8/31: watching

...a squirrel, standing on its hind legs and doing a dance for quite some time.

8/30: Friday afternoon

...used to be quiet writing time, and I miss it.  Today I thought I might be able to squeeze some in, but it was better to stay in my office and get a little caught up on other work.  Those uninterrupted two hours were welcome, and in their own way a nice come-down from the week.

8/29: such nice responses

...from some people to whom I recently sent pamphlets.  I am grateful that the internet has helped me make such connections.

8/28: a lot

...of conversation about the opening passage of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan in our first class meeting today.  Students spent a few minutes quietly analyzing and marking it up, and then they had more observations and thoughts about it than we had time for.

8/27: getting a little further

...than I thought I would with some course planning this evening.

8/26: coming up

...with a good (I hope!) plan for how to start one of my courses.

8/25: just in time

...to retrieve two bags of groceries which I accidentally left behind (after I paid for them!).  When I got back to the store, the clerks were in the process of sending the items to be reshelved, since the freezer goods in them would have melted if they had waited much longer.

8/24: finishing

...creating the individual PDFs for all the poems in Heron Tree volume 11.  I still need to proofread them and send them to the authors for review, but I set myself the goal of the end of the summer for this, and I'm going to meet it.

8/23: some moments of peace

...in a day with vexations.

8/22: meeting again

...with my new advisees, this time individually.

8/21: meeting

...my new advisees.

8/20: a splash of pink

...on a few clouds at sunrise.

8/19: electricity

...sooner than expected.  It went out around 9:30 pm last night, and at midnight the estimate was that it wouldn't be restored until 10 pm tonight.  But they got it fixed by 4:30 am!

8/18: baking a bundt cake

...with Chris.  He said we should make one this weekend, so I pulled out a bundt pan and a cookbook which my parents gave to me as gifts in the 1980s.  The bundt pan's enamel was flaking a little, so this bake was its last hurrah, but the cake turned out well.  I usually don't give myself seconds of desserts, but today I did (and so did Chris).

8/17: at home

...with Chris and the cats.  After a few days of meetings at work, a day of no meetings and no extra people was welcome.

8/16: going out

...to lunch with Chris, something that has become a rarity.

8/15: free

...snacks.  Sometimes the person who refills the vending machine in my office building will leave recently expired items out for the taking.  I picked up three small bags of Cheetos this afternoon.

8/14: very nice people

...who helped me navigate bureaucratic difficulties I was having related to the businesses they work for.

8/13: doing & not doing

Doing some unfun things that were necessary.

Not doing an unfun thing that was not necessary (and telling the person who wanted me to do it why).

8/12: realizing

...that although it was fun to think about possible papers I could develop (see yesterday's good thing), I need to focus on some other things in the coming weeks and months:  work already underway but incomplete, home (re)organization, Chris and the cats.

8/11: thinking about

...possibilities.  I looked at some calls for papers this morning, and there were at least two that I am considering submitting an abstract for.  On the one hand, more work!  On the other hand, it's exciting to have new thoughts.

8/10: a mention

...of Persephone and her story in The Secret Book of Flora Lea as I was listening to it this morning.  I didn't expect to come across Classics in the novel, but there it was, and I'll be interested to hear if more is made of it.

8/9: using

...one of the small group study rooms in the library for my collage meet-up with a friend. It was a perfect space for it, and since school hasn't started yet, the library was deserted--we definitely weren't using a room other people were needing or wanting for more serious purposes ; ) And the collaborative collages we made turned out nicely.

8/8: visiting

...the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts with Chris to see the Delta Triennial. I especially loved the silhouettes of Mr. Keeby and Ms. Woods by Letitia Huckaby.

8/7: making

...a collage date with a friend for Friday afternoon.

8/6: listening

...to the book chosen for this year's If All Arkansas Read the Same Book program: The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry.

8/5: laughing

...at Emma the Cat, caught eating a ravioli that he had fished out of a saucepan while we were out of the kitchen!

8/4: doing some things

 ...that I've been putting off:  transferring photos to an external storage drive; offering pamphlets on Facebook; ordering a new Mac for working on photos since the old one can't be upgraded.

8/3: reading

...A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich nearly non-stop.

8/2: sending in

...my submission for the 2024 Poetry Marathon anthology.  

8/1: setting up

...a high-yield CD online.  It was easy--so easy that I wish I had done it earlier.  But at least it's done while interest rates are still up.