1965
Went sitting for O'Rourkes - until 2:30 AM. I got $4, but am I pooped! I went downtown with H and got some mascara and a bow (for my hair).
V is hard to forget. He pops up everywhere. Marcia teases me whenever she sees me trying to ignore him.
Well, I've got to go to bed. Goodnight!
Comment 2023
Witness my attempts to pretty myself up for the guy I was ignoring.
1978
An excellent weekend. It seems that any sewing makes a weekend excellent. Friday I found I am getting an honorarium for the publisher for reviewing T’s book - - fancy that! I just did it for the experience. Had a heavy snow on Friday that disrupted all my plans. Didn’t go to the library, didn’t get any reading done, oh, my oh my. I did get some tings done, and I finally made it to the library last night and got one of my social mobility books. A short one, it turns out - - - how nice!
Also, I have to write a recommendation for one of my students. This will be hard. I keep drafting it in my mind. Much as I like her, I can’t give her an unqualified recommendation. With her hearing and speech impairment, there are some things she can’t do. My problem is that she’s going to a job fair and the recommendation must cover many job situations.
Comment 2024
So many firsts. My first paid reviewing gig. And my first Black student, my first disabled student, and my first student recommendation, all rolled up in one person. Other students avoided her, because she was hard to understand. Her speech had been affected by her undiagnosed hearing loss, as I learned when I took her to the still fairly-new campus Office of Disability. She was aware of it, of course, and had learned to compensate on her own. But she went to school before the Americans with Disabilities Act, and before the local schools were desegregated in 1972. The predominantly White high school she attended had a reputation of ignoring the newly-arrived Black students. I tutored a literacy student from the same era a while ago who’d gone to integrated schools from sixth grade on. At the age of 55, she was still reading at the fifth grade level; the teachers in her new schools had ignored her and just passed her on every year. My student in 1978 was doing better than that; she read voraciously and wrote very well. I learned about her hearing when she asked to borrow my lecture notes after each class, a technique she had used for years.
She would be around 70 now, and I wonder how life turned out for her. I’ve tried to look her up, but she had a fairly common name.
1980
How very fragile a thing is ego. This morning I was feeling fairly good, in control, finishing off my studying. Then I spoke to my advisor and he informed me that the search committee was having trouble deciding between me and the other candidate. I felt crushed. What a drag. Well, all I can do is take my exam tomorrow and then hope. I hate this stuff.
Comment 2024
My only competitor for the tenure-track position in the department was a classmate and friend. Both of our advisors were on the search committee, to be fair. Mine thought it would be a good idea to tell me stuff like that.
1981
I’ve started exercising. I have decided to make 7-7:30 “my time” in the morning. That’s enough for some exercise, a show, some piano, or writing letters or in my diary. Then 15 minutes for chores and 15 minutes to get dressed. Sounds organized. It might last a week. Maybe.
1997
Yesterday started in a jumble (even Kiddo 2 slept late!) but ended well, with a good time with students and an evening of Irish music. Today is sunny - - at last, after days of rain and clouds.
It strikes me that I have always pushed Kiddo 1 too much. Maybe “push”is too strong a word. Mostly, I have anticipated, thinking she was ready for something when she wasn’t. (Sometimes because she expressed interest, sometimes because I thought she would like it, but often before she was ready.) I think I have learned my lesson; I’ve done that less with Kiddo 2. Sorry, Kiddo 1.