Wednesday, January 16 2008

It is cold this morning, and there is talk of enough snowfall overnight to actually accumulate! I think I should have moved further south, somewhere warmer, maybe Hawaii??

Yesterday I did some actual teaching in the Eng 101 class I am TA'ing for. I learned a lot from the experience, and though I was not effective, I think I managed to help the students gain some deeper awareness of the article we were discussing. Strangely enough, I am feeling eager to tackle the next project (next Tuesday)which is talking about the main features of a science article, and talking about the use of passive and active voice. I may have trouble avoiding my preference for the use of passive voice, while acknowledging it is hated in English classes.

Today is a quiet class day. I have some office hours followed by my Contemporary Southern Lit class.

January 14

I am sitting in the Day-Op at UNC Chapel Hill hospital waiting for Carol to get some cataract surgery. They told her she needed some responsible person to be with her when she got out of surgery, and she was left with no option but me. I am pretending, with some success I believe, that I am that responsible person. It was strange coming to Chapel Hill this morning on the bus. Everything that was so green and lush is now gray and looking worn out. The weather is decent though, sunny and moderately warm.

Last Thursday's class went well. I am hoping that the entire class is as comfortable as the first. I am going to look forward to having my Fridays off. With a late class on Monday it is going to feel like a long weekend every week. I will be very busy over the next few months, but I should learn a few things as well. At least that is my hope. Tonight I get to see what my poetry workshop will be like. I am hoping it will be a great learning experience. And fun.

I am a little shocked to say that the first month of the year is already half over!



January 10

I am sitting on my back deck sipping my coffee. I am wearing a robe and some nice comfy slippers but it is not too cold. I may not stay here long, but I had to brag a little. The local people are saying that this is an unusually warm winter, not really seasonal at all, but true or not I am quite happy to enjoy the warmth.

My first class yesterday was short and pleasant. I will have a lot of reading to do, but that is what I would expect from a graduate level course. On the up side, there are no exams, only two papers. The two papers will require a lot of work, but at least I don't have to write an exam.

Today I meet the class I will be TA'ing for. I am a little nervous, but strangely, a lot more excited. Maybe I will update my blog when I get home this evening.

January 8
I went for a walk down to the lake after lunch. I was wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt and I still walked up a little sweat. I was wishing I had put on my sandals. Weather like this, and in January, is why I wanted to come here. I know it wont last, but it is a delight right now.

As a preschool treat I made some chocolate cupcakes with a creamy (vegan) buttery (vegan) chocolate icing. I am looking forward to devouring these later this evening as I watch the Simpson's movie.

My first class of the spring semester is tomorrow evening. I am hoping it is as fun as I imagine.


January 7


First a couple of small things. I have added a link in the photos below that will take you to the front page of my Picasa photos, from there you can access all the photos taken since I started uploading to that site. There are a few new ones there, including the one above, which was taken just yesterday.

Second,I have put up my spring schedule on the left. It is crooked and rather fuzzy cause I could not figure out how to put up a copy of the actual worksheet. There is no Friday because I have no classes Friday. A more detailed version is linked to the Google calender below.

I have had a quiet winter break. I went nowhere exciting. I had a quiet Christmas and New Year, both meals taken at home. They were delicious and worth the hours and hours of labor that went into their construction. I received a few wonderful gifts from friends and family, and a whole pack of cards which was great. During the break Carol and I walked other other day, including boxing day and New Years day. Some where in the week between Christmas and the New Year we had a wonderful rain that pushed us up to a normal rainfall for the month. I think it is the first normal rainfall month since I have been here, all the others were way below normal. Hopefully January will be a wet and soggy month, though today is not. It is currently 51 with a forecast high of 71 (73 tomorrow). I am considering pulling out my sandals and shorts. I did not miss having any white stuff on the ground, in fact I was happy to see the ferns growing green out in the woods.

For the last month I have spent my hours reading, writing, and staring out my window at the grass and dandelions. The lawn types have not been by for a few weeks and the dandelions are going to seed. It is pleasant to see them bloom in January, though the pansies are prettier.

Classes begin again in two days, and it will be great to be back in class. This is going to be a busy semester. Three classes as a student, and one as a TA. I am going to earn my money this term. I am hoping the classes will all be pleasant and interesting. The idea of being a TA causes some anxiety, but I am looking forward to it at the same time. I suspect I may need to do some whining about the work load this term however.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas/New Year and have started a healthy and profitable year. Oh, I did the Southern thing for New Year: I ate black eyed peas and collards, so my year is sure to be good.

It is 7:35, December 11 and I am sitting on the back deck watching the sun squeeze through the naked tree trunks. I am wearing a short sleeved Hawaiian style shirt, and socks. It is a bit too cold for shorts, so I have a pair of long pants on, keeping my legs warm. The wind is a bit cool, but not cool enough to go inside.

I handed in my last paper for this term yesterday. I left the school at one-thirty, and was home relaxing shortly after two.

I think I have all my books for a Southern Literature course now, 12 in total. I will try to read as many of them over the holiday, and hopefully, reduce the amount of work I will have next term. I have more texts to acquire for other courses, but they have not listed their books so far.

I will be taking a walk today, and taking some photos. I will update this page later, and add some images.

I am glad the term is finished, 1/4 of my masters!

Blog Brag: an update

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Just back from my walk to the lake (see the photos above). I started out with a sweater on, but I soon had to remove because I was too warm. I am now sitting in my office with the window open. Perhaps I enjoy being able to do this a little too much, but how often could I sit in my room up north at this time of the year?

I am going to get busy doing nothing now. I am looking forward to having the day off.

I hear the sound of a lawn mower, summer sounds in the midst of winter.

I was thinking as I was walking (I can chew gum and walk as well!) that the naked trees have reduced the sense of this being an alien place. It feels more like home now than in the past, however, just when I begin to feel complacently at home I see a sign on the side of a truck reading Raleigh NC, and I am once more unhomed.

Last day of term one

I have one short essay to write today, and the term is complete.

Yesterday was a long day, paper to hand in, exam to write, and a presentation to present. Today is going to be better, it has to be better.

The weather has been wonderful so far this week. Our high yesterday was 80, it is currently 56, and our high for today might, I hope, reach 78. I saw people walking around in shorts and tees. I ate supper on the back porch in short sleeves. I got off the bus and was heading home and met a jogger running down the street in shorts and no shirt. I was sitting in class just before writing the final exam and looked out to see some kind of bush covered in white flowers. Though we could use a long soaking rain, I am delighted by the weather. Interestingly enough, I have become fond of that phrase, and I have not suffered from my usual winter blues this year. There has been more sun, though it still gets dark way too early I have been able to get out and about more than usual. Last week I sat outside in the Court of North Carolina for half an hour soaking in the warm fall sunlight.

Tomorrow I am planning on spending the day doing a lot of nothing. I am ready for a rest.

Saturday update:
I am roughly 1/2 way through my rough draft on my big Romantics paper. It is a great thing that Charles Lamb was a prolific writer. For those of you who resist poetry, he wrote a series of essays under the pen name Elia, which have been collected as the Essays of Elia. An interesting side note, Elia is an anagram for "A lie." Charles had a wicked sense of humor, and not only did he tease his poor, older, mad sister (aren't all older sisters slightly mad?), but he wrote some quite vicious epigrams. He even trashed poor old Byron's remains when they returned. I hope to have a rough draft complete by noon, and then I can begin the revising stage. I left the essay way too late, but I could not find any way to begin writing until yesterday.

It was colder than snot yesterday morning. Our overnight low was 29 and we only crept up to 50 for a high. There was even a freezing drizzle warning out early yesterday, and I heard two women talking the day before about having seen some snow flakes falling at 6:30 when the were arriving at work. It is disgusting. Fortunately, some of the trees cling to their multicolored leaves, and the evergreens (magnolia and holly) remain green. Pansies bloom happily in small display plots, and some kind of rose tree/shrub on campus is still blooming so I am not totally depressed by winters misery.

All I have left for school this semester is the big essay mentioned up there, a short take home exam/essay, and a one hour final with presentation after. I have a book list for my contemporary southern lit course, and some of the books that I will need to read over the break. I hope to get my African Lit list soon, and work on that as well. The break may be long, but with all the work I need to do I will find it too short.

Time for me to head off and get started working. Wish me luck!

end of term

10:00 First course complete!

Update: Good news! Don Domanski, one of the best poets anywhere won the Governor General's Award for poetry! You can read the story here

Additional good news: I finished one essay last night! I have a final poetry workshop tonight, and then I can focus on the one big paper that remains. The semester winds down.



No photos this week.I have been busy the last few days, though I did take the time to watch The Big Lebowski last night. I should have returned to my office after supper, but did not. It was not laziness so much as a temporary burnout. I have seven in class days and this semester will be over, and the final projects are coming due, and I feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. This is the part of school that I dislike intensely. I should be reading Keats tonight, but I don't know if I will have the time. I have one twenty page paper to write by next Friday, an eight page research proposal for next Thursday, and a portfolio of my edited poems due THIS Monday. On the upside, if all goes well, I should be finished everything, including exams, by the tenth. Then I can spend the next month reading things I want to read, like the latest Don Domanski collection. From what I have read so far, he has created an extraordinary book of poetry. I would encourage everyone to go out and order it from Amazon or their local bookstore.

The weather is taking a turn for the worse. It freezes most nights, and the day time highs barely break the sixty degree mark. The long term forecast does not offer any real hope, as highs fall into the forties. What is the point of living in the south if it gets cold?

On the upside, there are still trees covered in brilliant red leaves, and some bushes of some kind still blooming. For those of you reading this stuck in the frigid and miserable north--the lawn maintenance guys came by yesterday and mowed our lawn. I am glad the property management office takes care of that stuff. It was a rather weird experience to see them mowing the lawn and it is nearly December...time passes quickly when one is busy...I have used up my quota of ellipses for the year in this one post, I had saved them since January, and felt this was a good time to use them up.

I am off to work on a long poem I am trying to edit.

Oh, it is also garbage day!!

It is the simple things that make life worth living.