2/28: notebook making

...with the young men Chris meets with each week.

2/27: goods

It was a day of psychological worry & physical pain.  But it was also a day with good things!

The women who work in the cafeteria are so friendly, and they were really kind to me when Chris and I went to eat lunch there.  And then the woman in the campus coffee-shop gave us our coffee for free.  Maybe I looked like I needed cheering up?

I saw my first dandelions of 2018 as I was walking across campus.  I paused to take a picture to send to a friend back in Pennsylvania who knows how much I love them.

I got through more little tasks this evening than I thought I would.

I had a quick chat with a friend in Indiana whose basement flooded last week; I wanted to check and see how she's faring.  Happily, the water has finally gone down in her house (though it's still at flood stage outside it).  And she told me how she used one of my assignment formats in her upper-level Latin class and she and her students really enjoyed it.

2/26: spring-ish

When I walked to the car this morning it felt like spring:  birds singing, daffodils beginning to bud, and a warm green smell in the air.

2/25: sunday sunset

I spent sunset down at the dock while talking to a good friend over the phone.  Even though she couldn't see what I was seeing, it was so nice to share that time of day with her.

2/24: this volume's word list

Each time we collect poems for a Heron Tree volume, I use one word from each poem on the cover.  This volume's list is: angels bells breath coins crowds curve decade direction dunes eddies frames garden gates habit hands hooks instant keepsake keys line loops marble moss mouse nestlings owl place pollen pond radius redbuds rubble skin snap thaw touch voice way.

2/23: new-to-me

A play:  Wet; or Isabella the Pirate Queen Enters the Horse Latitudes by Liz Duffy Adams.

2/22: morning and evening

Seeing hundreds of cormorants on the lake as I drove to work.

Learning that one of my very best friends has gotten a new job.

2/21: two unexpected breaks

...in a long day.  One when a wonderful colleague came to my office and chatted for a bit.  Another when I found myself with a half an hour between meetings and decided to sit and draw quietly instead of going back to my office to push papers and field emails.

2/20: two comments

...at the end of an altered text workshop I ran this afternoon.  One student said something like, "Thank you; this was just what I needed."  And another said that they'll take from experience some thoughts about how we make meaning and shape our own identities, using what we've been given.

2/19: sunset and after

My body was hurting but it looked like the sunset on the water would be colorful, so I drove down (instead of walking down) to see it.  I'm glad I went:


And then a friend and I talked on the phone in an impromptu way about a collaboration we've been working on.

2/18: understanding a name

Chris has been looking at place-names adopted from Native American languages; he asked me if there were any near where I grew up in Pennsylvania.  I mentioned some but then wanted to look at a map to see if there were more.  And I found "Wopsononock," which everyone calls "Wopsy Mountain" back at home.  I'm glad to know its fuller name now, "Wopsononock" being a Delaware word meaning "white land."

2/17: scraps into not scraps

I bound remnants from a pamphlet project into little notebooks today.

2/16: a good afternoon

Meetings with students--to work on Greek and to talk about formatting a chapbook.  Then time writing quietly, with its joy of thinking.

2/15: kindnesses

...from strangers, a welcome counterbalance to some familiar frustrations.

2/14: listening/reading

Getting together with a small group of students to listen to Diary of a Wimpy Kid in English while following along in the Latin version, Commentarii de Inepto Puero.

2/12: blood and knowledge

...what the shades in the Odyssey's underworld want.

2/11: being okay

...with not getting everything that I wanted to get done today done today.

2/10: reading

...into the night to finish a novel.  (Feels like a luxury.)

2/9: drafting done

My department is putting together a self-study this year, and the parts of it that I needed to write are now all written!

2/8: grateful

...that most Thursdays (including this one) during the semester are quieter than the other days.

2/7: making

...a few more valentines, plus a very rough prototype for a pamphlet-binding project.

2/6: Simon the new cat

...sitting in my bathroom sink.  It took me unawares and made me laugh.

2/5: smoother Latin

Last week our passages in Ovid's Metamorphoses had some highly wrought sections.  On Friday we had a really good conversation about what the highly wrought stylization could be doing, but understanding and even appreciating the workings of the difficulties doesn't make them less difficult to translate.  Today's passage, by contrast, was much clearer sailing, and I think we were all glad for a breather.

2/4: card-making

My mother always had us make our Valentine's Day cards by hand for our classmates, and decades later it still feels weird if I don't make a few valentines at this time of year.  Today I made one for my mother, one for my childhood best friend, and one for Chris.  Chris and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, though, so I gave him his already.

2/3: more

...bluebirds, a little flock.  And I got to cross their path multiple times on my walk.

2/2: on my left

...a crazy pink sunset as I drove home after work.

2/1: four

...blue blue blue bluebirds seen from my bedroom window.

1/31: the timing

...of today's badness:  at least it happened after I was done with classes so it didn't affect my teaching.