...in a phone conversation with my mother. It didn't feel great at the time or afterwards, but it was still good to do.
6/29: re-doing
...the cover of a pamphlet I worked on earlier in June. Now I don't need to wonder, "Should I have redone it?"
6/28: hearing
...this great bit-of-a-sentence while listening to The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher today: "The words made a little space that belonged to her...."
6/27: expanding our "museum"
...of security envelope inchies. I had a pile of envelopes that I hadn't cut samples from--until today.
6/26: a pamphlet-making morning
I read an article in Artforum while eating breakfast, and it got me thinking creatively, so I designed a pamphlet. I wasn't sure what to call it, so I picked up the third volume of Emily Dickinson's collected works, opened to a page--and there it was: Not seeing, still we know.
6/25: more writing
This afternoon I finished the second book overview I needed to write. I am very glad that these are done, a weight of worry lifted and myself emotionally extricated from a tangled situation.
6/24: writing
...one of two book overviews that I want to get done this weekend. They've been weighing on me for almost a year (!), so it's high time that I liberated myself from that weight. With one done, it's half-lifted now, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow when the other is done too.
6/22: finding out
...that the Library of Congress has digitized (and made available) the whole Codex Amiatinus. I will be using it with the Latin students in the fall!
6/21: an alternative celebration
...for the solstice today. I had thought I'd kayak at sunset as a way of celebrating the sun, but my wrists hurt a lot, so I didn't want to risk more strain. Instead, I sent out a lot of mail that was somehow sun-related, and that felt good and appropriate. I also made summery cocktails for Chris and myself at dinner time: orange gin, elderflower tonic, and mint. Oh! And one more thing: I filmed the flickering shadow of a tree branch moving in the light and wind, and then I texted it to some dear people with a solstice greeting.
6/20: power-washing
...my kayak. Because of my hurt wrist I haven't been kayaking regularly, but I'd like to go out on the lake tomorrow for the solstice, so I washed my kayak this evening and was pleased to see the dust and dirt stream off as I sprayed.
6/19: back to a different time-table
...this week. Though it was good to do the online epigraphy program last week, it was very nice not to have to wake up at 5:15 a.m. today. I shifted doing some Latin-related work to the afternoon (writing prompts and guidelines for the Classics students who are doing a Latin project this summer) and the evening (listening to a bit of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz while following along in the Latin translation).
6/18: a handful of good things
I went walking for the first time in a week. Last Monday through Friday I had the online summer school in the morning so couldn't walk then, and yesterday I was just too tired.
I started reading Annie on My Mind for the third (or fourth?) time, preparatory to writing a short essay about it in the coming week. I love the book.
I finally worked through some photos that have been on my camera since early May!
I sorted my correspondence basket in hopes of writing notes in the coming days.
I spent time with Emma the Cat on the bed. This isn't a rare thing, but it's always good.
6/17: celebratory cocktails
I had planned to make a new-to-me cocktail (prosecco, lemon juice, violet liqueur) on Wednesday, after my long day. But I was too worn out, so I didn't. Then I planned to make it on Friday, after the end of the epigraphy program. But I was too worn out then as well. This afternoon I made the cocktail--one for me, and one for Chris--and we sipped as we played a game with the Getty OuiSi cards.
6/16: finishing
...the online epigraphy course and William--An Englishman. Both were worthwhile ventures, but both took a toll: the epigraphy course, physically and mentally; William, emotionally. (I had no idea what was lying ahead when I wrote about an early chapter in William a few days ago!)
6/15: on the mend
I had a bad reaction to the dressing the medical office put over my incision last week. Two days ago I realized what the problem was and made adjustments. Today's the first day my skin hasn't felt like it was burning. Fingers crossed that I've turned the corner.
6/14: getting through
...a tricky day, even if gracelessly. I knew it was going to be a long one: I had to get up at 5 to be ready for the online epigraphy program, and once it was done (at noon), I needed to get ready for my Johnny Floyd presentation, give it, and participate in the rest of that Zoom meeting. It was all made more complicated and stressful by the fact that there was a sudden, strong thunderstorm right before the epigraphy sessions started, and our power went out at home. So I had to get ready to go to school to use the internet there today, and I scrambled to pack everything that I'd need for the epigraphy program, my presentation (an extra computer plus microphone set-up), and food. I ended up being off-kilter and wrung-out before 8 am. But my school ID still had "free" money on it from the semester (I thought it would have expired, but I figured I'd check just in case), so I was able to use that to buy a Coke from the machine. Getting through the day is its own sort of silver lining, but I'll count the free Coke as a silver lining too.
6/13: a good chapter
...in William--An Englishman by Cicely Hamilton. I'm still near the beginning of the novel, so I don't know what to make of the book as a whole, but the chapter about the young (urban and political) couple going into the forest on their honeymoon will stick with me.
6/12: first day of school
...kind of. I enrolled in a week-long intensive program on Latin epigraphy offered online by the University of Oviedo. Since some of my students wanted to do it, I thought I'd do it too, and I applied for a grant from our school so we could get our registration fees paid. It's 5 hours a day (starting at 7 am) all this week. Today I was especially excited by endotaphs and a pair of medieval gloves inscribed with embroidery.
6/11: also overdue
Following yesterday's belated closet-cleaning, I did some organizing in my home office today. As was the case yesterday, today's tidying was only a start, but at least it's a start.
6/10: long overdue
I spent the afternoon working on tidying my part of our clothes closet. Although more needs to be done, a basic straightening-up is a good first step, so I'm going to look at the glass as half-full (or, probably more accurately, one-quarter full).
6/9: a thank-you for a thank-you
I participated in iHanna's postcard swap this spring, and if people who sent me a card included a return address, I mailed them a thank-you in return. Today I received a thank-you for my thank-you. It was a card that made me laugh, which I appreciated on a day when I seem to be fighting an infection from yesterday's procedure.
6/8: over sooner than expected
An outpatient procedure I had took about half the anticipated time today. The doctor was kind of a jerk, so it was especially nice not to have to spend longer with him.
6/7: retrieving
...my copy of the Latin translation of The Wizard of Oz--Magus Mirabilis in Oz--from my in-town storage unit so that I can do the same reading-in-Latin-while-listening-in-English project with it that I did with Alice in Wonderland. When I got home, I browsed a bunch of audiobook options on Audible to find one that seemed like it would be a good fit.
6/6: assembling
...copies of a pamphlet I began designing in 2020. This is the second "backlog" pamphlet I've worked on this summer, and I have a few more to go.
6/5: juicing an orange
...for a small glass of fresh juice mid-morning after a doctor's appointment.
6/4: reaching
...the last chapter in Alicia in Terra Mirabili, which I've been using to follow along in Latin as I listen to Alice in Wonderland in English. What a delight! I did a chapter a day, and it was a treat every day.
6/3: hearing back
...from the remaining poets who needed to okay the PDFs of their poems for Heron Tree volume 10. It's a strong collection of poems, I think, and it's nice (as well as unprecedented!) to have all the PDFs done by this point in the year.
6/2: ordering frames
...for some quirky, colorful artworks that Chris bought. I'm glad that the pieces will be part of our daily view.
6/1: finishing
...the last tasks of the 2022-2023 school year. It happened one day later than I had hoped, but it's still a victory.
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