Added later: I remembered a good think from our errand-running. When I went into the UPS store to pick up some packages, I told a woman in line that I liked her dress. (It was a colorful, cleverly constructed sundress that used a variety of prints.) She smiled and told me that she made it herself--which made me so glad that I had the courage to tell her rather than just keep my admiration to myself.
8/31: an upturn
...in the day. This morning's walk wasn't what I was expecting: I thought it would be cooler than it was, and when I went to pick up trash alongside the road (which I often do), the bag I picked up was full of pee (yes, really--luckily it was tied closed). This afternoon we ran errands, during which I was out of sorts. But at dinner we watched 2 episodes of the latest season of Fisk (I love it!), and this evening I worked on pamphlet-making without having to worry that it's a school night (since tomorrow is a holiday).
8/30: coming upon
...a paragraph in R. F. Kuang's Katabasis that made me smile:
Now, magick had progressed a lot since, say, the primitive rituals suggested by the Uffington chalk inscriptions, and there had since been a proliferation of flashy subfields that in fact had nothing to do with chalk, but rather all sorts of arcane objects, enchanted music, and visual illusions. One could now study the archaeology of magick, the history of magick, the music of magick, and on and on. Over in America, visual illusions and flashy showmanship were all the rage. In Europe they were going on about things called postmodernist and postructuralist magick, which seemed to involve lots of spells doing the opposite of what their inventors wanted, and spells that did nothing at all, which everyone claimed was very profound.
8/29: folding
...lots of small, double-square pamphlets in different colors, enough to fill a punchbowl.
8/28: working from home
...this morning. My school office has been way too cold, so it was nice to be able to control my environment a little more by staying home until I had to go to campus to teach. Having Chris and the cats for company was a bonus.
8/27: a string of students
...in office hours. It was nice to have steady "business" in the first office hours of the school year.
8/26: Latin Scrabble
The students in the upper-level Latin course made grids of words (collaboratively, not competitively) on some Latin Scrabble boards I bought a few years ago. I think it was a nice first-day-back-at-Latin activity for them.
8/24: three good things
Morning writing (since it won't be easy to do regularly starting tomorrow), and during it I worked out a new assignment idea for the upper-level Latin class.
More cleaning--of my school office and my home bathroom.
Good emails about my pamphlets.
8/22: impromptu
...brownies. Chris mentioned wanting some, so we made a batch after dinner, then delaying our dessert until they had cooled just enough to eat.
8/21: having
...somewhat more energy today than yesterday. I used it to work on cleaning my home office (long overdue).
8/19: organizing
...a cabinet in the afternoon and my semester calendars in the evening--welcome orderly counterbalances to meetings yesterday and this morning.
8/18: having a task
...not related to school to work on at home this evening. It was an intense day of workshopping with faculty, staff, and administration, so I appreciated having something (pamphlet-related) that I had to do this evening that shifted my thinking to other topics.
8/17: a good at-home day
...for the last day before back-to-school meetings begin for me tomorrow. I read some Artforum, wrote morning pages, texted and emailed with a curator about a possible exhibit of my pamphlets, organized cupboards with Chris, read, worked on some photos, walked on the treadmill (too hot outside), listened to an audiobook, cooked, ate figs and cheese for dinner, and generally hung out with Chris and the cats.
8/13: finding a pen
...decorated with pegasuses inspired by Greek red-figure painting. It was the only one left at the store, and I feel lucky to have it. (I'm also heartened at the thought that its now sold-out status means that a bunch of people have bought pegasus pens.)
8/12: a calmer day
Some things threw me for a loop yesterday. I dealt with them, which made me feel good, like an actual functioning grown-up, but they were still destabilizing. Today I followed up on those things some more, with a clearer, less anxious mind, and that also felt good.
8/11: being fine
...with a noisy cart in the grocery store. Over the past handful of years, I've been weirdly grateful for jangling or otherwise loud carts. The me of longer ago would get embarrassed by such carts; the more recent me thinks, "This cart's noise is not my fault; there is no shame attached. It's fine if the store's equipment makes noise in the store, and I need to focus on my shopping not on other people's possible reactions."
8/10: lemons again
This morning I ordered a mini paper lemon tree, a pop-up greeting card for myself.
8/9: preserved lemons
...rinsed, minced, and added to pasta with butter, tomato, green onions, vegan feta, and pepper.
8/7: setting up
...a little "showing" of my work in the classroom I usually teach in and run workshops in. A curator from Little Rock asked to see my pamphlets, and that classroom seemed to be the most fitting spot to meet. I went well in advance to create four different stations and arrangements of pamphlets on the tables; each clustering focused on a different aspect of my work (line, type, form, and words). It was good to see the pieces in a new way, in the context they create for one another, and to feel afresh the affection I have for them individually.
8/6: working at getting better
...at talking about my pamphlet-making. Because I send things out through the mail, I don't have much practice in talking with folks in an extended or formal way about my process or the particular pieces. A conversation this afternoon with a wonderful ceramic artist pushed me further in my articulation.
8/4: done revising (for now)
There are a few pamphlets I've made in the past that didn't come together in a way that felt wholly right to me. I've spent some time over the past three days reworking two of them. They're better for sure, but the difficulties I had with them were harder nuts to crack than I thought.
8/3: compiling
...an information sheet about myself and my Cuckoo Grey pamphlets for two artist-book meetings in the coming week. It felt good to put it together.
8/2: an hour outside
...this morning, since it was cool enough to walk. (Not "cool," but "cool enough.")
8/1: shown to the children
In the morning I read that Leonora Carrington had Insects Shown to the Children on her bookshelf. I looked for a digital copy online but didn't find one. However, I did find out that it was one in a series of books, and Project Gutenberg had another title in the series: Butterflies and Moths Shown to the Children. Even the cover is amazing! (I wish I had the whole set.) It was fun to poke around in the book and do a few on-the-spot erasures.
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