August 18
The rest must be done in my “spare time”.
1966 (Connecticut)
I got home at 2 AM the morning of the 19th. Sam came to the door first, then Dad, then Mom, then BOB. It’s so good to be home.
Comment 2023
Of course the family mutt was the first one at the door. Good old Yosemite Sam.
1978 (MD)
If only I felt more like starting. The last two days have been hectic and tiring. All the new graduate students are here and I’ve spent the entire time answering questions. I tell myself that after Monday it will be over, but that isn’t true. The publicity gig isn’t done, and my office assistant replacement will still need some help now and then. Still, I have to be realistic about my time and commitments. This year is crucial. Four courses a semester, fall and spring, and one last class in the summer.
Comment 2023
This was the start of my second year in the PhD program. I had decided to take four courses a semester in order to be done with coursework and comprehensive exams by August of 1979, and devote the next year to my dissertation. The goal was to finish in 1980, three years after I started.
1979
I have about two hours of work time available now. It’s hard to do things. As I always feel I have to choose between several possibilities. (One possibility is always “just lounge around”.)
Note, 2023: List of thirteen (!!) outstanding projects follows. “Dissertation” is number 11; also labelled “most important” underlined twice.)
The top three are my dissertation, comps, and my course, in that order. I should spend 3 days a week on campus on my dissertation, 4 hours a week on the course, exclusive of grading, and set up a reading schedule for my comps. The rest must be done in my “spare time”.
Comment 2023
Truly laughable, especially the part about my “spare time”.
1980 (MD - the day before my PhD thesis defense)
Tomorrow is the big day and has it snuck up on me! I am little prepared, having practically forgotten what my thesis is about. The visit with Mom was very nice, and just long enough. It’s hard after a while to take her constant chit-chat. But then I remember that she is alone most of the time and that being alone sometimes makes people that way. She’s also critical - - but it’s not just aimed at me.
So here I am: 31, happily married, almost a PhD, ready to get down to business and carve myself a niche. Almost. I am still inwardly terrified. Life would be easier without the pressure to publish. Then again, without the external pressure, I’d probably still be pushing myself.
1981
I went to the doctor yesterday and had a brief checkup. While I was there I read all the baby magazines I could get my hands on. What a lot of information! How much conflict!! I can imagine ourselves in a year, an earnest pair of young parents, buried in books while a baby cries in the background.
1986
A very nice weekend. We went camping at Cunningham Falls State Park. This was Kiddo’s first real camping trip (tents, not cabins) , after one night in our back yard and one night at Greenbelt Park. She really enjoyed it: hiking, eating outside, s’mores, going to get water, the animals, the whole thing. So did I. It’s been just plain too long since we’ve been camping.
This week promises to be cooler and - of all things - rainy. After a particularly bad drought this season, we are finally getting rain. I think it’s too late for most of my garden, except for the pumpkins and watermelons.
Enough dawdling! Time to get up!
1997
Connie and Dave are here for a short visit, which feels almost like a mini-vacation in my own home. How nice! Simple Abundance is pushing me to do “something creative”. But what? The problem is that my creative efforts are too many and too fragmented: sewing AND music AND cooking AND writing AND teaching AND parenting. (Yes, that is certainly a creative activity.) Multitalented or spread too thin? Does having too many outlets keep me from becoming truly expert in any of them? Must mull that over.
Comment 2023
New question: How much do I care about “expertise”? Not much, as is turns out. For me, it’s been so much more fun to pursue a variety of expressive outlets. Though I am sure that if I had focused on any single interest “I should have been a great proficient”. (H/t Jane Austen)
2006
How about conceiving of learning (understanding) as flowing along and between people? Or maybe there are two different kinds of learning - internal and external. Internal is done completely on one’s own, in our’s own experiences, thoughts, and reflections. External is learning that stems from interaction with others, either in person or through reading or other media.
2022 (MD)
Went over my sermon, then a busy afternoon. UU service at Riderwood, my sermon was a success. Early music rehearsal, and dinner with prospective residents. Very nice folks, once lived just a few blocks from us in University Park, but we never met. So much for small towns.
2023
This week I jammed my to-do list into one afternoon. After a nice morning at the computer, I had lunch in the most casual of the eateries here, attended the UU service, rehearsed with the early music ensemble (while the car charged nearby), dropped off a stack of DVDs and books at the campus library, picked up a DVD on hold, met a friend for our first visit since March 2020, and picked up dinner at the Best BBQ in DC. It sounds like a lot, but it was all things I actually wanted to do, especially the visit.
My friend was one of the “Franklin’s Regulars” who gathered every Friday at the local brewpub between 2004 and 2020. Some have moved away, one just died this summer, and the rest have just dispersed. This particular friend has medical challenges, including long Covid, so she’s been a bit of a hermit. It was a wonderful reunion.
I do miss the whole idea of the “regulars”. It started when Kiddo 2 went off to college and Jim and I decided to do a TGIF happy hour every week at our favorite local hangout. Soon we were inviting others to stop by, in a modern version of the Victorian “at home”. The Paolettis were “at home” at Franklin’s from 5 to 7 every Friday. Sometimes it was just us, but more often it was six or more, as many as a dozen. No reservations, no need to clean the house or dress up. Perfect entertaining. Sigh.