Sunday, October 31, 2021
underneath it all
Saturday, October 30, 2021
tight/rope
the moment before thought
startling inching shaking
me alive
In the throb of this time
so borderless and so big
bruising every impulse
to be here
Friday, October 29, 2021
rally
Here I am waiting for Big A to give me a ride to the g/f's halloween party tonight.
(I'm supposed to be a butterfly... a social butterfly. Ha.)
Thursday, October 28, 2021
patch of happy
I had thrown my head back feeling the lift of a good work day (that was thankfully done) and had to marvel at how much the sky matched Bluey who was waiting to take me home where I knew Big A was making pizza and At was coming over for a family dinner.
As it turns out it was even better because L came over bearing a pie she'd baked for Nu who has been a very, very good "chicken daddy" indeed.
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
two notes in a minor key
B. Looking over minutes from last month's faculty meeting (which I had joined online) it turns out that my only contribution had been re. the library deaccession: "Maya—This is a blow. Used to be in acquisitions for post colonialism. Loves teaching in the library stacks. Students are missing opportunity physical catalogues. Going to sell books for peanuts—not placing them in another library. Very upset."
Those last two words made me chuckle extra hard. Not sure if I claimed to be very upset or if the empathetic poet-novelist-playwright colleague who took minutes that day summarized my rant.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
what we got
Big A went to Boston to accept an award and all I got was this cute and fuzzy picture!
It was a sudden trip so there was some scrounging around for childcare coverage, but things worked out fine. I found myself getting a bit antsy as one meeting after my fourth class of the day ran past 5:00 pm, but... I got home by dinner time, got everyone their dinner, and got all the kid and puppy cuddles I could handle.
Monday, October 25, 2021
contrast
At least being stuck indoors meant I got things off the to-do list like a monster since I had all that new week energy anyway.
Excited for student projects to take off this week.
Not excited about meeting HR to troubleshoot health insurance for Nu.
Sunday, October 24, 2021
a variety of strikes
Still busy celebrating Big A's birthday weekend here. Also: UU, OWL, gardening, A hang with JL to celebrate her new place. But also a weekend where I seem to have blown off three parties (a secular muddle of early halloween and karva chauth) due to a combination of work/malaise.
When I complained about the foggy day to EM as I was trying to beg off going on a walk with her, she said we should pretend we were "visiting Scotland or some other place where the dreary weather has been romanticized." My friends are loving, forgiving and so, so smart.
Saturday, October 23, 2021
Happy Birthday, Big A!
My Big A's birthday... It's not like I believe in astrology, but he's all the Scorpio my Pisces soul yearns for.
He elected to have dinner out at Mitchell's. So here we all are eating out in our own city for the first time since...
(I thought it was the first time we ate out, but the kids reminded me that we'd eaten out a couple of times on our summer trips. Not sure how or why I forgot that!)
We started the day with donuts and ended it with brownies--sweet!
Friday, October 22, 2021
ahead of me
But there was barely time to sit down between committee and student meetings all day. So at 4:30 when the last meeting was finally done, and I'd even managed to reach two dear students who've been down and out of touch this term, and I had just two more emails to send off, I cleaned my office thoroughly. (Because I was wearing--what my science colleagues called--my 1970's-style ENG. prof. dress with the tie collar? Who knows!)
I watered all the plants, trimmed, weeded, took tons of papers to the shred-it box, dusted, swept, and looked longingly at the armchair I'd installed in my office when I moved in... back when I thought the life of an academic involved hours of reading and looking out of the window. Ha. Some day it will come.
Thursday, October 21, 2021
happy animals
A long-awaited consult with the kind and compassionate people at the Gender Clinic at the U of M's children's hospital. (It's officially Mott Children's Hospital, but dude was pretty racist even for his time.)
Nu's happy with the plan of action and we're happy Nu's happy.
<<<<Nu and I loved our Covid-Screening stickers too...
going through the (e)motions
Off to Grand Rapids today to visit the #1 Sculpture Park in the USA (are there others?) and then dinner at a friend's place until late a...

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