I have a lot to do right now. Three papers. One presentation. Essays to grade. Tests to grade. Lessons to plan. Friends (Erin&Shannon&Kait&Lee, you're at the top of the list) to call and write. Bills to pay. Miles to walk. Meals to make. And I want to GET ON IT, by golly. I'm ready to go in to Robot Productive Mode.
But. Instead . . .
Well, first of all, I am eating an orange. And second - I'm writing this blog post.
I don't like it when I stay away from my blog. Because I don't like it when other people stay away from their blogs. At this point I could compare the orange to the blog and say writing is like Vitamin C for my sanity, but I won't do that. That's way too Hallmark.
***
Today, I'm going to sit in the sun and work. Must start fighting off Seasonal Affective Disorder. Somebody get me one of those sun lamps. Now, slave! Oh sorry. I forgot I wasn't talking to my class.
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I'm writing a research project on Penelope Fitzgerald. She's absolutely marvelous. That is, if you're looking for a British writer whose novels have broken down people and mess and heartbreak and a strange sort of hope and all in the most subtly luminous prose. If you're looking for that, I think you'd like her. And it's fun to research something I care about it. I am on a bona fide crusade for the woman's novels now. Treat her like a real writer, literary critics, and stop talking about how she didn't publish til she was 59 but her books are so great - come on, scholars, get into the meat of her work. Sheesh.
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Lately, I've been getting lots of emails from my precious students that go something like this:
"HEY do wE haVe Cla$$ toMorRow??????", or "what is due on wensday i forgot".
So, this morning in class, I gave the children a short but concentrated lesson on writing appropriate emails to professors and future bosses. It involved me bursting into the class, talking very loudly, and saying "OMG" a lot. I also stressed the importance of acknowledging that you are writing to a REAL human warm body being with salutory words such as "Hello." I think they got the point.
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Don't forget to pick out your very own Puritan name this Thanksgiving! Ok, I laugh, but I have to admit they were on to something. There's something sort of lovely in the thought of naming someone for life, of names as a gift:"Joy-again" and "Hope-still".
That said, whoever named their kid "Ashes" or "Fly-fornication" . . .
3 comments:
i SO wish i could take your class. oh goodness.
in a similar turn of events, i had a sophomore call me urgently early one morning a few weeks ago with a question on MLA format.
i guess that anecdote really wasn't related to your story, but it made me think of it, and I wrote it anyhow.
Favorite Puritan name of all time: Duty Cochran.
You should send me one of her novels. That way I can use my extensive connections in the literary world to continue your crusade. Or I could just read it in the sun to fight against SAD.
Discipline would definitely be my puritan name. Whachaaaah!
(that was a whip cracking...)
:)
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