1978
I am gradually easing myself into my summer schedule. Today I actually worked my projected 4 hours, then went to the library for 1 1/2 hours. As usual, the plan crumbled when I got home… a little paper reading, a little nibbling, a little tube, and an hour was frittered away before I even sat myself down at the piano for an hour of practice. The memorization is beyond me, and unnecessary. I just asked Jim and he said he did a lot of memorization. What I want to know is HOW.
The recruiting thing is going along fairly smoothly. Too much phone-calling. Hate calling strangers.
{more measurements here. Waist up, hips down, thighs up}
Aw, come on!! Am I doomed to have flabby thighs?
Later that day - -
Good day. Came up with what I believe is an excellent cover design for the undergraduate flyer. I just hope that’s it. I’ve also practiced piano for 1/2 hr. (Short session today.) and introduced BD to the video room and “Nova”. A good, successful day. Dr. Smith wants to put me in as a part-time instructor to teach 221 next year at $1100 a semester. That’s $4700/year, with the TA position, plus the $1000 fellowship from the Smithsonian.
Hot diggedy!
1979
I walked to campus yesterday; by my estimate, about 2 1/2-3 miles. It took me 50 minutes. Surprisingly, my feet and legs didn’t hurt at all; I guess it’s only standing that gets me.
I have been thinking about my article on historians in home economics for months now. I’ve left time to think and write but keep running into the same brick wall.
Then there’s the matter of the apartment. Rumor has it that Zalco has 20 days to fix a variety of problems or lose their management license. That’s how many managers in 3 years? We now pay $250 plus electricity. I would only move to move up, and that probably means moving up to $300 plus electricity.
The question is, could we look at condos in Greenbelt and possibly for a little more have an investment instead? Any way you look at it, we will be pinching pennies. How does that make us any different from other grad student couples? Is it worth the $35 difference to have wooden cabinets, a nicer apartment, a swimming pool, laundries on each floor, no dumpsters in the parking lot, etc? And having to move. (That’s $75-$100 for the truck, right there.) How does N manage $255/month on her research assistant salary? She must be pulling from her savings. And even S, with her #325-$350/month apartment, that she shares…they must have the same income we do, or thereabouts. That’s a miserable decision. $350 plus electricity on $4700 + $10,400 a year. More apartment, less everything else. (Maybe get rid of the car?)
Then again, our disposable income has risen by $100 a month since we paid off the car. We could probably pay $40/month more and still not alter our life style. I wish we could live with one bedroom…the main requirement is room for Jim’s workbench (which he hardly ever uses). That’s $40 a month(? Probably less) for storage space. Money, money, money.
1985
A very nice day/night in Boston brought me back home feeling well-rested and raring to go. The relatively cool weather helped, too. In fact, yesterday was sunny and a little brisk. Humidity sucks the energy out of me.
Palmer wants we to come in for a biopsy - - not cancer, he says, more likely some kind of inflammation. Great. Just when I think I want to have another child, the plumbing starts to go. Well, we’ll see how it goes. Maybe we’ll adopt after all. If only the grandmothers would be more accepting!!
1998
Gray so far, and cool. But peaceful and cozy inside. My back and hips ache, making it hard to change position from sitting to standing, hard to wash my face over the sink, hard to put my socks on.
On Tuesday I go to the doctor and hopefully will begin to deal with these problems. I am not ready to be disabled at 49, and determined to identify the problem and fix it, if possible.
Yesterday I played Tetris too much. It’s one of those occasional indulgences, but one of truly questionable value.
Comment 2023
I played Teris so much that when I drove on the Beltway the cars changing lanes turned into Tetris pieces.
2016
Feeling wistful this morning, for no particular reason. Maybe it’s listening to Lancelot’s Tune. Or the need to work on the Vestoj article. Or maybe just June. My blog(s) have been very active lately. A post about boy culture - a query, with a couple of framing paragraphs - has been viewed a couple of hundred times in 24 hours, and I got some very thoughtful replies.
The fact that culture changes - and that we actually change culture by inhabiting it and interacting with it is the nugget. It’s the puzzle. How do we do it? How does it happen without conscious intent? It’s as if we are culture-excreting organisms, releasing new patterns or altering old ones when tickled with a stick, or threatened by predators. It’s all so tangled and confused that I just want to sit and unknot it. But not now, not today. The Vestoj article needs to be written, and in four days. FOUR DAYS!
I have been aggressively trying to maintain and even improve my health. Thirty more years, please; a second career. More writing, lots more art, more curiosity satisfied. Grandson as an adult. Granddaughter in middle age. Great-grandchildren.
Living that long would come at the cost of losing most of my current friends, some of my family, and even many of my former students. All of my childhood heroes. Musicians I have loved. Authors I have admired. All gone.So I need to keep finding new heroes, new idols, new friends, just as I have found a younger dentist and a replacement doctor. But mostly I need to take better care of myself. 2046.
Comment 2023
Lancelot’s Tune by Buskin and Batteau and Friends. You might like it.
Current situation, 2023
Four entries today, eight entries tomorrow. The rhythm of life. I worry about the imaginary (I hope) day when I wrote in everyone of my journals. All 34 of them.