The marathon continues...

31 October 2025: So tired I can barely see straight, but I'm home, can catch up on sleep, and am proud of all that got done this week. No way to list it all without being tedious, so I'll just add a picture of a sight that made me burst out laughing when I saw it.

Someone is feeling a bit neglected, I think. In the 90 minutes I was home late this afternoon, she was ready to go to the Sigma Tau Delta Halloween Party disguised as party meatballs. 

A little WFH time...

30 October 2025: I didn't have to be on campus this morning--a lovely treat! So I slept in a bit, took a long walk, and got a ton of work done here at home. It has been the perfect way to start the day; in a little while, I will head to campus to meet my GWST co-teachers and our students to hop on a bus to DC to see a play. It will be a long, late night, so I am quite grateful for the slower, casual morning. 

Post-workshop dinner...

29 October 2025: Another very long day (and just wait until tomorrow!) but a good one. The public part of it ended with a post-workshop dinner with Tim, Michael (new assistant prof), and Ali (new adjunct) at Alma Bea. I can feel the weariness acccumulating in my bones, but it was still really lovely to linger over dinner with fun and interesting people. 

Grading Hawthorne essays...

28 October 2025: I have spent a lot of today grading papers about The Scarlet Letter. This is, to be clear, a very fun way to spend your day--if your students are as good as mine. 

They are wrestling with tough topics, ambiguous symbols, and everything that makes the book so good. They are also having fun with language. (More than a few of them are relishing using "ignominy," after they commented on how much Hawthorne loves that word.) 

And then there's just this phrase from one student's paper, which I noted should be the title of someone's memoir: "extreme expressions of mundane desires." 

Eliot and Stowe...

27 October 2025: We started "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" today in ENGL 204 and Uncle Tom's Cabin today in ENGL 346. I had a blast talking about both of them. (Teaching is so much fun.)  

And I am grateful for a job that now has me imagining these two very different writers at a dinner party. 

Sunday vibes...

26 October 2025: Quiet Sunday here--and I am grateful for that. After a chill morning and a nice long walk, I am spending it getting some work projects done, but at a relaxed pace. Already worked on a draft of our program recruitment and retention plan. Now moving on to planning both ENGL 101 assessment and an ENGL 102 workshop. 

Still in the midst of this marathon, but like I said, I am grateful for the chance to stay on top of everything without sprinting. 

Spooky Stories...

25 October 2025: This morning, our NWP Site held a "Spooky Stories" event for kids on the Little House lawn. It went so well. Dozens of kids making their own little books, drawing and writing, and just having fun. It was so good for my soul. 

All-Day Friday...

24 October 2025: Long day! Tim and I took our classes (215 and 204, respectively) to Baltimore to visit the Poe House and other sites. Made it back by around 4:30 and then had the SUAC Homecoming Party this evening. My sleep has been so weird lately, so I am dragging. 

But it was a good day and I am grateful. 

Keep smiling...

23 October 2025: Someone was very kind to me today in a somewhat stressful and awkward situation. I don't know her all that well, but am fond of her. Before she left, she said, "And keep smiling!" It made me want to cry for so many reasons, but I am grateful to her. 

"i" before "e," but we still worry...

22 October 2025: I gave my ENGL 204 a very simple reading quiz on the two Robert Frost poems we discussed today. 

Two questions, one per poem, each answered with just one word. Should have required minimum writing, erasing, and rewriting. 

But as I looked around, I saw some folks doing just that--erasing, crossing out, etc.

"Wait, is this about spelling the answer to #2?" 

It sure was.

Question #2 was, I must report, about "Mending Wall."

I get it; when the pressure is on, I doubt my ability to spell so many things. 

When We All Get to Heaven

21 October 2025: I am only one regular episode (and one bonus episode) into this series, but my goodness, it is powerful and moving. It is also, I suspect, precisely the kind of history we need to be reminded of right now.

Three-week marathon...

20 October 2025: Kicking off what is kind of a three-week marathon (maybe closer to four), packed with extra appointments, extra meetings and workshops, extra trivia shifts, two field trips, advising, and the start of me picking up my section of the GWST course...along with SSAWW in Philadelphia. 

A lot of the "extra" stuff is fun and meaningful, so I am not complaining (too much). But I see it all coming and it's tiring me out in advance. 

But I can do it. And will focus on the fun and meaningful parts. And will still find time for rest and quiet. 

The Black Phone 2

19 October 2025: I really liked Black Phone when it premiered, finding myself especially affected by the way it portrayed violence against children, making viewers sit through "ordinary" horrors of parental abuse even as those same children were preyed on by a serial killer. I rewatched it a few weeks ago and found myself tearing up just as I had the first time at the scenes where the children's father beats little Gwen because of her dreams. 

The Black Phone 2 removes those domestic spaces, but is still incredibly violent  while avoiding being gratuitous. I'm still thinking about that scene change and what it accomplishes. I think it might be a less complicated film than the original, but more aesthetically ambitious. It's a visually beautiful film at times, with chilling (pun intended) and haunting images. 

I think there's a lot that could be written about it, including its commentary on the ordinary violence of the 70s and 80s in the life of children. Lord knows, today's kids have their own version of violence, but there's something distinct about what these films capture. 

Hope, joy, and protest...

18 October 2025: I couldn't take part in the No Kings Protest here in town (where over 2000 people showed up!) because I was accompanying a group of my students to the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival today. They got to listen to Maureen Corrigan deliver a heck of a talk on Gatsby and got to meet Percival Everett. Everett told us, "These are hard times," but reminded us that "the most subversive thing you can do is read." 

Spending time with these students--who love reading, literature, thinking, and the world so much--gives me hope and reminds me that opposition movements need hope and joy.

Fall Break Friday...

17 October 2024: Checked some big items off of my Fall Break To-Do List, which always feels good. Tonight it's off to see Jay Johnson at the casino in Charles Town. Amy (accidentally?) got tickets for the second show which starts at 9:30. That's very funny for someone like her who likes to be in bed by 9:00. Anyway, should be a fun night.