Sunday with Sonia Sotomayor

AAAAAAAAAA. SHE SHOOK THE KIDS' HANDS!! I made them shake mine right after. Haha.

She was here for the one-book-one-community MSU-Lansing event with her My Beloved World. The event was billed as Q&A only, but as she answered questions, she walked around the auditorium connecting with people. She is so awesome, and I kept tearing up with the knowledge that this smart, amiable, down-to-earth person is almost single-handedly keeping us from constitutional ruin.

She said she'd pulled a hamstring as explanation for why she was walking so slowly. I was bit taken aback when she first came in though and had already added her to my list of Supreme Court justices to pray for (#RBGForever).

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These are the three poems I sent DA

Muse, After Hours, Asifa.

Now we wait...

(Super full and very grownup day today: Search committee work and meeting, candidate interview, CASA visit, CASA updates, Tamil class, book club (Little Fires Everywhere), kid cuddle time, sending poems to DA.)

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Did She? Didn't She?

I took the day off today, found a magazine I hadn't read yet, and gave it a read.

Some of the news seemed... a bit off, so I checked the cover and realized that it was from 2015. 

2015!



Anyway, there was this article about Amy Poehler, at the very end of which she talks about wanting to take up drums in 2018.

That's this year... which is almost two-thirds gone. I want to whisper to her: Do it! Do it! You can do it! There's still time!








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Muse

I imagine entering bodies:
kissy     wormy     secret
tendrils bloody, tender,
cobwebbed.

Rejection gathered like:
skirts  breezes  friends
smiling achily, saying
farewell.

Still until creation erupts:
caves      calls      papers
becomes melody, menace,
practice.

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Roman Tamil

My teacher, ST, wanted me to memorize this kural I had never heard before.

And I repeatedly kept messing up on the archaic word "aagula" until I used "like Caligula" as a mnemonic. It worked.

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"I was teaching the names [of plants] and ignoring their songs.”

Just the most uplifting, poetic On Being with Robin Wall Kimmerer yesterday.



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Sacred Games

There's so much love for the Netflix adaptation of Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games right now. I watched a couple of episodes (that counts as work--staying abreast of the field--right?) and noticed that the subtitles are really off. Sometimes for no reason I can discern.

Like:



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"Tony died."

At came down to breakfast. breaking the news about Anthony Bourdain--apologetically. And now, at the end of the day, I am just grateful that everyone I know online seems to recognize the curiosity, empathy, and generosity that made him so extraordinary. Big A had worked overnight, but I knew that this would be the one celeb whose passing would affect him. And sure enough, as soon as he got off his shift, he texted: "Tony died." We have all his books, watched some of his shows back when we had time, and knew enough to love him. And all my media and/or NYC people had stories about meeting him, of him being an ally without making it all about himself.

On the way home from getting Nu from school, while we were waiting for the train to clear the tracks, we were rear-ended. I had taken the puppies for a little car ride, and Huck is so tiny that she flew into Nu's lap from the backseat. I went to talk to the driver of the other car, and it was a young woman who immediately began apologizing so profusely, all my criticisms were silenced. It looked like both cars were fine, and she swore that she wasn't texting, so I told her to be safe, and brought the kids home. Big A was rather loud and adamant that I should have taken her insurance information anyway.

Of course, I've been crying--somewhat disproportionately--since then.
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Love and Flowers

Late last night at Meijer... I was beaming by the time I got to the end of the grocery shopping list, because as an addendum to her snack requests, Nu had penned a love note to me. Discussing that at breakfast gave me something else to smile at all day. I had missed bedtime since I had gone grocery shopping right after my book club meeting last night, so I asked Nu if she knew that I had come in to kiss her goodnight after she'd fallen asleep. "Yes," she said, "I know." And then: "I don't remember, because I was asleep, but I know you kissed me goodnight, because you always do that."

The kids are keeping me sane post Santa Fe, post Asifa, post Parkland, post, post, post... Kinda like how although it's wet and cold outside... but at least there are flowers.

moss roses, lobelia, elysium 

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Rolling with the Homies

Woke up to At's text telling me that he was going off Twitter as someone had doxxed him.  He sent me an eerie screenshot of an exchange where the guy mentions us all by name.

I think I win some kind of award for what I texted At back:





And you know what? All jokes aside, I AM really proud of this kid.

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Haven't been writing as much as I should be...

But so much THIS.

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Sweet Meets

'Someone' stopped by my office and claimed that they weren't at all homesick, but lingered for over an hour to just talk, requested a bunch of food from home, told me he missed us ("Not all the time, okay? Just when we're all texting on family chat and stuff"), and even let me take his picture. I'm glad he's not homesick, but am so happy from getting some time with him.

I may have once wished that he'd choose head hair or face hair, but this groomed beard and tiny bun look really nice on him... in a hipster Chewie kind of way.

As he was leaving the English bay, I bumped into Sophfronia Scott who'd come to read for us last term, and whom I'd kept in touch with (via FB mostly). Turns out that she was on her way to a lit festival in Grand Rapids, and stopped over to see us. In an odd way, it feels like we've shared thoughts for a long, long time--it was lovely to see her again, and hang out at the coffeeshop for a while.

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A Monday

This raw and heartbreaking article. I started reading it in the school pickup line--anxious and breathless after the first paragraph.

That poor child. His poor family. The poor women who were gaslighted. But mostly, and over and over... that poor, poor child. In a way, the skeleton of dysfunction was visible for so long--the delayed second book, the frenzied relationships--and yet, this is a necessary speaking up, a necessary fleshing out... even from three decades away.

I was nice to Nu. But Big A knew enough to leave me alone after I growled at him a couple of times. Not like it's his fault--and he's the one who introduced me to Drown all those years ago--but he's used to my anti-patriarchy rages. And I got hugs and talking later. But god, this article. Children deserve so much better.

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On this 13th Day

I couldn't find a black cat to ride with me today, 

but I did give Kat Blaque a ride back to her hotel.

It wasn't bad--just a bit awkward after I disagreed with her.

And 15-hour workdays are no fun.

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Nerd and Proud

The literature nerd in me sees the literature nerd in you.

Type in an author's name, and you can keep on finding others to follow. 

This must be what a rabbit hole feels like.

http://www.literature-map.com/ 

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#HamiltonNerds

I should show my students

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Inspiration

Found this on NuNu's school-issued laptop.🤓😍

(It says, "Alexander Hamilton wrote 51 papers in the span of 6 months, you can write ONE.")

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Imprint

I am the serotinal student

clasping ideas between breaths

clamping lips around knowledge

i touch a thousand books

i read them all


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The World Turned Upside Down

Until we saw Hamilton last year in Chicago--I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to the phenomenon. I *loved* the rap form, the function of the cast, was happy for Miranda's MacArthur Genius award... and all of that. But I was afraid that it would be a bunch of bad rhymes or some twee hagiography. So the show was such a pleasure and a relief. And now we just can't stop listening to the soundtrack all the time.

I was looking for tickets to the touring company at the Wharton Center and they seem to have very little information. It's almost funny, so that's not the reason I was in tears to "It's Quiet Uptown" after I dropped At off at college this morning.

It was tough coming home to an empty house after such a crowded weekend. The crappy weather and the drippy roof aren't helping.
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