April 20

A bunch of years, and Now What?

1965

Went babysitting at Bs tonight. They're the people next door. They have a 7 year old, a 10 year old and a 13 year old. The 13 year old, a boy, is alright, but the other two are brats - nice brats, but brats. However, who's complaining? I got $1.50 and it's a nice family. Mr. B had his face badly burned in the war and is very much disfigured.

Comment 2023 

Those kids are now in their sixties and seventies.

Mr. B graduated from Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn. He enlisted in the Army Air Force in World War II, and served as an airplane mechanic and gunner in the No. 459 Bomb Group, No. 759 Bomb Squadron attaining the rank of staff sergeant. Among his decorations and citations are the Purple Heart Medal with Oak Leaf cluster, the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three Bronze Battle Stars, the Good Conduct Medal and the World War II victory Medal. He had no face. .

1979

Yesterday I was much better than usual. The weather was beautiful and I had the whole day to work in the library. (Shades of next year.) The two papers (for AMST and TXCE 608) are far, far from being finished. (Much less started) I can see where they are going now, which I couldn’t before. It’s been a disappointing semester. Despite a lot of work, I have gotten less done that it seemed I could. I am looking forward to next summer and next year as a busy, but less complicated time. I will have a few clear tasks

1) dissertation

2) teaching

3) comprehensives

And these I will set as my greatest priorities. After that will come education of the mind…a few set hours every week to read and reflect on things other that those three priorities.

1998

The retreat weekend was a wonderful respite, even considering the long, wet drive in a car packed with teenagers. They were respectful and inclusive, and I enjoyed their energy and affection for each other.

I can’t say that I completely fulfilled my intention, but I certainly clarified my sense of transition and was able to focus on and celebrate my roles as mother and daughter.

The next month is a month to savor — my last month “in the world” before I go on sabbatical, which is a kind of retreat, after all. Lots to do, lots to experience. Hallelujah.

Comment 2023

These two entries, over two decades apart, caught me at a similar time: the spring semester winding down. In both years, I was looking forward to the coming academic year (the only kind of year I knew, for most of my life). In 1979, I was almost done with my PhD coursework and anticipating a year of “just” teaching and working on my dissertation. (LOL) Eager to be done with school, I had made the astoundingly stupid decision to take four courses a year while I was also teaching a course every semester. The goal was to be done with being a student and concentrate on being a scholar. Instead, I achieved new heights of procrastination and hit my first serious case of writer’s block. The 1998-99 sabbatical turned out to be a complete dead end. I planned to (finally) write that book about children’s clothing, but instead plunged into the exciting new world of online teaching. Oh, well. Live and never learn.

 2023

Having realized that the more old entries I add, the less sense a single “response” makes, I am changing my format a bit. The past in regular, the comments in italics. Hope this is less confusing. What say you?

This also encourages me to use today’s entry as a more of an actual journal.

Where am I, and what am I up to? It’s a Thursday, so that means Early Music rehearsal. While I write this, I am listening to the alto parts of the four pieces we are working on today. Thank you, Meredith Wilson and Harold Hill, for introducing me to the “think method”. 

My writing group meets tomorrow, and I am still procrastinating on my latest revision. Or maybe it’s a re-re-re-vision. This poor chapter.

Maybe I should knit less — I have four works in progress and I do a few rows in each everyday. But ripping out a bad row in knitting is so much more satisfying than revising an already ragged paragraph. 

Tonight a friend is coming over with Chinese food and we are going to watch an Indian movie starring my not-so-secret star crush. Hubba hubba!

Shah Rukh Khan - the sexiest man alive. Big nose, dramatic eyebrows, dimples, and a six-pack at 58.

2024

It has finally happened. I reached the point where I have transcribed every entry for this day. “Now what?” as I am fond of saying. I cast on two new knitting projects this morning, bringing my works in progress to four (again). Now, lunch.