June 20
An article a week? Seriously?
1966
Worked on Mom’s dress today. It’s going OK so far.
While I was moving the lawn chair outside, Sam got out and ran away. I looked for him, but couldn’t find him. He came home by himself.
I worked from 2 to 5:30. Dale H wants to do a story on me. OK!
John Speck is still missing. I hope nothing bad happened to him. I’m wearing my hair differently.
Comment 2023
Having the local paper cover my trip to Mexico was no big surprise. Dad worked there. The John Speck story was our local mystery. He had also worked at the paper. He disappeared, his car was found at an airport; never heard from him again.
1976
I think I’ve found my discipline: American Studies. There’s an interdisciplinary program at U Maryland that even includes museum work. Amazing. I am being guided, which is good, since I spend too much time intellectualizing to guide myself. Things will work out. We will find a place to live, and we will move up. Or out. I will do something to improve people’s lives. I will, I will.
Comment 2023
In just seventeen years, I found myself in American Studies!
1977
Chugging along. C was here for a week, and we are exhausted from hosting. Her latest man came down to visit, as well, and they ended up necking a lot. It was a strange visit.
I didn't enjoy it very much, I'm afraid… Too busy and too anxious.
This weekend R and C will be visiting, and next week Mom will be here for the Fourth of July weekend. I just finished a very complicated book on car culture and want to set down my still rather muddled thoughts. The author strikes me as strange; over involved and scattered. Some parts of the book are quite engrossing; some are deadly dull and confusing. (lots of economic data).
1978
A clear, but very hot day. I accomplished a lot today despite X’s constant chatter. He's steams me with his blanket statements. Such hyperbole. He doesn't know everything!
1979
Ideas I have had and must put off. My biggest problem is thinking of how to fund them.:
Videotape international dress demos
Oral history project with Woodies 20-year club.
Ideas I have had, and have put off for some other dumb reason:
Article on theses
Article on Hazard Mill
Article on the 1920s
Article on Smithsonian project
Article on historians in home ec
That list is disgusting! I could do one a week this summer and still have free time. So I just gotten them down in my calendar, for all the good that will do me. What do I procrastinate so? It is my most severe flaw, I am convinced.
Comment 2023
Your other flaw is trying to cram too many projects into a very short time. An article a week? Seriously?
1980
It’s always time to work. I could get tired of it. Except when this is done, it will be time for bigger (I think) and better (I hope) things. A session at the Library of Congress reassured me that I really have little work to do, in terms of reading. There is more computer work to do (which I will start this weekend, and maybe finish). I want the rough draft done by next week!
Explanation 2023
Dissertating all summer.
1983
What a super three days I've just had. My energy level is high, I've been working efficiently, planning has made my life easier. And I'm just up. I'm back on the pill and my life is better. I got seven pages typed today, with Kiddo awake. I programmed the computer to print out my shopping list. Not that the task is so great but I did it! Following a model, of course.
1986
What a pleasant morning! Funny to say that, but after several months of drought to wake up to gusts of wind that smell like rain is most pleasant. Hope we get more than just the smell. My work is going well - - despite the interruptions of Kiddo 1’s swimming class (1 1/2 mid-morning hours). It’s only for two weeks, thank heaven. I’ve actually gotten a fair amount of writing done, first on Kathy’s paper, then on the menswear one (nearly done), now on the infant sections of the book chapter.
C seems very pleased and relaxed lately. It’s been more more fun to be around her, as she doesn’t take offense at every little thing.
Now it’s raining nicely! How we need it!
1993
Yes, 6/20. Spring has gone quickly, and summer starts tomorrow. There’s so much to recount, from work, Scouts, music and all my many etceteras. But they are also so forgettable, once passed. Isn’t most of life? My general impression is that I - - the whole family, too - - have been too busy, but happy.
We are now in Asheville, North Carolina, two days into the trip west. The Trip. I have dreamt about this trip. The drive back across the country to North Platte seems impossible. Mostly, I am struck by the painful futility of going back. It’s just too late. Even if North Platte were exactly the same, I am so very, very far from that little girl who moved away.
We will see what happens when my life intersects once more with North Platte.
In the meantime, just traveling with the family is such great fun. I hope it continues.
Comment 2023
Road trip! New car (a Taurus station wagon), a family reunion in Kansas, and side trip to the town I left in 1957.
2004
Bozeman, MT.
God, I love being here.
Today I am just doing laundry and enjoying my surroundings. The mountains are wonderful to watch - - fog. Sunshine, cloud-shadows, always changing. Would I hate it here in the winter? Or would it be enough to live here from mid-June to mid-August of each year?
The bus ride turned out to be 7 1/2 hours, including about 35 minutes of rest stops. We finally met the east bound train at 10:30 pm. But still, the bus ride was gorgeous. I need to plot a way to be here every summer.
How fine a thing it is to turn the page in a book, and, like turning the corner of a hallway, collide with an idea coming the other way.
“This fear of the live encounter is actually a sequence of fears that begins in the fear of diversity.”
Oh my god, it’s all here on page 39 of The Courage to Teach!
Fear of diversity (wishing that otherness does not exist)
If we embrace diversity, we experience fear of conflict
If we peel back our fear of conflict, we find fear of losing our identity (If we lose an argument, we “lose” our self.)
If we embrace the promise of diversity, of creative conflict and of “losing” in order to “win”, we still face the fear that encountering the other will compel us to change our lives.
2010
Work continues on the book. I haven’t taken any time off, but I am behind, which is a little frightening. I am feeling pretty good about the work, just worried that (1) I won’t meet my deadline and (2) I won’t get my other stuff done, either. I have a work routine that’s giving me about 5 hours a day, sometimes 6. Is that enough? How can I squeeze out more productivity and also get “me” time and stay sane?
2019
No to-do list today!
Horrible night’s sleep later. Heat? Humidity? Worrying about missing the boat to Star Island?
2023
In five days I will be on Star Island again. I have transcribed almost all of the journals through July 5, and before I leave on Saturday, I will have scheduled them to post while I am away. I have started a couple of new knitting projects for the train ride and the hours I intend to spend on the porch. There might be a new post coming on Gender Mystique, but not today.
In an echo of 1986, we are finally getting rain after a very dry month.
2024
Yesterday on Star Island: coffee with my Morning Friend, Wendy. Then I wrote a bit, and then shared some of my poems with my workshop. Mac and cheese for lunch, then a poetry reading (not me) then a nap, then social hour. LOBSTAH NIGHT! Then a bit of dance party (too much disco for my taste). Then sunset, then bed.
