1/31: making
...a collage with Chris and arranging the squares using 12-sided, 6 sided, and 4-sided dice.
1/29: planning
...an altered page to show my Myth class as an example. I decided to use a page from the Odyssey with one of my favorite passages: Hermes' flight to Ogygia and the description of Calypso's island.
1/28: someone volunteering
...in the grocery store to get a box of crackers for me that was on a shelf too high for me to reach.
1/27: reading
...Elle McNicoll's Show Us Who You Are. I started it last night and finished it this morning. Sometimes a book picked up in an unplanned way nevertheless turns out to be the perfect choice, unexpectedly resonant in that particular moment. This was one of those times.
1/26: working through
...some difficulties and reaching (perhaps) some clarity and (at least temporary) peace of mind. One involved coming up with a new teaching plan. One involved standing up for myself in the face of unfair treatment.
1/25: a passage
...from Book 3 of the Odyssey which a student brought up. One of Nestor's daughters helps Telemachus to bathe, and the student made really nice connections with other moments we had been discussing: Athena's enhancement of Telemachus in Book 2 and Telemachus' teaming-up with one of Nestor's sons.
1/24: a blanket
...of thick fog on the lake. I know that "a blanket of fog" is a cliché, but today I saw the image or metaphor as a reality. And it didn't lift all day.
1/22: a text
...from a neighbor, telling us that trumpeter swans were on the lake, so we went out in the slushy rain to look at them. (We were able to because we had a snow day!) Seeing the swans was especially welcome because we hadn't gone up to Heber Springs, the swans' usual go-to spot in this part of Arkansas, to watch them this year.
1/20: tinkering
...with a new pamphlet for which I gathered the words last night. I wasn't able to see the format through to the final product today, but I know what the next refinements should be.
1/19: writing
...directions for a new kind of assignment I'm trying this semester. It's like a deconstructed commonplace book: students will collect passages of interest to them all semester and then organize and comment on them at the end. I'm calling it a curation project, and I like the idea that a collection of passages is a miniature verbal museum.
1/15: a bit of a breather
...in back-to-school preparations because mid-afternoon we got word that classes are cancelled for tomorrow due to weather. So I focused on doing some Heron Tree things and on hemming four pairs of pants. I'll turn to syllabuses tomorrow.
1/14: watching
...the snow come down gently but steadily all afternoon. And seeing a fox in our yard!
1/13: receiving
...a letter from a friend, and then remembering that receiving a letter yesterday from another friend was also a good thing.
1/12: benefiting
...from yesterday's quiet writing today. Yesterday I wrote--in an exploratory, just-for-myself way--some of my thoughts about Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett's Gender Swapped Greek Myths. That helped me in my writing this afternoon, in which my goal was to write an overview of the book for a public audience.
1/11: plural good things
...today:
- Writing about Gender Swapped Greek Myths while doing quiet-writing-at-a-distance with a friend in Indiana.
- Going to Woolly Hollow to take advantage of a sunny, not cold day on which I was feeling sufficiently well.
- Having Russian carrot salad with Chris as part of dinner, so I could share with him one of the tastes I enjoyed at the Chicago restaurant.
- Deciding on some texts to propose for found poetry projects for Heron Tree volume 11.
- Working through some photos from sunsets on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at the dock.
1/10: all the factors coming together
...for a walk this afternoon: I had time; I felt well enough; the day was warm enough and clear.
1/7: done
...with travels for a bit. I'm glad that I did both trips over the past month--to the DC area and then Chicago--but I'm also glad that they are now over.
1/6: going back
...to the Russian Tea Time restaurant because I liked it so much! And I could be more relaxed since my presentation was done (and well received). After eating, a friend and I walked up and down Michigan Avenue during a light snowfall.
1/5: going out to dinner
...with friends. We went to Russian Tea Time (near the Art Institute of Chicago), and both the restaurant and the company were lovely.
1/4: flying non-stop
...to Chicago. It's nice not to have to switch planes mid-trip, and it's also nice that the flight to Chicago is only 2 hours.
1/1: making progress
...on putting together my presentation for this weekend, after having been set back last week by illness.
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