Dinner with Tim...

24 April 2025: Tim and I had dinner after the second set of English capstones this evening. He's got so much on his plate right now and I wish I could make things better or at least easier. I hope just spending time with him and talking did a little something. 

Continually counting my blessing as we move through such dark times, it's always lovely to spend time with someone who ranks so high on that list. 

Convention, Day 2

21 March 2025: One of those days that flew by but also feels very long. But what a fun one! College students are the best (esp. English majors, duh) and Tim is the best. 

Getting ready...

1 August 2024: Spent some time on campus this afternoon, mostly wading through stacks of papers and doing some pre-semester clean-up. Tim was up there, too, doing the same, which made it extra fun. I am certainly not eager for this summer to end, but there is something sweet about starting to get stuff (beyond syllabi) ready.

Day in Rockville

6 July 2024: Spent almost all day today just hanging out with Tim, Kevin, Hannah, and Cory in Rockville. You know you are among good friends when just talking, playing dumb games, and laughing makes eight hours fly by before you know it. 

Dinner and a show...

29 March 2024: Thanks to my rapidly-improving health, I was able to end this long, difficult week on a high note: dinner with Tim, Kevin, Cory, and Hannah followed by the Rude Mechanicals' opening night performance of Lysistrata. Just a perfect evening. 

New Year's Day 2024

1 January 2024: Spent the afternoon with Tim and Kevin. We had lunch (every part of it delicious--a spicy pumpkin soup, simple but amazing salad, crusty bread, and homemade pumpkin pie and ice cream for dessert). We played a few games. And we talked and talked and talked. 

This holiday season wasn't ideal, but it sure was lovely to end it with two of my favorite people on the planet.

Labor Day Weekend Hang...

3 September 2023: Very lucky to spend most of today at Tim and Kevin's, just hanging out with them and Cory and Hannah. We never need to "do" much: have a meal (Tim always kills at that part), sit and visit, tell stories, and just laugh and laugh. Excellent way to spend the dya. 

Nashville

4 March 2023: 

[Catch-up post]

Tim and I delivered our presentation on Saturday morning to a small crowd, but we did just fine and it was fun. In the afternoon, he and Kevin (and Tim's friend Janet from college) showed me some of their favorite sites. (Tim went to Belmont.) As with any "Tim Venture," the food was top-notch. A good day--with over 20K steps, which is how you know you did a lot. 

To Nashville...eventually!

3 March 2022: 

[Catch-up post]

Friday was a long day. Tim, Kevin, and I flew down to Nashville, where Tim and I were presenting at the N.O.S.S. conference on Saturday morning. Bad weather led to flight delays, long rental car lines, and just a heck of a trip. Thought we'd be getting to the hotel at 7 or so. Was actually after midnight. But we made it.

 

Work husband...

1 March 2023: Today was kind of a blur--13 hours passed between me leaving the house and getting home and I still didn't feel like I had enough time to get through everything I wanted to. Things are stressful and bad and hard even as other things (and sometimes the same things?) are fun and delightful and going very well. And tonight, with the conference in Nashville that we are presenting at just a couple days away, I am grateful (again) for Tim and how often he plays a key role in making the good stuff as good as it is and the hard/bad stuff not as bad. 

Kinky Boots

18 February 2023: For Christmas, Tim and Kevin got tickets for all of us (them, me, Hannah, and Cory) to see Kinky Boots at the Olney Theater. We had lunch first, which was amazing (the food and the company). The show was great, too. Carpooled with the kids and treated them to some Dairy Queen treats when we got back, which made it and end-to-end perfect time. 

Sigma Tau Delta Party

2 December 2022: Another Sigma Tau Delta Holiday Party is in the books. Once again, we did it on campus and I think it went really well. A small crowd, but a good one. And Hannah showed up, which meant Tim and I got to hang out with our BabyGirl. Just what I needed after a long week.

Teamwork

23 September 2022: Been carrying around some big emotions about a work-related task and not sure how to move forward. Yesterday I realized that talking with Tim about it--and enlisting his help--would maybe be the right step. Waited all day today until we were both free to talk about it. Felt a bit of the weight lifting from my shoulders as we talked. We've got a plan and I am reminded--for the thousandth time this year, I think--how lucky I am to work with him. 

1001

21 September 2022: Making it to day 1001 of my streak was the easiest part of my day, even with the old plantar fasciitis acting up and with a really full calendar. 

It's just a rough time. 

Here's what's getting me through: my students, friends like Hannah and Tim, Wes (and BabyCat, ha), podcasts, nighttime TV, and walks. So much else is just...trash.

And making that list--and realizing how many other ways I am so blessed--also gets me through it.

Pizza party...

16 September 2022: Ended a long week with a fun event--a little pizza party with Sigma Tau Delta welcoming our new majors. 

I am so tired, but this was really fun and a reminder that the students (and Tim) are the best parts of the job--the parts that never feel so much like "work."

And, I get TWO days in a row with no alarm. 

Dinner at Hannah and Cory's

3 September 2022: Got to spend yesterday evening at Hannah and Cory's--along with Tim and Kevin. Still feeling a bit under the weather at times (yet testing negative) but for those hours I was there, I felt just terrific. (Started coughing near 10:00, but what can you do?)

"Last" day...kind of...

13 March 2020: Boy, today was strange and hard: sending the students off with promises to do our best to continue online. But here are some things that made it better:

• My students randomly bursting into Beyonce’s “Love on Top” before class started in GWST 350/HNRS 389. And they sounded great. (It wasn’t that random: a student had assembled treat bags filled with candy for everyone and included a slip of paper with a hand-washing song in each of them.)

•Sending those same students out into the world with this (slightly censored) pep talk for how we will get through these challenges, courtesy of David Sedaris’s “You Can’t Kill the Rooster,” part of our reading for the day: “Bitch, I’m here to tell you that it’s going to be all right. We’ll get through this shit, motherfucker, just you wait.”

• A few students in my ENGL 355 class who, even as time was running out, kept pushing for us to say a bit more about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

• This exchange with Tim, who is doing his best not to act too excited about not having to drive to campus three times a week, because he knows that I am not handling the change very well.

Me: [Pointing to the brightly colored and meticulously organized tickets for the Rude Mechanicals performances sitting in the copy room that will probably go unused.] "Does THIS make you sad or are you dead inside?”

Tim: [Laughs his head off.] “Yes?”

• And most of all, a student giving me a really sweet card about how much she appreciates the class (and me). It was an amazingly kind gesture. I am getting a bit weepy just thinking about it again.

Again and again and again I make this point here in this space: I am so very blessed to get to do this work.

So long, Pittsburgh...

3 June 2018:

One last stop (at the top of the Duquesne Incline) before heading home. It was a great trip.

More Pittsburgh...

2 June 2018:

[Catch-up Post]

A great day in Pittsburgh. Some silly photo highlights...

With Cory at the Warhol Museum.

Tim and Kevin stealing the show at the Warhol.

Being ridiculous in front of the Willie Stargell statue at PNC Park.

Pittsburgh bound!

1 June 2018:

[Catch-up post]

Off for a quick road-trip to Pittsburgh with some of my favorite people: Tim, Kevin, Hannah, and Cory. We go here yesterday (Friday) and are having a blast so far. Just a couple of pictures might suffice for a post?

Pit-stop find: this inspiration to "share a Coke" with my favorite Williams.

Lord, this dinner we had a Lydia Bastianich's restaurant...whew! Delicious from start to finish--and the finish was this limoncello tiramisu.