Pretty sweet Sunday...

20 July 2025: I know I sometimes document days like today--posts that are basically lists of things I did. They aren't the most interesting posts, I know, but for me, they can serve as little snapshots of ordinary but sweet days. So here's one:

I got an early start with a trip to campus (my first in over a week!) to do a little work and (almost more important to me, at least emotionally) water my plants. 

It's pretty cool to be close to the end of my reading for the "Year's Work" essay. My syllabi are coming along well, too. On Friday, I accepted a new role--Coordinator of First-Year Writing--that means a course release for me, which cut that syllabizing work down quite a bit.

Once I got home, I took my walk through the neighborhood. Laughed really hard at an Extra Hot Great episode. 

From there, I was basically inside the rest of the afternoon. (Still pretty hot out there; it's been an intense summer.) I watched some TV (finished You, which was okay) and read a horror novel by a local writer. I'm enjoying it and have about 120 pages to go.

Then Amy and I saw Magdalene, a CATF play. I really enjoyed it; terrific acting, as always, and some cool ideas. From there, we had dinner at King's.

Home now and just finished a phone call with Tim. Bob's Burgers time (it continues to be my comfort show) until some more reading, bath, and bed!

"joyful rigor"

13 July 2025: Another great episode of Vibe Check this week. I loved Saeed talking about the "joyful rigor" of writing. And even segments about shows I don't watch (like Love Island) are still so interesting and fun. 

"Two Men Arrive in a Village"

10 July 2025: Listened to Edwidge Danticat read this Zadie Smith story on the New Yorker Fiction Podcast today while I mowed the lawn. So good and sadly, eternally timely. 

"Tired of Love Poems"

3 July 2025: 

"What we tire of is that we never tire of it.

How it guts us. How it fails, then reappears.

Because what is the bird compared to you?"

Saeed Jones read Megan Fernandes's "Tired of Love Poems" on this week's Vibe Check and I really enjoyed it. That was before the awful news about the dumb bill passing and just more and more awfulness closing in everywhere. 

I read the poem again this evening and I am thinking about it still, glad for the reminder that we never tire of love (even when it is a big risk, when it hurts, or when it ends badly), and that love feeds hope, and both keep us going and fighting. 

"The Piano Tuner's Wives"

3 May 2025: Listened to this story today while doing chores and taking my walk. Like every William Trevor that I've come across, I found it so beautiful and moving. 

Halina Reijn...

25 January 2025: I really enjoyed this episode of the Death, Sex, and Money podcast. It's an interview with Halina Reijn, the filmmaker behind both Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and Babygirl. She's such an interesting person and what she and Sale (the host) had to say about Babygirl made me think about it all over again. It's really a fascinating movie. Kind of can't wait to see what Reijn does next. 

"Love (III)"

9 January 2024: Found myself tearing up listening to a reading of George Herbert's "Love (III)" this morning. I've been such a fan of Herbert ever since I first read him, but I don't think I've thought about this poem in years. But this morning, as I drove to an appointment, filled with anxiety and so tired already, it moved me more profoundly than ever before. "You must sit," God tells us. He loves us. That is enough.

(Grateful for the magnificant In Our Time podcast for this moment of grace.)

Earth to Moon

15 December 2024: "How do you heal? You make a decision. Mine is this: no more bullies allowed" (344). 

I am really glad I decided to pick Earth to Moon for our little book club. I knew I was going to read it sooner or later after hearing Moon Zappa talk about it on Depresh Mode. My life has been so very different from hers, but so much of what she wrote about rang (sometimes painfully) true. 

Work Cited

Zappa, Moon. Earth to Moon. Deyst, 2024.

"the deceptively simple goal of trying to find people who love you..."

21 November 2024: I watched an episode of the latest (and sadly, final) season of Somebody, Somewhere last night and found myself welling up, feeling so seen by the show once again. So that's kind of how last night wrapped up for me--crying over this miracle of a show. 

This morning, while listening to the latest episode of Extra Hot Great while on my walk, I found myself welling up again when Phil Maciak (this week's "Valued Guest") pitched an episode for the Canon (season 2, episode 2). Here's the line from Phil that got me: "Somebody, Somewhere is about the deceptively simple goal of trying to find people who love you and learning to accept that love when they give it." 

Valentine

3 November 2024: Finally listened to "Valentine," the 100th episode of This is Love, an episode I knew was about the death of Phoebe's mother (whose first name gives the episode its title). Knowing and loving This is Love and Criminal the way I do, I knew it was going to be powerful episode so I wanted to honor it with my undivided attention and be in the right mindset when I listened. 

I am so glad I did. It's riveting and funny and sad and beautiful from start to finish. 

Also saw the Theater program's production of Our Town today and made a ton of progres on The Bog Wife, this month's book club selection. So, even more than usual, lots of Big Thoughts about life, death, and what it all means on this autumn Sunday.

"The Third and Final Continent" (Once more...)

27 October 2024: Today as I mowed the lawn, perhaps for the last time until the spring, I listened to a The New Yorker Fiction Podcast episode where the guest (Rebecca Makkai) read "The Third and Final Continent," a story I've known and loved for years. (The post-reading discussion between Makkai and Deborah Treisman is really good, by the way.) 

I've blogged about this story in particular and Jhumpa Lahiri a lot--with good reason, of course. There's just no one who writes like she does and I am always so moved and floored by her work.

Anyway, as I pushed that mower in the waning afternoon light, thinking a movie I'd seen earlier (We Live in Time--great performances, not-so-great film), a kind of warm melancholy settled in--somehow perfect for listening to this beautiful story. 

"The Park. Sunday. Queens, New York."

16 September 2024: "Perhaps they, too, finally got a day as lovely as this one – a chance to rest, to play, to run their fingers through the grass of this strange new land they were hoping to call home." --Jasmine Garsd, on this episode of Code Switch. 

With all the outright racist and hateful discussion of immigrants right now, this episode had me riveted. People--just beautiful, real, and inspiring people--spending a day in the park. 

It's terrific and essential listening. 

Finally! A Show

8 August 2024: Found a new podcast to check out, courtesy of This is Love, which featured an episode of Finally! A Show on their feed. The premise: a woman narrates her day from start to finish. This particular episode follows a crematorium worker at New York's Green-Wood Cemetery. There's so much to love in this piece: a very engaging and endearing narrator, her charming colleagues who show up over the course of her day, their terrific New York accents, and really moving and profound observations about death, life, mourning, and remembering those who have died. 

This bit, from the narrator, Gabrielle, made me stop in my tracks*: "It is an honor and a privilege to bear witness to a witness."

*I think I use this phrase a lot when talking about great podcast moments, but most of the time, I mean it literally. I am listening while walking or doing something at least sort of active and I stop and take note of the time-stamp, in case I want to write about it later or send it someone's way. 

"mystically terrible" and "mystically beautiful"

11 July 2024: This morning on my walk, I was passing the nursing home nearby just as two women wheeled out at stretcher with a resident who had passed away (he or she was in a body bag). It was so quiet and unremarkable, I almost couldn't believe it and kept turning my head back. 

At that moment, I was also listening to this wonderful episode of Wiser Than Me, with Julia talking to Patti Smith. It was precisely when they were talking about losing someone you loved--how you keep them with you and keep that connection going. Both talked about bursting into hysterical laughter when gathered with their living siblings and standing in the room with a sibling who had passed away. 

All of it made me think of Ryan and the moments Erin, Christian, Tara, and I spent with him before his wake. (Jeff, Jennifer, and Eric were there, too.) We didn't laugh then--it was just too sad to see him that way--but we sure laughed at other moments during those long, "mystically terrible," and "mystically beautiful" days. (Patti Smith uses both of those phrases to describe those moments in her own life.) We are getting close to ten years since his death and more and more, I try to put laughter first in my memories of him. 

I wonder who will mourn the soul whose body I saw taken out this morning. I pray there will be laughter and peace alongside the pain and sadness.

"...whose sense of compassion are you appealing to?"

7 July 2024: "Camp is a mystical gender practice of being able to...hmm...maintain self-esteem, even in the face of severe policing and judgment. That isn't something that makes sense, you know? Like so many of the things I do don't make sense, like people are like, 'Why are you so compassionate, like it doesn't make sense when people aren't going to meet you with compassion.'" And like, whose sense are you appealing to?" --ALOK on this week's episode (#109) of Vibe Check in one of those moments I love--when a podcast just stops me in my tracks. 

"Olga"

3 July 2024: “That summer she was elected to carry the flag of the United States in the opening ceremonies. The American Olympic Committee tried to strip her of the honor—they didn’t like her outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War—but her teammates weren’t having any of it. The Soviet flagbearer walked the track carrying his flag in one hand, a show of strength in more ways than one. So, Olga did the same thing. She would say it was the proudest moment of her life.” 

Listened to this episode of The Memory Palace this morning and found so much of it memorable and moving. But the passage above really got to me; our current political moment is almost unbelievable, but Olga's story just makes clear why this current turmoil matters. We've got to get it right to be the nation that people like Olga devoted their adult lives to, even (especially!) when it is hard. We just have to. 

2000 vibes...

23 June 2024: Twenty-four years after everyone else, I just started watching C.S.I. The Again with This podcast discussed an episode in which Mary Margaret Humes guest-starred, so I watched that one. And then I thought, "A pretty decent, well-respected procedural with 15 seasons? Maybe just what I need?" About six episodes in and it's working: soothing, fun, distracting stuff. 

"The Phantom of the World's Fair"

9 June 2024: I listened to this episode of StoryCorps on my walk today and found it just riveting. The story unfolds in such complex layers--whimsy and adventure, then deep sadness, and finally, hope and strength. Amazing. 

"Cool It Now"

29 May 2024: I think the Waiting for Impact (with its Michael Bivins content) is to blame for this song being in my head for the past week. I am not complaining: it's such a sweet little bop, with an adorable video that I was happy to revisit. 

Waiting for Impact

22 Mary 2024: Finally got around to listening to Dave Holmes's fantastic podcast, Waiting for Impact. It's really good, like everyone said. 

Here's a bit from episode seven that made me kind of stop in my tracks today (metaphorically, since I was on my walk): thinking about moving through life with audacity, he compares two "yeah"s from Counting Crows: the one at the end of "Rain King" and the one at the end of "Long December." Holmes explains, "All of life can be summed up by those two yeahs. It's easy to be a 'Long December' at this time in history, but the world needs you at a 'Rain King.'"