5/31: an abstract
...unexpectedly taking shape at the end of the day. It was a difficult morning and afternoon: tiredness, low spirits in general, frustration (a lost stapler became a symbol of larger frustrations!), uncertainty about a research topic, and a missed walk. But I somehow rallied after dinner, and I'm going to bed with a full draft of an abstract that's due tomorrow.
5/30: finishing
...my last bureaucratic task for the academic year. I was working on it down-to-the-wire (since today was the last business day of 2024-2025), but I got it done, and my spirit feels lighter.
5/29: having a cache
...of potato chips. We get "free" money to spend on food at school, and at the end of the semester I spent mine on lots of little bags of potato chips from the campus snack shop, stocking up for the summer. We each enjoyed a bag at dinner tonight, along with grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
5/27: not procrastinating further
...on some emails I needed to write and some photo prints I needed to order. There are plenty of other things I'm still putting off that I shouldn't, but at least this is progress.
5/25: matching
...collages, photos, and stamps for my offerings in the iHanna postcard swap. I included copies of my second abstract comic too.
5/24: in Rome
...(kind of) for the day. Our electricity went out during a morning storm and didn't come back on until dinner time. In the interim I settled into Brian Selznick's Run Away With Me, set in the urbs aeterna in 1986. I spent spring 1989 in Rome, and the places and atmosphere felt heart-pullingly familiar. (But maybe that's part of Rome's magic, its combination of the particular and the eternal?)
5/23: a quick virtual meeting
...to conduct some business with colleagues this afternoon. It was a 15-minute session. The brevity was especially welcome after 19 hours of in-person meetings over the previous 3 days. (I'm not complaining about the in-person meetings--they were necessary and often really good. But they were also exhausting.)
5/22: getting to talk
...about the college's engaged learning program with two people who also really wanted to talk about it and who were enthusiastic about a thought I had for revising it. We were able to work my initial thought into a more fleshed-out possibility.
5/21: realizing
...that I needed to step out of a meeting to attend to both health and other business. (Sometimes you can't do everything.)
5/20: fireflies
...on a walk this evening. I couldn't walk this morning because I had another Zoom event, but it was cool enough after dinner to walk for a full hour before dark.
5/19: Zooming
...a talk by Chella Ward on "Reception and the Epistemic Violence of the Classical" hosted by the University of London. I miss all the online events that were available during High COVID Times. Though the pandemic-as-impetus is not-to-be-wished-for, the result was a rich celebration of ideas and activities. Today I enjoyed a taste of that again.
5/18: fresh
...administrative troubles at work. Not a good thing, but my ending the evening having done what I can do about them for now is good.
5/16: punctuating
...the last of my grading for the semester with collaging, emailing (not for work), reading mail from postal friends, and preparing meals without rushing. I'm glad that I've taken a few days to do my grading more slowly and sanely.
5/14: phew
I had been expecting a reimbursement check at work through campus mail, but it didn't appear when it should have. This morning I wrote myself a note to give it one more day before trying to track it down. But then it arrived at my home address in today's mail. I'm grateful to whoever decided to have it go through USPS rather than campus mail, since mail at school gets tricky once the regular semester is over.
5/13: a good meeting
...with a student this morning. I arranged it so I could sleep in just a little and could also be home by lunch--nice practical bonuses.
5/12: getting home
...in time for lunch. I had to give a make-up exam this morning, but the student finished in well under the allotted time, so I brought my day's grading back to the house to work on it here after lunch with Chris and the cats.
5/11: putting off grading
...for another day. There will be time to get it all done before the cut-off for filing grades, and I needed the mental space of focusing on other things today. I put away laundry, walked, worked on photos, read, and rested.
5/9: seeing
...one of my Myth students picking mulberries from one of the trees on campus. She said she's been doing it regularly since I mentioned it in class.
5/8: a good vote
...at the faculty meeting today. (A calendar change with too many potential pitfalls got voted down.)
5/7: seeing
...photos of Loretta Dunkelman's Ice Sky and Park Seo-Bo's Newspaper Ecritures. (I got to spend a little time with Artforum today.)
5/5: slipping in
...a walk this morning before finishing some grading and heading to campus.
...and a grocery run. (At the store, one woman said she liked my haircut and another said she liked my outfit, and those nice comments from strangers made me feel like the world could be a friendlier place than I often think it to be.)
5/4: fresh & remembered
Two good things on my walk today made me remember good things from recent days.
I saw a periwinkle butterfly! And that reminded me that Chris showed me a tarantula in our yard yesterday!
I picked a wild raspberry! And that reminded me that I talked with the Myth students about the mulberry trees (with now-ripening fruit) on campus, since we just finished discussing Pyramus and Thisbe. Earlier in the week I pulled a ripe berry from one of the trees as I passed by it, and I encouraged the students to do the same.
5/3: despite
...vertigo (and a late start while I was trying to disspell it), I commented on half of my students' altered pages today.
5/2: listening
...to some of a new-to-me Brian Eno album while I got ready for work: The Pearl, a collaboration with Harold Budd. It turned out to be perfect for a rainy morning, though I didn't know that when I decided to give it a try.
5/1: realizing
...that I had bills that needed to be paid today! Luckily that fact popped into my head as I was ironing my clothes this morning, so I was able to take a few minutes and pay them online before heading to work. Phew. It's just been too busy recently for me to keep everything straight, and I've been relying on sticky notes rather than my calendar book. Lesson: I need to get back to using my calendar book.
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