1/31: compline

Students run a compline service at my school every Sunday night, and tonight I went.  It was 15 minutes of calm, and I especially enjoyed their singing of "Ubi caritas."

1/30: on the porch

It got warm enough this afternoon that the cats and I could sit on the porch.  Tea-time blended into cocktail-time as I read and they snoozed.

1/29: being surprised

I squeezed in a walk this evening after getting home from work and before it got dark, and while I walked I listened to Undermajordomo Minor.  I'm about two-thirds through, and it suddenly did Something That I Did Not Expect At All.  I'm not sure I understand or like what it did (I'll have to see where the rest of the novel goes), but I liked being surprised.

1/28: a rainbow!

At sunrise!

1/27: remembering a good thing

...doubles it.  This morning I remembered a good thing from yesterday:  Tilde looking intently out my office window at little cinnamon-colored birds hopping and poking around in the leaves.

1/26: time flies

I got so into my work this evening that hours felt more like minutes.

1/25: starting...then finishing

I had hoped and planned to write a proposal this evening, but when it came time to do it I felt too tired/worried/defeated.  So I told myself to just start--and then, once I got started, I was able to finish.

1/24: recommendation letters

I often put off writing recommendation letters until they are absolutely due, and this weekend was that "absolutely due" time for two of them.  And then writing them was such a pleasure--because it involved remembering the great things about the people I was writing for--that I wondered why I had put it off.

1/23: a little watercoloring

I tinkered with some watercolors this morning and liked what I came up with.  Playing with liquid color is always a good thing (in my opinion) regardless of result, but as often as not (or even more often than not) I'm not so very happy about what I come up with.  Today it was nice to have the goodness of the process and some pleasure at the product.

1/22: looking out at white

It snowed several inches over night, and I didn't go to campus until the afternoon, so I spent the morning working at the long table in our main room and enjoying the wintry landscape through the big windows.

1/21: better than expected

Last night when I got home I checked my car's tire pressure and it registered as way, way low.  I knew it would be a little low because of the cold snap, but the reading was much lower than a dip.  It was cold and getting dark, so I figured I'd deal with it in the morning; nevertheless, I worried about it throughout the evening.  This morning I bundled up, took the air compressor out to the car, and set to work--and though the tires were a little low, it turns out that my pressure gauge had been stuck yesterday and that was why the readings were so drastically low.  Whew.

1/20: more comfortable et al.

I had some trouble yesterday transitioning to school mode from the quiet of the past two weeks especially--my internal compass got very out of whack.  Today I was more at ease in my classes, and that's a good thing. 

Plus I got to talk to my etymology students about the history of the word "rankle," explaining how it comes from a word for "little snake," and that was super fun.

And finally, I forgot some of my work for the evening at school.  Normally that would not be a good thing, but today it is:  I barely slept last night, so I think it's actually better for me to put that work off until tomorrow and turn in early.

1/19: gone

It was a disorienting day, but it contained this victory:  I managed to get rid of a stain that had been vexing both Chris and me for quite some time.

1/18: last morning

I decided to translate 127 Greek epitaphs over the winter break, and today--the last morning of break, over my coffee and with a sprinkling of snow outside--I finished them.

1/17: progress

...on tidying up my home office. 

...and on dealing with my stack of in-arrears correspondence.

Though there may be no real "end" to either of these things, making headway makes me hopeful and makes me want to continue to work at them.

1/16: names

A friend and I met up for coffee this afternoon.  For part of the time we talked about names and that was especially fun.

1/15: smiling

...while walking in the sun and listening to Patrick deWitt's Undermajordomo Minor.  And it was especially sweet because unexpected:  I hadn't thought that my day would include any walking/listening time, and when I chose Undermajordomo Minor as my new audiobook I didn't know that it would be so funny.

1/14: re-establishing equilibrium

Yesterday was dishearteningly disorienting; my psyche felt spun-around like a top and I barely slept.  It was good today to re-settle.  Talking with Chris helped, and so did putting aside my schedule to spend some sunny time by the creek.

1/13: redundancy

We have two bathrooms in our house, and that's a good thing because the plumbing in one of them is being iffy.  Though I've tried some fixes myself, a plumber might be in order, and it's so much less of a crisis and hassle because there's the second bathroom to use.

1/12: warm enough & bright enough

...to enjoy taking a late-morning walk.

1/11: translating greek

Because we don't offer upper-level Greek regularly at my school, I don't have a lot of in-depth translation opportunities.  Although theoretically I could read on my own, when time and energy feel already over-claimed it's hard to make space for it.  But I decided to translate a selection of Greek epitaphs over the holiday break, and it's been good to get back in the language in that way.  If I keep up, I should be done right before school starts.

1/10: singular "they"

I'm a sometimes outspoken advocate for the use of "they" as a gender-neutral singular pronoun, so I was happy today when I learned that the American Dialect Society chose it as their "word of the year" for 2015.

1/9: rainy weather

The day gave me opportunities for rainy-window photo experiments:

And the rain kept me focused on today's task:  making a serious start at straightening my home office.

1/8: chores & more

Because I'm not back in the classroom yet my day could contain chores at home and in town, school-related work, reading for pleasure, proofreading for Project Gutenberg, and even making some monoprints.

1/7: sorting

...through the many, many postcards I've received over the years and finding ones to put on my bulletin boards and serve as new guardian spirits.

1/6: laughing

...with my sister on the phone about funny everyday things and coincidences.

1/5: twilight sounds

As I was walking back to the house after watching the sunset at the dock, I paused to listen to all the peeping birds in the bushes and trees.  Quite wonderful.

1/4: not much but many

I didn't read a lot of any one thing today, but I read lots of different things:  pages from The Inner House (which I'm helping to proofread through Distributed Proofreaders), another retelling of Beauty and the Beast, essays in Language Myths, Heron Tree submissions, some online articles, and ancient Greek epitaphs.

1/3: hearing his breathing

I woke up early and heard Chris breathing beside me.  I loved listening and let it soothe me back to sleep.

1/2: pruning & fixing

This afternoon I helped Chris prune trees in the yard and he helped me repair my printer.

1/1: change in plans

I left the house this afternoon with the intention of driving into town to pick something up at my campus office.  But the sun and light were too good to pass up a chance to walk, so I got Chris and he took a break to walk with me through the woods and along the edge of the flooded fields below our house.