January 12
Happy National Quitter’s Day!
1965
V spoke to me again! I'm up in the air! I think he likes me. I hope so. I should go to a dance he goes to and see if he asks me to dance.
I went to Wykeham Rise this afternoon and - oops, i just realized today is the 12th, not the 14th. Well, for January 14, it's under the 12th! Hoo Boy! It's 10:30 now. I hope I have a good dream with a happy ending - and a true one - about the Beatles or V!!
I LIKE HIM!!
Comment 2006
“Hoo Boy”, indeed. And where did that expression come from, you might ask. A sharp-eyed (and well-read) reader would probably pick up on this and the many other Pogo-isms that are scattered through this diary. Before my own children learned to carry on entire conversations with dialog from the Simpsons, LA Story and Family Guy, my family spoke in fluent Pogo-ese. Actually, my dad, brother and I did; Mom, I guess, was not a fan.
So, Hoo boy! Hot Dawg! Hoo Haw! But don't fawn over it.
Comment 2023
And the ever relevant “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
My first solo date with my husband involved sneaking up to his dorm room to listen to his new Ravi Shankar record. As he explained ragas to me, I glanced around the room and noticed that he owned all the Pogo books that I did not have. The rest, as they say, is history.
1979
It’s snowing! A bad storm is predicted. (“Bad” in Washington DC terms, is.) I’m feeling snoozy and sinusy, ideas are buzzing in my head. Not, unfortunately, the same ones I had last night. Since my notebook was upstairs, last night’s brilliant ideas flew right out of my head. I think there were three of them.
1981
The semester starts in just a few hours. I’ve still got a lot to do! It seems so far away, still. Vacations are good and bad for the same reason: you get out of touch with your everyday routine. What is there about LIFE that seeks its lowest level? Why can’t each day be special, or at least memorable a few days later? Or even one special day a week, to start?
Take today. Today is going to be a super day. There will be a trip to the bank, to the dry cleaner, to the post office , and to Annapolis Hall for slides.
Oh boy.
1995
Jeez!!! Classes start in less than a week and
-I am NOT ready (logistically)
- I did NOT finish the book
- I am NOT ready mentally/emotionally
Now all I can do is hang on for the ride and hope it doesn’t get too bad. The biggest problem facing me is the graduate director job. I had hoped to have time over break to sort things out and het organized BUT…
Ha!
Oh well. Life is like that. Suzy the Christmas beagle is settling in so well, and Rex is taking it in stride.
Comment 2024
We found Suzy Creamcheese on Christmas day 1994, wet and shivering outside Mom’s apartment house. She had a beat-up collar with no license and a six-year-old rabies tag. I had been thinking about a small companion for our big mutt Rex the Wonderdog, and had even name it “Suzy”. And there she was. She turned into the perfect little bitch to Rex’s laid-back dude.
1997
“There is no scarcity except in the soul.”
Well, it’s a nice thought, but the poor and starving would question that. But by arguing with the author am I just looking for a way to slide the question away from myself? We have plenty of money to meet our basic needs and even splurge a bit now and then, and we have good pension plans and health insurance. We can’t buy everything we want, but we are secure. The trouble with material desires is that it is easy to want and keep wanting, even after needs and desires are met. I see a problem we have now: it is easy to spend $20, but when we need $10,000, it’ s not there. It’s not there because we spend $20 five hundred times. I could save $20 a week by eating out less. It wouldn’t affect me much at all. But it is hard. Why?
2013
I skipped yesterday, but it was a very busy, productive day, so no reason to lament. I finished the unisex images from Sears! That took nearly a year, in bits and pieces. Now on to analyzing them.
Today is the Fat Man radio play and party. I am fairly ready, having decided to actually cook very little. All I really need to do is bake brownies and be sure everything is packed.
The students are coming out of the woodwork re grades and such. Not too many this time, though I have too many incompletes and one too many plagiarism cases (that would be one case).
Ah, well, time to get to work. It promises to be a nice day. Perhaps after I put in an hour or so of desk time, there will be a walk.
2024
Happy National Quitter’s Day! I am so happy. After a fortnight of ten or more journals to transcribe, for January 13 there are only two. And I am not alone. Apparently, January 12 is the day when most people give up on their New Year’s Resolutions, and I have been been observing it for decades!
It’s a good thing I started this project on a random day in November 2022. It’s still going strong, 421 daily posts later. Some time in April, I will be done. Then what, I wonder?
2025
And now I know what comes next. Stepping up the storytelling, poetry, and visual arts. Archiving the journal so it’s there for me and whoever else needs it. Back to a private, paper journal (thanks, Thea!)