March 21
I am not getting as much work done as I’d hoped. That’s ok, though. It’s spring break.
1965
It was cold today but the snow melted quite a bit. Mom was pretty sick so I helped out. Maybe I did too much. I made lunch, baked two pies (chocolate and pumpkin) and did the breakfast, lunch and baking dishes. I also cut out my blouse for the talent show. It's going to be neat. It's white dacron and cotton and will have neck and sleeve ruffles with lace on the edges. I love it! I hope we have time to make it!
1979
I feel solitary here at Connie and Jack’s place. If I were home and Jim and Marley had been gone for two days I would feel very alone. But this is a nice solitude. I am not getting as much work done as I’d hoped. That’s ok, though. It’s spring break.
1985
A nice opportunity to lie in bed in the morning and listen to the birds. There’s not much else to listen to here, thank heaven. So much quieter than on Adelphi Road.
I got a nice personalized rejection note from Vintage books yesterday. So at least I have moved up to a higher class of rejection slip. It does discourage me. I spent so much time in 1985 on things that have been rejected. It worries me, I fact. Am I really mediocre? Have I hit my level of incompetence at age 35? Or is this just a dip in the road? It’s probably one reason I have felt so down lately. Not just hormones, but fear of failure. Add to that and my struggles as a mother and you’ve got one sad case of modern working motherhood. Feh. Time to crawl out from under my rock and get to work.
1989
Mom is driving me crazy again. She has been offered an apartment in a building much closer to us and it all looked very good. Now she’s getting cold feet about moving. How can she be SO indecisive, so short-sighted, so STUPID? God, I hope I am NEVER like her. Right now, after a 30-minute conversation with her, I am absolutely boiling mad. If I could shoot her with a tranquilizer gun and have her wake up, all moved and unpacked, in the new apartment, I’d do it. She’s been so stubborn lately. Besides, right now she’s so negative it just wouldn’t go. I need to reconcile myself to the reality of her not moving.
1997
It is a beautiful spring day and my allergies are out in force. Still, I am going to walk to school and back. Isn’t this the weather I have been waiting for?
I have to talk with ___ today (another reason for a walk…so I can consider my words.
Comment 2023
I did not have allergies before 1977, the year after we moved to the DC area. Then that fall I had a head cold that would not quit. Finally breaking down and going to the campus health center, I was told that mine was a common saga. People move to the DMV (District-Maryland-Virginia, for those not in the know) from Elsewhere and within a year their noses start running. Apparently, we are blessed with an overlap of seasonal allergens from south and north. Between that and our lovely long growing season, newcomers who never before had allergies suddenly discover that warm weather means itchy eyes and drippy noses.
And the unnamed student I had to “talk to” (never a good thing)? I remembered his full name, even all these years, because he was one of a group of three “bad boys” who inhabited the living-learning program I directed back then. Of course, I had to look him up. Now in his mid-fifties, he’s a high school teacher and coach. I know that another one of the trio also became a teacher. Not sure where the third is now, but each of them came to me at some point before graduation and apologized for being so much trouble. The kids turned out alright.
2020
Today’s advice: Don’t talk about the Yankees if they’re not a Yankees fan.
2024
Fact: At one time or another, everyone I love has driven me nuts, and I have returned the favor.
That fact is really profound although probably would make a very weird title for a self-help book