January 22

I think I may need to rethink my projects list.

1965

Marks closed today. I feel so helpless. I know I've gone down in history - way down. The marking period went so fast. I brought home my English and History books. I go tobogganing with Marcia tomorrow, but the snow is all melted. It might flurry tonight, but a lot of help that is. We lost another ball game - 80-30! What a lousy team! Coach K doesn't care, though.

Comment 2023

Grumble, grumble, grumble. If nothing else, this diary is evidence that I was a typical moody teenager.

The quantitative historian in me just did a quick analysis of my 1965 January (so far, anyway). Of my 13 “up” days, 5 were on weekends. Five of my 6 “down days were on school days. Yet, if you asked me, I would have said I liked school. 

(Spock voice) Fascinating.

1978

This semester is going to be enjoyable, I think. The French class is promising and the ECON class even seems interesting. Besides, I am going to try to go swimming three times a week.

We saw “Oh, God” this weekend. I think I had a religious experience. There really is a God - a power - a prime mover. But he created not only us, but our free will. If that isn’t so, why try to be good at all?

Connie wrote me a letter with many elegant phrases in it. I understand those words, but would feel awkward using them. Sometimes I despair of ever becoming a writer. All my words are so ordinary. I am weaving gingham instead of jacquards.

1979

First day of class.

44 students! Incredible, insane! Hanging from the rafters. All smiling benignly. I couldn’t even scare them off by waving oral reports and reading lists at them. Flattering, perhaps. Popularity or grapevine reputation? What is my grapevine reputation? My palms sweat at the very thought.

I need to do some ironing and plan my semester.

1980

(After my interview at Virginia Tech for a faculty position)

I am thoroughly confused. I think I am in love with a department. This is awful. I felt more at ease with these people than I have at Maryland for four years. Absolutely awful.

1987

What a day! We had a monster snow storm of 12+ inches. Then the furnace conked out, and Kiddo 2 had another 2 hour feeding run. We spent the day across the street with the Kellers, a German family visiting the US. Kiddo 1 played with 4-year-old Johannes, who speaks no English. They seemed to get along somehow.

And tomorrow I am supposed to go to Charlotte for a planning meeting. Frankly, I’m not real excited about it. It’s professionally important, but it’s not a cosmic sort of thing. Part of the reason is I’m just plain afraid to fly in bad weather. Silly, I know. But our street is still not cleared. I’m not sure we can make it out to Route 1. I guess if we can get that far we can make it to the airport.

1989

(After four page-long lists of “things I am procrastinating on”)

The main thing I’m procrastinating on is getting organized. I let my new system slide. I’ve always said that organized people don’t need “systems” to control their lives. Here is proof!

Comment 2024

You realize that makes no damn sense, right?

1990

It has been forever since I wrote! Somehow I manage to survive and now I am on top of things. Kiddo 2 has discovered the potty. Hooray.

1997

I like the notion that the Simple Abundance path is like the road west, or Grandfather’s journey to the New World. He did not suddenly arrive and become a Canadian or an American.His journey took years, day by day, with constant changes. While it helps to keep my long-range goal in mind, it helps more to focus on each day’s incremental change. What will today bring?

I worry about what will happen next week when classes start and life gets hectic again.

2013

Long inaugural weekend, with quite a bit of choir on Sunday. Classes start tomorrow , and I am certainly ready. This week I revise my chapter about unisex child raising.

2018

Today is Monday.

I am in Raleigh, NC, at a co-working space called the Loading Dock. I have work to do, but don’t know what it is. It is time to put together another “syllabus” for February. The book/project/whatever is slowly reshaping itself in my mind. This is a little scary. The good thing is that every old idea is never fully discarded. Yay computers and the Cloud.

There is a dog here who is exactly the dog, I want, if and when. Silky fur, a big boofy ass like Rex’s. Just the right size. Chill and friendly.

I think I may need to rethink my projects list.

Comment 2024

Ya THINK? Also, I am not so sure my habit of hoarding every word I have written since we got our first computer in 1983 is a great idea. And now I am scraping my old journals and transferring THOSE words to the interwebs. Mercy me.

2019 (Mexico)

An excellent Spanish class. More conjugation, more vocabulary, lots more practice. Now I am off to a couple of markets, a museum or two, and a nap and pool time. Lunch will happen at some point, probably at some gringa-friendly location. Despite a passing familiarity with the language, communication is stressful! I am starting to think in Spanish again, though.

Also: a poem came to me, and then another! In Spanish!!

En el Zócalo

Sol y sombra
Vendedores y compradores
Abuelas y nietas
Oaxaqueños, turistas, personas perdidas y olvidadas.
Novas y extraños
Todos caminando en el aire suave.

In the Zócalo

Sun and shade
Sellers and shoppers
Grandmothers and granddaughters
Oaxacans, tourists, the post and forgotten.
Lovers and strangers
All strolling in the soft air.

Oración

O virgen de Guadalupe
Cuida de tus hijos
Envuélvelos con amor
Protégelos de todo daño
Disuelve los muros del odio
Con tu bondadosa
Guíe a los viajeros a la acogida, el descanso y la paz.

Prayer

O Virgin of Guadalupe
Watch over your children
Enfold them with love
Protect them from harm
Dissolve the walls of hate
With your gracious kindness
Lead the travelers to welcome, rest, and peace.

2023

A promising new day. Gray, but bright. Cold and empty, or I might say, spacious. I have been writing every day for two months now. Also thinking of writing, and actually knitting less. Reading more. I feel balanced; the only thing missing is movement. Too cold to walk outside. To lazy/busy to go to the gym. I think that’s ok, though. That time will come.