Living in my Saraness
So I’ve been back in graduate school for one month. It is far more things than I could possibly tell you about right now, dear reader. It has been immense. But in finding my way around a new campus, a new office, a new teaching load, and a research community in which I intend to … Continue reading
Wellness
I am sitting in the doctor’s office. The first time in a few years. Not because anything is wrong. I’m just getting to a place where I care about preventative care and wellbeing. So to the physical I go. Perhaps it’s the onslaught of family illness and diagnoses. That’s certainly part of it. One’s own … Continue reading
Swimming against the grain
I work for a big fancy university. The powers that be there conveniently provide a shuttle from the thoroughfare at the end of my road straight to my office. It’s a very lucky thing and saves me untold mental strain and dollars during hustling rush hour commutes. But because it’s on the busiest street in … Continue reading
Summer creeps and leaps to life all out of order. And never quite what I expect. Yesterday was summer because I could see the residual flush of a long sunny walk the day before in my skin. Today is summer because I bite into leftover corn on the cob straight from the fridge, with its … Continue reading
Goodness & luck
Meetings ran late, dying to get home. Spy the bus out the window and decide to make a run for it – jump puddles, slip in mud, laugh maniacally and catch your bag in the door just in time. Invigorated, reach for your phone. No. Phone. Did You leave it on the desk? No, checked … Continue reading
Small Mercies
It’s been a tough fall. Tough schedule, tough travel, challenging projects (in mostly good ways), tough politics, tough times. But today I had such a rush of pleasure from the littlest things. That I needed the car and my loving spouse was willing to take the train (which he hates) and that we live in … Continue reading
Living Beautifully
A year ago, I was uncertainly stepping into a new job. After floundering and soul searching and asking the darkness big questions (and finding myself even more afraid of the answers), I set myself a task. Over the course of several weeks, I paid attention. To what brought me joy, certainly, but also what brought … Continue reading
Questing
I spent the summer I turned twelve doing four things: reading, keeping a journal of every book I read and film I saw, practicing my violin, and mowing the lawn while belting show tunes (secretly dreaming I’d be discovered by a talent agent over the drone of the mower). The summer I turned twelve I … Continue reading
Moving Season
It’s moving season in Chicago. Every leafy side street is full of U-hauls and hatchbacks. Alley stairwells everywhere echo with stuck sofas and clanging bed frames. Although the sticky heat is a terrible time for hauling box springs and arm chairs, 40-below and in 2-feet of unplowed snow is infinitely worse, I imagine. Around here … Continue reading
Travel Tuesdays: Revival
I recently came across my Travel Tuesday stories: a short-lived weekly ritual exploring places I had been as we waited (and waited and waited) for the uncertain future to transport us to America. I felt strangely jealous. Delighted to revisit places I fondly remember, surprised and rather chuffed at being transported by words I don’t … Continue reading
Que Sera Sara? 