...this year's Heron Tree poems (posted online individually throughout the year) into the collected volume 9 PDF (available here). When I began assembling the compilation yesterday, I discovered that our website had not been working recently due to some changes in the security certification process. This was not a happy discovery! I got the site glitch fixed, today Chris and I finished the PDF, and this evening I uploaded it--officially published under the wire in 2022.
12/30: posting
...a little essay I wrote months ago about Classics in Rainbow Rowell's Simon Snow trilogy. I just never got around to giving it a final proofreading and uploading it. It was nice to re-read it and realize that I think it is a sweet piece. And, of course, it is nice that it is now up at last.
12/29: receiving notice
...from the IRS that our 2021 tax paperwork has finally been processed, and--yes--when I checked, the refund had been electronically deposited in our savings account, along with a little interest on it that had accrued while it had been waiting its turn in the IRS's stack. Whew.
12/28: getting through
...a day of aches from yesterday's COVID booster. Not fun, but better that it happened on a day when Chris and I could take it easy instead of on a school day.
12/27: getting a booster
...of the bivalent COVID vaccine. I could have gotten it earlier, but the other rounds of the vaccine and boosters took me out of commission for about 36 hours each time, and that's something I couldn't afford during the semester or while writing my conference paper. So today was the earliest I could get it, and I'm ready to take it easy tomorrow if/as necessary!
12/26: completing things
I made the recording of my conference presentation and submitted it.
I wrote a letter of recommendation.
Chris and I finished reading Moominpappa at Sea out loud. This was the last of the Moomin novels for us, since we had started by reading the last one (back in 2015, blog entry here). The whole series is dazzling, and the high existential stakes (are there any other kind?) of this particular novel astound me. Reading the books aloud with Chris, sharing them in real time, has been an extra delight.
12/25: a quiet day
In the morning: playing with pamphlet possibilities, taking a walk, and texting some friends and family with holiday wishes.
In the afternoon: experimenting with a new microphone and pop filter so that I can record my conference talk, then going to the dock to watch the sunset.
In the evening: making a new salad (lettuce, green onions, mandarin oranges, oil, vinegar, thyme, dill, and tarragon, with a little sugar too), watching the last episodes of the Kleo series, doing some more experimenting with recording, reading Moomins out loud with Chris.
All day: being glad to spend the day with Chris and the cats.
12/24: assembling
...the cubist Christmas tree which we made by painting the sides of about 80 2-inch blocks silver, gold, and different shades of green. We started with the painting back in October, and it's nice for it to be done: the tree looks sweet, and now the big table in our main room, which had been given over to the project, can be used for other things again.
12/23: a little heat
...from a generator which Chris had providentially bought. Our house heat, hot water, and oven all run on electricity, so it wasn't a happy thing when the electricity went out before sunrise and stayed off through a day of temperatures in the single digits and teens. Thanks to the generator, we were able to have a space heater going in one room to take a bit of the chill out of the air until the electricity came back on after midnight.
12/19: making mochas
...with Chris mid-morning. (And remembering having mochas at airport Costas in the UK.)
12/18: starting
...to write my conference paper. I have to record and submit it by Friday, so it's good it's now underway.
12/16: neighborhoods
I cleaned up my neighborhood a little this morning by picking up trash while I walked.
I enjoyed time with my childhood neighborhood this evening by having a virtual game night with my mother and two old friends.
12/14: a walk just long enough
...to finish listening to Nettle and Bone. It was a work day, but I figured I could take a half-hour walk in the morning to enjoy a break in the rain and the last bit of the novel. I had downloaded it on a lark, and I'm so glad I did: it has really helped in this final bit of the semester.
12/13: wrapping up
...the Greek class by grading the final tests and pronunciation recordings. On the test I gave them a new-to-them passage from Apocalypse to translate (the one in which the angel gives the narrator a scroll to eat!), and it was wonderful to see how people who in August 2021 couldn't even recognize all the Greek letters can now read the language. So much has been difficult for me this semester, but doing Greek with this group of students has been a steady pleasure, and I am so grateful for their goodwill and good work.
12/12: expressing my disappointment
...to a colleague who didn't have my back after I've worked hard this semester to have theirs. The source of the disappointment has ended the semester on a crummy note, but I feel better having written an email with my perspective before turning in tonight. Maybe it will help me put it behind myself so I can move forward tomorrow.
12/11: a handful of good things
...listening to T. Kingfisher's Nettle and Bone while walking, doing some painting, and playing with Simon the Cat.
...enjoying cherry blossom soy sauce (elegant!).
...realizing that vermouth would be the perfect drink to have with dinner, and finding some in the back of our liquor cabinet.
...being glad that I tried an assignment in which each student wrote a letter to the rest of the class and responded to the letters written by 3 other people.
...making chocolate flaxseed muffins this evening so that I can have them for breakfast in the coming week.
12/9: getting a sticker
...from a student! I usually put stickers on the Beginning Latin students' homework. Today, when one student turned in their final exam, they had put a cat sticker on it for me! They wrote a note to say that it was my turn to get a sticker, and that was just wonderful.
12/8: being glad
...that I added some authentic ancient inscriptions to the end of the Beginning Latin exam so that the last things the students will translate in the course are "real" Latin.
12/7: letting myself
...do work that wasn't crucial but was good. During the Greek students' final, I read their threaded discussion about a graphic novel presentation of Apocalypse and wrote replies to their thoughts. It gave me a chance to spend some time with the graphic novel myself, as well, which I appreciated. And in the afternoon I met up with two students from my first-year course who wanted to bind some more copies of the class chapbook. We worked together for over an hour, and by the end they didn't need my guidance in assembling a book.
12/6: getting goodies
...at school, with our "free" food service money. We stocked up on bags of chips and protein bars.
...at the pharmacy, where we went for our flu shots this afternoon. They were celebrating the one-year anniversary of their opening, so they had free pens, pads, and sodas.
...in my inbox. A former student wrote me a very kind note.
12/5: holding
...our Angel Card Project postcard-writing event. About 80 cards got written by a modest gathering of faculty and students, and I had fun this evening choosing stamps that matched the cards. Tomorrow they go out in the mail!
12/4: listening
...to some presentations for an online conference this morning. I am very grateful for the move to online academic conferences (though, of course, I wish it hadn't needed a pandemic to get us to realize the economic, environmental, and inclusive benefits of the format).
12/3: finishing
...R. F. Kuang's Babel. I was worried that I would be dissatisfied with however she chose to end the book, but I wasn't.
12/2: noticing
...the camellias blooming on campus as I walked from the parking lot to my office building. This evening Chris asked if I had seen them, and I was glad that he had noticed them too.
12/1: showing a colleague
...the labyrinth on campus, and admiring with her the newly fallen--large!--sycamore leaves nearby.
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