Wood-working...

30 September 2019: I just finished up a very cool introductory wood-working class at Shepherd’s awesome FASTnER lab, where I learned how to use three saws. My reaction? “Look at this cool little piece of wood I cut!” Amy's reaction: “We can totally rebuild your deck.” Wow. Also, shout-out to my friend Kay for being such a great and patient teacher. And what a fun way to spend my lunch break!

"Like You"

29 September 2019: Came across this poem today in a mailing from the Academy of American poets celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month. Love it.

"I believe the world is beautiful
and that poetry, like bread, is for everyone.
And that my veins don’t end in me
but in the unanimous blood
of those who struggle for life,
love,
little things,
landscape and bread,
the poetry of everyone."

Homecoming...

28 September 2019: What a day! Rode in a parade in the morning and sold concessions at the football game to raise money for Sigma Tau Delta. Wiped out, but it was fun.

Founders Day...

27 September 2019: I gave a (short) speech at Founders Day today, focusing on how much our alumni, students, faculty, and staff inspire me. If I am being very honest, it's been really hard lately at work. Morale is low (to put it mildly). But I meant every word I said about how much these folks mean to me and it felt good to say it.

Baby ram...

26 September 2019: News you can use/hot gossip from the Shepherd University Foundation Board of Directors meeting: J.C. the Ram is going to be a daddy. (And his girlfriend is named "Lulu.") We also talked about other stuff, but this is what excited me the most.

"Underbelly"

25 September 2019: Really liking this poem, from the poem-a-day email.

Here's an excerpt from the beginning:

"Wouldbelove, do not think of me as a whetstone
until you hear the whole story:

In it, I’m not the hero, but I’m not the villain either
so let’s say, in the story, I was human

and made of human-things: fear
and hands, underbelly and blade..."

This is a weird picture...

24 September 2019: A lovely event today--the Library's annual "Breakfast on the Porch." They also used it to unveil my "READ" poster, something I posed for last spring. It was a very strange experience (when you don't exactly love looking at yourself), but also quite nice and sweet.

Family Feud

23 September 2019: Another homecoming week, complete with me serving as the faculty member on a sorority's Family Feud team. It was fun, but made for an awfully long day.

"Old Soul"

22 September 2019: Kind of a perfect soundtrack for "Sunday contemplation mood."

Saturday balance?

21 September 2019: I haven't written about my great "balance" initiative in a long time, which certainly says something about how that's been going. But I made some attempts today. Slept in (good for getting over the cold I've been fighting), took a long walk, met up with some work friends at a local brewery I've been meaning to try forever, got my haircut, watched some episodes of the new season of Mindhunter, and got some serious work done. Not bad, I guess.

Last night I found myself reflecting on...everything? The sadness/funk that lurked over me most of the late summer seems to be lifting, but I am not sure why. Or about what's taking its place. And I am still kind of afraid it could come back...or that, maybe more accurately, it should be back, since the things that caused it are still the same. Nothing is "fixed," after all.

All very vague, I know, but it feels that way, too. So if I find myself fighting off that sadness/funk and dealing with all the anxiety and tough stuff at work, I have got to do a better job at that balance thing, I think. I just have to.

Downton Abbey

25 September 2019: Do we need a Downtown Abbey movie? Do we need just over two hours of low-stakes, not-much-happens, gently-troubling-politics-depicting, rich-people watching?

After this week, my answer is yup, I sure did. Look, it's not a terrific movie, but it's terrific at being what it is. And I sure did enjoy it.

Tired troops...

19 September 2019: I mean, I might just be projecting onto him, but I am pretty sure that when Wesley watched me change into "public clothes," as opposed to "laying around the house because you don't have to teach today and you are sick" clothes, he looked at me like I was crazy. And then, when he noticed I was putting on not just "public clothes," but fairly nice (for me) clothes, he looked even more confused. But yes: I am getting dressed up a bit to head to campus on a non-teaching day, and when I am kind of sick, because things are so crazy on campus and we need to show up in full force at the BOG meeting today.

The troops are rallying, but man...we are tired.

And yeah: the cat wasn't thinking that. He just wants to nap. That's all.

Hanging in...

18 September 2019: Really struggling with a cold today, but got through it. Even managed to do all of my office hours and get my steps in down by the C&O after. Whew. But I need to get to bed soon and hope I wake up feeling better. (Not much a post, I know, but I have had this window open for about 30 minutes and cannot think of anything else to write about.)

Sounds good?

17 September 2019: "I think there's nothing wrong with a headless horseman." --Andrea, the current president of our Sigma Tau Delta chapter, wrapping up a discussion of what the group will do for the annual "Shep O' Treat" event. Made me laugh!

(For context, every year, the group does a "pin the tail on the donkey" type game for the kids coming through for the event, but with a literary twist. Past entries have included "pin the mustache on Poe," for instance. For this year, this was some discussion over whether a headless horseman would be too scary for little ones, but we decided so long as the heads that were being pinned were pumpkins, it would be okay.)

Mondays...

16 September 2019: A long and busy Monday that finds me still fighting whatever this sickness might be if it ever decides to fully arrive. But "long" and "busy" are different from bad and whatever this sickness is, it isn't bad. So all in all...a decent day. The best part? Grabbing an iced coffee with Hannah after a (long) Senate meeting and catching up for an hour or so. Awesome.