September 26
So many good times!
1965
Comment 2024
I just found this artifact from the fall of 1965. I can tell because I had just harvested a watermelon (thus fall and not spring), and I reference Algebra class, which I took Freshman and Junior year. Wouldn't it be nice if this outline created during study hall contained signs of emerging intellectual brilliance? Nope, this really was me at 14.
1977
On the threshold of a week I’d just as soon be looking back on! Alice is in London, so I am teaching her classes. Dreamt last night that halfway through the lecture someone stands up and says could I speak up, they haven’t heard a work I said.
Comment 2023
Anyone else have performance anxiety nightmares?
1978
Gave my “clothing words” lecture today; it ran too long. And I ruined it by telling a good one that they enjoyed (denim, dungaree, jeans and Levis) and then telling one more (robe, robbery) that I liked and they liked less. Live and learn. The next lecture needs to be shorter, or they’ll grow to hate me.
Connie called last night with the news that she’d had two job offers. I guess she picked the right field! Then another old friend called and we had a really great talk.
1982
Today I went to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Silver Spring. It was very interesting. There were familiar things (the tunes, the Bible reading, the offering) and new things (no cross, no liturgy, no prayer). It was comfortable as well as interesting. I’d never heard the congregation laugh in a church service. Or applaud. It was very friendly. It was also elitist and liberal. It’s a very intellectual church and may be a bit like Mensa - self-conscious intelligent. I found it fascinating that nearly everyone I met was a former something else. The minister was raised in a small evangelical group. His wife was was raised Catholic. I met a former Lutheran in the coffee line. A Jewish man named Kermit was running the pre-school class. Fascinating.
1997
So am I on the right track? Am I reaping what I sowed when preparing for this semester? Am I anywhere near reaching my goals? What do I need to be successful in the coming months?
Well, there are crumbles in the plan here and there. I haven’t been terrific about grocery shopping. The house needs cleaning again, but where to start? College Park Scholars still lacks speakers for the last six weeks. I am doing no research or writing.
On the other hand, I still have my physical and spiritual time every day, or nearly so. Homework battles are fewer. We are spending less on fast food. So things are better, I do feel satisfied. Life is not nearly so frenzied.
2004
Every night - - or nearly every night - - my thoughts turn to death as my body goes to sleep. Another day gone. Some of it spent well, some of it just spent.
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I play the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
I think, “I’m not ready.”
But I believe that to be truly alive, I need to be ready to die. Maybe it’s time to plan my legacy, and work towards it, whatever it is.
Comment 2024
What the actual fuck, Jo, where did THAT come from?
2014
I had planned a walkabout, but woke up with a very sore back. (Too much lifting Grandkiddo, I am afraid. It’s happened before.) And besides, I’d had an amazing, detailed dream, which I have described in my paper journal and will transcribe here later. It left me with a strong urge to stay home and do something mindless that opened the door for mindfulness. So I sorted photos all morning and into the early afternoon. It did not help my back, I will tell you!
After a shower, I walked to the library and returned some books, then hopped on the shuttle and went to Franklins. Good times with the regulars.
Comment 2023
Unable to find the amazing dream description. Rats!
2020 (California)
We are waiting for the northbound Coast Starlight on these hard wooden benches. I look back on our last day with Katie. Good food, great company, a hot day, and a cool evening. A very busy, full day. This has been such a good trip.
2023
Introduced Grandkiddo 2 to the TerpZone in the U of Maryland Student Union yesterday. I started out slow, but managed to narrowly win.
Wow. I am not sure I would have had the courage to go back! My anxiety dreams were bad enough.
When I first started working as a teacher at the college in North Bay I approached my first class with some anxiety. I'd mapped out a lesson plan carefully, following the Teaching Master's guidance. Nervously I approached the classroom, took a deep breath and opened the door, not sure who/what would be waiting on the other side. But there was no one! I checked the time - I was ten minutes early, as I'd planned, so I sat in a chair near the front of the room, took out my notes and started to skim them over, anticipating the first students' arrival. The next time I looked at the clock, it was ten minutes past start time. "My god!" I thought, imagining that people had somehow heard that I was a newbie, and had decided to skip our "date." Just then the dean's secretary opened the door and informed me that due to a scheduling mixup, the class was actually to begin in two days.
When the actual first class happened, I had far fewer butterflies in my stomach. I guess they'd done their worst on the false Day One.