8/31: knowing when
As soon as I woke up, I realized that no number of soothing warm beverages was going to be enough to even temporarily allay my symptoms today, so I didn't go to school and went to the doctor instead. My allergies blocked me up enough to cause an infection, and now I'm on antibiotics. I'm glad I didn't try to "tough it out"--I hate cancelling class, but in this instance it was the right thing to do. I'm grateful that I made the decision with minimal hoopla and that Chris supported it so enthusiastically.
8/30: smoothly soothing
I've lived in Arkansas for 12 years now. For the first autumn I was here, I had what I thought was an unshakeable cold for weeks. A doctor told me it was allergies instead. I had never had allergies before! Welcome to Arkansas, the doctor said. Obviously this is not a good thing, and every fall I get allergies in a pretty bad way. It feels like the flu, but it isn't. And there's not much I can do to shake the feeling; eventually the air will change and the ailment will pass. In the meantime (and here's the good thing): I know what's going on, I'm getting better at being patient with my body at this time of year, other people are in the same boat so I have company, and I'm grateful for all the warm things I can drink which temporarily soothe the symptoms.
8/29: new leaves (always a good thing, of course, but especially at this time of year)
The summer was droughty, and the big willow-oak at the bottom of the hill below our house suffered. A lot of its leaves went brown, became withered, and then fell off. But August has brought some rain, and the tree has rebounded. Fresh leaves right before fall! I thought we'd have to wait until next spring to see bright new growth.
(Okay, so this photo is highly stylized. But the effect shows off the new green, I think, and is more refreshing to look at than my original, merely "documentary" photo of the willow-oak, a tree which is too marvellous for me to photograph well.)
8/28: bookends to the day
Yesterday I went to bed with a migraine, but this morning I woke up without one.
This evening we went out on the lake. As we were paddling back at sunset, minnows kept jumping out of the water like little arcs of light.
8/26: starting off on a good foot
I'm teaching all levels of Latin this semester: beginning, intermediate, advanced. The beginning of the semester can be especially challenging for the intermediate and advanced students, since they have to get back into the language after a summer without it. In both of those classes, though, the students did so well on their first translation assignments this week--they were more ready to hit the ground running than I had anticipated, and of course that's a very good thing.
8/25: nipping out
Chris and I were at the same meeting from eleven to twelve. When the meeting ended, I realized that I probably could take time out for lunch (instead of having to eat while working at my desk in my office), so we headed off campus to grab a bite. A stolen date in the middle of the day. Not glamorous (we got vegetarian hamburgers & fries at Burger King), but sweet nonetheless.
8/24: on the track
The start of the new academic year has been more chaotic than usual, with the unexpected resignation of a colleague in my program at the start of August and subsequent scrambling to get the suddenly-professor-less classes covered. As a result of that extra nuttiness on top of the usual back-to-school craziness, walking and kayaking have been harder to work into my schedule than I'd like: I've just been drop-into-bed tired at the end of the days. But this evening I made sure I'd have time and energy to go to the indoor walking track--nice and cool on these muggy nights--and I was glad to move and resume listening to The Princess and the Goblin.
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