Yesterday was a good day! Usually Thursdays are draining (long day), but yesterday was great. Whether my mood was helped by it being my last teaching day until the Fall semester or that my classes were engaged -- or maybe both, who knows. There are deadlines next week for students for some minor assignments and then it's a deep dive into grading.

This has been a tiring week. Classes end April 30, grades are due May 12, and so I had a huge amount to do, caused somewhat by 4/10 & 4/12, when I had to get my haircut and work on the taxes. (How dare you?) The good news for me is that there is light at the end of the tunnel: For the first time since 2001, I am not teaching in the summer. YAY.

While I surely don't agree with him on everything, I do on enough things to be motivated to vote, and I find the media opposition appalling. Here is my recruitment link. I'd stay home otherwise. Certainly not going to vote for the lying, misogynist grifter under any circumstanced, and I just cannot support the tired old leadership of (admittedly) the lesser of two evils candidate. Why are these two husks running?

Toward morning I had a vivid dream about my father. I would classify this one as an actual after death communication. I was sitting in a large bathroom. That's funny, because lamenting about going to the bathroom (the "Giuliano curse"), and bathroom humor were 100% my father. The room appeared to be in an unfinished log house. He was standing behind or in a cabinet. He was only visible from the waist up. I didn't recognize him at first. I thought, what is that man doing in here? Then it dawned on me that it was him and I started urgently repeating, while reaching my arms towards him, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" He was wearing the tee-shirt he has on in the photo below, although in the ADC he was younger; his hair was a little salt & pepper but mostly black, and he looked about 60 (in this photo he was in his early 70s). He was not wearing glasses. He looked right at me and spoke directly, saying "I have things to do." My father was often hilarious, but he could be deeply serious as well. It felt real, like I was not sleeping, and when I woke up, I had tears in my eyes. I wished the experience had not ended and that we could talk more. I wondered, am I keeping him from what he needs to do? Is our family's profound grief doing that? If so, I'm sorry. I can't help it. I miss him so.

 An earthquake, an aftershock today (I only felt the aftershock) and an eclipse on Monday! 

Mimmie died 31 years ago today. 😔

Easter was nice. My brother hosted a brunch. It was my first large (32), mostly indoor gathering since 2019 (or very early 2020). So much has happened since then. It's a good thing we live mostly not knowing what is coming.

 Three years ago today, the best dog I've ever had died. I've had many great dogs; the current three are awesome too and I love (and miss) them all, but Rosie was perfect in every way. RIP little tiny circus dog.

Bob and I have been watching all the Academy Award nominated movies - a bigger task now that they have increased Best Picture to ten. We have two left in that category. On Saturday during the snowstorm, we watched Poor Things. Neither of us was very impressed by it. I'll say that about the first 3/4 held my attention (then it seemed too long to me; Bob felt it "jumped the shard" when she went from naive to calculating). What irritated me was that it felt like an effort to normalize abuse. Abuse is not funny or cute. Hollywood usually is a proponent of cancel culture. The acting was fine, but about Bext Actress, ten minutes into the movie, all I could think of was this non-PC but apt scene.

 I guess because of my prior post, last night I had a dream with my father in it. He was talking fluently, and I was thrilled. He was eating ice cream. My mother was briefly in the dream too.

Today is March 13. In one month, it will be April 13, my father's birthday. He would be 97 this year. I miss him enormously every day, but his birthday and the approach of spring are incredibly hard. He loved the number 13 and his birthday.😭

I was feeling sort of unmotivated and "blue" yesterday (Thursday is my long teaching day). I didn't have a good attitude and negatively assumed my afternoon class would not be prepared (a team of four was presenting). What actually happened...they were amazing and did a really good job! 😊

Spring forward tomorrow. I hate it! 😟

Why can't we stay on Standard time year round?

 What an a-hole! Full disclosure, I don't know her at all, nor did she ever represent me, but I have met him and I live in the county.

 Approaching the 22nd anniversary on Friday of this blog. Usually I forget to post something. Friday is also the sixth anniversary of Uncle Buddy's death. :-(

 Four weeks into the semester...my class today was brain dead. Absolutely disengaged.

 I watched the Grammies for the first time -- maybe ever. I dislike awards shows. I'm turned off by the hype. But I enjoyed most of the 3.5 hours! The next day I was surprised to learn that others said 1) that they watch it often and thought it was the best one in years; or haven't watched in years but did this year and enjoyed it.

New buzzwords currently in fashion: Weaponize, Existential, Guardrails. Wheelhouse seems to have disappeared.

I have two thoughts that are apropos today: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott, 1808) and "No good deed goes unpunished." (Various attributions; similar sentiment dates to 12th C.).

 After being annoyed by the awful revised mascot image, I'm very pleased that the athletics department has stepped up to help with this horrible situation.

Each of my three classes has met once at this point. It's gratifying that so many students every semester who have taken a class with me in the past sign up for another. I guess I am still an engaging teacher. It's easy to fall into self doubt.

 In the last post I wrote about wanting to draw or write this idea. On Saturday, after two years of no drawing, I picked up my pencils.

I have an idea for a satire cartoon or short story based on this article and pending village elections. Revitalize Main Street! Like Castleton's cats, how about Castleton's rats? Oh I am itching to write and draw. This is why I am excited to not teach this summer.

 Classes start this week. My first class is Thursday. Boo hoo. Winter break over. Not that it was much of a break, but not teaching for a few weeks is good, and I did get to do a few thing, such as read. Unfortunatly, I have gradually returned to my preferred mode of staying up late and sleeping in, so now I have to mend my ways.

We watched another hyped movie on Saturday: Maestro. Neither of us liked this one much either! Again, acting was fine, but it felt too long, confusing, difficult to hear, with a story line that focused too much on his sex life and too little on other more interesting aspects of his biography. Recently friends have been recommending "Killers of the Flower Moon," but after Oppenheimer and Maestro, I'm reluctant to invest over three hours...

I joined No Labels. Wonky snarky self-important pundits who diss the idea can go F themselves.

I didn't note here yesterday that it was the two-year anniversary of Daddy's death. Not that I didn't think about him all day. I did. I think about him all the time, every day. Two years, two weeks, two months, two minutes -- or many more years than two, it hardly matters. I am not an unrealistic person, but two words I never wanted to type...Daddy's death.

 What an impressive speech! Go Liz!

I'm trying hard to be optimistic and to have faith that good always wins. It's hard to not be infuriated by Sinclair media (owner of our local CBS news station). It's always been my favorite local station because of the anchors and especially due to the weather, but over time Sinclair has insidiously inserted more and more of their national coverage, slipping in blatant bias and featuring election deniers like that nut Jordan. Last night there was a promotion for an offensive story where a woman said something like "it's crazy that you get a ticket for parking in a handicap parking spot but not for being caught with fentanyl." Putting aside the veracity of that statement (which is a false equivalency), parking in a spot intended for a person with disabilities is not something to be dismissed. What an ignorant, disrespectful b*tch. F you Sinclair. And speaking of election denying nuts, the member of congress who was gerrymandered to be my representative calls the criminals who attacked the Capitol "hostages," just like her cult master.

Last night Daddy made a brief appearance in my dreams (he was young, and wearing a striped sweater - uncharacteristic) and the night before I dreamed of Uncle Buddy, who had two unknown ~10-year-old kids with him, a boy and a girl.

This weekend we got a real snow storm! As Bob said, "it's good to see the Earth is still working."

Friday was Bob's 64th birthday. He wanted to go to Red Lobster. It's kind of a hard place to go for a vegetarian, but they have wonderful Brussels sprouts, and I got a salad. He got an unlimited feast.

This is chilling. It's obvious from current times, but I noticed hints and was disturbed by it among young people 15 years ago in toleration class.

I just heard the president of Harvard resigned. It's about time. The headline said it was due to plagiarism claims and her congressional hearing performance. I agree her responses at the hearing were appalling (and interlocutor Stefanik's behavior was also appalling), but what outraged me is that she is a plagiarist with no shame -- and somehow landed a prestigious academic job.

 Happy New Year!

I've been thinking about writing. I have some ideas and I want to start seriously writing again, but I'm not sure winter break will afford me enough time. I am not teaching this summer (for the first time in over 20 years) and that is when I plan to take a deep dive.