4 weeks in a row...

16 September 2026: Second place again at trivia. Even without the winning, I've enjoyed it all so much. (And low-key bummed that I'll have to miss the next two weeks for work obligations...)

Out again on a "school night"

2 September 2026: Second week in a row that I've played Wednesday night trivia at the casino with some friends. Second week in a row that we came in second and won $50. (My friends have been playing every week for longer, but this part of the experience is still new and exciting to me.)

Low-key proud of myself for going out on a school-night and making myself have fun. 

Mid-July vibes...

16 July 2026: Pretty quiet day here today, but I managed to get a lot done. Got a lien-free title for the car (took less than 15 minutes at the DMV, I think?), did some cleaning out of my kitchen cabinets and took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill (inspired by cleaning out the Martinsburg house), and did some "work work," too. 

All of that is good...but the vibes all around sure seem oppresive. Can't be outside too long because of the heat and the wildfire smoke. Can't even eat salad or berries without worrying. So many signs of broken systems in a broken country. And so much uncertainty with my mom.

I meant to get even more done tonight, but might just take is easy. Checking out the new Little House on the Prairie. Hope it's good.

Trivia playing...

15 July 2026: For the first time in forever, I was a trivia player and not a host. A couple who plays at Rumsey every week have been asking me (also forever) to join them for a different company's game at the Casino. Finally decided to do it and had a really great time. Hope I can do it again.

Gotta find fun and joy when/where I can.

"Secret of Life"

16 June 2026: Listening to Faith Hill's 1998 album Faith while I get some work done this afternoon. This was a major soundtrack of my summer of '98, when I was doing Summer Scholars research at Roanoke. Anyway, there's a lot of gems on this one, including "Secret of Life," which always struck me as wise in its simplicity. 

Maybe my favorite lines?

"The secret of life is to try not to hurry,

But don't wait, don't wait..."

Love that tension in the ideas and the way she repeats that second "don't wait."

I find myself navigating that tension (internally) a lot. 

Anyway, kind of cool to return to this album 18 years later. And Faith is so cute in this era! (She's always beautiful, but this late 90's cute is really something.)

Summertime Syllabizing...

19 May 2026: Couldn't help myself and got started with some fall syllabus work, specifically for the YA Lit class. I'm including a couple of new books this time (Robertson's The Barren Grounds and Ursu's Not Quite a Ghost) and dropped some others. I reworked some assignments and gave everything a read-over, tinkering with some language in places. 

Felt good to get so much done.

I feel like I am always pushing, pushing, pushing to get ahead as "just in case," I guess. Hamilton's "Non-Stop" always plays in my head when I think about it. 

But now I am telling myself to push ahead for those reasons, but also so that maybe I'll have a lot "done" and can actually see how I really feel with nothing pressing to do. I honestly have no idea how that will feel...

Today I met (again) with a financial planner from Thrivent. He asked if I imagined myself working part-time after retirement. I told him that I didn't think so, but I also can't imagine not working. 

Is it love for the work or more of that running ahead "just in case"? Both? 

Break routine...

11 May 2026: Always a strange time of the year--these early days after a semester ends. I am trying to push through some lingering projects and some spring yardwork...and then figure out the daily routine.

My summer to-do list (work-wise) isn't that big, so it's kind of hard to imagine what the days will look like. Until I do, I feel a bit uneasy and unmoored, but I am trying to embrace the possibilities.  

(Finding myself entertained by the unintentional double-meaning of this post's title...)

We did, indeed, have time, baby...

2 May 2026: Just finished the second season of School Spirits, not bad considering what I posted a last Friday. But sure enough, with some of my regular TV shows going on hiatus and work slowing down just enough, I got to enjoy every episode and can cross this one off my "to be watched" list. 

Onto the next one...

School Spirits

24 April 2026: Got home this evening and started up where I left off on the latest season of School Spirits--episode six. The "previouslies" had me thinking, "I don't remember any of that..." So I went back to episode five. Same thing. Then four. Then three.

I think I must have been half watching them--over Spring Break, I think--and with everything going on, they just didn't sink in. 

It kind of bummed me out. Like...just weird and a sign of being kind of a mess at times--unfocused, distracted. 

So...I started the new season again. Just about done with episode one. Starting over feels kind of good. 

"It's almost summer, baby, and we've got time," I tell myself, trying to believe it. Every time I say something like that--even to myself--I cringe like I'm conjuring some bad mojo...

This evening, though, I'm mostly believing it. "Relax. We've got time."

Loyalty Tournament

1 February 2026: Heading into a busy stretch of weeks--presidential candidates on campus (with five dinners I have to go to in the next ten days), lecturer candidates here, too, student conferences, etc. I can feel the tension creeping in because the work piles aren't getting smaller.

Even still, I am so glad I spent a few hours today helping out at the Flagship Trivia "Loyalty Tournament," where teams who play a lot but don't win a lot get their own special game. It was a lot of fun to be around these folks. They play because they have fun and they like being with each other. I didn't know most of the teams (I only know the ones who play at Rumsey and Bender's), but I felt so warmly towards all of them.

Score another win for one additional never-completed project: Project Balance. 

Long month...

31 January 2026: As we close out what feels like an exceptionally long January, our Arctic spell continues and most folks' yards have what are essentially ice-rinks on them. That's been hard, but at least the sun has been shining.

Cleaned the house this morning, did lunch and a movie this afternoon (The Bone Temple, which I found gory, scary, hilarious, and quite moving), and have been working on and off since then (mostly on). 

Work keeps coming. That's mostly good, but it is tiring (mentally) and the list is making me anxious.

***

On the phone with my mom today, she told me how the funeral home delivered a book they had made with pictures of my dad. 

When she asked me "What's new with you?" I couldn't answer her at first. I didn't want her to know I was fighting tears. 

But I had to say something even as I knew my voice would betray me.

"That just got me," I said so softly that I couldn't believe she heard me. 

"I know," she said. "It's very hard."

Later she said, "You know what's hard? Cooking for one."

Home by 5:30...

12 November 2025: Holy cow, did it feel good to be home before 5:30--and with a fresh haircut on top of that! 

I had time to get a few more work tasks accomplished, do some housework, make dinner, do the dishes, finish my steps...and all of that before 7:45. 

I need to remind myself of how this is normal for lots of folks and that I need to make it more normal for me. 

Someone else likes the idea, too. We can call this image "Jo and Poe (socks)."

Sunday vibes...

26 October 2025: Quiet Sunday here--and I am grateful for that. After a chill morning and a nice long walk, I am spending it getting some work projects done, but at a relaxed pace. Already worked on a draft of our program recruitment and retention plan. Now moving on to planning both ENGL 101 assessment and an ENGL 102 workshop. 

Still in the midst of this marathon, but like I said, I am grateful for the chance to stay on top of everything without sprinting. 

Skipping it...

11 October 2025: Decided to skip a work-related event today and, oh my goodness, it feels so good. This Saturday is about 100 times better than it would have been if I had gone. Chilling with the girls, watching some TV, cleaning the house, and getting some other work done. It rocks. 

Good to remember Project Balance.

Letting myself off the hook a bit...

28 September 2025: My original "to do" list for today was pretty stacked. It would have meant a slog of a day, without much room to breath and relax. Then I realized that two of the items on that list are less pressing than I thought they were. My list of projects is about to get much shorter and that means more time to focus on others. Boring and vague sentences, but the specific don't matter. What does matter is that I've got time to get it all done.

So I let myself slow down today. I've still been working pretty much all day--and have about an hour's worth of stuff left, but the stress is lighter and I've found ways to sprinkle in some enjoyment. 

Grateful for the realization that doing so was possible. 

A little lighter...

18 February 2025: Pushed and pushed myself this weekend and today to grade and grade and grade. (No time or energy to do any on Monday.) At around 4:30 today, I finished all but three of the papers that came in on Friday. (The three that came in late can wait for tonight or even Thursday.) 

And when I realized that they were done? And that the book was in? And that I already sent in a conference abstract? And all my classes for tomorrow are prepped? That essentially nothing major is pressing on me?

That's a sense of lightness that I hadn't felt in a long time. Feels great. 

Yes, there's a list of things I need to get to. And this cold is still zapping my energy. But this little bit of lightness? It's quite nice. 

Some "break vibes..."

21 December 2024: Did a bunch of weekly chores this morning, but then took the rest of the day off. First, a women's basketball game with Carrie and Amy. We watched them score their first conference win in a closely-fought game. Then Amy and I drove to Hagerstown for a movie (Mufasa, perfectly fine and skippable). Then dinner and Christmas gifts. And now home sweet home with my girls. Not bad at all.  

Quiet Monday evening...

14 October 2024: Yes, I am repeating yesterday's post a bit, but it's worth highlighting a couple of quiet and relatively stress-free nights in a row. It's been a long and busy day, but a good one and I got so much done. There are still some items on my to-do list, but I am yawning my head off and they can maybe wait until tomorrow. My tired butt just wants to watch the Yankees (ahead of Cleveland 4-0 in the fifth inning of Game One of the ALCS as of right now) and then head to bed.

Quiet Sunday evening moment...

13 October 2024: Just realized I usually do a "Midterm Grading: DONE!" post--complete with a chair-dancing song on days like this when I, in fact, finish submitting my midterm grades. But I guess the moment (nearly six hours ago) was anti-climactic in what has been a different kind of a semester in some ways. So, I'll break the tradition this semester and post about something different on the day I submit the grades...

What I wanted to post about when I opened Blogger was this quiet moment unfolding here. Grades are done. Most of my weekend "to do" list is done. The windows and back door are open on a weirdly warm autumn day. Veronica and Jo are loving it. But this has to be one of the last days like this before real autumn sets in. 

Part of me finds it melancholy; I don't like thinking about months of closed up windows and early darkness approaching. 

But--in the midst of what has been a hard couple of weeks--another part of me is just so grateful for this moment: the gift of the breeze and its sweet smell. Seeing neighbors walk by. The peace of watching my girls look out the windows, wash their paws, stretch out, and relax. The quiet. 

I want to remember it all--breathing it in literally, but also trying to breathe it into my soul to sustain me in the days ahead.  

Twas the night before...

25 August 2024: What an strange (in an almost entirely good way) summer this has been! Finished the book draft so early that I just had time to...relax. Not the entire months of July and August, but enough of them to really feel it. And enjoy it. And that enjoyment? I am hoping it is transformative, especially when it comes to Operation Balance. 

Back at it all again starting tomorrow. Feels fake, but I am ready as I'll ever be, I guess. And I know it will be wonderful to be around the students again.