the week of oct 27th to 31st

It's Sunday night and I just spent the last 3 hours burying myself in stacks of student papers, outlines, annotated bibliographies, and quick writes. Paper after paper after paper. What's worse, I haven't written a new poem in over 9 days. This!...from the proclaimed "poem machine," most affectionately assigned to my persona by Karen.

I mean my gosh! What does it take to force myself to remember to stay creative amidst the never-ending list of chores and responsibilities. I would need a week of "under a rock" time just to catch up from right now!

The feeling is certainly mutual. I see it in the faces of all my colleagues and fellow TAs. No one is excluded. There is a certain joy sucked out of the day when I see people stressed, down, and out...but I just remind myself that we're all dealing with it--finding the rhythm of graduate school, like finding the pot 'o gold at the end of a rainbow...

Speaking of rainbows, and to draw an interesting connection...it finally started feeling more like the expected Oregon fall/winter this weekend. Rain, cold, rain, repeat.

Bought a bright orange, corduroy papasan chair cushion to complete my home office this afternoon.

It's everything I ever wanted....and I always want a lot...so, I mean....wow...you can only imagine.


Election Day party at my house Tuesday. Ballot counting, blue states, bean dip, and beer!

OK, maybe not bean dip...but it helped the alliteration effect.

John out.