#77

30 April 2024:

Three entries completed in April.

Twelve entries completed this semester.

Twelve entries completed in the fall semester.

Seventy-seven entries (out of seventy-seven) completed in all.

Next steps? Revising, writing an introduction and some other small pieces. 

Then off it goes. 

Feeling pretty darn good. 

Tiny triumph!

29 April 2024: I haven't used the grill in two summers--a sign of how "off" things have been since COVID when it comes to my social life. 

When I tried it last year, it wouldn't light up and I gave up very quickly, leaning into the emo symbolism of it all. 

But I'm hosting a Sigma Tau Delta potluck here on Thursday and decided to give it another try yesterday. 

And it didn't work (again). 

So I was thinking I'd have to buy a new one. (And yes: there was propane in the tank.)

But then sitting here this evening, I determined to try one more time. Got down in there, disconnected some things, cleaned some things up, reconnected the things and...it worked! Bring on the hotdogs! 

Let's hope this tiny triumph is a harbinger of good things to come this summer, at least on the culinary front. 

Summer vibes...

28 April 2024: Temperatures in the 80s today really made it feel like summer. So, too, did me getting all of my work done by 4:00 or so. What to do for the rest of the day? Whatever I want (and book club at 7:00, which was great.)

A couple of funny pics of Jo, who could not sit still for a photo shoot, but rather demanded to be petted.

"She can second-guess the sixth sense of the poem..."

27 April 2024: “She is like a receiving station picking up on each poem, unscrambling things out of word-waves, making sense of it and making sure of it. She can second-guess the sixth sense of the poem." --Seamus Heaney, quoted in this piece on Helen Vendler, who died earlier this week.

I was sad to hear that Vendler passed away, though ninety years is a lovely, long life. Her book on Dickinson is beautiful--full of riches that made me a better reader and teacher. 

Softball and pizza

26 April 2024: Did some work this morning and this afternoon, but stopped around 3:30 to watch the softball game with Carrie and Amy. Afterwards, we got some pizza, came back to my house, and just talked, laughed, and hung out for a while. Very fun and chill way to welcome summer break. 

Spring 2024 Grading: DONE!

25 April 2024: Just clicked "submit" on the practicum students' final grades, so that's that for Spring 2024 grading. A strange and hard semester, but as always, the students--even when some of them were driving me crazy--were the best part. 

Trying to get Pandora to play some chair-dancing music, but it is resisting. [Decided to sort of live-blog this for some random reason?] So far, it's offered "Right Here Waiting" and "Take My Breath Away," neither of which is the vibe! "Manic Monday" got us a bit closer. "Hold Me Now"--while a great song--seems like a step backward. Now it's playing "All Through the Night," which I adore, but still isn't right. 

Okay: we'll take this last offering--from one of my all-time favorite movies. I can picture every frame in my mind. Mellow, but good enough...

Shōgun

24 April 2024: Still have about twenty minutes to go in the last episode of Shōgun and I am already missing it. Just simply one of the best shows I've seen in some time. 

Getting closer...

23 April 2024: All done with my ENGL 102 grading. So, all that is left are my practicum students' grades. I think I can get those done tomorrow or Thursday, depending on the students turn-around time on any revisions. So, we are getting closer and almost there.

After all the stress and flurry and everything of this semester and this entire year, I almost can't believe I am so close to break. And this summer? Mostly just time to write, revise, and edit. I feel like I can see "giddy" on the horizon, but also can't believe it. 

Bloom

22 August 2024: Can't remember the last time I picked up a book, started it, and read just about non-stop until I finished it. But that's what I did this evening with Bloom, by Delilah S. Dawson, our book club's selection for this month. I am not completely sure what I think of it, but man, it sure is seductive, propulsive, and captivating.  

Brunch in the Commons/Midnight Breakfast

21 April 2024: Started the day with a throwback to one of my favorite parts my Roanoke experience: brunch with college friends in the Commons. Ending the day with one of my favorite parts of the Shepherd experience: Midnight Breakfast. Digging those "higher-ed"-themed bookends. 

25th Reunion

20 April 2024: 

[Catch-up post]

Nearly twenty-five years since I graduated from Roanoke and getting close to twenty-nince years since I met this group of women (and Mike!) who have been such blessings in my life. 

"How to Triumph Like a Girl"

19 April 2024: It's "Poem in Your Pocket Day" and this one, currently in my pocket, is perfect for the day I will (eventually) be driving down to Salem to see my dear, dear friends.

One to go / end-of-the-semester math

18 April 2024: Finished my Dunbar-Nelson entry today and I am low-key thrilled. A week ago, I was so worried about meeting my goal to have the last three entries done by the end of the month. It wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world, but I didn't like it. Now, though, I feel like I've got this.

Also helping me feel like I've got this--some end-of-the-semester math, made a lot easier by me plowing through my Dickinson seminar papers. Here's what's left:

• 33 ENGL 102 essays to great (6 pages each)
• 33 ENGL 102 multimodal projects to grade 
• 4 ENGL 426 presentation responses

Also on the list, but harder to quantify: the grades for my practicum students. 

The last day of classes is tomorrow and then I am off right after the McMurran Convocation, heading to Salem for my reunion. So, I won't get a lot done this weekend. 

Still, I've got this.

Release party...

17 April 2024: Almost, almost, almost missed the Sans Merci release party for the first time in...forever? First, I was confused and thought it was tomorrow night--and was pretty tempted to skip it. I have so much to do, especially between now and my 25th (!) college reunion this weekend--and tomorrow will already be a long day. 

But, it turns out, the release party was tonight--which also made me inclined to skip it, as I didn't realize my mistake until right before it started. And I have so much to do.

But I put my shoes back on, hopped in the car, and went on over.

And it was really quite nice (as always).

Honestly, I am realizing it might have been kind of a good thing that I went, even though it means I won't get any writing done today. Because today I really needed a reminder of how wonderful college students are and how amazing it is to see them grow and shine. (It was rough day in ways that I can be public about here [though I don't think anyone actually reads this.]) 

Celebrating student-created art and literature? Worth it every time. 

"His Heart's Desire"

16 April 2024: 

“But Andy was a boy, and boys don’t tell their hearts out, and he would have died rather than confess his weakness for the world to laugh at and jibe and jeer. For Andy wanted a doll” (Dunbar-Nelson 416).

I am glad to have come across "His Heart's Desire," an Alice Dunbar-Nelson story published in a special issue of Legacy in 2016. As the editors explains, the tale shows "her ability to transmute what could be sentimental subject matter into a masterful story without one false note,” her sensitive understanding of children (informed by her work as a teacher), and also reminds us of her work on behalf of poor families (Gebhard, et. al 405). It's also an study of the construction of masculinity in progress, as poor Andy hides his desire for the doll.

Works Cited

Dunbar-Nelson, Alice. “His Heart’s Desire.” Legacy, vol. 33, no. 2, 2016, pp. 416-421. JSTOR.

Gebhard, Caroline, Katherine Adams, and Sandra A. Zagarell. “Recovered from the Archive: Two Stories by Alice Dunbar-Nelson.” Legacy, vol. 33, no. 2, 2016, pp. 404–07. JSTOR.

Zero!

15 April 2024: The countdown has ended and I am officially no longer Faculty Senate President. 

It's a strange feeling--complicated. But I certainly do feel like a load has been lifted. 

Flying Cows!

14 April 2024: Cory's company did some free design work for the new basketball team in Frederick, so he had some free tickets and invited me to join him and Hannah. It was a blast. And they won!

New York-style...

13 April 2024: I always tell people my New York accent only really comes out when I am tired or annoyed. Just now, I realized something else: it comes out when I yell at the cat. And I think I've always done this and am only realizing it now. Now "yelling" is sort of aligned with "annoyed," but sometimes my "yelling" is playful. So I think it might be more of a "caretaking" or "pet-parenting" thing. 

I still hate the idea of equating pet-parenting to child-parenting, but I don't have a better term. And there are parallels, of course. But what in the world does it mean that I slide into my latent New York voice at these moments? Weird, weird, weird...  

Busy Friday...

12 April 2024: Busy Friday to end the week! I had conferences from 9:00-2:30. Then it was off to our first set of capstones/award ceremony/Sigma Tau Delta induction. Then it was off to Relay for Life, where I helped sell luminarias again. Saying again what I have said so many times before: even though I am bone tired, days like today, packed with time around Shepherd students, faculty and staff, make me feel so lucky and blessed. 

When you have chicken for lunch...

11 April 2024:

13 conferences...

10 April 2024: Met with thirteen students, more or less back-to-back, each for thirty minute paper conferences. It was, as blocks of conferences always are, exhausting and exhilirating. 

Liminal Jo

9 April 2024: Jo was very good at posing in liminal spaces today.

Earlier in the day, deciding whether or not to crash my Zoom conferences. (She crashed some of them...)

Enjoying the first day this season with lots of open-window time. And there's the redbud, doing its thing.

Watching the Eclipse Watchers...

8 April 2024: The eclipse was so cool today. I mean, when I first put those glasses on and looked up, I said "Wow!" out loud. Profound and moving. But something that was perhaps equally moving? Seeing all of the people on campus coming outside to experiece it together. I just took a couple of pictures, but it was lovely to watch others watch the eclipse--a terrific reminder of how much I love our campus community. 

First mow of 2024...

7 April 2024: And it's a "go" on the 2024 lawn-mowing season! As I made my way around the yard, I did some of my usual yard-work contemplating, including trying to imagine that in the not-too-distant future, I'll be pushing the machine in shorts and sweating my head off (in contrast to the jeans, sweatshirt, and relatively dry brow of today's experience). And then, eventually, the sweatshirt will reemerge and the season will end. 

Spread some fertilizer, too, and ordered a new edger. (I might have the worst luck with these things.)

Snapped this picture a few hours after I finished. The sky really was that blue. 

Still feel the satisfaction of a stereotypical suburban dad every time.

Found some more "first mow" posts from years' past here, here, and here. 

A dramatic pose...

6 April 2024: Most of her poses are dramatic. Resting her head on a Mary Wilkins Freeman book just kicks it up a notch.

I sure do love this girl. 

Late Night with the Devil

5 April 2024: Two movie nights in a row? Wild but true. Late Night with the Devil is absolutely worth seeing. It looks great. The story and set-up is unique and innovative. Terrific performances. And weird in the best way. 

Immaculate

4 April 2024: Took the evening off to go see Immaculate and then get some dinner. It was a wild and fun movie; totally gross, but also smart in places. Felt good to take a break, too. 

Crying season...

3 April 2024: Accidentally made a very sweet, smart, and hard-working student cry today when I asked how her mom (who has been in the hospital) is doing. Her mom is coming home today, which is great, but there's a long road ahead for the family and the poor kid is just dragging. She'd had a hard day, too. "I didn't want to cry," she kept saying. "I told myself I wasn't going to cry." 

Of course, it's fine that she cried. And I sure do get it. This time of the semester--even when there aren't personal crises unfolding--students (and their teachers--ha!) are on edge. There's a special kind of "edge" for high-achieving students that I am particularly sympathetic to. 

I think I made her feel as okay as I could, but I also just wanted to give her some cocoa and send her to bed. Poor, sweet kid. I said to myself that maybe this is more evidence that I wouldn't have been cut out for parenting; if I had a kid like this one, my heart would just break every time she was so upset. 

"to go into stories..."

2 April 2024: Came across this excerpt from a letter Mary Wilkins Freeman wrote to Sarah Orne Jewett: "I suppose it seems to you as it does to me that everything you have heard, seen, or done, since you opened your eyes to the world, is coming back to you sooner or later, to go into stories" (qtd. in Glasser 1). I just love the idea of these two writers talking about their work.

Work Cited

Glasser, Leah Blatt. In a Closet Hidden: The Life and Work of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. U of Massachusetts P, 1996.

One!

1 April 2024: My goodness: just ONE Senate meeting left! We can do this.