Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

"No good deed goes unpunished..." Meg and I went to see Wicked: For Good last night, and we enjoyed it immensely. That said, the ending didn't fit the mythic trope, and it bothers me.  Okay, so I'm a literature geek. And I tend to recognize and appreciate (expect?) the dramatic/literary arc in good writing and good movies. So, I was excited that this film (and the first one) were upending the trope a bit, refreshing it and questioning the whole "we need a man to solve our problems" theme in literature and film. We see in the first film that Elphaba first idolized the Wizard, but then came to find out that her trust and belief were misplaced; he is a liar and a cheat, and he uses people. Okay, that brings things to a crescendo, and on to the second film. Elphaba is persona non grata in Oz, and the Wizard, through Nessa, is making life in Oz untenable. The animals are escaping to the great unknown because they are persecuted. Then, the Munchkins' movement...

Saturday-- I'm still in my flannel nightgown, sipping a hot cup of coffee. That was my goal, and here I am, achieving it! There's a lot of things on my mind, most of them state, national, international-- and I am not prepared to talk about many of them, at least not in an indelible, digital way. Let's just say that they are all heartbreaking, wrong, hurtful things.  And I can do little about any of them.  I think we are all feeling that way, and have been for some time. I know I write often about what we can do at the local level, and I also know that most of you (all?) feel the same way I do about all the things I'm not going to write about. So, I'll just smile and nod. You get me. And I appreciate that so much.  So, positive things: I will do my darndest to get the last of the solar lights out today; It should take just a few minutes, so I'm pretty sure I can handle it. I will pop out to the grocery and pick up some things I need for the "regular" gr...

We have a few days of weather forecasts that include 40 degrees and sunshine in the offing! I am going to try to get the last of my outside lights up and operational after I get in from work. Wish me luck: if the ground is frozen solid, then the snowflake stakes will not be happening. I will also try to get the last strand of fairy lights up in the backyard; I'm thinking the highbush cranberry will do. I can reach that one. Lights bring me a little wiggle of joy.  I'm also debating whether it'll be pizza night tomorrow. I'm particularly tired. I don't really want to cook. We'll see.  Saturday and Sunday are scheduled with things to do. Not a ton, but still...things. And grading papers. Those should not take a ton of time, though. I've seen the drafts for most of them more than once.  I'm hopeful of finding a time to go see Wicked: For Good with Meg, but once again, our schedules kind of suck. I will talk to her about it. I really want to see it.  I'm...

Negotiating the holiday meal for next Thursday with Meg was a breeze this year. I always make so much food-- far too much-- and I'm trying to avoid the overdoing it thing. We've decided on turkey (cuz it is), regular mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, corn, butternut squash, bread stuffing. I will save the other "usual" sides for leftover-refreshers. Dessert? Well, one of our student groups does a pie sale, so I ordered a cheesecake and a pumpkin pie. I'll make an apple one, too. I will likely buy a bottle of Beaujolais, but we'll see. I hear it's not been a good year for it. There may be rolls, but likely purchased ones. And yes, cranberry sauce in a can. Two cans, probably. No judgment-- we like our Ocean Spray products. (G's grandfather was one of the original co-op members when Ocean Spray began; he had a cranberry bog in Carver, MA. O, and remind me to tell you what he's told me about growing up with the descendants of the Mayflower...his ...

Well, how about that? I had all of my students in both classes today-- probably for the first time in over a month. I won't get too used to it, as it's cold/flu/ick season, and there's another college tour field trip on Thursday that's taking a few of my juniors again. But we did stuff today! And I don't have to repeat myself! Huzzah! The juniors are working on a quick dip into APA documentation/citation with a very short lit review due on Friday. I am not going to spend inordinate amounts of time on this; I honestly do not care what their topics of inquiry are, because we are just working on the formatting and citing stuff. It's enough to get their feet wet and to demonstrate the difference from MLA, which is the primary method used in school. Which makes no sense at all to me, really, since it's only English that needs MLA-- but I digress. I'm just happy they can see that there's different methods out there, and each is particularly useful for diff...

Well, it was a very busy/sort of chaotic Monday, but we all landed on our feet (I think). That said, how about a quiet(ish) Tuesday? One thing I've been seeing over and over again in the AP Lit Facebook group is a real penchant for three pieces of literature, specifically. Frankenstein , Hamlet , and "The Yellow Wallpaper." I'm puzzled. Since I'm new at the AP thing, why those three things? And why do people spend a gazillion days/weeks on things that should take up maybe a week? Either I'm really going to suck at this, or maybe I'll be fine because what I've been doing for almost four decades seems to work. We'll see.  I'm not knocking any of those works of literature, anyhow. They are all good to read/discuss. But there's a real magnetic pull (or so it seems) to these. For my two cents' worth, I will not read Hamlet with high school kids. They don't have the life experience to bring to the text, so it becomes entirely academic-- w...

Last week had three "Mondays." The start/stop nature of the week was exhausting. Add to it several field trips and so on, and yeah... we lost momentum. This week should be less weird, though there is an advisory meeting (Mon.), and class meetings (Thurs.). I'm sure there will be something or other stuffed in there, too, but I hope to have most of my students most of the time this week! I spent a delightful, exciting, and mentally exhausting weekend. Who knew that, after four relatively short sessions, I'd have a poem draft that spans eight pages (so far)? Wow. I kind of want to play hooky and work on it. But I won't. I'll let it simmer for a bit. I have been writing every day since November 1, so I will keep that up, too.  But there's more stuff I need to get done. I have book reviews idling on my desk. I have holiday stuff to figure out. And I should be working on more poetry submissions, though that's not that critical. I still have yet to plunge int...

It's cozy in my house this morning; G got up early as he always does, got the pellet stove going, and when I got up at 5:30, I got a chicken carcass simmering with some celery-- soup with dumplings tonight! The ice came through and through again last night, and we have predictions for on and off snow today. This feels like the kind of November we had years ago. I'll watch Mass on the livestream, and then my class starts shortly after-- tight schedule, so being home and watching it while the soup is cooking  makes sense, with the added "fun" of slick roads... thank goodness for the livestream.  I've been buying flour. Every time it goes on sale, I get another bag of flour. I think I need to stop for a while-- I have 7 five-pound bags. Must be my squirrel instinct has gone into overdrive. I have not been baking as much (my sourdough died), but winter is upon us, and I have bananas in the freezer. I am thinking about muffins, too. And maybe G will make some cookies.....

 "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." --Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend If you are able to donate time, talent, or treasure-- canned food, good cheer, phone calls and letters to officials, whatever you can and whatever it takes-- please do.  People are hungry. And not just for food (though that is definitely at the top of the list).  With the proposed cuts and new rules regarding permanent housing for those who are unhoused, it's estimated that 170,000 people will be put on the streets. All people who qualify for SNAP will have to "reapply"-- even though they already recertify every six months. This shift toward making poverty a moral failing (there are sobriety rules attached as well) is coming from a party that has its own share of moral turpitude. It's cruelty that would make Herod blush. From erstwhile "card-carrying Christians" this is especially repugnant: Jesus would start knotting cords and flipping tab...

UP, and I am glad it's Friday. It's been a very busy week, especially with the start-and-stop nature of things with a holiday on Tuesday and a field trip yesterday. The weather is still chilly and damp, which seems to be the forecast for the foreseeable future. I want to get the last string of lights in a tree out back, but who knows when or if. Sigh. Missed the window, it looks like.  It's been a long time since we've had a cold and snowy early November. The geese were right about the date, and the acorn supply predicts a snowy winter overall. I like to pay attention to the signs in nature; the professionals do a good job, and I appreciate all they do (especially since they got DOGEd so severely), but I also think that nature has a lot to tell us if we slow down enough to get the news.  I have a writing class both Saturday and Sunday, and I'm really excited to see where this new adventure is leading me. I am percolating with ideas, but I'm holding them at bay u...

Cold, wet, and dreary day-- but a fantastic morning with 65 students and several of my colleagues attending The Crucible performed by TheatreUP here in Littleton. Wow. It was really great. At the end of the play (and if you are local, GO SEE IT!!), John Proctor's anguished cry, "Because it is my name! I cannot have another!" echoes in my head and heart. He was willing to give up his life for a sacred truth, to leave his name unsullied by a lie that would have spared him but would have tarnished not only his and his sons' name forever, but would have dishonored those who died for truth before him.  There are precious few people who are willing to stand so firmly on what it right that they will die for it. Most folks will compromise, telling themselves and others that some personal indignity or shame is worth it for the larger good. (Witness the handful of Democrat senators...) And quite often, they are probably right. But where do we, as individuals, draw the line? Wh...

It snowed all day yesterday, and it's still messy out there. We have not gotten an early snowstorm like this in a while, and it's caught a lot of people off-guard. I got my winter tires on last Wednesday-- just in time.  So, wet/slick roads today. Sigh. Seems to be the likely situation for the next several days.  Y'know, it's funny. In the movie Sense and Sensibility , the one starring Emma Thompson and others, the youngest sister, Margaret, is told that if she had to talk to people, she should restrict her comments to the weather and the state of the roads. I guess I'd pass. Today, I have a full day at work, and I have to make sure all the finer details of tomorrow's big field trip are taken care of. It's never perfect, but it's got to be as close as possible. And then... I can rest. Sort of. No more huge school projects for a while. I've taken on a bit more than I ought to have, I think, and what with extra kid and now dog duty, teaching AP, and so...

  Thank You for Your Service   … and what about the families: the wives, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, fathers, daughters and lovers, all waiting? Sometimes it’s 2190 days (52,560 hours).   The weight of waiting, more than three million minutes, more or less, hating the more, dreading the less   …unless it’s on leave. Checking sleeves, counting fingers and toes, who knows what horrors are brought and bought by those who serve? Those who serve breakfast lunch dinner drink coffeecoffeecoffee & stay awake nights more coffee   Fold the towels, write the letters, cry the tears, check the mirror, apply the lipstick and serve up smiles and gather up linens and stare at the sky. Why lie?   …service gets no damned medals. Just the clink in the sink of forks and knives, spoons, a jumble of cutlery needing polish, like iron markers, little outposts of service: new flags on graves. This poem first app...

Not all of you, dear readers, are football fans. But still, I have to share the ongoing issue I have in my sophomore Brit Lit class. It's over-run with non-Patriots fans; there's a segment of the population that are Bills fans (and one really vocal Chiefs fan). Okay, people can root for whom they wish; I've been a loyal Pats fan since birth (the team became a franchise six years before I existed). I've followed stats, players, and so on for a very long time-- in short, they can't trash talk without bringing the receipts. Which, given that they are all 16 or so, they can't bring much. But I admire loyalty, so there's that. But seriously-- they do talk a lot for kids who don't have much history to rely on. Okay, so there was a lot of smack talk this past week, the general tenor of which was O, the Pats have an easy schedule, they haven't played any good teams  (well, except that victory over the Bills...hm), and they'll get beat this week when they...

Snowing. It seriously never fails. Six weeks after the geese fly, there's snow sticking on the ground. We are not supposed to get much, maybe an inch? But the mixed precipitation forecast until early afternoon is a concern, so we are not going to Tilton to BJs after all. No matter: I can order most of it online and have it shipped. We can try again in a couple of weeks, if the weather is better. No cheap goods are worth going through Franconia Notch with freezing rain as a possible consideration. So, today it'll be church, breakfast, then home to putter around and get a few things done, watch football, play with the dog, etc. A decent Sunday, I think. I have papers to grade, too, so I can get those knocked out. Maybe the snow/messy travel forecast is God's way of saying to me that I need to slow the heck down.  This week is a busy one (when isn't it?)-- but we do have Tuesday off for Veterans' Day. That said, I have a huge field trip for the high school on Thursday ...

 UP at the usual time-- can't figure out why my noggin won't let me sleep in a half hour more on Saturdays.  Today, I have a short agenda (groceries, house work) and I want to sit and read and think for a bit.  We'll see how it goes. I'm fixated on the groceries. I am grateful I can get them. There are far too many people living on the razor's edge right now, and it's entirely a human-caused situation. There is no blight. No famine. No crop failures. But there is a malignancy, rooted in cruelty and corruption.  Today, and tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future, I will round up at the register, I will buy extra to donate, and I will simmer. I'm angry that people's well-being is being used as leverage. For those card-carrying Christians who are doing this heinous thing, all I have to say is, hell awaits. Have a good day, hug those you love, and if you can, help fill a need. No one goes hungry on my watch. C

Such an adjustment we need to do with this little doggo! She's not as housebroken as we'd been told, but we can work on that. Otherwise, she is a delight. Such a loving little dog. I rearranged the front room so that she could climb on the futon to look out the window--she is a nosey neighbor, for sure. And G lowered the gate that is on the front hallway so she will stop squeezing herself under -- there is nothing upstairs she needs, and her toenails would get caught in the carpet on the stairs. No one needs a dog with a broken leg. And we've got some other gates and barriers that we've installed or are coming in soon-- she is, as I say, nosey, and she gets into all sorts of stuff. And, to be honest, until she is fully housebroken, I'd like to limit the places she has accidents to the washable areas. No one wants to make a daily event out of running the carpet cleaner.  But anyhow-- this week is running about as smoothly as it could; it's been a bit expensive (d...

   Welcome to our family, Cece! Geoff went up to the rescue and picked her up, brought her home, and we are already in love. She is a sweet little cuddler, quick with kisses, and hardly any barks.  I know we'll have some readjusting to do (so much hair!!) but she is a lovely little pup. We need a new routine, and it'll take a few days. q Have a great day, all... C

      Autumn Rain D.H. Lawrence     The plane leaves     fall  black  and wet     on the lawn;     The  cloud  sheaves     in heaven's  fields  set     droop and are drawn     in  falling  seeds of rain;     the seed of heaven     on my face     falling - I hear again     like  echoes  even     that  softly  pace     Heaven's  muffled  floor,     the  winds  that tread     out all the grain     of tears, the store     harvested     in the  sheaves  of pain     caught up aloft:     the  sheaves  of dead ...

Here's a favorite poem of mine from Frost: My November Guest My sorrow, when she’s here with me,      Thinks these dark days of autumn rain Are beautiful as days can be; She loves the bare, the withered tree;      She walks the sodden pasture lane. Her pleasure will not let me stay.      She talks and I am fain to list: She’s glad the birds are gone away, She’s glad her simple worsted grey      Is silver now with clinging mist. The desolate, deserted trees,      The faded earth, the heavy sky, The beauties she so truly sees, She thinks I have no eye for these,      And vexes me for reason why. Not yesterday I learned to know      The love of bare November days Before the coming of the snow, But it were vain to tell her so,      And they are better for her praise. Enjoy the beauty around us,...

What a delightful weekend writing! I haven't been able to focus and have fun with words like that in a long time.  This week, however, may be filled with expensive things. Sigh. Getting my winter tires on is expected; the possible hole in my exhaust (and pray it's nothing even moreso) is Wednesday's challenge. Then the dentist on Thursday; it's supposed to be just a cleaning. It'll have to be. I have to pay out of pocket, then submit the invoice to my insurance (where they will deny it, but this is the game we have to play), then send a copy of the invoice and the denied claim to G's insurance in order to get some of it reimbursed. Yeeehaa.  We are also hoping to travel to Tilton on the weekend to stock up on some things for winter at BJs, and maybe treat ourselves to a fat-assed burger and fries at Five Guys. We'll see just how expensive the other two appointments run. But I really do want to head down before winter weather is a factor.  In other news, G an...

I slept and slept last night. I was watching a Father Brown mystery on the tv, and fell asleep-- then went to bed, changed the clocks, and fell asleep some more. I was up in bed at 9 (new time), and slept until 5:30. I feel like I've almost had enough sleep, for once.  Now, if I can shake the sinus headache... well, that probably won't happen anytime soon. It's dry in the house, humidifiers be damned. And the next door neighbor uses soft wood, I think, so the smoke from his chimney is thick and sooty, and since we are next door, well, my house and bedroom smell like smoke every night. And that is troublesome for me, so I have air purifiers going on both levels. I suppose it helps, but here we are. Winter woes. I miss having windows open at night for the fresh air, but this air is not so fresh.  Today is the second day of my writing class, and I sure hope the internet stays on. It was a bit awkward to jump in halfway yesterday.  First, though, church. And food. And then, c...

Today began by Geoff waking me up with, "may as well stay in bed, the internet is down." And down it was until just after 11am. I missed the first half of today's writing class, but I managed to get caught up. In addition to that unpleasant start to the day, a bear trashed our bird feeders. We hadn't seen any signs of a bear in about 2 months, and so we had feeders out. Dang thing smashed two of them, bent the crooks, and left a mess. ugh.  Well, sort of ugh. I hadn't yet decided on a topic to work from for the class today, so I just went with the bear and bird feeder thing. It's been fun, and a little surprising as well. What started out as something to just get started with is turning into something much more metaphorical; it's funny, isn't it, that what's most on your mind ends up in your writing? Suffice it to say, this may be the only way in for me to engage with some of the things that are too traumatic in the world right now to speak sanely ...