11/29: cancelling
...office hours because I felt unwell. It was nice to remember that I don't have to just tough it out.
11/27: noticing
...how the upper-level Latin students were faster today at coming up with Latin Scrabble words than they were at the start of the semester.
11/26: Salvadorean
...hot chocolate! I needed something warm but not caffeinated, and I was going to make instant hot chocolate before I remembered that a friend brought me some chocolate tablets from El Salvador. I added cinnamon and water and boiled it all together--hurray!
11/25: doing
...some crucial and overdue tidying in my home office. There's more to be done on that front, but a lot of problematic clutter has been cleared away from my work surfaces.
11/24: realizing
...that the students can do the final step of their bookbinding project on Monday: gluing the sewn book block to the cover. I had to finish the sewing (due to time constraints), and I was going to do the gluing as well--but then I thought that it would feel more like their book if they were the ones who glued it together.
11/22: taking it easy
...since I didn't feel well. I made a collage, read for pleasure, watched a fashion reality show with Chris, and did some bookbinding. The bookbinding was for school, but it wasn't word-based, computer-based, or grading-based, so it was a break from my normal kinds of work.
11/21: quiet time
...in my school office this afternoon, working while most everyone else had either left for Thanksgiving break already or had also decided to work quietly in their offices.
11/20: catching
...a lucky break. When I left the house this morning, it was raining a little, and I didn't think it was worth going back into the house to get a raincoat. I figured my umbrella would get me from the parking lot at school to my office without too much trouble. But on my drive the rain became heavy, and I really wished I had a raincoat. Darn, darn, darn, I thought. Once I pulled into the parking lot, however, the rain stopped! Just for a few minutes, but those minutes were all I needed.
11/19: finishing
...The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub. It was a birthday-treat-to-self to linger over it this morning instead of getting right to work.
11/18: beginning
...to listen to P. S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia. I had listened to its predecessor, One Crazy Summer, back in September, and it felt good to be revisiting that family. I am grateful that Sisi Aisha Johnson's is the reader for the trilogy.
11/17: getting to know
...a particular page from a 13th century Bible containing part of the Book of Daniel. I first read it in 2004, and every so many years I get to translate it with my Latin students. Each time I return, it's like meeting up with an old friend. The page has mistakes as well as additions and corrections made by a later reader (and some of those "corrections" seem like new mistakes). Its writing is very tiny and highly abbreviated. Its verso is hard to read because it's the rougher side of the animal skin and the ink didn't go on as smoothly. I love it. When I had some time to spend with it today before the students came to class, it moved me into a zone of both comfort and alertness. Thank you, 13th century scribe, and thank you, later reader/annotator. You had no idea that you would be/were/are a good thing in my day.
11/16: reading
...a student's draft of a paper on the different contexts in which the Latin word rubor ("redness") is used.
11/15: having woken up
...early. Not necessarily a great thing, but in this case useful: I was able to finish and return all the remaining student drafts by 8 am this morning.
11/14: having done something
...ahead of time. When I had a little chunk of unexpected time at work last week, I put together the information sheet for the beginning Latin students' second recording assignment even though it wouldn't be handed out until tomorrow. And, wow, was that a good thing. Having it done "bought" me time to work on reading drafts for another class this evening.
11/13: talking about seeing
...sunsets with a student. She said she was planning to go somewhere this evening to get a good view.
11/12: some normalcy
Before an evening of schoolwork, I did some usual weekend things: walked, talked with a friend on the phone, swept the house, and tinkered with photos.
11/7: discussing
...Paradise Sands by Levi Pinfold in my Picturebooks class. I'm so glad I decided to include it on the reading list.
11/6: receiving
...an unexpected Facebook message from a friend. It added a smile to my Monday morning.
11/5: making arrangements
...for travel in early January. I had been putting it off, but it needed to be done, and now it is.
11/4: finding and making
...a recipe for carrot orange cookies (link here; I left out the cranberries). They taste very similar to a cookie that I like at one of the local bakeries but that I don't buy very often. The bakery isn't expensive, but it feels expensive to me, and now I can make a whole batch of cookies for less than the price of a dozen.
11/3: coming up
...with a new-and-hopefully-better way for students to do their remaining assignments in the Picturebooks course.
11/2: having an excuse
...to walk across campus: a meeting in the library at noon. I enjoyed the warm sun and cool air as a break between kinds of work.
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