EDLM
December 9, 2021
My wife gets up to take a shower at 6:45 and turns on the bedroom light because I also need to get up. Fine. I roll over and take my blood pressure—been doing this for a week so I have some readings for an upcoming doctor’s appointment next Tuesday. It’s a good reading, probably because I’m half asleep still.
Regular morning routine begins: feed the cats, get us breakfast, eat breakfast, shower, etc. I dress for the weather in my office rather than outside. It’s going to be a bit warmer today, and last time that meant 80 degrees in the office. So, sleeveless with a cardigan it is. It’s a long top that I wear with leggings, something I wouldn’t have worn 2 years ago, but the pandemic has brought be around to the idea that leggings are, in fact, pants. Still, there’s a nagging little memory in the back of my head from high school when I almost got detention for wearing them. Sigh. But I’m comfortable—both physically and feeling better about how I look than in many work clothes.
The sunrise is gorgeous this morning, a bright, angry fuchsia.
The bell tower strikes 8 just as I sit down at my desk.
The last day of class is always a little emotional, and today I’m feeling my emotions swinging a bit from annoyance at a request for a meeting over break, anger at some politics happening at a peer university, to love at getting a thoughtful gift in my mailbox.
I get to chatting with some colleagues before class, and rush in the last minute. I pull up Zoom because one student emailed me to attend that way today. I have only had this happen three times this semester, but I’m glad to have the option for them. I’m also glad that for this class period I don’t have anything to put on the big screen because I find that harder to coordinate with Zoom open. Last class goes fine. In my head it was going to be a big epic last discussion, but they are a bit quiet today. I think they are tired and ready to be done. I lost a piece of my fidget ring during class, which has been bound to happen as I keep taking the rings on it completely off rather than just spinning it.
After class it’s a faculty meeting on Zoom. That has a few… interesting… moments but is generally okay.
It’s the BSU Pottery sale today, and my wife is texting me pictures of things, including a totally superfluous but gorgeous decorative bowl. We’re talking about whether we should get it, and if we are in fact a decorative bowl household. She says she doesn’t think we are, but I remind her we already have one at least.
My phone is about out of battery as it seems to be not charging at night sometimes now. So, that’s annoying. Why are batteries the first thing to go?
Someone else stops by with a present for me! That’s the third little gift I’ve gotten this week from colleagues. It’s nice to feel appreciated, and I think that I should do some thank you notes.
I heat up my lunch—some parsnip soup I made yesterday. It’s really good. I think parsnips are a strange favorite veggie, but I really like them. That with some left over focaccia my wife made that we put in the freezer. And one of the chocolates that was my gift for dessert. So tasty!
After lunch, I go for a swim. It’s been a while because the pool has been closed for maintenance. This late in the semester, it’s pretty empty and by 1:15, I’m the only one in there. It’s glorious. I was running home to shower afterwards, when the weather was nicer, but now that it’s chilly, I brought the hair dryer and everything. So, I’m thankful the locker-room is empty, too.
While putting my swim stuff back in the car, I get a USB charger for my phone and connect it to my computer. If I went home right now, I’d probably take a nap, but I’ll settle for another chocolate instead.
I do not want to go back to work. Last day of class-itis? But I get a few small things done, including scheduling a little team gathering on Zoom for next week. I thought about having it in person, but there’s mixed comfort levels with that still. I’m honestly good with Zoom. I’m going to make cookies and drop them off for people and then hopefully we’ll hang out in the evening on Zoom and play some games.
I make myself sit down for a longer task of dissertation reading/feedback that I’m behind on. I remember about 4 pm that I was supposed to take something out of the freezer for dinner. Oops. About 4:30, I head to the library to pick up a book and meet my wife to head over to the pottery sale. We pick up a tumbler and a small gift, then head home. We decide if we are a decorative bowl family, we aren’t one who needs a $100 new one.
At home, I’m busy getting my swim stuff in the laundry and putting all my other things away. S the cat is unhappy that I’m not dropping everything to pay attention to her (she’s a pandemic kitty and not used to us being gone all day), so she runs right up to her sister cat (G) and nips her. Now I’m mad at her and scolding her. She usually plays aggressively but that was just acting out. Ugh. G. takes out her frustrations by licking the plastic bag I took out of the freezer just now—okay, she’d do that whether or not she was frustrated. She has this thing for plastic licking.
For dinner, I warm up leftover pasta for my wife and a leftover burger from the freezer for me. We watch a little of “Crash Course Black America History” on Youtube while we eat. It’s on the Slave Codes, and I wonder if my ancestors were involved in the House of Burgess in Virginia when those were getting written. There’s a definite possibility. I’m thinking of it more today because I started looking into this organization called “Coming to the Table,” and personal reparations. A video I started watching from them yesterday had one of the group members talking about not only being the descendent of enslavers but the people who wrote some of these awful laws.
After dinner, I plan for cookies and the recipes I’m going to make for my team. (It strikes me as an odd quirk of everyday modern life to switch from thinking about slavery to cookies.) I also check in on a couple of online games. I’m texting a friend about getting together to play a game in person this weekend. It’s been two years now, and we used to game regularly together. She had been feeling a little like she was sick but had a negative COVID test. Even though it’s back to seeing people—at least in small groups—we are still being super careful if anyone is sick and cancelling. I hope she’s well by then because I don’t want a cold either, but glad to know the test was negative. We’ll see how it goes.
Then I watch Locke & Key on Netflix. I started reading the comic once. My wife really liked it, but she didn’t like the show as much. I really like the show, though. Maybe because I didn’t finish the comic? Of course, S comes to snuggle on my lap near the end of an episode, meaning I have to watch another. I feel less guilty about these “lazy” nights as I notice that I’m actually more productive after them. It seems to reset my brain somehow. About halfway into that episode, E rushes in excited about a new Telltale Game based on the Expanse (sci fi series). Telltale was a company we both thought went out of business that makes narrative branching path sort of stories based on popular media. So, this is definitely exciting. Of course, in her excitement she disturbs S, so no more lap cat. Guess that means I can get up and get dessert. E made some pumpkin tiramisu last weekend.
After some TV, I go to get some things ready for tomorrow and reply to an email from my Dad. I’m going to visit them tomorrow and help him scan more old photos. He also wants to know what to do with a cell phone that got wet, so I’m googling that. Turns out the rice trick is a myth. So, not sure what you can do. Reminds me of when I was in 8th grade and dropped by 110 film camera in the toilet on a school fieldtrip. Today that would be a cell phone! The thing worked for awhile until one day the battery just exploded.
We’re also starting to slowly look for a new house and a historic one downtown just went up on Zillow. It looks nice, but we’re a bit skeptical. It’s priced pretty low and everything else we’ve seen has been priced super high. Might be the neighborhood? Or maybe the pictures make it look in better condition than it is? I email our relator about it. I feel like we are still unsure what we even want, and she’s probably trying to figure us out.
I say something to my wife about the house search, and we start to get into an argument. She calls me out on my negativity, and I accuse her of lecturing me. But we pause, knowing it’s not a productive conversation, and then we restart and talk about our communication instead. She was disagreeing with something I said, and I thought that I was communicating an emotion not a statement, so I was mad she was disagreeing instead of acknowledging my feeling. Sometimes our communication styles are at odds, but we’ve come to be pretty good, I think, at conversations like this one—stopping when it’s not productive and backing up and figuring out what’s happening.
After that discussion, I read for about half an hour before falling asleep. I’m reading American Elsewhere, which is more of a horror book by an author whose fantasy series I really liked (the one we name the cat S after). It’s a pretty good book. I think I care more about overall writing style that specific genre. Then, off to sleep around 11 pm.