Week in Review: Good Books, Good Writing, Good Work

It has been the kind of work week where I had 8:30 a.m. meetings before classes started on the same day that I had to stay late for student appointments or for other types of meetings.  Happily, my work weeks won't always be that way.  Let me take a look back at the week before moving forward:

--I have done a lot of work with faculty files, and they are getting ever closer to shipshape.  I looked through the files of Business faculty and General Education faculty, and most of the information matches across documents--hurrah!

--I've been part of strategizing meetings all week, strategizing about a variety of issues that will make the school stronger.  And even better, these meetings remind me that I am part of a good team.

--I had pho with my Hindu writer friend.  We've both gone on to other schools, and we both miss people from our shared past.  I like knowing that I'm not alone in missing people.

--It's been a good writing week.  I've made some poetry submissions and finished writing my short story.  And last night, I wrote a poem.  If I'm hard at work on a short story, it's hard to write a poem during the week.

--I discovered that I have now accrued 1.8 hours of Personal Time Off.  You might say, "That's not enough for anything."  No, it's not, not yet.  But it feels like I've passed another milestone point.

--I'm happy that I'm not the only one aghast at some of the events swirling around the Trump White House.  I'm not sure how it will all end up, but I'm glad that plenty of people are keeping watch--and ready to go to the barricades.

--That said, I'm beginning to be weary of Facebook negativity.  I'd like to go back to hearing about what people are eating, what they're reading, what they're creating.

--I am really enjoying Atwood's The Robber Bride.  I'll write more about this later, but let me record this nugget. When I first read it, I was about the age of the characters when they were in college.  Now the chunks about middle age are speaking to me--and I think those characters are actually a bit younger in the book's present time than I am now.

--Last night I thought we would be hosting some folks for dinner, but those plans fell apart when one woman's spouse got sick.  So, instead of having a late dinner that would have accommodated everyone's schedule, I had an early dinner of tomatoes with shaved parmesan and olives.  Yum.  And there was time to read while my spouse played violin--and then we caught the end of a Charlie Brown Valentine's show.  It was one of those windows of time that opened up, and even though I felt a bit sad about not seeing friends, I also felt a bit of relief because my work week of long days had left me so very tired.

--On the way home, I stopped by the library to get the copy of Hell or High Water that I had put on hold and that had come in.  I also picked up the latest Barefoot Contessa from the library:  Cooking with Jeffrey.  It made me think of my full-time faculty days, when there was more time for crafting, often with the Food channel on in the background--and there are pictures of a very young Ina and Jeffrey, which made me wistful for lost youth in general.

--This morning, I made pumpkin pecan waffles, a recipe from a different book.  Here, too, I am wistful for even earlier days, when we'd make waffles and feel festive.

--We will have a low-key day at home today.  We both have grading to do, and other chores to take care of.  But there will be time for a movie, time for burgers that we ended up not cooking for our guests last night, time for a walk or a nap.  In short, it will be the perfect way to restore me to my center.