"Bugs Bunny will do it."

17 September 2020: This post's title comes from the last line of this piece, which I heartily co-sign: "Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Get Knocked Out Cold With a Shovel for Exactly Six Weeks and Five Days?" I have been thinking some version of this for so long...

"Give Me This"

16 September 2020: This was in my inbox first thing this morning. It made me tear up and stayed with me all day. What a gift. 

"Give Me This"

Ada Limón

I thought it was the neighbor’s cat back

to clean the clock of the fledgling robins low

in their nest stuck in the dense hedge by the house

but what came was much stranger, a liquidity

moving all muscle and bristle. A groundhog

slippery and waddle thieving my tomatoes still

green in the morning’s shade. I watched her

munch and stand on her haunches taking such

pleasure in the watery bites. Why am I not allowed

delight? A stranger writes to request my thoughts

on suffering. Barbed wire pulled out of the mouth,

as if demanding that I kneel to the trap of coiled

spikes used in warfare and fencing. Instead,

I watch the groundhog closer and a sound escapes

me, a small spasm of joy I did not imagine

when I woke. She is a funny creature and earnest,

and she is doing what she can to survive.

 

"Caroline"

15 September 2020: In the midst of a surprisingly busy work-from-home, non-teaching day, I found myself humming this song quite a bit. It's been in my head, along with all of Give Up the Ghost, since Sunday night, when Brandi and the band did a live stream of them playing the album. 

Season 37

14 September 2020: A long day today, but the sweet realization that we've got new episodes of Jeopardy! made me so happy that I almost cried. 

"damn the consequences and shame your mama"

13 September 2020: "With story, and with poetry, you can hang language and revelation on a few details and a lies. I believe that a good lie is a fine way to get to the truth. You have to think about why you are tempted to lie, what you are hiding and what you fear. Then damn the consequences and shame your mama." --Dorothy Allison, in this great interview

I can't say enough how much I've gotten out of these past few months of thinking about Allison's writing. What a gift she is to the world. 

"trusting her arm and her love..."

12 September 2020: “When Raylene came to me, I let her touch my shoulder, let my head tilt to lean against her, trusting her arm and her love. I was who I was going to be, someone like her, like Mama, a Boatwright woman. I wrapped my fingers in Raylene’s and watched the night close in around us” (309).

The words above, from the closing of Bastard Out of Carolina, are in the presentation I am giving on September 21. I've practiced it the whole way through a few times and every time I feel myself getting choked up as I read them. 

"The Minister's Black Veil"

11 September 2020: You know what was a fascinating experience today? Teaching "The Minister's Black Veil" while wearing a mask to a classroom of masked students. We had a great conversation about concealing parts of your face, the difference between covering your mouth (like we were) and covering your eyes (like in the story). There are no silver linings from this pandemic, but this was, at least, interesting. 

Also: three weeks done. Whew. 

Not helping...

10 September 2020: CNN has had this link, featuring the question that keeps me up at night, front-and-center for at least a week. Just wonderful seeing it day after day. 

A normal day...

9 September 2020: Was on campus today from just before 8:00 a.m. until about 6:30 p.m. Got a lot done, including preparing for chairing my last C&I meeting. And as I was walking to my car, feeling the "kind of good" kind of tired, I realized this has been the most "normal" day of work since March. It was still chaotic and frustrating (technological challenges continue), but the rhythm felt so familiar. 

On my drive home, I stopped by the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and got my flu shot. Just like I sort of love getting my teeth cleaned because I like seeing my hygienist, I sort of love getting my flu shot because I like the pharmacist so much. And because things are actually very much not normal, getting that shot feels extra important.  

De-densifying vibes, continued...

8 September 2020: First and most importantly, my friend's test (finally) came back and she's negative. Never been so relieved to hear someone has the flu.

Otherwise, today has been a good day to get even more sense of what a non-teaching, work-from-home day can be this semester. Like I wrote about last week, it still feels different to be intentionally staying away from campus to help de-densify, but other than that, getting a decent amount of work done and checking on through my to-do list felt pretty good.

Found on my walk...

7 September 2020: As I was returning to my office after my lunch-time walk, I passed this bit of beauty on the sidewalk. First, I walked by it, but then turned around to get it. I think I'll keep it in my office as a reminder of beauty around us, even when we might not be looking for it. 

Absolutely riveted...

6 September 2020: Just read a complete draft of my presentation on Dorothy Allison for the Appalachian Writer-in-Residence program to Veronica. Clearly she found it riveting.

Bing was also in the audience, but in my defense, he's deaf.

Saturday vibes...

5 September 2020: Not a bad Saturday. Had a mostly-outdoors or (indoors-masked) visit with my parents and nephews, got some chores done, and just got off a video chat with my college friends. Lovely weather, too. Still waiting to hear about my friend's test results, still worried about so much, but the good stuff makes the bad a bit easier to take.

Also listened to a bunch of podcast episodes: highlights include a backlog of Everything Is Alive and a New Yorker Fiction Podcast featuring a cool Shirley Jackson story.

We're back!

4 September 2020: First Sigma Tau Delta meeting of the semester. Even via Zoom, it was wonderful seeing these smiling faces, especially toward the end of a long and tough day.

Editor on duty...

 3 September 2020: 

Also a bit of a not-at-all autobiographical found poem appearing here: 

"A lonely old woman"

happy with herself

completely satisfied