10/12: a day to remember

Not because anything huge and spectacular (hugely spectacular?) happened, but because lots of nice things happened. When days are frustrating and tiring (like yesterday), I need to remember that there could be a day like today right around the corner.

The day's good things include: a conversation with a new Classics major; a midterm in Latin that seemed to go well; general group appreciation of one another in my intermediate Latin class; hearing about one student's animals (goats, a peacock, and a miniature cow!); a pleasant meeting with a senior major sorting things out; unexpected time to grade a few midterms over lunch; news that Chris, a colleague, and I received a grant for course development over the next two years; a drive to Little Rock through the rain while listening to Prince's Purple Rain on the radio; a successful visit to a specialist where I got a cleaner bill of health than I had expected; dinner out with Chris; a walk on the ridge with the weather cleared and air freshened; another tour-de-force chapter by George MacDonald on my audiobook; five of the neighborhood dogs milling around while I walked; the first taste of lemons from our new Meyer lemon tree; playful cats.

Of a different kind of goodness: the fact that this morning (and before any of the good things began) I was able to not get distractedly frustrated by something that could have made me both distracted and frustrated--yesterday I wasn't able to face down the potential frustration as successfully, so I'm glad that today started more auspiciously.

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