11/14-11/30: a bit of a break

I'll be offline for the rest of the month. But thanks for stopping by--and, as always, feel free to post good things from your days in the comments. I'll be back in December!

11/13: family

For a couple of hours today the whole family--two humans, three cats--rested together on the bed. Humans reading, cats dozing, everyone glad to be with one another.

11/12: found

At a certain point this morning it looked very likely that I had lost my driver's license. I did eventually find it, so my good thing for the day is that I didn't have to cancel my afternoon appointments in order to go and get a replacement license before the weekend.

11/11: stepping in the sun

I took the time this morning to walk the meditation labyrinth on campus.

11/10: some quiet

A day of some inner and outer turbulence at school. But I've been alone in my office for the past hour and a half, and I've gotten some good work done in that time. Now it's off to a screening of a film for one of my classes, and then home!

11/9: detour

On the way to school this morning Chris took a spur-of-the-moment turn, and we went through the Starbucks drive-through for coffees and scones. We sipped the coffee and ate the scones on a bench near a small lily-pond outside my office building. Then we headed off to our separate corners on campus.

11/8: a confectionary touchstone

Sometimes I get to know students through extra-curricular activities but never teach them in a class. There's one such student who has been abroad for the past two semesters. Today in the cafeteria I suddenly thought of her because the dessert on offer was a kind of cookie she really, really likes, and I remembered her telling me about them. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed our occasional interactions until the cookies jogged my memory. I hope she's having a great time abroad, and I'll look forward to seeing her next semester. In the meanwhile, it's nice to have such a sweet association for the cookies.

11/7: falling back

The end of daylight savings time is always a little treat: I know we don't really "get" an extra hour, but on the Sunday morning after the switch, it sure does feel as if we do.

11/6: reward

A bit of a headache today. And a bit of a cold. But the sun is bright, and it's a day off, so I didn't want to miss a chance for a walk. I'm glad I chose to walk on the ridge rather than drive to the track, because along my way I got to see many kinds of moths, who were also enjoying the weather. Oh, they are wonderful creatures, and the longer I live in Arkansas the more I'm amazed--and grateful--that so many moths live here, as well.

11/5: absence and presence

Today I managed to avoid the lingering ripples of some at-work drama from yesterday--a case where the good thing was the absence of something.

And here's one in which the good thing was a matter of presence: I was waiting outside my office building in the late afternoon; I had a heavy box to bring home, so Chris was going to drive the car by to pick me up instead of my walking to the parking lot. As I waited and let the build-up of the work-week fall off me, I heard more and more birds. Lots of birds actually. Chirping and singing, chirping and singing.

11/4: unrushed

I think the title says it all. I haven't had a work-day that's felt like that in awhile, and I'm grateful that today I was able to work steadily without a sense of mounting time-pressure or task-pressure.

11/3: morning star

I take an apple to school on most days of the week. But I always cut it up at home first: when I had braces I couldn't bite into an apple directly, and though that was years ago, I got into the habit of always slicing apples. I make four vertical cuts around the core, and then, for sheer ritual's sake, I cut through the core horizontally so that I can see the seed-star inside--this I do because a friend in college did it. Every morning that seed-star makes me smile, and I tell myself, "Even if nothing else good happens today, I can always make this my good thing."

11/2: saigon

The name of the new-to-us Vietnamese restaurant in town where we ate this evening. And, across the globe, the location from which I received a postcrossing postcard today.

11/1: museum in my mailbox

I like visiting art museums. I loved my neighborhood in Los Angeles, which was right next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It was great to get to pop in there whenever I wanted.

I enjoyed my museum-time in London this summer more than I enjoyed my library-time. I guess because I can read almost anywhere, anytime, but world-class museums are harder for me to come by.

I tell myself that I should just save my pennies and allow myself to go on a museum-centered trip each year.

But until that happens, I now have something to keep me company here at home: a subscription to Artforum magazine. My first issue arrived today.