Thursday, May 30, 2019
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
A Big Day for the Babies
Nu had the Math M-Step to make up today since she postponed hers because of the trip. AND I mean SHE postponed it. We got back Thursday and the test was on Friday--she walked up to the counsellor's office and requested a postponement. "Were you upset?" I asked. "No, I just thought it would be better." I love that she is advocating for herself.
At had to be dropped off at the courthouse at 7 am, since he received a summons for jury duty. A big fan of Twelve Angry Men, he is super excited. He thinks it might be the big case about another sex abuse scandal at MSU. All the details check out. He spent the rest of his time there reading about how Twelve Angry Men is a good movie but bad jury behavior. Nerd.
I managed to juggle both important morning drop-offs. L had offered to take one of them when she and T came to dinner last night. I can do it, I said. And I did. I even jumpstarted the car myself to do so.
At had to be dropped off at the courthouse at 7 am, since he received a summons for jury duty. A big fan of Twelve Angry Men, he is super excited. He thinks it might be the big case about another sex abuse scandal at MSU. All the details check out. He spent the rest of his time there reading about how Twelve Angry Men is a good movie but bad jury behavior. Nerd.
I managed to juggle both important morning drop-offs. L had offered to take one of them when she and T came to dinner last night. I can do it, I said. And I did. I even jumpstarted the car myself to do so.
Big Whoop
Stonehenge 5/15/2019
_
Monday, May 27, 2019
It's a Nice Day to... Start Again
I should have grades done soon, and that will be goodbye to a satisfying four weeks of Spring Term. My first assay at a travel term, The Empire Writes Back: Cosmopolitan England threw a bunch of non-majors into cultural theory and they took to it in a most satisfying way: looking at The British Museum critically; hypothesizing about Britain's Roman connections; seeing empire in Victorian fiction, reciting poetry at all the landmarks; talking to Sunny Singh and Robert JC Young... I love all those moments and I love all those kids.
It was terrifying too--in all the ways that being responsible for 15 young people can be. But we're all safely back. My secret weapon was taking Nu with me, so that was a little piece of home always with me.
It was terrifying too--in all the ways that being responsible for 15 young people can be. But we're all safely back. My secret weapon was taking Nu with me, so that was a little piece of home always with me.
And now... it is summer and time to work on all the projects that didn't get done over the sabbatical.
_
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Saturday, May 04, 2019
Wednesday, May 01, 2019
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Monday, April 15, 2019
Sunday, April 14, 2019
New Beginnings
Need a fresh start in the middle of April?
Don't fear! Tamil New Year is here!
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The little sibs at Hawk Island. #SaturdayHikingClub _ |
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Friday, April 12, 2019
Compulsory Heterosexuality
More than one student has told me how Adrienne Rich's Reflections on "Compulsory Heterosexuality" changed their lives. I was thinking of that today when I was looking for a card to celebrate our newlywed colleague T and her wife whom K and I were taking out to dinner. Even bunnies and birds were pretty gendered, and it took me longer than usual to find a nice card. Between that and having to read a whole Elle article on my phone before I could pick a nice champagne in our budget, I spent way too much time at the store. Ha.




Thursday, April 11, 2019
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Tuesday, April 09, 2019
Lift
You said to sing with you:
I start off like a boat
dropped into the water
turning round and round
worrying and wondering
at the same movement
until I catch the uplift
and the current leads us and
we're at the top of the next note
floating, the size of an insect
which then washes over, catching
us in the clear curl of the wave
* I don't know where this came from, but I will say Nu and I have perfected the howl part of Lady Gaga's shalalalalalalow, and sing it every time we're on our way to school.
_
I start off like a boat
dropped into the water
turning round and round
worrying and wondering
at the same movement
until I catch the uplift
and the current leads us and
we're at the top of the next note
floating, the size of an insect
which then washes over, catching
us in the clear curl of the wave
* I don't know where this came from, but I will say Nu and I have perfected the howl part of Lady Gaga's shalalalalalalow, and sing it every time we're on our way to school.
_
Monday, April 08, 2019
Wordless
I am the child with a knife--
for all my years now,
and in monosyllables
I have been digging in the
softness, the door
to some other worlds
Moon is eyeball today
side-eye tomorrow
I stay here, I witness.
_
for all my years now,
and in monosyllables
I have been digging in the
softness, the door
to some other worlds
Moon is eyeball today
side-eye tomorrow
I stay here, I witness.
_
Sunday, April 07, 2019
Today at UU
Transcendental Etude by Adrienne Rich
[The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New 1950-1984 (New York: Norton, 1984) ]
No one ever told us we had to study our lives,
make of our lives a study, as if learning natural history
or music, that we should begin
with the simple exercises first
and slowly go on trying
the hard ones, practicing till strength
and accuracy became one with the daring
to leap into transcendence, take the chance
of breaking down the wild arpeggio
or faulting the full sentence of the fugue.
–And in fact we can’t live like that: we take on
everything at once before we’ve even begun
to read or mark time, we’re forced to begin
in the midst of the hard movement,
the one already sounding as we are born.
**********************************************
Every mention of death in the sermon today seemed like a special message just for me. And I would start thinking about how my children are too young for me to disappear. And I would imagine that Scout and Huckie would be bewildered; that Nu would be devastated, become hard; that At would rally, becoming more vulnerable as he goes. That they'll all keep looking for me everywhere. Ugh.
_
make of our lives a study, as if learning natural history
or music, that we should begin
with the simple exercises first
and slowly go on trying
the hard ones, practicing till strength
and accuracy became one with the daring
to leap into transcendence, take the chance
of breaking down the wild arpeggio
or faulting the full sentence of the fugue.
–And in fact we can’t live like that: we take on
everything at once before we’ve even begun
to read or mark time, we’re forced to begin
in the midst of the hard movement,
the one already sounding as we are born.
**********************************************
Every mention of death in the sermon today seemed like a special message just for me. And I would start thinking about how my children are too young for me to disappear. And I would imagine that Scout and Huckie would be bewildered; that Nu would be devastated, become hard; that At would rally, becoming more vulnerable as he goes. That they'll all keep looking for me everywhere. Ugh.
_
Saturday, April 06, 2019
Friday, April 05, 2019
Shower Thoughts
It's likely that I'm in a state of denial, which is why this still makes me chuckle.
I've had a kind of on-again-off again dull pain in my left breast for a while, and while in the shower this morning, I decided to figure out if it had definite origins. (Big A and I had been talking about the politics of breast cancer detection guidelines earlier this week--so that was on my mind.)
What I could feel in my 'underboob' area--possibly why it had been undetected for so long--felt like a couple of smooth Lego blocks. My first thought was that weight training had resulted in some amazing muscle formation. Alas, it's only on one side, so no way, but I chuckle every time I tell this story.
I was kind of hoping that Big A would say I was imagining things, but he said it was a definite "mass" and that I should call my doctor on Monday. So I had to take a some time to compose myself before I could return to our guests at 'Fun Friday Film Fest' and Your Name (B's suggestion, and cute for several age ranges).
-
I've had a kind of on-again-off again dull pain in my left breast for a while, and while in the shower this morning, I decided to figure out if it had definite origins. (Big A and I had been talking about the politics of breast cancer detection guidelines earlier this week--so that was on my mind.)
What I could feel in my 'underboob' area--possibly why it had been undetected for so long--felt like a couple of smooth Lego blocks. My first thought was that weight training had resulted in some amazing muscle formation. Alas, it's only on one side, so no way, but I chuckle every time I tell this story.
I was kind of hoping that Big A would say I was imagining things, but he said it was a definite "mass" and that I should call my doctor on Monday. So I had to take a some time to compose myself before I could return to our guests at 'Fun Friday Film Fest' and Your Name (B's suggestion, and cute for several age ranges).
-
Thursday, April 04, 2019
Honors Day
I woke up this morning excited for Honors Day.
At was nominated for the Kapp Prize
as were two of my students,
and chances were that I'd be
celebrating at the end of the day.
(And not just because it was my Boss Day.)
Sure enough: At's presentation was
AHHHMAZING
and my dear student MW won the Kapp.
_
Wednesday, April 03, 2019
Tuesday, April 02, 2019
Monday, April 01, 2019
The Rapids of a Great River

An uninspiring photo I took when out hiking with L and Nu this morning, which got the phrase "the rapids of a great river" stuck in my head. After that, the only thing to do was to pay too much for a copy of a book I've always wanted...
#MSU #RedCedarRiver
_
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Watch out, sticks!

The picture is its own happy story.
Alternate story: It's the kind of day where you need a woolen hat when you set out and need to switch it out for sunglasses by the time you get there.
Nu and I set off with Mason jars of chicken soup for At who wasn't feeling well.
We found out when we got to Alma that he'd been running a fever for five days--so it was off to Urgent Care, where we found out that he'd lost even more weight and that he had Strep. Pharmacy next (Amoxy is free!) then back to the MUN House to put him to bed. Refrigerating the soup, I found four other trays of food that he'd stashed without eating them.
Back home, Big A set to throwing away the food and putting the dishes in the dishwasher while I cried my heart out. And that resulted in... a very firmly-worded text to At from Big A. And so we go on.
Alternate story: It's the kind of day where you need a woolen hat when you set out and need to switch it out for sunglasses by the time you get there.
Nu and I set off with Mason jars of chicken soup for At who wasn't feeling well.
We found out when we got to Alma that he'd been running a fever for five days--so it was off to Urgent Care, where we found out that he'd lost even more weight and that he had Strep. Pharmacy next (Amoxy is free!) then back to the MUN House to put him to bed. Refrigerating the soup, I found four other trays of food that he'd stashed without eating them.
Back home, Big A set to throwing away the food and putting the dishes in the dishwasher while I cried my heart out. And that resulted in... a very firmly-worded text to At from Big A. And so we go on.
_
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Friday, March 29, 2019
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Teen Vogue: Fashion, Beauty, Entertainment... and the Resistance

Also: she hadn't had breakfast when I picked her up, and she told me she had texted her mom later to say--Indian Lady picked me up; I got food inside of twenty minutes.
Yup, I have superpowers too.
#SamhitaMukhopadhyay
_
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Monday, March 25, 2019
Plans Are Getting Better
To think that I couldn't wait to start using my 2019 planner, and here I am almost a quarter of the way in, having barely used it. Worse: nearly all of my sabbatical term is over, and I haven't done any of the important stuff I meant to do.
I re-started the planner with all five colors of ink today--I feel so much more intentional and focused when I can confirm at a glance that the various modalities of life are in (chromatic) balance. And I reconfigured the to-do list to make it more realistic given how little time remains between now and getting stuff ready for the spring term.
It may be that it is the prep work that drags the most. And that's where I spent most of my time today--I enjoy being poetry editor--and today was about prepping the selected poems for Dropbox and publication; I love being the advisor to the feminist house--and I spent hours making sure the application materials for next year reached the relevant channels and vetting and worrying about applications; I love teaching in the classroom--and so much of today was re-reading materials and organizing the e-reader (okay this last thing was fun).
Also fun: The Spotify playlist I curated for our class.
_
I re-started the planner with all five colors of ink today--I feel so much more intentional and focused when I can confirm at a glance that the various modalities of life are in (chromatic) balance. And I reconfigured the to-do list to make it more realistic given how little time remains between now and getting stuff ready for the spring term.
It may be that it is the prep work that drags the most. And that's where I spent most of my time today--I enjoy being poetry editor--and today was about prepping the selected poems for Dropbox and publication; I love being the advisor to the feminist house--and I spent hours making sure the application materials for next year reached the relevant channels and vetting and worrying about applications; I love teaching in the classroom--and so much of today was re-reading materials and organizing the e-reader (okay this last thing was fun).
Also fun: The Spotify playlist I curated for our class.
_
Sunday, March 24, 2019
“HARRY POTTER” & THE DEATHLY STATUS QUO
At is in New York for the Model U.N. competition, but his article from last month seemed really pertinent. Some weird typos and things, but I love his take. This is the article he wrote while I was on the Greece trip, mining Nu's help for HP lore.
So far, the only bright spots in a day where both Jordan Peele's Us and and Bobby Mueller's magnum opus disappointed.
_
"Consider, instead, that the wizard world of Harry Potter isn’t a status quo worth returning to. The “magical and perfect” wizard world is based on class, racism and segregation. In a society where magic can magically fix and duplicate things, somehow there are still wizard families living in poverty. "And because I posted it proud-mama style on FB, there were some sweet reminiscences about his playwriting at seven, and him asking me a question at the SALA D.C. conference in 2004, when he was five.
So far, the only bright spots in a day where both Jordan Peele's Us and and Bobby Mueller's magnum opus disappointed.
_
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Saturdates
A full "dayspend" with J that we made happen when she walked into my office two weeks ago and insisted that I pull out my calendar to schedule it. We went to the temple, and lunch, and ended up with cups of tea at home.
Then it was Nu's sleepover with neighbor E after we walked over to Sansu for Big A's Boss Day dinner where I ate too much sushi. It felt so nice to have two kids at dinner with us again. Although when I said that, A said that the adoption thing seems less possible for him with each passing week.
Nu helped me design a Bitmoji so I can at least have tiny ones that way:
_
Friday, March 22, 2019
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Spelling Bee Champion(s)

This is DB's picture of the three finalists, and the random seating R to L is also how we ended up in the rankings. As he put it: "Of the around 100 people at the spelling bee last night - it all came down to these three favorite people of mine! Congrats to Maya, Jill, and Pete on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes!" (I'm the odd one out here, Jill and Pete are DB's much loved family, after all :)
We weren't really going at it Spellbound-style. The event was for Child Advocacy and we'd been in groups up until the final round, and I'd been lucky to have bestie K as well as my CASA director and coordinator on my team. But yes, this did help me cross one more thing of my mental list of things I meant to get to after I moved to America.
* Nu and Big A were going to come to cheer me on, but kids weren't allowed, so they stayed home.
_
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Monday, March 11, 2019
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Saturday, March 09, 2019
Friday, March 08, 2019
Monday, March 04, 2019
Happy Birthday to me!
We went all the way out to Ann Arbor for brunch... it was delicious, decadent, and worth it.
This was yesterday, actually. I have a difficult work meeting today--more on that tomorrow, and At said he couldn't miss his evening class to do a birthday dinner tonight. L says I should be proud of him for not wanting to miss class (I'm trying!!).


_
Sunday, March 03, 2019
Saturday, March 02, 2019
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Tuesday, February 05, 2019
Sunday, February 03, 2019
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