Not that I'm counting.

While we were watching, sort of, the Golden State-Houston game (game one of the NBA Western Conference Finals, for those of you not paying attention)(what a game! promises to be a great series.), I noted the historian counting silently.

'What are you counting?' I queried.

'How many weeks there are in the summer,' he replied.

He liked to keep track of things, and especially, he likes to keep track of how much time I will have to do what I like in the summer. He is zealous in his pursuit of my having a summer that is optimal, because he thinks that I do too many work-related things in the summer, and thus my summer will be less that fully restorative. (He is pretty amazing, and this is but one of the reasons why.)

He has a point. For one, I went to work both yesterday and today, to do work-related things. And point two, this is, effectively, week two of the summer. There are approximately sixteen, by my count, and while I don't want to get into the game of evaluating my summer while I'm having it (oh, how I don't want to do this! no better way to make summer feel anxious!), I am hoping to do less of going to work and more of not going to work.

Point three, this morning, I woke up to an email from a student (not mine) who is anxious to get into the Publication Center and get help on a publication project that has a deadline (also not mine)! Good grief.  Point four, I am also going into work tomorrow.

Well, enough of that. Today, I visited my salon genius to get my hair shaped up, and I also went to a movie with my beloved aunt Sal today, Hot Pursuit, which was about what you'd expect--a summer vehicle that wasn't quite as funny as it should have been, but still funny, at least intermittently, and we both enjoyed ourselves, and sat around talking afterward, getting a down payment on a let's-get-caught-up chat. She had an ice cream and let me take bites. Lots of fun.

Then I went and worked out, came home, got a shower, and went out for a reception thing downtown for a visiting Mexican film tour. That sounds kind of deluxe, doesn't it? except for the showering and going downtown for the second time today part. Even so. The reception was at a fancy Mexican restaurant, the hors d'oeuvres were swanky, I did my member-of-the-board duty, and it was fun.

In conclusion, I also had an outfit that made me feel swell for a rainy day in May:

taking pictures of yourself in a window? #narcissistic.
great outfit? #requiresaphoto.
that's all.

First things first.

The big day went well--our five year program review. All the food was delivered, possibly minus one lunch, but that was okay. All the people showed up--or enough of them, anyway. We had great conversations and the great conversations will, we hope, continue. My outfit, in other words, was an unqualified success.

Now, after the circus has come and gone, I would just like to note that:

• all day I was a little dehydrated.
• currently, my hips hurt and the soles of my feet feel dry and consequently a little itchy.
• I am way past tired, so tired that I am fretting about whether people respect me. (p.s., when I am worrying about that, I should always just go take a big fat nap, or, you know, go to bed for the night. Because the next day when I wake up it's easy to see how ridiculous that whole respect thing was.) (...unless people really DON'T respect me--what then? what nap will cure THAT?)

Tomorrow is Friday, and it is a full day, but not a day in which I am in charge of very many things, nor a day when I anticipate being dehydrated or tired past the point of reason. And after Friday? Saturday, the people. 

Now, I intend to

• put on my nightgown
• brush my teeth
• do the crossword and possibly also, and simultaneously,
• watch episodes of some sitcom or other
• fall asleep.

I know, that's not much of an agenda. I like to think of it more as medicine for an ague that I hope will have passed by morning. 

Big day OUT.

The Megastore Recommends: Outfits Edition.

The people, I have a lot of sweaters. And the sweaters I'm talking about are my winter sweaters, not even all the sweaters. There is a whole nother subset of summer sweaters and spring sweaters. I'm just saying, sometimes when you have a big day and it's 11:30 at night, the sweaters might be a little overwhelming.

But the big day demands it: the outfit must be assembled, the sweaters must yield one of their kind to complete the ensemble, and a scarf must rise from all its sisters folded in the scarf box. In other words, the 'what to wear' of the big day must be prepared, just as the documents for the big day have been organized into their Google Drive file, and the sandwiches have been ordered, and the schedule has been published high and low, and individual emails to a billion people have been sent. For clothes maketh the woman, or something, and also: shoes maketh the big day bearable to contemplate, if they are comfortable.

Did I say I was going to recommend some things? Okay, I will recommend:

not my dress.

1. A new dress. I'm recommending this even if you have a lot of old dresses, as I do, or if you don't wear dresses, then a lot of old whatever it is you do wear. (No offense.) Sometimes, a new dress just crystallizes a moment. It speaks to you. It says: Wear me and you shall feel polished, pulled together, efficient. It says: Wear me and there shall be no residue of old, ordinary days.  I know: my clothes should probably not be taking this hortatory tone with me. But when you have an immanent big day, you'll take the wisdom you get, even if said wisdom emanates from a plain but stylish gray sheath dress with slash pockets, which is what sold it to you in the first place.

not my scarf.

2. Silk scarf. Will never go amiss, and that is no overstatement. How light! how shimmery! How very bright and yet elegant it is. It came from someplace exotic, it was brought home to me by a friend, I bought it at T.J. Maxx--whatever its provenance, it's silk and silk means business, scarf-wise, and in terms of pulling the outfit together.

cute! (but not
my cardigan.)

3. Cardigan. Have I shared with you my love of the cardigan? Perhaps not, so let me just say: I have become a collector--it's exactly the right word, not to say hoarder--of cardigans. I like them a little on the long side and sometimes a lot on the long side, and I like them thin, and I like them in all the colors. Despite the fact that I have a lot of cardigans (see above: I have a lot of sweaters), I am not sure that I have all the cardigans I need. For instance, I may or may not have enough pink cardigans. Be that as may be: I am lucky that a persimmon colored cardigan spoke from the depths of my sweater cupboard and reminded me that gray and orange are a good combination, especially in the spring, and especially for a big day, when a shot of color may just be the thing that gets me through.

you know I wish these
were my shoes. (but
these are not my shoes.)

4. Snappy shoes. Also may be the things that get me through, especially if they are (a) pearl gray, and (b) low-heeled. Which mine are. So, I'm just saying that, with these shoes and the other outfit components I have recommended above, the odds of my big day tomorrow going okay seem ever so slightly more likely to be be in my favor.

Either that, or I'll have to fight to the death in The Hunger Games. But, you know, that scarf--it can probably be used as a slingshot and a garrote--it's that versatile.

Tiny little letters.

Dear Work Outfit,

I selected you on the basis of strict criteria:

• cute
• comfortable
• in it for the duration.

And for meeting all those standards, you were good, you were very good. You did your job and more.

But how deeply moved I felt, when day was done, to take you off and resume my soft, stretchy, which is to say giving, home outfit.

I won't forget you, but still.

htms

*

Dear Last Student Conference of the Day,

It wasn't even a long day, really, student conference-wise: just six. But you, Last Student Conference of the Day, were at 7 p.m., when I was already in my soft, stretchy, which is to say giving, home outfit. And I was hungry. 

It helped that the student was a good one. That she was genuinely interested in talking about her writing. That she told me she liked my class, and yes, I did believe her.

And yet, upon your conclusion, Last Student Conference of the Day, my energies did finally flag. And thus, Rubio's and The Big Bang Theory. Last week's episode and tonight's. And a big, deep sigh.

whew,

htms

**

Dear Slightly-Better-Than-Fast-Food Taco,

Thank you for being there in my hour of need. You are not the best taco in the world. But you are not the worst, and you are ready and willing when my energies do flag. Also, no one will complain if I wear my soft, stretchy, which is to say giving, outfit to acquire and eat you.

srsly, thank you,

htms

***

Dear End of the Week,

Even though I still have eight more student conferences tomorrow, and ten more assignments to read before that, and even though I must go into work to conduct said conferences, it is a fact that, when the week you come at the end of has been full of student conferences and other things, including appointments that I've forgotten and tasks piling up and not enough writing or reading and the mounting of deadlines:

Even so, End of the Week, OMG you taste so sweet.

So very sweet!

htms

thanks to Ann for the

inspiration!

Checklist: after the fact.

Did I

• have "bake valentine cookies" on my before-I-left To Do list?
• forget the one item of clothing that would have tied certain outfits together?
• bring snacks for the plane?
• read a handful of trashy magazines?
• work on my manuscript?
• record my poems for the Utah Arts Council Bite-Size Poems project? In someone's hotel room?
• hear some poetic heroes read?
• hear Art Spiegelman's evening lecture?
• recommit to loving visual art?
• buy some books?
• get some subscriptions?
• dream about dinner reservations?
• eat dinners at some swanky places?
• forget to bring my bought-for-this-purpose fancy power bars?
• fail to sleep much the last night, and therefore sleep on the plane on the way home?
• have an awesome time?

[answer key: yes, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes]