When it rains, it pours.

I'm still around and stll alive and reading.

It's been a crazy week or two around here. I've developed the same plague all of my students had - headache, cough, aches and pains, general ickiness. My sister almost went into premature labor. (She's at the hospital right not and they've stopped the contractions, but I am here with my niece until they release my sister.) Earlier this week, I also received some really sad news about a close college friend of mine and the much-too-early loss of her mother. On top of all of this, I have a scary stack of essays waiting to get graded and no time or concentration available to do so.

When it rains, it pours.

I'll be back to blogging at some point soon, I promise.

Back to the Usual Already?

So I really want to go do some Target and Trader Joe's shopping, but instead I'm waiting on the carpet cleaner people to finish up with my house, so I'm stuck here for a while. I figure what better way to pass the time than to update my often neglected blog?

I hope everyone had a shiny holiday season and a fun new year. You'd think that a whole 2 weeks off would mean I could blog every now and then, but the husband and I were busy busy busy around here. Christmas Eve was my family, Christmas Day was his, and then there was a fast trip to Chattanooga and a fast trip to Birmingham so by the time New Year's Eve was here, I was needing a holiday from my holiday! ....Not to mention those essays I brought home. Ahem, procrastination anyone?

On another note, I have a good feeling about 2008, lots of good things happening. I will have a niece number two this spring - YAY; we are traveling to Europe this summer for a long-awaited trip; there is talk of a much-needed beach reunion among some old college friends this summer, and I am finally feeling comfortable and settled after our move last year.

Life is good and I have an iPhone. I can't complain.

New Year's Eve turned out to be loads of fun as we spent it with some of our old friends....not that any of us are old but we've known these folks for quite some time.

Why do camera flashes love my fair skin?

I've now spent 9 New Year's Eves with this person. Scary, I know.

So all in all, I had a fabulous holiday and am looking forward to an even better year. I feel much more rejuvinated now that I have had a break from school, and I am excited that British Lit is a semester course so I can repeat what worked and change what didn't.

I received a number of great books for Christmas, so I have a lot of reading to do. I recieved On Beauty, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, and one crazy Brazilian I know gave me something new and different that I am anxious to crack open and begin. (On that note, I loved Heroines, and there is a review coming soon.)

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and you are easily transitioning back to the daily grind. Here's to a great 2008!

I heart Google images.

Today was a bad day...quite honestly the worst I've experienced in a while. I am tired, my head hurts, and I am oh so overwhelmed. I thought, however, that I would try to accentuate the positive rather than bitch and complain, so here we go.

For tonight's post, I thought I'd include a nice montage of the only things getting me through this week.

Let's begin......

First there's my favorite candy which is currently residing in my desk drawer at school where I am keeping it so I can eat too much of it.

Then there's my favorite t.v. show that comes on in approximately 27 minutes. (I've promised myself I'll grade while I watch. Ummmm, yeah right.)

Next we have colored pens which are the only things that make grading bearable. Green and purple are my favorites, but I like to switch off every few papers to shake it up a bit.

Did I mention I started a great new book? I can't wait to curl up with it a bit this weekend.

And finally? There's the promise that this will all be over in 7 days. I am ready to be baking cookies, listening to carols, and giving presents. (Okay, I am excited about the getting, too) It's so hard to be Christmasing when I feel so overhelmed with school, but my break begins in 6 days, and it can't come fast enough!

Get Me Out of Here

So when I spent the summer of 2001 in England, I discovered Grantchester Orchard. It's a hike from Cambridge. (Literally, you have to walk there on foot through pastures.) When you complete the journey, though, you end up here.



Full trees, quaint tables, and a little stand that sells tea and scones. What could be more pleasant? Good tea, delicious scones and cream, and a good book. If heaven doesn't feel like this, I'm not interested.


Rupert Brooke immortalized this place in his famous poem "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester."

And clever modern men have seen
A Faun a-peeping through the green,
And felt the Classics were not dead,
To glimpse a Naiad's reedy head,
Or hear the Goat-foot piping low: . . .
But these are things I do not know.
I only know that you may lie
Day long and watch the Cambridge sky,
And, flower-lulled in sleepy grass,
Hear the cool lapse of hours pass,
Until the centuries blend and blur
In Grantchester, in Grantchester. . . .


Now each time I read Rupert Brooke (even if it's another poem), I always remember the breeze through the trees and the beautiful simplicity of an afternoon at Grantchester Orchard.


Today we read "The Soldier" in my British Lit class. You know the one; "If I should die, think only this of me: / That there's some corner of a foreign field / That is for ever England." Gaining a force of its own, it can move any English major to tears...or at least give you chills and remind you, "This is why I read!"


I am reading it aloud to my class of sleepy seniors when I hear a loud slurping from my right. One culprit and his morning milkshake are to blame. The class snickered a bit and I glared. When he clulessly said, "What?" I explained that he was managing to "slowly slurp every last ounce of litereray passion from my soul."


Oh that I had a time machine! I'd be 20 years old again with no students and no papers and no bills and no responsibilities. I'd be sipping tea beaneath the orchard trees this very second.

Mental Health Day

So it's been 200 years since I've last posted (nothing like the use of a good hyperbole). I've been busy busy busy doing all sorts of things but mostly drowning in my school work. I'm afraid that I've lost any readers I previously had as a result of my lengthy break from posting, so I am making an attempt to come back.

I have a substitute today, so I am posting at home - midmorning on a weekday. A rarity. I hadn't missed a day all year, not really on purpose, it just happened. My intention was to grade all morning. (I'm behind as usual.) And then I wanted to do some Christmas shopping this afternoon. Last night, however, I arrived home at the lovely hour of 7 pm which is far too late when you get to work at 7:15 in the morning. I decided that I need the mental health time more than the grading time at the present moment, so here I am.

My new plan? Post on my blog, clean my kitchen, go to the gym, come home to shower, meet the husband for lunch, and go Christmas shopping. Notice anything about this list? Ummmm, it is normal stuff that normal people should not get excited about, but I am taking a day off to do these mundane things. I know I can't complain; I am the one who chose my profession, and I am generally satisfied, but seriously.......This is far too much information, but I've been wearing the same toenail polish since September if that gives you an idea of how much time I spend on myself in proportion to how much time I spend on my job. We won't even discuss shaving the legs.

That being said, there are many bloggers out there who are just as busy as I am, and they manage to post frequently. (Andi, Carrie, and the all-powerful Dooce just to name a few.) I like blogging, and I like your comments via the blog or in "real life" for those of you who know me, so I want to keep it up. Perhaps I should move it up on my list of priorities.

On another note (since this is a somewhat bookish blog after all), I would love your suggestions on books to add to my Christmas list. Books are always the longest category on my list every year. C'mon, even you lurkers out there who read and don't leave comments whould have something to say for this one. Give me one or two really good books you've read in the last year, and I'll add them to my list. One good thing about my profession? I am about to have two solid weeks of uninterrupted "me time" which means lots of me reading time!

So, fellow bookish folk, any suggestions?