"Exceptional Minds: Movie Magic"

28 February 2016: Today's good thing has got to be this uplifting piece from Parade magazine, about how people on the autism spectrum have found success in the animation industry.

Spotlight

27 February 2016: Treated myself to a movie on demand last night and finally watched Spotlight. What a terrific movie it is, a testament to the power of old-school journalism. Plus, it featured my imaginary boyfriend, Mark Ruffalo.

Midterm grades: DONE!

26 February 2016: Stayed in the office until well after 8:00 today grading midterms and getting everything class-related ready for Monday. It was kind of awful and kind of awesome. I had to get this work done or I will start panicking a bit about meeting my March 11 deadline. I need to work on this project (a short essay on Sarah Winnemucca that will be included in a new reference work on Realism) this weekend--and only this project. Because I am getting nervous and because new stuff keeps popping the heck up to complicate my schedule. It's...stressful. So yeah, I needed to get midterm grading DONE. And it was a slog, my friends--especially my ENGL 204 exams. Ugh.

But now it's all done and I am home and ready to attack that project tomorrow.

Was there chair dancing? Of course there was.

Storer Award Ceremony

25 February 2016: Today I got to see my friend and colleague Richie receive the Storer College Award, a recognition of his work on behalf of social justice issues and diversity. It was a lovely ceremony for a completely deserving person.

Not a bad start...

24 February 2016: Found this on a friend's Facebook page today and it really works for me. After a long and busy day when I still couldn't stop thinking about upsetting political news, this made me smile.

"That dream shall have a name"

23 February 2016: I spent a lot of today working my way through That Dream Shall Have a Name, a terrific book by David L. Moore on Native American literature.  Moore gets his title from Simon Ortiz's from Sand Creek. I confess to not being that familiar with this work or with Sand Creek, but these words are quite moving:

"That dream
shall have a name
after all,
and it will not be vengeful
but wealthy with love
and compassion
and knowledge.
And it will rise
in this heart
which is our America" (95)

About these lines, Moore writes, "With such a vision, Ortiz and other Native writers are clear about America: at the heart of that dream is tribal sovereignty, an extreme test of the plural is America's goal of e pluribus unum" (27).

"Elizabeth and Mary"

22 February 2016: While on my walk on Monday night, I started listening to Part 2 of the Strangers podcast's series on "Elizabeth and Mary," two women at the center of kidney transplant procedure. It's a complicated story (listen to Part 1 first!), but gave me a lot to think about in terms of charity, altruism, and the value of any one life.

Hitting the "send" button

21 February 2016: Hitting the "send" button felt pretty darn good today as I sent off a book review. It isn't due for a while yet, but it's one of the four scholarship deadlines I had that fall between February 8 and June 1. Two down, two to go. In terms of difficulty, this was the easiest one, but it still feels good to chip away at the list. Next deadline, March 11. On we go. 

Felt like spring...

20 February 2016:  Temperatures in the 60s + 1 window = 3 happy cats.

Dinner and a movie...

19 February 2016: [Playing a bit of catch-up on my posts, so I'll keep these brief.] Friday evening was kind of awesome. I had dinner with my friends Anna and Josh and then we saw The Witch. (Yikes...that's an intense movie but to my mind, such an accurate representation of the American Puritan mindset.)

Dinner with the family

18 February 2016: My parents, Tara, Colin, and Olivia were in town today and I had dinner with them. This cold is still slowing me down a bit, but seeing them made my evening better.

Taking on "Little Baltimore"

17 February 2016: West Virginia, like a lot of places in the country, is struggling with an drug epidemic, especially here in the Eastern Panhandle. Martinsburg has even earned a depressing nickname: "Little Baltimore." Not a day goes by that I don't see some story about an overdose. It's overwhelming and so very sad.

So I was quite grateful for this event held on campus yesterday. The judges who were there were all clearly moved by this problem and open to new ways to help. If people like them can help lead the way, maybe we can make some progress.

Over the shoulder...

16 February 2016: Still struggling a bit with this cold, feeling a bit anxious about some stuff, and a bit frustrated about some other stuff. Then I look behind me and see this little guy there and things are a bit better.

"Alexander Hamilton"

15 February 2016: Monday was a strange day--troubling weather, a cold coming on, just kind of yucky. But I was thrilled by these four minutes or so from the Grammy awards. Amazing.

Update: looks like Youtube has pulled the video clip, so I'll just post this clip of Lin-Manuel Miranda's acceptance speech.

Miniscule Heat Wave

14 February 2016: Today was supposed to be just about as painfully cold as yesterday, but when I went outside to pick up a package at around 2:30, I saw that there was enough sun to make it almost tolerable. Just tolerable enough for an hour-long walk--something I didn't think I'd be able to do. Excellent.