Top 5.

1. My washing machine now requires no intervention on my part to finish a cycle. For approximately years, my washing machine has decided to take a little sabbatical in the middle of each and every load, so that when I would lift the lid to move the wet clothes to the dryer, there they would be, still sitting in soapy water.

Of course I figured out various workarounds, including (a) a heavy weight on top of the lid, (b) a weight on top of the weight, and (c) hovering around the machine at the midpoint of every wash cycle so I could goose it along. As I say, approximately years of this. But on Tuesday I said ENOUGH and called a repairman.

As I led him back to the laundry room, explaining my problem, I concluded by saying, 'But you probably know what's wrong,' and he said, like a genius and a wizard, 'I do, just from your explanation.' Which: obviously I'm a champion explainer, but geez, I should have had this fixed approximately YEARS AGO.

2. Finally watched this and wow. (Also, to quote a friend on FB, I have been doing little but reading feminist critiques of Lemonade, then critiques of the critiques.) Also: finally got to talk to Scotland daughter about it, a reward in and of itself.

3. Suave open-faced sandwiches for lunch, at Finn's with Ann. Seated outside where the sun was bright and balmy. Topics of conversation: the situation in the Environmental Humanities program up at the U (verdict: those administrators sure could have handled a complicated situation better); The Good Wife finale (verdict: TERRIBLE).

4. The library's robot has informed me that the Hank Williams biography I requested is IN.

5. I found a perfect pair of shoes today that I did not buy (bad call!), but which I am going back to buy tomorrow. I plan to be there the minute the store opens. Lesson learned.

poem + Monday

Poem 4.

Today's stats:

10 open slots for student appointments
0 students signed up for these appointments (where ARE they?)

3 out of 4 chapbook manuscripts are ready to go to Print Services

2 excellent lectures by Omid Safi today

2 copies of flicker signed at The King's English (TKE: I couldn't find a link for people to purchase my book!) (!!!)

2 workouts

2 episodes of Bosch

1 pair of blue sandals purchased (and also 1 blue sweater. So: 2 blue things purchased.)

Time for bed? time for bed.

How to make a good thing better: salad for lunch edition.

1. Make sure your salad is first rate to begin with. I recommend your finer greens with a solid heap of arugula, blood oranges, fennel, celery, those sweet little Armenian cucumbers, and a blue cheese vinaigrette.

2. Make sure there's a lot of salad. Lots of it.

3. Let it sit in your office awhile. I don't know, hours.

4. Do the student consultations for two hours.

5. Go to the writing center for one hour.

6. Think about retrieving the salad from your office before you go to a meeting, but then remember: you can only slide in for about 25 minutes of the meeting, and fetching the salad will make you late. So: no salad.

7. Go teach a workshop for an hour and a half.

8. NOW fetch the salad.

9. It's four o'clock? SO WHAT. At room, which is to say office, temperature, marinating (let's be honest) in its little tupperware, this salad is going to taste like God's own culinary masterpiece.

10. Don't bother eating like a lady. You're ravenous! Fork that salad in.

11. It's the state of ravenousness--that's what makes the salad amazing. Thrilling. Spectacular!

12. Go ahead and eat the salad with a chaser of Greek yogurt. Why not?

13. The deferred salad will power you through your four o'clock meeting, although not without a small bout of despair, a tiny internal meltdown, and a miraculous recovery, all within the space of a nanosecond. Your mileage may vary--I'm just going on what happened while I ate my four o'clock salad.

14. The postponed salad, plus yogurt chaser, will power you through your second workout. That's because you are t-o-u-g-h tough.

15. And then, when you get home, sweaty and triumphant, leftover Indian food will totally seal the deal, hunger-wise.

My accomplishments.

My Accomplishments: A report by lisab

Snapshots of work at home day.

1. Did the same core workout that, last week, made my abdominal muscles complain for days. 

2. Ate buckwheat pancakes, the breakfast of the righteous.

3. Read and graded student work in preparation for

4. Two hours of online conferences. 

5. Worried about students who are still hoping that I can provide them with the magical words for finish the semester when they haven't really finished the work. 

6. Second workout.

Son: Why are you going to work on work at home day?

Me: I'm going to work out. [pause]  Also, I'm going to work.

Son: Seems like you always go to work on work at home day.

Me: It's the end of the semester. So there's projects to finish.

Son: PROJECTS? (may or may not be what he actually said)

7. School. For projects:                                                                          

...with The Charlotte. These are carefully assembled covers for books.
Oh the meticulousness and the glue!

8. Read ten poetry manuscripts, as I'm pre-screening for a book contest. Felt the despair and nihilism of this effort.

9. Lay down to contemplate my muscles and also the Sundance Catalog. AND the last part of Home Alone, the part with all the ouches but also all the gut laughs. AND Remember the Titans, what? #footballmovie  P.S., Also, does anyone remember that Ryan Gosling and Wood Harris, aka Avon Barksdale,  are in this movie? And Hayden Panettiere? 

Today in lurid, shocking detail.

1. I ate breakfast, purchased at Starbucks, while pushing a cart at Target, and thereupon buying stuff.
2. I watered the flowers in the front, pulling many many many spent nicotiana blooms from their receptacles, and plotting fall and next-spring plantings.
3. I drove to Zurchers, and met my daughter and grandchildren, so that we could buy a truly epic amount of paper lanterns, tassel garlands, plastic plates and forks, and other assorted decorative items.
4. I got my nails shellacked. Bright red.
5. I went to Target a second time--a different Target--to get a large container for drinks for the wedding. Bright red.
6. I worked out. Upper body, fyi.
7. I washed the sheets on the downstairs beds. Also the towels in the downstairs bathroom.
8. The historian and I went to the rally to #saveourmurals (#artisnotasign). It was fantastic.

#hashtags

Two epic activists, the historian & Archie Archuleta.

the mural, with musician and artist Alex D.

9. We ate enchiladas and burritos. Si se puede!
10. We came home and watched a weird old movie with Jack Benny and Ray Milland and assorted other oldies.
11. I put sheets back on the beds and reflected on the plundering that has taken place in the downstairs--a lamp taken by the historian for his office, rendering a bedside table lampless! I ask you! Youngest son taking pillows. The nerve! I seethed about this for fifteen minutes. Then,
12. I watched Jerry Maguire, a perennial favorite.
13. We went to pick up my youngest daughter at the airport, who is here for a whirlwind visit, including the wedding of her brother, and wedding dress try ons tomorrow.
14. At 1 a.m., we arrived home to see that Supriya has had her henna done, traditional for brides in her culture. It, and she, are so beautiful.

I can't get over it.

On repeat.

Today, I was on a small quest to find birthday presents for the historian. I went to one store. Rumply shirts and excessive sweaters: no. I went to another store. Fancy neckties: no. Shirts made in China: not for the historian. There are criteria to be met: what will delight the historian? but also, what is the provenance? It isn't always easy to meet the criteria.

But that's not what this post is about. Tomorrow is the historian's birthday, and there are presents, and also I am making this cake for breakfast. (Shhhh!) I'm not telling you what the presents are--I know you can't keep a secret, the people, and don't try to deny it.

What this post is about is the fact that I got to hear the news cycle on NPR, like, three times, between the drive from work to the first store, the drive from the first store to the second store, the drive from the second store to the third store, and the fourth store, and finally drive from the fourth store to home.

So I am exceedingly well-informed about Leon Panetta's lifting of the ban on women serving in combat.

I heard Harry Reid praise the House Republicans for their gracious gesture of not forcing a debt ceiling crisis several times.

I heard Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton get testy with a senator (and each time I kind of loved it).

I noted that union membership in America is at its lowest point since the 1930s, noted it soberly.

I heard a couple of stories just once--there's a recreation of the sets from Friends in Beijing, where you can go and have coffee. Yep. Complete with Joey's apartment. And the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has an exhibit of his work at the Hirshhorn called "According to What?" I wish I could go see it.

The one story of which I only caught a few threads was about the Tuareg people in Mali (and elsewhere in that region). I heard the anthropologist from Lehigh University get started, and then I turned the car off and went into store number two for yet another birthday present fail.

I could have stayed in the car and listened, but I sort of thought I'd hear it again while I was driving around. But no. Still, I had birthday presents to seek. Also, a snack to purchase. You know, a birthday present quest requires sustenance.

Status updates: Boxing Day edition.

Weather: snowy and snowier, especially as we drove south and then turned around. Because: too snowy.

Music: Fred Hersch, Alive at the Vanguard (played at home on the stereo).

Plans: to drive south and see the historian's son's family in Lehi. Denied (see: Weather.)

Viewing: Les Miz (with my daughters. Full of singing?). Rerun of Modern Family (with the historian. Still funny). The Jazz game (WOE.).

Comestibles: leftovers: spinach and fontina strata, Chinese food, fruit salad, green salad. Cookies of all stripes. Frosted Mini-Wheats.


After the fact: baked the rest of the cookie dough still chilling out in my fridge--date-nut pinwheels and sugar cookies, cut into stars and holly leaves and Christmas trees. Even though Christmas is over and we opened all the presents.

Contemplating: the family dinner we have planned for New Years Day. What will I make? I kind of feel like it should just be sandwiches. And maybe potato chips. Would that be wrong?

Thought about, but did not: stop in at Target on my way home from the movie.

Shocking: how tired I am and how I could not fall asleep last night.

Mood: a little sleep deprived, frankly.

Footwear: slippers. socks. work boots for the late-night dog walk.

note: it is almost the end of 2012, so I owe the readers of this blog

1. a list of the movies I saw this year, along with my big important opinions on them.
2. possible other lists.
3. a short reflective essay on the "Blogging Every Day in the Year 2012" project.

Just want you to know I haven't forgotten.

Well.

My love affair with the ipad is somewhat compromised, as I cannot, apparently upload pictures. What? Today, we went to the Scottish Lighthouse Museum, Slains Castle, and Newburgh Beach, where there were seals hanging out on the beach. That was a lot of activity for the day after arrival in a foreign land, but it was glorious.it was a sunny day, though windy and cold. And had curry tonight. And bought Scottish groceries. In other words, things are awesome, and I can't wait to see what's next.