Googled beforehand to make sure the cat made it...

30 June 2024: "I just saw a movie and thought about you the whole time!" --me to Jo, after getting home from seeing A Quiet Place: Day One. 

Street Fest 2024

29 June 2024: What a great day today was! This morning, I had a volunteer shift at Street Fest. Then I can home to meet Erin and the girls, who finally met Jo. That went swimmingly, of course. And we went to Street Fest. Hot as heck, but fun. 

Youth consult...

28 June 2024: Decided to get Isla some earrings for her birthday and ultimately decided on some pairs at Kohl's. I was half-heartedly looking around, hoping to ask a young person if they thought an almost-eight-year-old (going on eighteen) would like them. 

At one point, I overheard an older customer being really difficult with an associate (maybe mid-twenties?), making snarky comments about how expensive things are, how the store had really gone downhill, etc. The associate was so professional and calm, it really impressed me. After the old woman walked away, I walked by associate and said, "Good job" and rolled my eyes. We whispered a bit about how she tried her best, she was great, etc.

Eventually, I went to the front to pay. And that same associate checked me out. I put the earrings down and said, "niece's birthday!" She said, "oh, these are cute!" and then rang up the next pair--and she was wearing the same ones. She complimented all of my choices and then I said what I wrote above: that I was hoping for a young person's take on them. She (and another associate, probably the same age) laughed as a left about being called "young people," since obviously they didn't feel young. It's all relative, after all. 

Anyway, we'll see what the kid herself thinks about them tomorrow when she and the rest of her gang come to visit. 

An email that changed my life...

27 June 2024: Was doing some cleaning/filing today and found a print-out of an email that changed my life. Wonderful to have a reminder of that day and everything that followed it. Also always nice to remember Charles, who was so kind and nurturing to me as a department chair.

An aging milestone...

26 June 2024: Writing this on the first day of trying out my brand-new glasses with my first-ever progressive glasses. I know it will take some time to adjust, but better to learn this sooner rather than later. Also seems appropriate that we saw Thelma this evening, a nice little movie about a much older woman (93!) dealing with the challenges of aging. 

Just hit "send"!

25 June 2024: As the last chorus of "I've Had the Time of My Life" played (not making that part up, but how perfect is that?), I hit "send" on my book manuscript. Wild, wild feeling. A last minute conversation with Vogel was enough to make me take a break, stop obsessing, and just hit the button. That also feels kind of perfect. (And three months early!)

And now for some more chair-dancing, to this fun track that just came on, also perfect given my almost spiritual connection to Footloose. 

Revolutionary Suicide

24 June 2024: "In our innocence we planned to be doctors, lawyers, pilots, boxers, and builders. How could we know then that we were not going anywhere? Nothing in our experience had shown us yet that the American dream was not for us. We, too, had great expectations. And then we went to school" (16). 

This passage, which ends the first chapter of Huey P. Newton's Revolutionary Suicide, is just one example of his powerful and often arresting prose. Newton's biography is our book club selection this month. It's unlike a lot of what I read, but it sure is engaging. 

Work Cited

Newton, Huey P. Revolutionary Suicide. 1973. Penguin, 2009. 

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. 

Out early, then inside all day...

22 June 2024: The song playing on Pandora right now is pretty on point: 

A heat wave has settled into its most intense (I hope?) day so far. This screenshot from just a few minutes ago says it all. 

I planned ahead--got my walk and my trip to the supermarket done early. Since then, I've been inside with the girls. Lots of chores done, some work on the book (soooooo close!), and some work on fall syllabi (!). Ready to call it quitting time and do some vegging. The girls, of course, have this vegging thing down pat. 

"The neurologist gives us permission"

21 June 2024: Haven't done a poetry post in a bit, but this one, by Seema Reza arrived in my inbox this morning and just made me sigh. I am always moved by how joy and sadness ride side-by-side or amplify each other through contrast. And my goodness--what a title! 

Here's what she says about it in the blurb with the email: "This poem is about how living on the brink of bad news heightens the experience of joy. It’s a poem about aging and falling in love and knowing it will all end. It does all end."

Grateful...

20 June 2024: Feeling very grateful today for access to decent health care with two walk-in appointments in less than two weeks. It's nothing major at all--just persistent and annoying. But being able to walk in, not wait all that long, and get friendly and helpful care means so much. I am especially grateful because I know so many people cannot access anything even close to that kind of care. 

So close...

19 June 2024: There's a decent chance that I will feel ready to send the manuscript in by the end of next week, if not sooner. In fact, if I put in a couple (like, literally--maybe two) days of solid work, it would be ready (enough). 

At the same time, I am telling myself to slow down these next few days, giving myself time to reflect, think, and do some more revision to a couple sections. I am way ahead of schedule, never dreaming I'd have it ready by the end of June, so there's no need to rush. 

It's a strange bundle of feelings: excitement, satisfication, a touch of pride, and anxiety. 

Summer Advising 2024

18 June 2024: Well, Summer Advising was very different than ever before. Just one day for me this year (it was divided by colleges) and budget cuts meant all I could do was get a small stipend to help my chair. Of course, I said yes, but man, it's just not the same.

Still...there's something wonderful and energizing about helping a student make that very first schedule and seeing all of my colleagues work so well as a team. 

Still Life for Summer 2024

17 June 2024: Somewhat hilariously (and I say this with lots of relief), the "Chronology" section of my book--the part I worried about the most at times--has been tremendously easy to do. Knocked out an entire draft today. I am busy with Summer Advising most of tomorrow, which is probably a good thing--some space to not think about it while also sort of thinking about it (and hoping some "I need to include/fix that" ideas come through). 

Snapped this picture of the whole (double-sided) manuscript (a verson from May 2024) near a sleeping Jo earlier in the day. I kept this big old paper copy--all kinds of marked up--since I knew it would be useful for the chronology. But it is pretty cool to have a picture of the stack of pages as a record. (It's a bit longer now!) It also cracks me up how the perspective makes her look so tiny. 

Father's Day 2024

16 June 2024: A really lovely Sunday here. This morning, I picked Betty up and we drove to Rockville to meet Tim. Then we metroed in to DC to have lunch and see a production of Metamorphoses at the Folger (where I hadn't been before). 

Then home by 6:00 or so to call my dad, who seemed to be having a very nice Father's Day. That on its own would have been enough to make my day great. He's just such a good dude, perfectly happy to spend his day doing some weeding, hearing from his kids, and grilling some burgers for dinner.