3/30: a sweet hour
...or so this morning. I was drinking coffee and reading. One cat was in my lap, one was in a cat-bed on a side-table next to my chair, one was on my footrest, and one was on the chair opposite mine. We were quiet, content, and cozy. As I read and they dozed, I finished The Ellsworth Assortment series by Christina Dudley. It ended with a celebration of family, and that felt fitting because the cats and I were having our own sort of celebration too.
3/28: closely reading
...translations a friend had sent me, one a passage from Tacitus, another a passage from Thucydides.
3/27: cleaning
...the outside of the big windows in our main room. It's something that Chris usually does, but I figured I could do it too. So I did.
3/26: medicinal gin
I'm trying not to drink much alcohol these days, substituting Shirley Temples and other mocktail (not a word I like) concoctions, but today my arthritis was especially bad, and Chris suggested that I try just a tablespoon of gin, since it often helps. And it did, even just a tablespoon.
3/25: looking through
...lingering copies of past pamphlets and deciding which ones to send to someone as examples of my work. It's another thing that should have been done months ago, but at least it's done now. I'm too tired to get them ready to mail tonight, but they'll be ready for me (and I'll be ready for them) tomorrow.
3/24: packaging
...the complimentary copies that I received of intervals of so that I can get them in the mail to friends. I'm in a should-have-done-this-months-ago situation, but better late than never.
3/22: heading down
...to the lake at sunset. It's something we used to do several times a week--I don't know how we used to have the time. But it's spring break, and the evening was mild, so I took advantage of the combination and was glad I did.
3/21: spring-y things
Dandelions on campus! There usually aren't many, but this year there are clusters of them, and seeing them makes me happy.
Violet syrup! I treated myself to some violet syrup since I'm not drinking alcohol these days and I miss the taste of violet liqueur. When I got home after work, I made mixed some violet syrup into elderflower tonic and added a squeeze of fresh lemon.
Spring break! Not a moment too soon.
3/20: a calm day
...after a tricky Tuesday and Wednesday. Maybe the fact that it's also the first day of spring is a good omen for the season.
3/17: starting and ending
...my day with some music. Some recently released pieces by Brian Eno in the morning, and "Prosperina" by Kate McGarrigle in the evening.
3/16: weekend baking
Yesterday Chris and I made "cannoli cookies," and today I made Irish soda bread.
3/15: looking for wild plum trees
...while driving into town with Chris. The ones in our woods are blossoming more fully than usual this year, and that seems to be the case with others we spotted on our route.
3/14: having a good
...wrap-up/reflective conversation with a student about a project they recently finished. That's a nice way to end the at-school work-week.
3/13: a third run
...of the scribble etymology and artist-book workshop, since some students who wanted to come couldn't make it to the first two sessions. It was a sweet group. They were glad they came, and I really needed to end the on-campus part of the day on such a happy note.
3/12: a silver lining
...to another day-ending snafu. Once again I forgot something at school: this time, a book I needed in order to get some work done this evening. I didn't want to drive back into town, so I moved some tomorrow-morning work to this evening. As I read tomorrow afternoon's assignment, I looked at the Greek for bits of it and very much enjoyed that. If I had waited until tomorrow to do it, I probably wouldn't have given myself permission to poke around in the Greek as much.
3/11: picking up a pizza
...for dinner. I had to drive back to campus because I had left my phone in my office (ugh!), but we worked it out so that Chris ordered a pizza while I was doing that, and then I picked the pizza up on my (second) trip home after retrieving my phone.
3/10: blooms
Chris brought the potted Japanese quince into the laundry room (it had been outside) so that we could enjoy its flowering. And the Japanese quince at school is starting to blossom.
The winter honeysuckle that Chris planted for us is having a second round of wonderfulness, its smell in the air as I walk to my car in the morning.
The white magnolia trees on campus are in full glory, which I got to witness as I walked past them on an errand in the late afternoon.
3/8: remembering
...that it was International Women's Day, and making a yellow scribble book for a friend to mark the occasion.
3/7: the difference of a week
Last Friday night we were worried about Tilde, whom we took to the urgent care vet the next morning. Tonight she's bright-eyed and prancy.
3/5: a close companion
Phineas the Cat, that is. He curls up with me each morning as I play some word games online to get my mind going and each evening as I do some prep work for the next day's teaching. He loves being hugged and handled, and I'm grateful that he shows such physical trust (and is so tolerant).
3/4: catching up
...on texts that I owed to my friends. I have gotten so overwhelmed with work that tapping out messages felt beyond me. This evening I used my sweet bluetooth keyboard to type notes.
3/2: Tuesday on Sunday
Tuesday will be a busy day, so I decided to make Shrove Tuesday pancakes today instead. I found a good lemon sauce recipe online (here), and I added za'atar to the crepes.
3/1: phew
Tilde the Cat had to go to urgent care today. Chris remembered that a vet in town has Saturday hours for folks who are in emergency situations, so we didn't have to go down to Little Rock. We got her there first thing in the morning, and she was able to come home around dinner time.
2/27: writing
...a bureaucratic document over breakfast. I learned last week that I needed to do it by the end of the day tomorrow, and I almost forgot! (Such has been the busy-ness of the week.) But once I remembered, the words came more quickly than I thought they would, and some work I had previously done came in handy.
2/26: time to walk
...across campus. It wasn't a long distance, but I've been so busy and so sick that walking outside at all hasn't been possible in a regular way for over a month. So today's walk (or "stroll"?) in nice weather was very welcome.
2/25: some relief
...from pain. By the end of my teaching day, I was really hurting. It took hours for the medicine to help, but it finally kicked in. And I can go to bed feeling better.
2/24: morning/afternoon coincidence
When I smelled the winter honeysuckle this morning, I thought of a former student because my winter honeysuckle pamphlet had made him laugh (in a good way). When I got home in the afternoon, a letter from him was waiting for me in the mail!
He has moved. I knew his old apartment because a college friend used to live in the same neighborhood; turns out, the same college friend also used to live in his new town. Not a profound coincidence, but still a secondary serendipity. I'll take it as a sign that sometimes the pieces of my world click together.
2/22: grabbing minutes
...in which I could somehow distract my mind from thinking about bad things at work. There were plenty of minutes--and hours--today when I had to think about those bad things and deal with them. But reading a novel for a while and writing some recommendations for really nice students were reprieves.
2/20: discussing
Briton Riviere's painting of Athena with Eumaeus' dogs (link here) in the Myth class today. It's the first time I've used this painting in class, and it was fun to hear the students' thoughts about it.
2/19: a snow day
Though we didn't get as much snow as expected, what we did get was more ice than snow, and school was called off. It was a good timing, as I felt under-the-weather for most of the day--my cold just won't go decisively away. So I did some work but also some resting, and hopefully I'll make it through tomorrow smoothly.
2/18: postal serendipity
I put an envelope to my aunt in the mailbox this morning. I found an envelope from my aunt in the mailbox this afternoon.
2/17: blood orange juice
...freshly squeezed and added to tonic water. I look forward to blood orange season every year!
2/16: taking advantage
...of the fact that there are no classes tomorrow. I bought a bigger selection of crayons so that I'd have more greens. (I remember when the 64-count box of Crayolas was a big deal. Now I could get 152!) And I made some more scribble books while continuing to listen to David Byrne (post-Talking Heads) albums.
2/15: listening
...to Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, a Brian Eno / David Byrne collaboration.
2/14: making
...little scribble books using the meander format. It's something I'd been working toward for over a month now, but today things clicked. And the first one I made was a valentine for Chris.
2/12: making
...a meander book, then adding a flowing line and some words from Lucretius' De Rerum Natura. It was an experiment to see if it would be feasible as a possible workshop on campus, and I think it might be.
2/11: talking with the students
...in the Myth class about the double simile that describes the gouging of Polyphemus' eye in the Odyssey.
2/9: peeling
...off a post-it note that's been on the armrest of my chair for almost a month. It was a reminder to order some postcard prints. I had been weirdly blocked (self-conscious and more?), but I got things ready last night and this morning uploaded the order. My armrest is, for now, post-it free.
2/8: taking a walk
...for the first time in nearly 3 weeks. This has been a bad cold, and I think I may have turned the corner toward recovering now (knock on wood).
2/7: happening to catch
...the NPR short audio documentary about Margery Kemp on my drive home this afternoon (link here). I liked the way it was done.
2/6: using
...the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to find a webpage that I wanted to show my students but that has gone offline.
2/5: a smoother day
...than yesterday. Yesterday wasn't bad, but Tuesdays are my busiest teaching day of the week, and yesterday I was feeling very hot-and-cold from my lingering illness, which made the day more taxing. On top of that, I encountered some issues with students using AI, and that made me fret into the night. But this morning I found a way out of the AI issue, my Latin class was nice, and my office-hour conversations with students were good.
2/3: starting the day
...with music. As I was drinking my coffee, I looked at the list of Grammy winners, and the title of one album caught my eye: Rectangles and Circumstance by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion. I found the title track online and listened to it, and then listened to the rest of the album as I was getting ready for work.
2/1: fixing
...some chili I made last week. It was too spicy to eat! Today I made another batch, but without seasoning, and mixed it with the old batch. Now we have eatable meals for the week ahead.
1/31: reading
...students' thoughts about images of Penelope which I asked them to respond to. Two of the images were ones I often use, but I added three other ones (which were a little more challenging), and I especially enjoyed reading their thoughts about those.
1/30: easier
...swallowing. Yesterday and earlier today it hurt to swallow, an effect of my cold and/or the medicine I'm taking. But this evening it doesn't hurt as much.
1/29: a lost voice
...literally. I caught a cold and so can't talk much. While that isn't a good thing in and of itself, it made cancelling my in-person class and office hours an easy call.
1/27: using
...a new handbag for the first time. It's been years--perhaps a decade?--since I bought myself a new bag, but the zipper on my old go-to gave out (months ago), so it was more than time. It felt spiffy to be carrying something new (and not broken) as I did my grocery shopping.
1/25: resting
...from the week. And no new work arrived in my email. (There's plenty of old work I need to address, but I'm glad for a day when something new isn't added to the pile.)
1/23: thinking about Hephaestus
...in preparation for the Myth class today. He's a figure I hadn't spent much time with, and it was good to move around in some new-to-me ideas.
1/21: coming home
...to pierogi casserole after a day at school that kept getting longer and colder. The sun had set by the time I made it to the parking lot to drive home, so it was chilly and late. All I needed to do was heat up the casserole for some quick comfort.
1/20: seeing
...a comment from a longtime blogging/mailing friend when I signed into the blog today!
1/16: inside
...our house: Emma the Oldest Cat grooming Simon the Newest (But Not Very New) Cat.
...a neighbor's house: beautiful art of all sorts.
1/15: getting
...the first appointment slot so I could see the doctor before the daily back-up of patients began.
1/14: colors
...for eyes and ears. I watched the sunset at the lake while listening to the Bloom app.
1/12: another trio
Morning: Reading Deer Run Home by Ann Clare LeZotte pretty much immediately after I learned about it (and its mention of the myth of Iphigeneia) and finishing it in one go.
Afternoon: Doing more shoveling while finishing listening to Clear by Carys Davies.
Evening: Welcoming Chris home (!) and reading Artforum after he went to bed.
1/11: trio
Morning: getting caught up in a new pamphlet idea.
Afternoon: shoveling the driveway to clear the low wall of snow made by the plow.
Evening: sweeping.
1/10: organizing
...my browsing and archive copies of Cuckoo Grey pamphlets. It was kind of amazing to see them all at once.
1/9: falling snow
...in the afternoon, so I got myself motivated and took a walk. At first it was just me outside. Then a neighbor came out with her two toddler children, and it was great to hear them laugh as they played. A little later her spouse was walking down the street and we remarked on how great it was to be in the weather--its prettiness and quiet. You could hear the flapping of birds' wings when they darted from bush to bush.
1/8: the heated birdbath
...was popular with the neighborhood birds this afternoon since water elsewhere outside is frozen. Bluebirds, chickadees, woodpeckers, finches, and more.
1/7: tinkering
...with pamphlet ideas, not with entirely successful results, but with gratitude for a day spent in trying. I watched some Jeff Baena films as I worked, and that seemed right.
1/5: mundane & musical
Mundane: cleaning the bathroom.
Musical: listening to The Dawn of Everything by Brian Eno and (in a $3.99 splurge) downloading the Bloom app.
1/3: picking up
...the copy of Dom Sylvester Houédard: FrOg pOnd plOp that I ordered and reading it as soon as I got home.
1/2: not attending
...the annual Classics convention this year. I gave presentations (online or in person) for the past 4 years, and I was ready for a holiday that didn't include finalizing a paper, fretting about professional interactions, and/or traveling for work. Vertigo has been a real problem for me recently (especially today), so I am extra grateful to not have to be on a plane.
1/1: spending the morning
...writing about some highlights of 2024. It was a tough year, and I didn't make it through it gracefully. Still, there were good things, and I'm glad I made myself revisit some of those.
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