5/31: the last day
...of my being chair of the Classics program at school. This morning I sent in the program's annual assessment report as my last official thing. I've been the chair (either formally or informally) for 19 years, and I am so ready to not coordinate bureaucratic tasks for awhile.
5/30: sharpening
...some thoughts I've been having about a possible conference paper. It's a fun part of the process, especially because I've given myself ample time to work on the idea before the abstract is due.
5/28: finally reading
...The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh. I'm a long-time fan of Harriet the Spy, and I don't know why I never read this second novel containing Harriet. In a way it's fortunate that I waited until now; its themes feel especially resonant with my thoughts and worries these days, and I'm not sure that would have been as much the case if I had read it earlier.
5/27: listing
...the books I've read so far this year. I've kept a record since 1985, and though I don't often go back and look at it, it would feel odd to stop. These days I tend to add to the list a couple of times a year, pausing at the end of May, August, and December to write down titles. Today I did the reckoning for January through May: 53 books. And I may manage one or two more before the end of the month. Though I don't equate quantity with quality, the sheer number reminds me what steady companions books are and have been for me.
5/25: in the mail
I put a dozen more Of the May pamphlets in the post today. It ended up being the only thing of substance I did today because a bad case of vertigo has been with me since I woke up. If I was going to get only one substantial thing done today, I'm glad it was this, something for pleasure.
5/23: three treats
One for the mind: Hearing crew as the past tense of crow (as in "The cock crew again") while listening to Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
One for the body: Googling "super-easy peanut butter cookies," finding a recipe with that exact name, and making it right away.
One for the heart: Using beloved cookie-stamps from my childhood while making the peanut butter cookies. Last year my mother sent them to me, saying something like "I think these belong with you."
One for the body: Googling "super-easy peanut butter cookies," finding a recipe with that exact name, and making it right away.
One for the heart: Using beloved cookie-stamps from my childhood while making the peanut butter cookies. Last year my mother sent them to me, saying something like "I think these belong with you."
5/22: reading
...Jefferson's Garden by Timberlake Wertenbaker in one sitting so that it could be a little like seeing it in a theatre.
5/20: another new-to-me recipe
...tried: socca-based pizzas. And dessert was a cinnamon roll cake I made yesterday.
5/17: no cold medicine
...today--hurray! It took a full week to get over this illness (knock on wood), and it felt so good for my sinuses not to be at the forefront of my awareness today. I even got a modest to-do list done.
5/16: finishing
...reading a novel while still lying in bed in the morning. Turns out the novel--Apocalypse Baby by Virginie Despentes, translated by Sian Reynolds--took quite a turn in the final portion, making it an odd way to start the day. But it got and kept me thinking for hours. It's the second novel by Despentes that I've read this week, and I'm glad to have finally given her work a try after having put it on my possible to-read list a couple of years ago.
5/14: revisiting
This morning I happily revisited an email I got last night in which a friend sent me a picture of Emily Dickinson's garden.
5/10: no meeting
...this morning, so I was able to go grocery shopping and head home (and to bed, sick!) sooner rather than later.
5/9: Phineas
...the ginger cat has taken to laying alongside me in bed, nestled in my arm with his head on my shoulder and his front paws stretched to my neck and face.
5/8: celebrating
...Chris' mother by going out to dinner in her memory: eating Mexican food, drinking margaritas, and doing a little reminiscing.
5/6: things done
I did a variety of things today: I proctored the Latin final, reading Myth essays while the students took their Latin test; I spent my remaining free "dining dollars" in the campus snack shop (I bought lots of little bags of potato chips!); I drove across town to get a book from storage to loan to a colleague who is going to read it out loud with his daughter; I did some grading and grade-calculating; I met with a student; I wrote some emails; I talked with my mother about visiting Pennsylvania this summer; I tinkered with a pamphlet. Sometimes I don't like the random texture of these exam-period days (with no classroom teaching yet plenty of stuff to do), but today it felt fine, maybe even good.
5/1: 3 Hs
Its being May Day made me think of Hawthorne's "Maypole of Merry Mount," so I re-read it over lunch and was glad I did.
I saw a hummingbird perched on a wire.
Honeysuckle filled the evening air.
I saw a hummingbird perched on a wire.
Honeysuckle filled the evening air.
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