busy days, the fact that we are still in this pandemic is never far from my mind, but I find myself trying not to think too hard about how difficult the winter might be. This piece--with all its caveats noted early on--helps. 

Wisdom

6 October 2021: "I've learned to be comfortable in my own sadness." --a student in my ENGL 307 class today, as we began our discussion of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and talked about its narrator. My student was talking about something he can now do that Ari hasn't quite figured out yet. 

This was such a moment of understated profundity from this young man and I found it so moving, mature, and real. This generation can talk about emotions--pain, love, sorrow, joy--in ways that I still struggle to articulate for myself. It's such a virtue. 

Again and again, these students teach me things, make me feel things, make me so blessed to be called their teacher. And I know, I know, I know: its sounds like a cheesy cliche, but it's just true. 

Flu shot...

5 October 2021: Got to see my favorite pharmacist Meghan today for my flu shot. Seriously: I don't know her at all outside of the pharmacy, but she's so sweet and lovely. Anyway, happy to have this sweet vaccine in my system. Cannot imagine getting the flu right now with all that's on my plate.

Speaking of that plate, made some good progress today on my Scarborough Society lecture and some other projects. Now if only I could get m students to stop emailing me. (Just kidding. Sort of. It's midterm week...)

A bit like riding a bike...

4 October 2021: Hosted trivia for the first time since March 2020, filling in for Chuck and Bill at Bender's in Sharpsburg. It went just fine and, as the post title suggests, I fell right back to the old routine. It wasn't as much fun as it was at my other venue with my regulars, but it's good to know the "skill" (ha) is still there.

"You and Me on the Rock"

3 October 2021: Feeling both mentally worn out but emotionally pretty good because I've knocked out a ton of work today: finished a draft of my Scarborough Society lecture, wrote a Fulbright recommendation, got a solid draft done on my Strategic Plan report (boring), responded to so many emails. In short, I've crossed just about everything off my weekend "to do" list. 

The new Brandi Carlile album has been a good soundtrack for today, particularly "You and Me on the Rock," which she played at the concert that Erin and I saw in late August. She called it her "Joni Mitchell" song, which you can immediately hear. It's just a really fun and sweet song that's been on heavy rotation for me today. 

Love these lines: "Me out in my garden / and you out on your walk / Is all the distance this poor girl can take / Without listenin' to you talk..."

Update: and the Yankees just made the post-season in the bottom of the ninth in a 0-0 game. Cue that track again! 

Sedaris at the Weinberg

2 October 2021: What a treat to see David Sedaris at the Weinberg Center* with Tim, Kevin, Hannah, and Cory. We had dinner (take-out Thai) beforehand in the conference room at Cory's office, which was also lovely and fun. Just a perfect evening. 

*Grateful that attendees had to be vaccinated or show a negative test and had to be masked.

Coming together...

1 October 2021: Some good things clicked into place today, one work-related and one not. Still miles to go, but it is good to see and feel some progress.