11/30: success
...with an early-morning trip to Staples to get printing supplies that ran out during a big printing job last night. Hurray for Staples' website: last night when I ran into trouble, I was able to see that they had what I needed in stock, so I could nip in this morning and get it. One of the things was in storage rather than on the shelf, so if I had gone to the store without checking online first, I would have thought they didn't have it.
11/28: telling a friend
...about R. F. Kuang's Babel. She immediately understood why it would interest both me and her.
11/27: making a second
...birthday card for a friend. I made one earlier, but its colors ended up being less cheerful and celebratory than I thought they'd be. I'm glad I gave it another go: the new one's colors are a lift to the eyes (and hopefully spirit).
11/24: a big umbrella
...for walking in the rain. Chris got it out of his truck so I could use it. I didn't think I'd need its larger circumference, but I did. I'm grateful he thought of it: it made it possible for me to take my full-hour walk without getting too soaked.
11/23: going out
...on the lake in my kayak for the first time since August. I was nervous, unsure of the impact on my poor TFCC, so I took it easy.
11/22: quietly
...ending this short week of teaching. Because people were scattering for Thanksgiving, I gave the afternoon Greek class an asynchronous assignment. They had to post some thoughts about a graphic novel version of the Book of Revelation. I enjoyed beginning to read their comments as I proctored a make-up test for a student who had Covid earlier in the month. Another advantage of not convening as a class this afternoon was that the student and I could use that time for the make-up. I was grateful for the calm and silence as he worked on his test.
11/21: laughing
...about gerunds and their subjects in my office with a student. In an earlier session, I had told him that in formal English subjects of gerunds are put in the possessive form. In today's session, we were going over part of his paper in which I saw a gerund with a non-possessive subject, so I started to flag it. He immediately showed me his computer screen and said something like, "Look! I just changed that while waiting to talk with you!"
11/20: listening
...to R. F. Kuang's Babel on my walk, and reaching a part about the effects of studying etymology.
11/19: turning the day around
...after some hard thoughts this morning. But then I went grocering, trying to get it in before the pre-Thanksgiving shoppers this week, and that necessarily took me out of my head a bit. Back at home, Chris and I made vegetarian reubens for lunch, and I had a gin drink too. After lunch and some tea, I took a walk and talked with a friend who called. Chris and I made scallion pancakes for dinner, then we painted some blocks for our holiday tree project. I also worked on photos, played with the cats, and read some of a novel for pleasure. The sources of the hard thoughts aren't gone, but maybe it's good to put them in a context of many things, where they can't dominate.
11/17: company
...in the wee hours. I couldn't sleep last night. When Chris woke up around 3, he kept me company for a while, and then I managed to doze off for a couple of hours, my only sleep of the night.
11/16: doing
...my Daphne presentation this afternoon. Of course I'm feeling over-exposed afterwards and like I didn't do as well as I would have wanted. But overall I'm glad I did it. Though it meant extra work during an already packed semester, prepping for it and then doing it gave me an excuse to think some new thoughts and hear ideas from other people outside a classroom context.
11/15: good Apocalypse talk
...with my Greek students today. We compared the way of it to the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and then considered how the distinctive features of Apocalypse make sense for its particular program.
11/14: trading treats
...with my colleague and friend at school: my chocolate cookies with the Fiori di Sicilia flavoring for her Salvadorean cheese bread.
11/13: photographing
...the colorful tulip poplar leaves that I had collected at work earlier in the week.
11/12: a collection of quiet good things
Catching up on grading.
Enjoying the Daphne-related poems that I'll be talking about later this week (and feeling lucky that I came across each one).
Reading for pleasure.
Receiving personal snail-mail from multiple people.
Making vegetarian "chicken" soup with spaetzle.
Making chocolate cookies flavored with cinnamon, cardamom, and Fiori di Sicilia.
Talking with no one but Chris and the cats.
11/11: writing a calm email
...about an academic integrity issue. I was glad that I did it before calling it a night, and I'm glad that my email was short, clear, and not angry.
11/10: being amazed
...by the coloring on some fallen leaves from a tulip poplar tree on campus. I collected a handful of them and brought the bouquet back to my office.
11/9: erasing
...a passage from Aeschylus' Persians this morning. I needed to do it as an example for the students, so it was "work," but it was also pleasure.
11/8: talking about Apocalypse
...with my Greek students and how some of its language works in a literary way.
11/7: being lucky
...that today was a day when I only had to sit in the audience of my co-taught freshman class. My friend was teaching today because I had taught on Friday, and all I had to do today was take note of who participated. I'm very under the weather, so not having to be "on" in front of the class was a welcome thing.
And when I got home, I was greeted by a wonderful smell of lemon and mint. Chris had used Aunt Fannie's Carpet Refresher in the bedroom, and the effect lifted my spirits (and senses).
11/6: being unexpectedly and really moved
...by Sarah M. Eden's Romancing Daphne and its representation of the continuing echoes of a difficult childhood.
11/5: calling
...a friend whom I hadn't spoken with in some time. She was asking for some particular advice, but we also just talked about general things, and it was nice to fall into our usual rhythms of conversation.
11/4: talking about
...Antigone with both sections of the freshman course I co-teach. We all met together in the theatre for class, and it's a stage I really like being on. Something about it just feels good. The conversation felt good too. And I got to see the students who had worked with me in September but who had then been working with my co-teacher for October. Many of them were very sweet to me, and one even said that she had worn a vest today because I often wear sweater vests.
11/2: grading
...tests and writing assignments for my Greek class more quickly and smoothly than I had anticipated.
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