Note to my beautiful day.

First of all, you started a little too early. As in, I had to be up and at 'em and out the door in order to be somewhere by 8:30-ish, all in preparation for a long sit in hard seats. Sort of a sketchy beginning, to be frank, but it picked up from there:

• Sugar doughnut at the breakfast buffet, along with
• Bacon.
• I got to line up then sit with some of my favorite people, and
• I saw several students of mine, in their beautiful graduation attire, mortar boards atop, and
• That just plain made my heart soar.

Literally nothing is like the inspiration you feel when you hear the stories of people who figure out how to attain an educational goal, despite the odds and the obstacles and the heartbreaks and the sacrifices. Nothing like it at all, even when you're in the middle of a long sit in hard seats. (Fueled by doughnuts and bacon, though, to give the breakfast it's due.)

Not to mention celebrating a grandson's birthday with frozen yogurt:

Birthday froyo extravaganza! #happybirthdayalex

A photo posted by Lisa Bickmore (@megastore) on May 6, 2016 at 1:25pm PDT

...along with Harry Potter birthday widget gifts, and a visit afterward with the family. And then a wonderful movie, and Mexican food.

I took such pleasure in all of this, but maybe most of all the parts that weren't about me--the parts of which I was only a part, a small part.

Thanks, beautiful day, for reminding me of this--

htms

Little gardens.

Today was such a great day. After I made pancakes, I retreated to my study to warm up the internet for the day. The historian was on his way out the door. My major news sources--you know I mean Facebook, right?--told me that the Supreme Court had ruled. Before I knew the full extent--although the vibrations felt good--I ran to the front door, opened the screen, and hollered to the historian to come back inside.

As I've checked in and out of things all day, I've been so moved by how much joy and happiness there is. So beautiful.

In the light of that, I worked a little on my poem, then dashed out to pick up some grandkids. We went to a garden shop and bought wee plants and tiny creatures for fairy gardens:

thanks to my daughter for this picture.
I think I might need a fairy garden.

Who gets to go down the slide first? #tooclosetocall

A photo posted by Lisa Bickmore (@megastore) on Jun 26, 2015 at 10:53am PDT

After that, I went to work out for the first time in several days, because of the previous sick. It felt amazing. Also, when I got home, my muscles were literally trembling. So I made myself a Havarti, tomato and basil sandwich with a little olive oil on the bread and lo! that is a damn good sandwich, you guys.

I called another part-time faculty member to see if he wanted to join the team. He had questions. I was still high off my Havarti, tomato and basil sandwich, so I answered said questions cheerfully.

A couple of different times today when I was outside, I found myself near plantings humming with bees--my lavender, the lemon balm, the thyme that is decidedly outdoing the lawn in certain places. I saw a beautiful butterfly, yellow and black, flit from my yard to the next door neighbor's. And there was this beautiful little moth:

Tiny exquisite moth in the thyme

A video posted by Lisa Bickmore (@megastore) on Jun 26, 2015 at 2:30pm PDT

The bees love my lavender.

A video posted by Lisa Bickmore (@megastore) on Jun 26, 2015 at 8:54am PDT

So, you know, between all the joy-crying, intermittent but all day long, from the great news of the day, and the tiny gardens and their tiny denizens, and the small children I planted them with, the humming bees, plus the delicious sandwich as a minor yet not insignificant bonus, I feel solidly happy. Well, actually--happy without alloy.

Writing report.

What's that? you want to know how the writing's going? Fine, thanks for asking. Here's the time clock I am punching:

Thursday  2 hrs. 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Friday  2 hrs. 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Saturday 2 hrs. 10 a.m.-noon
Sunday: day of rest and driving.
Monday 2 hrs. 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Today, Tuesday  2 hrs. 10 a.m.-noon

Yesterday, my first day writing back on the mainland--back in the Lower 48, as it were--was a little ragged. Pretty much everything I wrote I seemed forced and lame and I hated it. HATED IT.

But I stayed at my desk and I wrote for two hours, like I promised myself. I did that Monday writing, as unattractive as it was. And I gave myself research assignments--since I'm not doing internet research during my writing-down-the-words sessions--and I did those last night. Did you know, for instance, that a tombolo is "one or more sandbars or spits that connect an island to the mainland"? I did not know that, but I do now. And this proved relevant in the writing today, happily.

As you might predict, a routine, more or less disciplined, in one area leads one to feel a bit more productive and disciplined in other areas. For example:

1. I took Bruiser for a walk yesterday morning and this morning. 
2. I made my bed. I know, small potatoes, but still.
3. I did some laundry and put some clothes away.
4. I painted the fingernails on one hand whilst I was thinking, aka writing.
5. I read a bunch of the book for my book group.
6. I took popsicles over and hung out with some grandsons.

Yes, it's all productivity and popsicles around here, what with this five-day track record, which I'm sure indicates great things to come, or something like that. And if we're not getting quite enough sleep now that we're down off the mountain, well, that's par for the course. Although I am worried a little bit about this. I'm going to consider getting enough sleep to be job one! as long as I get my writing done!

Sometimes, everything is okay.

Like today, for instance.

Knowing that there was a race against the clock, printer-wise, and that while there was a good faith promise to get a printed magazine delivered by 4:30 p.m., there was on the other hand every chance in the world that things could go awry, I was unable to sleep last night, which meant that I was behind, just a little, in all my appointments, etc. today.

Yet after all--after the fouled-up print job and the promises, after the not-enough-sleep and the ten-minutes-behind day--after all this, the book was delivered a half an hour early, it was exquisite, and the reading--the whole event--was just splendid.

Here's what the internet said about it:

And just in case you want to check it out--you can go here to see the whole digital edition, and here to see the pdf of the print edition. If you want yr own book, you can come to my hall at the SLCC to pick it up for yourself. It's a beauty.

(It's possible that I am filled with love for humankind at the moment. Just saying.)

happiness.

happiness. by lisab

A little elation at midnight.

Or: fraudulence has its moments.

How did it happen that I am teaching a Publication Studies class this semester? I can trace the genealogy of that decision, which goes a little something like this:

• Scotland daughter did a master's degree in Publication Studies at a university in Aberdeen.
• I thought, Publication Studies? That sounds awesome.
• I asked my daughter to send me a list of her courses which I wrote on a Post It note and stuck it on my credenza at work for several years.
• Meanwhile, I said to this and that person, "Wouldn't it be cool if we had a Publication Studies class?" When asked what this course might comprise, I said, "Well, we'd make books, and talk about the production and circulation of books, and stuff."
• Meanwhile meanwhile, our department developed a writing certificate program. Perfect opportunity for a Publication Studies class!
• So, Dr. Write and I, along with another of our colleagues, developed a Publication Studies course, with a sample syllabus.
• Et voila! I am teaching a Publication Studies course!

Am I an expert in anything whatsoever related to publication? Hmmm. I guess not.

Yet tonight, I figured out how to make this little layout in InDesign:

--which will enable me and my class to make little instant books tomorrow, in which we will write short "autobiographies in four books" (a thing I just now made up), and frankly, I could not be happier if I actually did know something about publication and books and circulation and stuff.

And to all a good night.

Chilling with Will.

This week, I've had the chance to give the 11:30 a.m. feeding every day to this charming young man:

The little idiosyncrasies that give life its je ne sais quoi.

Anyone besides me reveling in the fact that there is a movie, opening soon at multiplexes everywhere, called Death Race, starring both Joan Allen and Jason Statham? Anyone? Because it just makes me smile.

Oh, and also Ian McShane.

*************

Saturday night update: Tonight, we were going to go see Brideshead Revisited, but first drop by my niece's choir concert to hear her sing, then duck out to make a 7:05 showtime. This week has been an international children's music festival, "In Harmony," here in the city of salt. We went on Wednesday to a remembrance concert--the anniversary of the U.S.'s bombing of Hiroshima. There were several Japanese children's choirs, my niece's choir, and a Kenyan children's choir. The concert was so wonderful we decided to go to tonight's, which was the final event of the festival.

Wellll, the concert was long, just as any sensible person would know it would be, but we kept not leaving for the movie because it was also wonderful. When we left after almost three and a half hours of music--singing, dancing, an amazing marching band from Japan, orchestras, and a breathtaking final piece that involved every single performer--the historian said that it had been uplifting, a perfect word for it. Who is willing to spend time helping children learn to play brass instruments, string instruments, dance, sing? Who is willing to help them put together polished performances that they will probably never forget having been a part of? How sweet are children's voices singing together?

I think you all know how I feel about the movies, but I did not regret for one moment spending the evening this way.

Happy, go figure.

It's probably bad luck to talk about it this way, but I have been rolling from one good thing to another lately, it seems like, and I can't help it, I just feel happy. A list, in no particular order:

1. Saw two good movies last weekend, Rocket Science and No End in Sight. (not that the latter is a day at the park, of course)
2. Had an excellent writing group at my house, wherein I baked my first madeleines in my new madeleine pan, and also made a lovely roasted eggplant spread to go on crostini and the killer iced tea I've been making all summer. And I finished a draft of a new sestina. And the group mostly liked it.
3. We cleaned up the house, and I did a rather large-scale cleaning up of the kitchen, including throwing away ancient bottles of sesame oil and so forth from the refrigerator.
4. My online and face-to-face classes seem to be going just swell.
5. I love my children and they are all awesome and amazing people.
6. My husband the historian is a prince among men (the "prince" appellation must be taken as a metaphor, since, as a committed leftist, he probably wouldn't select this term for himself. Although he is discursively flexible, one of his many, many fine traits. Also, he's cute.).
7. My dogs are gorgeous and of excellent character.
8. The weather isn't so infernally hot. It's cool-ish at night and in the morning.
9. It's my birthday week, as my friend Jen reminds me, and even if I am turning fifty, it feels okay. Good, even.

Happy to be alive. Hope you're having a good week, too.