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. 

Easter 2024

31 March 2024: Marshmallow Peeps are not my fav, but they helped my carrot cake look good enough to impress some of my *actual* favorite peeps. 

So very blessed to get to spend every Easter with Erin, Eric, and the girls.