things that happened today

1. I took Matt to the airport at 4 AM so he could go back to Madison.
2. I found out that one of my students likely cheated on a recent assignment.
3. I was amazingly productive.
4. I missed my cousin, even though she hasn't left the country yet but because even though we have been 1900 miles apart for almost 3 months, I can still feel her absence.
5. I found out that my parents' best friends' dog (one of my childhood pseudo pets) had to be put down recently.
6. I got some really spectacular feedback on some work I did recently.
7. Rosa Parks died.

Yeah. It was a day. Not good, not bad, just mixed.

my best thinking is in the bathroom

I was doing my hair in the bright desert light this morning when I had the most disturbing epiphany. I've had this haircut for about a year and a half now and this thought only just now occurred to me: my haircut is like a mullet. Business in the front, party in the back.

Oh the tenuous though still embarrassing connection.

what you bring with you

Before I left last week, I recounted my fears to my friends about going home. “I love it here,” I told them, “and I am afraid that going back to Madison is going to mess that up.”

D, ever wise, looked at me and said, “It’s usually not about what you do at home, but what you bring with you when you come back. At least for me anyway.”

I wish I had listened to those words more carefully because, God help me, here is a list of what I brought back: memories of a very, very beautiful and loving wedding, tears from some very, very sad goodbyes, the realization that my parents are doing okay and that’s good, two very lonely hours on Friday afternoon in which none of my friends were available, I had no plans and I didn’t belong anywhere, warmth from sunny Madison skies, rage about the new Beltline, the knowledge that my family (nuclear and extended) loves me very much, three nights of amazing sleep in my old bed, a sense of helplessness about the ill-advised (now going on permanent) hiatus I did not initiate, so many strength giving hugs, a little bit of laughter with old friends, and a six pack of Spotted Cow.

At least we know my priorities were straight.