5/29: getting through
...a difficult day. It started happily enough: grocery shopping, beer and soft pretzels (at home) for lunch to celebrate Chris' birthday, pamphlet-making in the afternoon. But Tilde the Cat wasn't herself, and as the day wore one we got more and more worried. We took her to the emergency vet in the early evening. On the phone they said it would be a 3-4 hour wait; when we got there, they wanted to turn us away and said the wait would be 8-12 hours. We stayed. They saw us after about 4 hours, and Tilde needed to stay over for care we can't give her at home. It is really sad and scary not to have her here with us, but I am glad that we took her to get looked at and that she is getting treatment. Fingers crossed.
5/28: spending
...the afternoon and the evening on pamphlet-making. A long-lingering project has now (I think) reached its final form: I just needed time to try some things out without feeling pressed, and that wasn't possible during the semester.
5/27: doing typical-for-me things
...that had become untypical recently: driving out to Woolly Hollow to take some pictures, working on the photos on my computer, and readying some postcards and pamphlets for the mail.
5/26: 3 for today
Walking in the cool morning.
Reading a little Greek in the afternoon.
Meeting up with my mother and two friends via conference call to play cards together via an app.
5/23: finishing
...the last meeting and last bureaucratic task of the academic year.
...The Hearing Trumpet. I wish I could have a picnic with other people who love this book.
5/22: preparing
...a photo postcard to head off to a friend in tomorrow's mail. I've fallen very out of postal touch with folks in the past year, and I'm thinking that maybe I can pick up some threads of correspondence this summer.
5/21: Persephone
...has been on my mind these days, as I've been thinking about a possible course focused on her story and its retellings. Today during my walk Persephone crossed my path unexpectedly: there were Persephone echoes in The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington, which I've been listening to. I also finished reading Seeking Persephone by Sarah M. Eden, which uses and revises the myth very intently.
5/18: writing
...an email of gratitude to a colleague whose work I've respected over the years. I felt a little awkward sending it because I don't know him well, but he wrote back such a genuine thank-you that I'm glad I didn't let the awkwardness keep me from hitting the "send" button in the first place.
5/17: trying
...various strategies to get out of a funk (caused by a few not-so-great comments on my student feedback forms from the semester). I went for a walk, talked with a friend (but not about the comments), made a nice soup for dinner, worked on a hand-out for next year that will (I hope) explain some of the things that students didn't like this year, and did some bureaucratic work so that the semester's end-tying can be over sooner rather than later. The not-so-great comments were in the definite minority, and I need to remember that. But it felt like they had animus behind them, so much so that the students' emotions seem to have distorted facts about what I did / didn't do, and that unsettled me.
5/16: heading out
...on the lake after dinner. Kayaking on a weeknight? A clear sign that it's summer.
5/15: starting
...to listen to The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington during my morning walk, and then getting to listen some more while I swept the floors this evening.
5/14: receiving
...a wonderful email from a graduating student. I was humbled by her kind words and so grateful that she spent part of her graduation day writing a note to me. I will miss her in my classes, and I think she's going to be an awesome in her next "chapter," becoming a teacher. I'm glad that I was able to bracket my self-consciousness enough to write her back this evening and send her my good wishes and congratulations.
5/12: being in touch
...with a number of different people today. Non-work-related communication was another thing that got put on hold during the end-of-semester whirlwind, and it felt good to pick up those ongoing conversations again.
5/11: getting a few takers
...for a faculty/staff summer reading group that I'm co-organizing with a friend.
5/10: beginning
...to address a "to do" list of practical things that has been growing during the end-of-semester push when most else gets put on hold. It was good to begin to take a few things off hold.
5/9: 4 things
1. Finishing grading. There are still a few things to ponder, and the final grades still need to be officially filed, but all the individual papers, tests, and quizzes have been graded and recorded.
2. Baking cookies. It's been about a month and a half since I last made cookies. The time since spring break has just been so busy that I didn't think I'd be able to let go of other tasks enough to allow baking cookies to feel fun. Today as a break I made the easy peanut butter cookie recipe and added powdered freeze-dried strawberries. I was going for a peanut-butter-and-jelly taste. It kind of worked. I think I need to add more next time. And/or I may try freeze dried grapes.
3. Watching a video of a female bluebird building a nest (and laying an egg) in a bird box!
4. Finishing erasures of Book 1 and Book 2 of the Odyssey. It's something I had started in late March, and it's been nice to turn to it during these last weeks of the semester.
5/8: using lemon
...as part of the salad dressing this evening. I've been wanting to replicate a salad I used to get at a restaurant in town, and tonight's attempt with the lemon came very close.
5/7: listening
...to the students' Greek recordings, and being grateful for the one student who--throughout the semester--started her recordings by saying a few words of greeting to me. It wasn't necessary (and I don't hold it against the other students that they didn't), but it sure was nice.
5/6: school, home, outside
I proctored my last exam of the school year in the morning. When I finished and went back to my office, I found a gift and card from one of the students waiting for me. Very unexpected and sweet.
The rest of my work-day involved grading, which I can do at home, so I came home for lunch with Chris--a nice break from routine.
And I went for two walks: the first in the late afternoon and the second after dinner. I meant the late afternoon walk to be my full outing for the day, but it was a little hot, so I cut it short and waited until the sun was lower in the sky in the early evening. That was a good decision, and the air near sunset was filled with the smell of honeysuckle.
5/4: taking the time
...to go walking this evening. There is a lot of grading to do at this point in the semester, but I needed to move and be in the spring air.
5/3: a few
...sprigs of crimson clover are blooming at the bottom of our hill. Chris and I had scattered seeds there in the hope that some would come up. It's not a robust showing, but it still made me happy to see.
5/2: talking with
...a first-year student this morning. She was in a class with me last semester, and this semester she participated in a creative co-curricular project which I ran. Today she was wrapping up her part of the project. It was great that she did it, and I enjoyed having a chance to talk with her one-on-one about it.
5/1: better
I had the blues yesterday, but today I managed to walk in the morning, and that helped me spend the rest of the day in a better state.
And I had thought that today's chunk of grading would take about 5 hours. It took 3 instead--much better than 5!
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