3/31: starting the day
...by watching a short video about Prunella Clough and Rachel Whiteread. As soon as I saw Whiteread's resin casts of negative space beneath chairs I thought, "Chris would like those." And so I showed him, and he did.
3/29: it was still spring break
...for most of today, so I tried not to do work until the evening: I read the New York Times Book Review, tinkered with (then printed and folded) my pamphlet, cleaned the carpet in the sitting room with Chris, readied some mail, tidied my home office a bit, took a walk, and played some rounds of Words with Friends my dear childhood friend in Pennsylvania. And then I did my Latin prep for tomorrow (doing prep in the evening seems fair since it's a "school night").
3/28: tonight's walk
...was spur of the moment. I thought it would be too rainy to go out, but before sunset I realized I could get 30 or 40 clear minutes in. I listened to the start of Things in Jars by Jess Kidd and I'm very interested in it; I watched the sky get yellow then orange then pink; I chatted with my neighbors for a bit (keeping an appropriate distance); and I came back home to finish design-work on a leaflet I needed to take a break from.
3/27: doing my things
It was the last weekday of spring break. I read Artforum, wrote, made a few 1-inch collages, walked, readied some male, talked with Chris, and hung out with the cats.
3/24: random question generator
This morning I saw a mention of wordgenerator.net, and I checked it out. I asked it to generate some random adjectives, but that proved unexciting. Then I asked it to generate a random statement sentence; okay. Then I asked it to generate a random question sentence, and it came up with "How does the outgoing belief acquire the direction?" "Why does the river contract the romantic wind?" "Why does the man individualize dynamic change?" "Why does the day restore the daffy cough?" "Why does the hushed week narrate the paper?" "When does the extra-small turn forecast the idea?" More satisfying.
3/23: first pleasure, then work
This morning I read: first I finished Steven Millhauser's Catalogue of the Exhibition (which I started last night and was eager to resume with my coffee), then I moved on to Gretchen McCulloch's chapter on emojis in Because Internet (which I'll be asking my Etymology & Philology students to read soon). Not a bad way to start the week of spring break.
3/22: seeing
...this on my afternoon walk. It was too chilly for the flowers to open, and it had rained earlier in the day.
3/21: setting up
...my bulletin board so I can keep track of tasks in the days ahead. My reminders on post-it notes and random pieces of paper were getting out of hand.
3/20: coming across
...this corrigendum in Marcus B. Huish's Samplers & Tapestry Embroideries (2nd edition 1913):
"The author much regrets having given currency on page 5 to the report of Mrs. Head's death, which he is glad to learn is incorrect."
"The author much regrets having given currency on page 5 to the report of Mrs. Head's death, which he is glad to learn is incorrect."
3/19: grading
...one set of papers. If I can get a set of tests graded tomorrow, I'll be relatively clear for spring break. Of course, I'll still be thinking and planning about remote teaching, but I should have a few days of break to focus on non-school things.
3/18: taking a walk
...along the ridge for the first time in quite some time. So many things blooming, and the air smelling like Easter. Here's a pixelation of the forsythia:
3/17: two of the three
I got two of my three courses roughly planned out for remote teaching. There will still be a lot to do on a day-to-day basis, but at least I now have an idea of what I'm aiming for.
3/16: in person & by mail
I had some very nice interactions with students today as they stopped by the office to talk or pick up some "lumps of delight" that I had ordered for the Etymology class before in-person classes were cancelled.
And I received a great note from a correspondence friend. She ended it with the question, "Do your students know you're an artist?" Such an interesting question to think of asking.
And I received a great note from a correspondence friend. She ended it with the question, "Do your students know you're an artist?" Such an interesting question to think of asking.
3/13: again grateful
...for Quiet Writing time. It was a flustery day, with an announcement at noon that it would be our last day of in-person classes for the rest of the semester. We now need to transition to online platforms and most students need to move out of their dorms by Monday. So lots of uncertainty about the days ahead in the air. My Quiet Writing partner and I nevertheless showed up at the set time and were glad for a shift in focus and for the silence, broken only by the tapping of our keyboards. And I enjoyed writing what I wrote, the start of a piece about Julie Berry's All the Truth That's In Me.
3/12: in my robe
...this morning, I went out with Chris to look at a wild plum tree blooming in the clearing next to our house.
3/11: a cancellation
A language competition at which I was going to be a judge this weekend got cancelled, so I don't have to get up early on Saturday morning. And I don't have to spend part of tomorrow morning getting materials ready for it.
3/9: returning
...to an erasure of the beginning of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. I'm not done with it yet, but I like some of where I got with it tonight.
3/8: abstract in
I finished the abstract I worked on during Friday's Quiet Writing and submitted it. I don't think it's what the panel organizers are looking for, but I would have felt bad if I hadn't given it a go.
3/7: less medicine
I'm still not fully well, but now I feel like I'm in a recovering-from-having-a-cold phrase rather than a having-a-cold phase. I'm grateful to be less medicine-dependent today, and though I chafed at it at times, it was good to spend the day mostly reading quietly and otherwise recuperating.
3/6: at the end of the afternoon
There were some frustrations in my day, some self-inflicted, some not. But in my last hour at work I received a kind and heartening email from a colleague and I got some good writing done. I almost didn't go to Quiet Writing, but once I got focused I was glad I did.
3/5: walking through
...the new art museum on campus. It's still empty and being finished, but I'm excited that there will be an exhibit space right in the middle of campus.
3/4: an easy lesson
...in Latin for the students, after some complicated chapters (participles, ablative absolutes, indirect statement). Today it was superlative adjectives, and I think everyone was glad for a breather.
3/3: knitting
...with Chris and students from the knitting and crochet club as well as the philosophy club. It had been a long time since my knitting needles went clickety-clack.
3/2: the magic
...of book discussion groups. I met with 8 students this afternoon to talk about Julie Berry's All the Truth That's in Me (not for a class, just for fun), and the conversation was wonderful.
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