1/31: writing an assignment
...for the Etymology & Philology class involving the Corpus of Historical American English. It's the first time I've formally incorporated the database into this course, and I'll be excited to see what the students come up with.
1/30: starting
...Myth class by talking about two images of Penelope, one from a Greek vase and the other a Waterhouse painting.
1/29: pelicans
I was just a few minutes into my drive to work in the morning when I realized I needed to turn back to the house because I forgot something. While driving past the lake the second time I saw some pelicans on the water! Always a happy thing when they stop here on their migratory travels.
1/28: twinkle
I'm teaching Etymology & Philology this semester, and the students did a word study on a word of their choice. One student chose twinkle. It contains a diminutive, something which always makes me smile. And the student noted how poetic part of the OED's definition is: "to emit tremulous radiance." She's so right--I love that phrase!
1/27: seeing
...a student who took last semester off. She came by my office to fill me in on a project she needs to finish up with me as well as to talk about other things generally. I taught her for the first time during the second semester of her freshman year and have worked with her every semester (except last one) since. It's nice that we'll be doing some wrap-up stuff together as she finishes her time at the college.
1/26: mustard soup
I read about mustard soup in Olga Tokarczuk's Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, and I wanted to give it a try. Today I did. It was really good! (Next time, though, I'll try a vegan substitute for the heavy cream.)
1/25: a helpful person
...at the pharmacy counter. My new prescription insurance card didn't have the right information on it, but she called their help-line and got it sorted out on the spot. It's been a glitchy week (to be expected with the start of the semester), so it was especially nice that this kind and pleasant person unglitched something with a smile.
1/23: deciding
...to read the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus today in Myth class. There was no reading assignment on the schedule (since we're still in introduction-to-the-course mode), but I realized that it would be short enough for us to read in class from a hand-out, that it would connect to some things we discussed on Tuesday, and that it would be a nice, concrete way to start talking about Classical myth and getting some thoughts in the air. The decision paid off. They did a good job of drawing things out of the text and taking turns to read it aloud.
1/22: delighted
...by the word delight. Today I learned that it used to be delite but became delight because people associated the word with light even though the words are unrelated etymologically.
1/18: three
Morning: It was a mostly sleepless night, but Chris woke up around 2 a.m. and we kept each other company for awhile.
Afternoon: Walking at Gold Creek again.
Evening: Sipping chicory with cocoa and playing cards.
Afternoon: Walking at Gold Creek again.
Evening: Sipping chicory with cocoa and playing cards.
1/17: revising
...some of the ekphrastic writing I did while in Boston. I'm not sure what (if anything) will come of it, but it feels good to be in and with words this way.
1/16: reading
..."The Princess, the Dwarf, and the Dungeon" by Steven Millhauser. I enjoyed it and am glad I read it in two concentrated chunks in a single day, but I also enjoyed realizing that it's the kind of story I would have been especially fond of and attracted by earlier in my life. It feels funny that reading a new-to-me novella was tinged with nostalgia for the younger me, but there it is.
1/14: reading
...Lynda Barry's What It Is. I'm not on the same page with her view of thinking, but I enjoyed her connection between memory and imagination.
1/11: finishing
...Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones), and being so glad I read it.
1/9: the students' similes
...for the murals I wrote about yesterday. I gave them the same assignment I gave myself, and I think they were happy with the results.
1/6: Epiphany morning
When I was growing up, my family celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, and I have a lingering fondness for the holiday still, maybe partially because of the very word epiphany. It seemed fitting to spend this Epiphany morning at the Woolly Hollow creek and cascade. Only Chris and I were there (compared to the carloads of people there this weekend), and we enjoyed the light on the water and rocks.
1/3: hanging out
...with a friend on the phone, but the way were chatting made it feel like we were in the same room.
1/2: using
...a beautiful little bag made from colorful selvages that a postal friend from Australia had sewn and then sent to me years ago. I'm out of touch with her, but it is so cheering to use the bag and think of her, so I wrote her a quick note and popped it in the mail.
1/1: allowing myself
...to get angry at Little Women (the book, not the recent movie, which I haven't seen).
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