9/30: beginning
...to read some students' work that has been revised in light of my comments. I really appreciated what one student did to address some things I flagged. It made me feel like the revision process can be what I hope it will be.
9/29: the sight
...of my first-year students drinking fizzy fruit juice with silly straws slipped under their masks. That was the "prize" they suggested for everyone's learning everyone's names. (Well, they suggested drinks and silly straws; I chose the fizzy fruit juice.)
9/28: at the start
It was not a great day at work. But this morning I saw a beautiful sunrise and took a few minutes to go outside and enjoy it before it slipped away.
9/27: resuming
...walks on the ridge (rather than at the indoor track), now that it's not so hot outside. This evening I enjoyed watching the clouds in the sky, looking at (as well as smelling) the fall-blooming flowers, and passing a few words with a neighbor who stopped his car to say hello as he drove by. And I was glad to be listening to Kingsley's Water Babies. In so many ways Kingsley and I aren't in the same philosophical camp, but he certainly can write good sentences, and it's high time that I made my way through this classic of children's literature.
9/26: sitting
...on our new screened-in porch for awhile after dinner. Now we have two different screened-in areas for ourselves and the cats. I'll look forward to getting a table for the new space so that we can eat meals and do writing/typing out there.
9/25: working
...with Chris to clean the wooden floors of the main room and get it truly back to rights. The room has been in a not-great state since early/mid June, when the various contractors began their work. It will feel so good to have it back again.
9/24: class conversation
...filling the board with similarities and differences between Aeschylus' Persians and Aristophanes' Lysistrata. The students did a good job of bringing two unlikely plays into conversation with one another. A good last class before the weekend.
9/23: asking
...some of the questions I wanted to at an interview today. I was one of the interviewers, so I shouldn't have been nervous to ask questions, but I was. I spent some of the morning thinking carefully about how to phrase them, and the time doing that paid off.
9/22: going
...into a restaurant. I think I haven't been in one since March 2020. I didn't stay inside: a former student and I got drinks at the bar and then sat outside to sip them. I enjoyed chatting with her while enjoying the kind sun and some slightly cooler weather.
9/21: chatting
...with some students after each of my classes today. I like the chance to interact with them one-on-one and see more of their personalities.
And it's my blogiversary. Here's to 13 years of good things and taking the time to record at least one of them most days!
9/20: personal mail
...is something that I'm getting less of these days--partly because the wonderful sendsomething.net has gone down, and partly because I've been sending out less mail myself. But today I received a note from an occasional pen friend, and his familiar handwriting made me happy.
9/19: and another one!
I remembered another good thing about the day. I recreated a lunch I used to treat myself to at a café (now closed) near campus: a croissant / fried egg sandwich with a sliced banana on the side. I also made myself a Greek frappé so I'd feel like I was at a bistro.
9/19: doing some more
...notebook-making with students. This afternoon 10 came to learn. I had wondered if it was good to schedule a weekend workshop (given how many other things I have on my plate), but I'm glad I did it.
9/18: slowly
...putting our house back to right after months of repair and construction work. Today we finished returning books to the bookshelves in our main room--no small task.
9/17: changes in routine
I didn't do Friday quiet writing this Friday either. I miss it, but--like last week--I needed to get some grading done, and I didn't think I'd do a good job of writing while worried and thinking about what I wasn't doing. It felt good to read some students' assignments in the calm of my work office instead.
And then I continued to do a little work at home this evening. I might "normally" have gone kayaking on an evening like this, but I'm still worried about stressing my right wrist. And I could've gone to the walking track, but I thought working (and then baking cookies) was probably more in line with what I need to do. I did happen to walk by the windows, however, as the sun was setting, and the view prompted me to go outside and enjoy the burst of color.
9/16: being prompted
...by a student's question in class to think about Theoclymenus' backstory in the Odyssey and how it's important as a precedent for the reparation of social transgression.
9/15: meeting up
...with three students to do some notebook-making using upcycled materials. Two of them I know, and it was nice to see them again; one of them was new to me, and it was great to meet her.
9/14: having leftovers
...in the refrigerator so that I didn't have to cook dinner, just reheat what we already had on hand.
9/12: taking time
...to make nice food. Full-time teaching means that I won't have the same freedom to experiment in the kitchen that I had over the summer or during sabbatical, but I don't want to let cooking and baking go entirely by the wayside since I enjoy them. So for dinner tonight I made savory tomato cobbler and, for dessert, brownie pie plus lemon and chartreuse flavored syllabub to go alongside it.
9/11: three things
In the morning: working on a pamphlet.
In the afternoon: sorting through books with Chris, deciding what to keep and what to give away.
In the evening: seeing a red slice of moon.
9/10: forgoing
...both Friday afternoon writing and Friday evening walking. I love those activities, so it might not seem like a good thing not to do them. But I needed to get a jump on grading before the weekend (hence no writing), and I was too tired to feel comfortable driving to the indoor track (hence no walking). Getting some grading done has made me feel a bit better about the weekend's work. This evening I substituted pamphlet-designing for walking, and I made a breakthrough on a pamphlet I'd been tinkering with since the summer.
9/9: taking a quick break
...while reading this morning to do some leg stretches. It felt good (as well as necessary). I hope I can remember to do that more often!
9/8: office hours
...held virtually. Not ideal, but for me it feels more free than being in the same room yet having to wear masks. And it gives me a chance to see students' faces and expressions.
9/7: adding
...to a page of randomly stamped words and letters sent to me by a mail-art friend. I "rubricated" with a red marker, and I like the way it turned out. Usually I get stymied at the prospect of adding my two cents to a collaborative piece, but I found a way to make this work (I think/hope) and feel okay about it.
9/4: a sudden memory
While cutting up vegetables for gazpacho this afternoon, I all at once had a flash of memory, back to the first time Chris and I made it. We were in our Los Angeles apartment and we alternated: as one of us chopped, the other read aloud from William Morris' Wood Beyond the World.
9/3: two things
One from work: In one of my classes today three students set a really nice precedent for presentations.
One from not-work: I found myself unexpectedly transported to Shropshire while listening to M. John Harrison's Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again. It called up memories of a weekend Chris and I spent there years ago.
9/2: recording Greek
...passages for my students to listen to, and realizing that I could make it an assignment for them to record themselves reading aloud in Greek. I remember when a tape recorder was a quasi-magical device, so hurray for recording apps!
9/1: seeing
...a little rock painted with a flower, left in a raised flowerbed outside my office building. It made me smile when I went into work and when I left.
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