3/31: done

I ran my last public event for the school year this evening:  a dinner/reading focused on Horace's Odes.  I think it went well, and I'm also glad that my slate of events is over for now.

3/30: good q & a

I hosted a public lecture by a visiting speaker this evening, and after it there was time for a question & answer period.  People were engaged and intent and asked good questions.

3/29: class discussion

...about Alice Oswald's Memorial.

3/28: time with poetry

...both ancient and modern:  Horace's Odes, as well as poems by H. D., Andrew Davis, and C. P. Cavafy about the Trojan War.

3/27: twombly and aeschylus

Cy Twombly's Fifty Days at Iliam today in the Trojan War class.

And prepping Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound for tomorrow's Myth class.

I'm tired and sick and piled up with tasks, but--wow--are Twombly and Aeschylus good things to have in my day!

3/26: nevertheless

I'm not feeling well today:  I had a rough night and then a day of sinus trouble.  But I quietly worked through some tasks and am trying to enjoy a bit of quiet before the next two crazy busy weeks begin.

3/25: feeling glad

...that there's still one more day after today before heading back to school.

...that I got more spring cleaning done.

...that there are more Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett to listen to, since I finished Wintersmith.

...that I wrote an email (and, I think, a good one) instead of putting it off.

...that Chris and I had salad for dinner rather than getting fast-food take-out.

3/24: dogwoods

...all around town and along the road into town!  And the "volunteer" dogwood in our yard is getting its first flowers ever this year.

3/23: spring cleaning

Chris and I began some planned spring-break cleaning today.  It feels good.

3/22: taking the plunge

I've been playing around with the idea of organizing an online working group focused on Classics and children's literature, and finally the idea needed to be either abandoned or moved into actuality.  So today I made a website and tomorrow (with luck) I'll send out a call for participants.

3/21: out in the world

I was at odds with myself today:  spirits and energy were weird and low.  I needed to be lifted out of my mind and muddle a bit, so Chris and I ran some errands and got pizza for dinner.

3/20: work & play

This morning and afternoon I worked on school tasks, including making posters for a visiting lecture and flyers for some of next year's classes.

This evening after dinner I went for a walk and afterward joined Chris and a neighbor at the dock, where we talked until dark had settled in.

3/19: the air!

Even though I witnessed it, I can hardly believe how full of flowers the air has been today!

3/18: first sightings for the year

...of butterflies.  The caught the eye of even Emma the Cat, who watched them with us.

...and a bat.  We saw one as we walked back up from the dock this evening.

3/17: more thinking

During quiet writing time in the library's special room I wrote a lot about Alice Oswald's Memorial.

3/16: thinking

I'm very tired this evening but even in my tired haze I've very much enjoyed thinking about the Iliad and its relationship to An Iliad by Alessandro Baricco.  I feel like I'm doing real thought-work.

3/15: three things

I've been doing extra-curricular workshops on campus each year on bookbinding and altered text/found poetry, and today I realized that those workshops have spurred students to undertake some good projects of their own.  Of course, it's fine if workshops are a "one off" kind of experience, but today it felt rewarding to realize that my workshops changed people's paths a little bit.

I wrote an email to my colleagues and feel much, much better about departmental issues than I have in awhile!

And I actually took some time to go to the dock near sunset, something that used to be a much more common occurrence than it is these days.  The water was sparkly in a not-usual way:

3/14: waxwings in the morning

I did my Latin prep at home this morning and so got to see the waxwings flying to and from the holly bush for berries.

3/13: noticing more

...flowering native plum trees as I'm driving to school.  I had been wondering where they had been this year, but I think I just started looking for them too early.  Now I see a lot of them.

3/12: enjoying again, but now on foot

Yesterday we looked at the flowering native plum trees from the car.  Today we went into the woods near our house to visit some close up.

3/11: enjoying

...the scattered redbud and wild plum trees seen from the car as Chris and I drove into town and back home again.

3/10: reception

I was worried that Barrico's Iliad might be a hard sell in my Trojan War class, since it's coming after the picturebook version of the Iliad we read and we're in a low-energy point of the semester.  But the students seemed animated by and about it--and they especially liked the Thersites chapter, which I'm really taken with, too.

3/9: in my office at night, reading

...An Iliad by Alessandro Baricco (translated by Ann Goldstein).  I'm so glad I pared down the selections my students are reading, giving them--and myself--the time and space to linger, think, and enjoy.

3/8: gain not loss

We've been talking about a picturebook version of the Iliad in my Trojan War class, and sometimes it's hard to discuss an adaptation without lamenting what it's left out.  Today the class made a nice move away from that and toward interpreting the picturebook's program itself.

3/7: two former students

I got an email today from a former student:  she told me that she'll be participating in a travel-seminar in Greece this summer and that another one of my former students will be on the trip, as well.  They didn't overlap during their undergraduate time, so their paths are crossing for the first time, knitting together student generations.

3/6: questions

It was good mental exercise to come up with a set of final discussion questions about Cross and Packer's picturebook version of the Iliad.  Now I'll be excited to hear the students' answers!

3/5: walk and words

Low spirits this afternoon were dispelled by a walk on the ridge while listening to more of Wintersmith.  Oh what will I do when I finish this book and its sweet pleasures are over?  Hopefully the other Pratchett novels featuring the character Tiffany Aching will be as good!

A narcissus at the end of my ramble:

3/4: work and leisure

I graded the Iliad tests in the morning and early afternoon, then got ready to meet a friend for coffee/tea.  We sat in the sun and talked.

3/3: proceeding

...with various things at work, despite feeling overexposed and vulnerable.

...with writing in my notebook on Friday afternoon, even though it would have been more practical to spend writing time on emails.

3/2: talking

...about The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead with two colleagues over lunch today.  I think we had a really good and intense conversation!

3/1: taking a break

...to do a Latin-into-English erasure of a page of Ovid's Metamorphoses.  It was hard to "get in the zone" (partially because I hadn't done one of these cross-language erasures in a few months and partially because everything's so busy), but I persisted and it was a good thing to do.