11/30: a backlog
...of New York Times Book Reviews. I usually read each week's issue when it arrives, but recently I've let them stack up. I've enjoyed working through them over these vacation mornings. I like to read reviews for books I know I'm never going to read (e.g., non-fiction and even most fiction), but today I also came across a few things that I bought right away.
11/29: Chris and our vet
Tilde the Cat has been having some trouble, and today Chris decided to take her to get checked out. We assumed our in-town vet would be closed for the holiday, so he was preparing to drive her to the emergency clinic about 45 minutes away. But before he left he checked our vet's office, and they were open and willing to take a look at Tilde. It turns out that she probably has a UTI, which makes me especially grateful that Chris took her and the vet treated her before the weekend.
11/28: almost rain-free
My walk this morning. I realized that if I wanted to walk outside I needed to do it early because once the rain arrived it was likely to stay. And for two-thirds of my walk the rain held back; I didn't mind finishing the last third as it came down.
11/27: baking
...a cranberry orange walnut bread so I'll have it to eat for breakfast in the upcoming days. A student gave me a similar bread as a gift last spring, and it was so tasty. I'm glad I found a recipe that seems to come close to what I remember.
11/26: smaller
...than usual: my Latin class in the late afternoon. Most of the campus was already cleared out for Thanksgiving break. But the students who stayed for class and I had a good time and worked through a lot (translation, grammar, scansion, interpretation, discussion of secondary sources). Their cheer was wonderful and I am grateful for it and them.
11/25: not as crowded
...in the grocery store as I was expecting. I must have hit a lull before the evening pre-holiday shopping went into high gear.
11/20: soup
...for a second day at dinner-time. I'm not glad that I have a cold, but I'm glad that soup has been there to make me feel better!
11/19: running a grammar session
...for a couple of the Latin students as a chance for them to solidify some things in English.
11/18: to some avail
I've written a number of reasoning-heavy emails about business stuff recently, and today it seemed like perhaps some of them worked.
11/16: good sights
We were on our way to Crowley's Ridge by 10:30 this morning. We walked through the woods there and around the lake; we wandered in an old cemetery; we stopped to look at a field of tall grasses gleaming in the sunlight; we watched thousands of blackbirds wheeling and V after V of geese crossing the sky.
11/15: a quick conversation
...about ekphrasis with a colleague. I don't know him well, but whenever I talk with him he's kind and upbeat and interesting.
11/14: after work
...I met up with an artist who asked to meet me (we have a mutual friend). She invited me to stop by her house on my way home from work, and another artist was there, too. They asked me if I'd be willing to contribute my photographs to an exhibit they're going to propose. (!)
Not long after I arrived at home the power went out, so I had to head back to campus to do my evening work. It can be fun to be on campus after-hours. I especially enjoyed reading my students' centos based on characters from Sophocles' Antigone.
11/13: time after
...my doctor's appointment to do some unplanned shopping at Trader Joe's. We used to go to Trader Joe's all the time when we lived in Los Angeles; only now has one opened up in Little Rock. It was fun to find some favorite products on the shelves.
11/12: Paolo Uccello's painting
...of St. George, the princess, and the dragon. It's something I've thought about, off and on, since 1987, and today a room of students wrote quietly about it and then shared some of what they saw in it. Not for a test or course or a grade.
11/11: workshopping
One of my classes today was an altered text workshop. I liked us all sitting together quietly for 50 minutes, each intent on our separate projects.
11/10: finishing
...a big chunk of paper-grading. One student especially made the most out of the chance to do revision, and that buoyed me up through this last stage of the process.
11/9: making lemon cookies
...before focusing on grading-grading-grading. I'm still not great at knowing when to take cookies out of the oven, and I always seem to leave them in about 2 minutes too long, but I've made progress in recent years.
11/7: something Chris saw
A V of geese against the moon. I didn't see it, but I'm glad that he did (and that he told me about it).
11/6: a forced break
...from work. When I got home, we had no power in the house. So we went out for a leisurely dinner, and by the time we returned the power was back on. It was nice to have an excuse to pause for awhile, but it was also nice to have the electricity back in order to do some evening work.
Also a forced break of sorts: an afternoon discussion with students about Perpetua's Journey. Though it was "work," everyone who was there was there by choice, and we just spent an hour focusing on words and images for nothing other than the pleasure of focusing on words and images.
Also a forced break of sorts: an afternoon discussion with students about Perpetua's Journey. Though it was "work," everyone who was there was there by choice, and we just spent an hour focusing on words and images for nothing other than the pleasure of focusing on words and images.
11/4: words and images
I started the morning by watching a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5PNz-aPKoE) that pairs Ancient Greek words with a modern staging of a choral ode from Sophocles' Antigone.
This afternoon I talked with a colleague and friend about an ekphrasis project we're doing together.
And this evening I finished working through the images in the graphic novel version of the Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis.
This afternoon I talked with a colleague and friend about an ekphrasis project we're doing together.
And this evening I finished working through the images in the graphic novel version of the Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis.
11/3: morning and afternoon
A morning paddle on the lake, and an afternoon spent working through the photographs I took on the water.
11/2: Jasper
I did something I rarely do: set my alarm for a Saturday morning. I wanted to leave the house by 10 so that Chris and I could be in Jasper by lunchtime. The place we had planned to eat was too crowded, so we found homey cafe where we got warm coffee (served in 1970s cups), corn fritters, and grilled cheese. Grilled cheese is a vegetarian go-to choice on the road, but the corn fritters were a nice surprise. Then we poked around in a thrift shop, where I found a vintage Smoothie Mixer and Measure, and headed on to Triple Falls, a new-to-us waterfall.
11/1: original and translations
Today I had some extra time and so got to work on a translation-comparison assignment for next week. I got to choose a Greek passage from Sophocles' Antigone and think about how to explain its workings to a class of students who (with one exception) don't know Greek. And then I got to compile published English translations of the passage for students to compare/contrast. This is all a good kind of work.
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