Monday, May 24, 2021
quiet
Sunday, May 23, 2021
easy like Sunday afternoon
(I needed this interlude today--I made an impulsive grocery trip to get some ingredients for Big A's Boss Day dinner and OMG all the unmasked people.)
Over on Scroll, a shortlist of seven philosophers who can help us build back a better post-pandemic world.
Saturday, May 22, 2021
passing/passage
So this was me for the rest of the evening as I started and finished a novel--Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half--in one long gulp. I read the parts about passing breathlessly--racial passing + gender/trans passing. And it began to feel like being an immigrant is also somewhat like passing--in the sense that you leave an old self behind, propelled as much by necessity and accident as by some form of selfishness/self-centeredness.
Friday, May 21, 2021
conflict
[Pic from At's protest outside Rep. Elissa Slotkin's office this week.]
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
context
accomplishing joy
surfacing tree brown
I come back to my body
through the sacred,
absurd landscape
of patience
[Pic: Scout and Huck hanging out with me in puppy pose.]
Monday, May 17, 2021
focus
Lots of stuff going on--including working in my office, office visits at various doctors etc., but a walk with JG and a porch hang with KB and... hours of jabber and banter are the points I want to remember from today.
(Spot the bunny in the picture!)
Saturday, May 15, 2021
shit shit shit
Friday, May 14, 2021
plot twist
It got better when Nu got their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine at a drive-through clinic excellently organized by MI state and operated by some lovely people from the National Guard.
It got even better when the U of M adolescent gender services clinic called to set up an appointment for us next Friday.
And then like an absolute champion, I got all the student letters of recommendation I was working on--off to students/universities/programs.
It was when I was sending out those letters that I realized I had somehow missed the faculty meeting that was noted in my calendar and my online scheduler.
Whoops.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
dissonance
On the one hand: Getting to hang out with dear (vaccinated) friends at a brewpub (first time in 14 months); planning to get Nu to a walk-in vaccination clinic this weekend now that vaccinations have been approved for the 12 and above set.
On the other hand: Whatsapp messages on cousins' chat sharing fundraisers for treatment for people they personally know; Facebook posts about relatives in India sick and dying.
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
long day's journey...
Headed up to Alma afterwards for meetings and things with At. He DJ-ed a podcast he wanted me to listen to about the Cuban revolution and and hearing about Meyer Lansky aligned nicely with segments of The Godfather Part II, which I'm watching bit by bit with Big A.
Back home, we made dinner (last week's leftover rice, +beans, +a bag of 'power blend' veggies in a stirfry, a big green salad, and a mango-blueberry-orange fruit salad), set the table, ate, talked over music, and cleared up in just under 90 minutes--At called it "efficient." Nu headed to bed early after a few rounds of cards and the puppies and I napped together for a bit until it was time to send Big A off to work.
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
lift your lantern up
Anyway--his camping lantern had fallen to the floor, so I asked if he could "lift your [his] lantern up" and a look of total befuddlement came over his face. Turns out, he thought it was an axiom he hadn't heard before in the vein of that hymn "This Little Light of Mine"--I'm going to let it shine, etc. 😂😂
And then this little love of mine took care of some yard work unprompted. 🥰🥰
Monday, May 10, 2021
mmmmm morels
Nothing quite like the first year we were here, or even the rainy spring of 2019... Still so much better than last year's poor showing, when I appear to have found just two.
Everything was worse last year.
Sunday, May 09, 2021
"maybe-you're-just-like-my-mother" day
Saturday, May 08, 2021
This is only a test
A. clap his hands in delight and pronounce it charming (no chance of this)
B. shake his head with a rueful smile and ask me to move them soon (probably)
C-F. any response less loving/indulgent than B.
(Dear Diary, he got a B.)
Friday, May 07, 2021
"even doves have pride"
First business appointment today was Zoom court, where JL's PPO (personal protection order) against their stalker ex was upheld and extended. Abusers are really their own worst enemies--the judge was visibly deprecating of his disrespect and narcissism (I was too).
Some committee work + paperwork + unfinished business... Then a lovely, supportive, mentoring all-women meeting. We're opening up the previously faculty-only group to staff and admin; I want to get athletics, facilities/janitorial, and our catering staff involved too!
A kind shoutout from Mel at Stirrup Queens, a heads-up that an old poem had been published in The Scriblerus Spring Issue, and a Google scholar alert about an essay that was picked for an anthology and is now in print round off the writing updates for the week.
____________________________
Pic: Two weeks or so ago, our cherry blossoms at their peak.
Thursday, May 06, 2021
day/break/out
--a jail/a madhouse would feel like a vacation
today. J/K; joke! I'm timid, presumptive
I send a few glances out--sort of as envoys,
like lighting small candles everywhere
as though entertaining--protest
I think my mother once had hands like mine,
to measure submission as it crept up on us
--in the flicker of a lazy lizard eye
Monday, May 03, 2021
promise
Sunday, May 02, 2021
Saturday, May 01, 2021
"alone in a world so cold"
not in a full way/just kidding
but I summon/succumb
start assuming our story as reality--
no--a fantasy--something festal
--or elastic as seasons
and still--don't know where I'm going
but I'm going and I'm arriving
where you will embrace me
-----------------------------------
On this windy, spring day: At graduated today with honors in Poli Sci and History. Jim Daniels as commencement speaker was a pleasant surprise.
Friday, April 30, 2021
limen
straining glass
while our faces sigh into it--
an empty staircase
of smoke, of panic, prayer
rising, now howling
"open the door, open it"
gasping, holding on
MSU solidarity encampment
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Friends and old neighbors shutting it down in honor of John Crawford. _
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At had us pose for this pic up at Aunt R's place on Lake Huron so he could put it up in his dorm. "Don't tur...
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