"We used to think...when I was an unsifted girl...that words were weak and cheap. Now I don't know of anything so mighty." -Emily Dickinson
Saturday, September 13, 2025
Saturday reset...
Friday, September 12, 2025
Sources of Strength
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Shiny Happy Dreams
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
They are so good at this...
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Need some writing time...
Monday, September 8, 2025
Jeopardy! is back!
Sunday, September 7, 2025
Busy Sunday...
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Busy Saturday...
6 September 2025:
Really cool, useful, and even moving workshop this morning about holistic teaching and yoga.
Fun women's soccer game where they won 2-0.
Nice evening with a friend who came over to watch a movie.
Excellent long phone call with Vogel after my friend left.
All the weekly chores knocked out in the in-between times.
Not a bad Saturday at all.
Friday, September 5, 2025
The Conjuring: Last Rites
Thursday, September 4, 2025
"Moving Out" in the Food Lion
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Kitchen floor crashing...
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
A bit of relief...
Monday, September 1, 2025
Progress!
Sunday, August 31, 2025
Bird-watching...
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Department get-together...
Friday, August 29, 2025
One week down...
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Hiding...
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Late August blooms...
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Day Two...
Monday, August 25, 2025
Another "day one"...
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Here comes year 26...
24 August 2025: About a week ago, I realized that I taught my first college class in August 2000, I had a milestone coming up: about to start Year 25 of teaching. Then--like just tonight--I realized I missed the milestone. Last year was the start of Year 25.
I remember the day of that first class so clearly. Got to campus early. All dressed up. Anxious as heck in the parking garage beforehand. Such a kid!
So...year 26. Not as flashy, but still something to mark.
Saturday, August 23, 2025
Hats
Friday, August 22, 2025
Convocation 2025...
22 August 2025: We met the class of 2025 and our transfer students today. Always a long, busy, and exciting day. One more weekend and then it's the new academic year...
Thursday, August 21, 2025
Professional Development Day
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Family visit
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
A touch of procrastination...
Monday, August 18, 2025
Getting the classrooms ready...
Sunday, August 17, 2025
One more week...
Saturday, August 16, 2025
Zoom hang...
16 August 2025: What an absolute blast it was to do a Zoom hang-out with Vogel and our grad school friend Deidre today. These two women are so cool and funny and it felt almost like we were in the same room at times.
Friday, August 15, 2025
East of Wall
Thursday, August 14, 2025
New role...
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Buddy Birthday Lunch
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
48
Monday, August 11, 2025
New tires...
11 August 2025: Spent most of the morning at the dealership, including getting new tires. Kind of hard to believe how long I've had the car. I managed to get a bunch of little tasks done (emails, emails, emails) and even a bit of writing for the Year's Work essay.
The best part, though, was getting to catch up with Emma. She just always impresses the heck out of me. We talked a bit about how she's in a kind of "women in leadership" class/group with Subaru and how it feels to move through a male-dominated space (not all bad!). We could have talked for hours, I think, but she was, of course, at work. Still delighted to have seen her.
Sunday, August 10, 2025
Jo at three...
Saturday, August 9, 2025
Weapons
Friday, August 8, 2025
Home again...
Megaliths...
Together again...
Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Little campus tour...
Monday, August 4, 2025
Lunch with Frank...
4 August 2025: Had a bittersweet (but mostly sweet!) lunch with Frank, who graduated from our program a few years ago. He's been working at Shepherd as an admissions counselor, but is now moving onto a new place and a new position.
He's such a good guy. I told him how clearly I remember meeting him and helping him make his first schedule when he started at Shepherd. He was so quiet and seemed shy. And he was far from home, having come from Puerto Rico to live with an aunt and uncle after Hurricane Maria. I worried if he would last. Each semester, there he was--still here and thriving. And when I had him in class for the first time? What an utter delight.
It's been nice to have him around after he graduated, but I am also glad he's spreading his wings a bit and seeing what else the world offers. Low-key jealous of everyone who gets to meet him for the first time and learn what an absolute gem he is.
Sunday, August 3, 2025
Another summer Sunday...
Saturday, August 2, 2025
Forever
2 August 2025: Slowly working my way through Forever on Netflix. I still have about an episode and a half to go, but it strikes me as a really beauitful show.
The two kids at the heart of it are so sweet and swoony. They feel real. (A credit to the actors--and all the actors involved.) The parents also seem real and nuanced. They remind me of how hard it must be to love your kids so much yet have this wall that springs up when they reach adolescene.
Little moments are skillfully realized, from the way the kids text each other (or not--lots of hot and cold at times!) to the confrontations between them and their parents.
It's a slow and quiet show, the kind that sometimes get overlooked by larger audiences, but it really is a gem.
Friday, August 1, 2025
Nostalgia machine...
A Midsummer Night's Dream
31 July 2025:
[Catch-up post...]
I had a delightful time last night seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream last night at the Olney Theater. It was a production but on by Synetic Theatre (they do wordless shows--which are always very cool). It really was terrific--beautifully interpreted with great music, dancing, and lots of great comic moments/performances.
Tim organized the whole thing for a group that also included Kevin (of course!) and our new colleague Michael and his fiance.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Making progress on the "Year's Work"
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
"Come here and see."
Monday, July 28, 2025
"River Waltz"
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Nonpareils...
Sisters' trip, day two...
Sisters' trip!
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Somebody Somewhere, again...
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Car ride with a reticent teen...
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Nougat and Leroy...
Monday, July 21, 2025
Almost eleven years...
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Pretty sweet Sunday...
Saturday, July 19, 2025
A summer stunner...
Friday, July 18, 2025
Humming the old hymn...
Thursday, July 17, 2025
A very good day...
17 July 2025: Hard to think of a more pleasant recent day. Hannah and Theo came over--and so did Amy, who got to meet him for the first time. We had lunch and just visited for a long time (though Amy had to get back to work). The baby has changed so much since I last saw him in person. He's smiley and curious and basically just chilled and vibed. Then this evening, I had dinner with Eva (who was in town), Tim, Betty, Carrie, James, and Rachel at Rumsey Tavern. We just sat and talked forever.
So blessed. So grateful.
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Kevin Kling: Unraveled
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
We love a good mutter...
Monday, July 14, 2025
Hoffman's brick of a book
Sunday, July 13, 2025
"joyful rigor"
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Still places to be found...
Friday, July 11, 2025
"Superman is the angel of our best nature"
Thursday, July 10, 2025
"Two Men Arrive in a Village"
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Fall syllabizing...
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Staying close...
Monday, July 7, 2025
"Replicants"
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Back at it...
Saturday, July 5, 2025
Nine!
Friday, July 4, 2025
Independence Day
Thursday, July 3, 2025
"Tired of Love Poems"
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Home again!
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
1 July 2025: Today's return to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery moved me more than ever before and it's hard to explain why--at least quickly.
But I found myself crying standing in front of the tiny marker that just says "Henry," Louisa May Alcott's stone and the American flag she earned working as a nurse in D.C., Hawthorne's family group, and, of course, Emerson's rock.
The pens, pencils, and little notes left by others get me every time, but even more this time. They are little offerings of gratitude and connection.
So much in our country seems broken right now, on the day that stupid "big beautiful bill" passes in the Senate.
These writers, though? They point us to a better way. And they made me who I am--the kind of person who wants to help shape that better way for everyone else.
There they all are, at eternal rest together, but their words live on. It's corny and cheesy, but it's beautiful and left me wiping my eyes on the Authors' Ridge today.
Monday, June 30, 2025
"Draw Me Ishmael"
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Wheatley's grave...
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Back to Massachusetts
28 June 2025: Spent most of the day in the car with Jane, heading up to Massachusetts for a few days. A bit tired as I write this, but ready for a full day tomorrow.
Friday, June 27, 2025
Andor
Thursday, June 26, 2025
"Least Complicated"
Indigo Girls!
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Zohran!
Monday, June 23, 2025
Heat wave...
24 June 2025: A heat wave settled in today (actually yesterday, but today was fiercer!). Should last until Thursday. Yuck. Got out early and mowed the lawn and did a bit of yard work. I've been more or less inside all day since then except for a brief trip to Walgreen's.
Reading for the Year's Work essay, taking notes, watching TV, getting the rest of my steps in doing laps around the first floor...there are a lot worse ways to get through a heat wave.
Grateful for AC that works, a job that lets me stay inside when it's hot, and two cats who aren't that upset about the shut-up windows and are glad to have me here with them.
Sunday, June 22, 2025
2006!
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Highs and lows...
Friday, June 20, 2025
BabyBud...
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Board member...
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
"Altitude"
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Long, good day
Monday, June 16, 2025
Sunday, June 15, 2025
The Life of Chuck
15 June 2025: When a movie opens with Walt Whitman, it has my attention. And The Life of Chuck is a sweet and moving film that earns its evocation of the Good Gray Poet. I found myself tearing up and smiling and just really loved it.
Saturday, June 14, 2025
No Kings!
Friday, June 13, 2025
Nineteenth-century snark...
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Fixed!
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
"Don't Worry Baby"
11 June 2025: Thinking about Brian Wilson today with the news of his death. This is one of my favorite Beach Boys songs. A little story that is so cool, so romantic, with tinges of melancholy and (weirdly in a good way?) even maybe the hint of an impending tragedy.
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Summer Advising
Monday, June 9, 2025
Breeze catchers...
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Ten!
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Boxcars!
Friday, June 6, 2025
Almost done...
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Lost and found...
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Almost there...
4 June 2025: I am in a phase of drafting my SSAWW paper where the nuanced version central idea is starting to come together. (I have a thesis, but usually there’s a more specific one lurking, waiting to emerge.) A piece just clicked into place a couple of hours ago—about a lack of authorial intention—that feels promising. There’s just one more piece, I think, and I am on the verge.
It’s a cool place to be. The frustrating is slowly receding and the next step—a complete first draft—is coming up, Lord willing.
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
"a 'boom' in it"
Monday, June 2, 2025
A study in contrasts...
Sunday, June 1, 2025
Graduation Brunch...
Saturday, May 31, 2025
“lonely old courage-teacher”
Friday, May 30, 2025
Even As We Breathe
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Still scared and nosy...
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Quite the resume...
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Do cats hallucinate?
Monday, May 26, 2025
He even taught the cat tricks...
Sunday, May 25, 2025
"Exodus"
25 May 2025: Finally getting caught up on the last season of The Handmaid's Tale and though there are lots of legitimate criticisms to make of the show, darn it if it still doesn't get to me. One line in "Exodus," the episode I just finished, made me tear up (even as I was annoyed at myself for being taken in):
"We're rising up because in each and every one of us is this immaculate soul that was given to us by God that is just crying out for dignity and freedom."
Pretty good writing, especially in these hard days.