Life in late capitalism can be vexing, alienating, fragmenting, and otherwise frustrating. There are many wonderful things in my life, but I'm more likely to talk about what's bad rather than what's good. I'm going to try to post one good thing here each day, and if you would join in by adding a good thing from your day in the comments, I'd love it--I'd absolutely love it. --RR
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.
11/10: 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.