In review: the perfect weekend.

An unexpectedly pleasant weekend. Or, I should say, a weekend I predicted would be nice (given this temporary absence of work and grading) but which then exceeded my prediction.
A run-down:

Friday, went to the job session hosted by Dara and Peter. It was really helpful; I have never (I'm ashamed to admit) been to Career Services, had no idea that they'd start files for us, send our dossiers to interested prospective employers, and so forth. (How did I not know this? I wondered later. So many things I need to learn.) Have begun jotting notes for an updated CV. Late afternoon, went to the bead store and picked up beads/wire for new projects. Spring projects in the palette of coral and turquoise. Watched "Sweet Land" with Eric. Cooked dinner, and accidentally watched, with E., the entire season one of Twin Peaks.
(We had not intended to watch the whole season, but the episodes were all run together - there was no option offered, in the root menu, of watching individual episodes.)

Saturday, went to the farmers' market and bought a mint plant, which I promptly repotted. Went to the gym for a slow, minor workout. Took a short walk with E., during which we came upon a tag sale - one of the vintage stores on Market St. is closing, and was selling most stuff for $1! (Some clothing items were $3.) Eric got two ties, and I got a miniature, forest-green teapot - it holds just one cup - and a purse fashioned after a creel. In total, we spent $4. Ate lunch, cleaned up, went to the laundromat and now all of my clothes are clean. Went grocery shopping for the week, though I bought less than normal since I'll be leaving for Minnesota on Thursday. Cooked dinner with Eric (kielbasa, tater tots, baked beans = Midwestern deliciousness), watched a rerun of the Real World. Drank a cold beer and made a necklace of 6mm turquoise colored beads with chips of coral at 1" intervals.

And today, E. and I made eggs and toast for breakfast, sat for a long time on the couch in the sunlight, looking at all the new potted plants, and talking about weddings we'd been to. I was spaced out on allergy medicine and reluctant to go to the gym, but I went anyway and felt good afterward. Had lunch (a hot dog, half a grapefruit) went to lay out in the field near my house. Had intended to start reading Lunch Poems but instead fell asleep in the sun. Went home and showered, read, cooked dinner with E. Am now reading (about halfway through) The Year of Magical Thinking and it is heartbreaking: in its accuracy and repetition.

Oh. I also read, during the course of Saturday, Meghan Daum's My Misspent Youth, which I really enjoyed, but from which few phrases/descriptions struck me. It was funny, to be sure, and poignant (the last essay, especially) (aside: I hate the word poignant), but not nearly to the level of Didion's writing. The only reason I draw this comparison is because Dan Wakefield's blurb for Daum heralds her as "A Joan Didion for the new millennium..."

What a shame that this weekend is almost over! Even in the absence of formal time constraints, I managed to get a lot accomplished, and a good variety.

If you haven't already, call your mom!

Evening plans.

James Tate is reading tonight(!), but before attending this event, E. and I are going to have a picnic on the lawn at UMass. (Which lawn, we're not yet sure. I'm not even familiar with all the knolls & grassy patches on campus and I think, in fact, that there are even picnic tables by Herter. So there's a good chance that we won't be sitting on the grass at all.) Picked up salami, cheese (sharp cheddar and Laughing Cow, for me), watermelon, and a mini mini chocolate cake. Some beers, which will have to languish in the fridge 'til later.

This weekend may = a strange calm before the storm. I'm done with my own classes, and my last day of teaching is Tuesday. Even then, I'll just be having a party for my students, so there's no need to lesson plan...Yikes! What to do with this sudden, brief, & lovely stretch of free time? Any suggestions for things to read, recipes to try, crafty-type projects?

Indeed: I may work on fixing an old necklace, making a new one, updating the scrapbook (which, like those beers, has languished: but for months). The bead store here relocated to a bigger/more out-of-the-way location, and I have yet to check it out.

Also, and totally unrelatedly, the aloe sprouts I transplanted last weekend don't seem to be doing well. (I successfully resisted the urge to use a sad-face emoticon. Congrats, right?) I thought their roots were long enough, but maybe not?

Flunk!

Happy belated Flunk Day to any Knox peeps who may remain in the readership! (Happy recovery, I guess I should say.) I hope the weather in Illinois was better than it is here, here being rainy and 45 degrees. Yesterday's email got me thinking about Flunk Days past - three, in all - and how singular & great the tradition is. I have spread the good word to those unfamiliar with the tradition, but the explanation bears repeating: Flunk Day is a day (undisclosed to the student body until 5 AM of the day itself) on which the Knox administrators cancel all classes and provide picnics/carnival-type amusements (foam pit, DJs, petting zoos, mechanical bulls, and so forth) for the Knox community. The students are awoken at dawn by a select group of upperclassmen ("friars"); at this point, heavy drinking commences. Most people prepare a Flunk Day stash of booze: because the holiday could be declared at any time, one must be prepared! Naturally, a certain amount of drama can/will happen on Flunk Day, but mostly, everyone is jovial & filled with goodwill.

Ahh, Flunk Day.

Sad news: Eric and I have to reschedule our birthday BBQ, planned for tomorrow. I don't understand how we had cloudless, high-80s days for the last two weeks of April, and now the weather is winter-like again. SUCK!

24!

So much to report! And so relatively much time to do it! (Due to mild illness, I am remaining absent from workshop today.) But first things first: wild turkeys. Yes, a family - flock? - of wild turkeys lives near UMass. Sunday, as I was driving home from campus, four female turkeys ran in front of my car; I stopped to let them pass. This was only the second time I'd seen the birds, but I hope to see them more often: they seem like a good omen.

Yesterday I turned 24, which (as of now) seems not much different than the year before it. I completed a few celebratory acts, which included:

1) Going to the gym (healthy in the new year!)
2) Getting my nose re-pierced (Last semester, I was fiddling around with my nose ring and of course lost it; the piercing closed. Fortunately, I had a coupon for a free birthday piercing! I decided to make the best of this opportunity.)
3) Having a slice of strawberry rhubarb pie with coffee in the mid-afternoon
4) Going to Judie's for dinner (w/pals), and later to the Tunnel Bar for appletinis. Boy, those appletinis: they'll get you. Because they are appley and so delicious, they can lead one to forget that one is consuming alcohol, and chaos ensues.

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate: it really was an excellent day, minus the nonstop rain. Hopefully, the rain will let up by this weekend...

A cooking experiment: made homemade croutons this morning by slicing a stale baguette, cubing the slices, brushing the cubes with a little olive oil, and sprinkling them with fresh pepper, oregano, and garlic powder. I toasted them at 300 for about half an hour, then let them cool on the stove top. I must admit, they turned out really well, and I didn't have to throw out my baguette. Nice.

It is blazingly, profoundly hot in Bartlett right now. (Bartlett, for those not at UMass, is the English building: the place I spend the most on-campus time.) For whatever reason, the heat has not been shut off - I think this reason has to do with the fact that the heating facility is not on campus, hence difficult to contact - and so, though the outside temperature is expected to reach 79 today, the heaters still pump out hot air.

Gross.

An excellent weekend, mostly spent bumming around town (literally just bumming: walking aimlessly, looking in shop windows, dawdling) and doing spring-like things. A few games of basketball, an ice cream cone, some watermelon, some time spent tanning. It's weird: I don't have much experience tanning, and I don't yet have much patience for it. This is not to say that I dislike the practice - I, of anyone, could certainly use more sun. It's just that I get restless when I sit/lay outside too long without doing anything. A few times I tried reading for class, but that got old quick when the sun's glare made the pages ultra-white and abrasive to the eyes. Perhaps my mild discomfort tanning will be assuaged once the school year is over and I don't have to worry about things I should be doing?

Sunday night, there was a mouse in Eric's house(!) (I'm not sure why I put that exclamation point: just seeing the mouse freaked me the hell out.) We were watching "The Deer Hunter" (really good) and out of the corner of our eyes, we noticed a dark furry form scooting along the far wall. I screamed; Eric looked worried. We set out immediately to get a mousetrap. But once we got to the store, the traditional mousetraps, their boxes emblazoned with the claim "KILLS!" in several languages, seemed so barbaric. So we got a few "mouse cubes" - cruelty-free traps that allow one to release the caught mouse into its natural habitat. We set the trap near the stove (where the mouse had evidently been seen before, though not by us) and went to bed. The next morning, there was the mouse. It was tiny! And scared-looking. The mouse cube was steamed with its breath. We took it out to the yard behind E's building and set it free. For a moment, it curled into a ball, but a few taps on the cube sent it hopping toward the railroad tracks (and hopefully toward a good life in someone else's house).

Birdseed was her middle name.

The Academy of American Poets' Poem of the Day yesterday was from James Tate:

Father's Day

My daughter has lived overseas for a number
of years now. She married into royalty, and they
won't let her communicate with any of her family or
friends. She lives on birdseed and a few sips
of water. She dreams of me constantly. Her husband,
the Prince, whips her when he catches her dreaming.
Fierce guard dogs won't let her out of their sight.
I hired a detective, but he was killed trying to
rescue her. I have written hundreds of letters
to the State Department. They have written back
saying that they are aware of the situation. I
never saw her dance. I was always at some
convention. I never saw her sing. I was always
working late. I called her My Princess, to make
up for my shortcomings, and she never forgave me.
Birdseed was her middle name.

***

In other news, today is the most gorgeous day of spring: 70 and sunny. I'm wearing flip flops and a short-sleeved blouse: yeah! A full third of my students were absent today, but I couldn't even get annoyed because it's so freaking nice out. Who can blame them?

Last night, in front of the breezy window, E. and I read some James Wright and talked about horses. Before that, sitting in the same breezy room, I worked on a poem with no title. I slept deeply and for half an hour in the afternoon, because I'd woken up so early. I woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning.

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't have more chances to wear the camel coat I bought this late-winter (February?). So, the obvious perk of buying a coat at the end of the season is that it is cheaper than usual(!), but the downside (which I have so often forgotten/continue to forget) is that there's not much coat season left. It was pretty cold this morning - 30 - and instead of reaching for the camel coat, I wore the black wool one. Not bad, not bad, since I'm wearing an all-black outfit [clarinet], but my recognition of the dwindling winter makes me sad to think of waiting til next fall to wear the camel.

"Dwindling" is a word I use a lot lately.

I should be making copies for workshop right now, but instead I'm cruising the internetz. Also, I should be reading No Country For Old Men for my Contemporary Fiction class, but I am cruising the internetz. I'm not sure I like No Country. The only other McCarthy I've read is Blood Meridian (and that was two years ago now), and that seemed more intricately crafted than this. Though I have to say, McCarthy does an excellent job of describing guns.