3/31: a credit card reader
...on the vending machine at work. It could be a problem (I like snacks, and I like snacks that aren't healthy), but this week it was great in a pinch.
3/29: at school, at home
A good thing from school: I mentioned to some students that there's a college policy allowing them to take 1 course (with a few restrictions) per year on a pass/fail basis. Most of them hadn't heard of the policy and were very glad to know about it.
A good thing from home: Chris got me when he heard the whippoorwill this evening, and I was able to listen to it more clearly and for a longer time than a few days ago. It seemed like a good omen on this first evening of posting a poem for Heron Tree volume 10.
3/28: a walk
...around campus at the end of the day with a colleague. I was a little too loopy (due to lack of sleep and a long day), but it was good to be in the air and sun and to share words, time, and thoughts.
3/26: nine days
...in a row of walking outside for an hour, possible because of spring break. In the past week we've had all sorts of weather: mittens some days, no coat necessary on others, spring in-between-ness for the rest. I miss going to the indoor walking track sometimes, but it's nice to not have to drive to walk, and as long as it's not too hot I enjoy being in the day's weather.
And an extra good thing added later in the day: Chris motioned for me to come onto the porch in the early evening so I could hear a whippoorwill. I don't think I heard one at all last year: Chris had heard one a few times, but by the time he got me so I could listen, the calling had stopped. This one stopped almost as soon as I heard it too, but I did get to hear it--hurray!
3/25: taking a break
It's been very much a working spring break, but I took today off. A gin drink--made with elderflower tonic, a lemon slice, and a pink gin which Chris brought back from Arizona--tasted like spring and aided the slip into relaxation.
3/24: a silver lining
...to getting up very early this morning? A work-related dream or the rainstorm or a combination of the two woke me up, and I couldn't go back to sleep. In my dozy daze over coffee I worked on an example cento to give my students as part of an extra credit assignment. They can opt to make a cento using lines from a character in one of the tragedies we'll be reading; so that I wouldn't step on any of their toes, I made my example using Calypso's speeches from the Odyssey. I liked what emerged, and maybe my unsleepy sleepiness helped the process?
3/20: a full day
I read a NYT Book Review, typed a list of recent happenings to send to mail friends, got some things ready to post, took a walk, watched two more acts of Galatea, did an erasure of Shakespeare's Sonnet 35, tried out some formatting ideas for a pamphlet of the erasure, drove into the office to pick up a book, went to the storage unit to get some other books, grocered, read a book of cut-up poetry, graded, visited the dock at sunset, and graded some more. When I head to bed in a bit, I'll read some of my current novel. All good things.
3/19: finding a fun passage
...for my Latin students' second recording assignment. (They did a Latin version of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse for their first recording this semester.) I thought about using the Physiologus account of the hedgehog (which I love), but then I found a Physiologus passage on the unicorn and decided to use it instead. The students already know all of the grammar involved in the unicorn passage, so we'll be able to translate it as one of our first things after returning from spring break.
3/18: beginning to watch
...a production of John Lyly's Galatea on YouTube. I like the idea of watching it in little bits over the next few days.
3/17: a second honey bun
Yesterday I was hungry at school, so I bought a honey bun out of the vending machine, which now (both wonderfully and dangerously) takes credit cards. The machine coil didn't fully release my purchase, and the contraption was too big and heavy for me to shake. I almost walked away but then decided to try my luck and buy a second bun. Perhaps I'd get at least one. Both came out, and I ate one right away. This morning I unwrapped and ate the second one while taking a break from Latin prep around 9 am. A bit early for a snack, but I needed the pick-me-up, both sugar-wise and pleasure-wise.
3/16: coming up with some new questions
...about the Homeric Hymn to Hermes to ask the students and myself.
3/15: talking with a student
...about her Homeric Hymn to Demeter ideas and some of my own. It was an unexpectedly packed afternoon of office hours, and this was a good note to end on.
3/14: getting up early
...isn't necessarily a good thing, especially when "early" means 4 am. I just woke up then and couldn't fall back to sleep. But it meant that I got more done at school today than I thought I would!
3/13: getting an idea
...for spring break reading: Barbara Pym. I had read a number of her novels in high school, but I haven't read or revisited any since then. Today in the break-room an English professor mentioned that she was going to a Pym conference later this week, and that made me download an ebook of Excellent Women to read once break begins.
3/12: so glad
...that I did my grading yesterday. I try not to do school-related work on Saturdays, but I decided to grade yesterday so that I wouldn't feel pressed today. And it's a good thing! Because I've been tussling with arthritis and exhaustion all day today; grading on top of that would have led me to tears.
3/11: interweaving
...work and leisure today: grading a test, reading a novel, spending time with Chris, taking a short walk in the rain.
3/9: good colors
...on a grey day: the blooming trees (white! purple! pink! yellow!) amid the rain, and the marled socks that are now among my favorites.
3/8: finishing
...Kalynn Bayron's This Wicked Fate this morning. I was prompted to read it by the Black Magical History Month celebration sponsored by Black Nerds Create. I'm a little bummed that I didn't manage to finish the novel *during* Black Magical History Month, but such is life. The timing ended up being fortuitous in another way, though: in Myth class on Tuesday we talked about Hesiod's positive presentation of Hecate in the Theogony, and Bayron also presents the goddess positively, though perhaps toward different ends. It put me in the mood to write an essay, and that is another good thing.
3/7: realizing
...that I didn't need to have the Etymology tests graded before calculating that class' midterm grades. It seems obvious, but it wasn't. And when I realized I could do it that way, a weight lifted.
3/6: hearing
...a student connect her past work in my Etymology course during her freshman year with her current work in a Literary Theory class as a senior.
3/3: trying
...a new warm-up activity in Latin. Friday might not have been a good day to try it; folks were tired, and I thought they would consider it more fun than they seemed to. But I'm glad I did it (it's always nice to have a new idea and put it into practice), and I'm going to try it again next week.
3/2: being glad
...that I changed the assignments in my Myth course for Hesiod's Theogony. I decided to have an informational day (today) and a separate interpretive day (next week). I think it will help students to think about (and hopefully appreciate) the poem more.
3/1: filing
...my annual faculty review form. Though I told myself I wouldn't leave it to the last minute, I did. But it was do-able without rushing in the time I gave myself, and it felt like a weight had been lifted once it was done and sent.
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