Monday, December 05, 2011

ok so this time of year things really start piling up and i find myself saying to myself, i'll have to get to that over break. but "break" starts with the week before christmas and includes christmas; it usually takes me weeks to come down off of that and i start to relax and get some stuff done maybe a little after new year. so we're talking about a month before i have a shot at some of this stuff.

but i began a collection of christmas songs and i'm still interested in maybe putting together what we perform (just performed, on sunday) into a single cd; also, i want to try out garage band on this little computer and see if i can create and produce at least one of my own songs, which i've renamed okawville girl (sounds like OAK-a ville but maybe i'm wrong, or at least wrong to believe i can rename it that & get away with it). (it was danville girl but danville girl is taken, apparently, by a different song)...also, i've had inklings of desire to finish some other writing projects, namely the plays, and just passing through, which always needs work and which i put down for months at a time. it however is the masterpiece of the bunch as it tells the true story of the travels and my life if i can ever get it under control. and of course i want to finish the novel. i should be linking this stuff but it's late at night & i'm ready to crash.

which gets to the crux of the problem; no tree yet, no shopping done yet, finally got a wedding present for a wedding way last october, for which they already sent thank-you notes, and i don't have that present to them yet, phone's recharging in the kitchen, and a big pile of clothes sits here along with toys, back in my 'office', and the clothes are from the police chief's family next door, all large size, i ought to do something with them. and magazines piling up, unread, as, at work, i'm teaching sick teachers' hours a little, having trouble keeping up with my own, things got a little busy up there. got my calendars though, and, in fact, have fantasies about making a quaker calendar or maybe an occupy calendar. one can do whatever one wants, and these days, i want to do everything, including research stonewall, and do africahub, christmas shopping, and making music on garage band.

so when i saw that the phone was down to one bar i plugged it in and came back here for a minute, to bash off some rambling b/c i know that if i go about living another day the one-bar phone will go out on me while i'm out driving around; tonight it started snowing but wasn't sticking and it's basically been rainy and cold for what three days or so ever since the parade. plug in that phone whatever you do; i could sit and read a new new yorker, or an old sports illustrated, or update my poetry, the haiku is piling up in my e-mail box which is now over 1200, and somehow i think i'll get to it over break. one boy is sick but the other is as wild and out there as ever and he often has a full agenda on any given weekend which sometimes requires my attention, at least partway. when i got a minute i looked up "turning points of the civil war" and sure enough there was "death of stonewall" right up there near the top; actually they listed twelve or so turning points without judgement and merely explained their reasons for each one, and sure enough under death of stonewall they mentioned how he was an inspired genius general in leading his troops around the countryside and because he was a popular hero his death took the wind out of confederate sails and sure enough more romantic posters are made of stonewall than virtually anyone else. they don't seem to get so blurry-eyed over lee although maybe i'm mistaken or just haven't done my research, or maybe it's because lee actually lost, whereas stonewall would have won if they just hadn't shot him. but then reading through this list of turning points leads you through the war itself, vicksburg, antietam, gettysburg, the occupation of kentucky etc., everything about the battle of chancellorsville which of course the south won, so it couldn't have been a turning point at all.

speaking of chancellorsville i had an opportunity the other day when i was more or less encouraged to walk over and say hello to the chancellor herself and i did; she was nice, and for a moment there i took in the whole maroon-and-silver university thing with nice coffee, people swarming the place, and a polite exchange before going back to my grind of teaching and rooms that don't seem to have the heat working these days. my students are struggling to pass quizes and exams and losing the struggle, falling by the wayside, not even showing up on a drizzling cold and bitter monday morning & letting point totals dwindle down below 50, what a tragedy. winter is upon us, three inches of snow out in new mexico though my parents are in good spirits and all i can think of is those folks who walk up the mountain barefoot on the tenth of december and i'm thinking of making that a personal holiday, maybe i'll walk up some mountain barefoot or just go down and get the mail and walk back barefoot, that might be enough penance for me though it might not be enough for the virgen...me, with my quilt sitting here, un-sewed, old mail that's getting stuff stacked on top of it, jewish books that i got in a transfer, unread, things to send off to a granddaughter if i ever get to it and twins fixin' to plop up there in peoria, fortunately they're holding on and growing more and not rushing the situation, storm's come in, and they're still happy, cruising past their due date, not showing up in any hurry at all. a package to send to another granddaughter, who left her binky in my care for what, about a week or until i can get it together.

which is the way it should be. you have christmas cookies, and a tree, and the music, and all the preparations, a card, presents, all in its own good time, and i'm well aware that if you don't buy a tree pretty darn quick they run out of them and you're left begging someone, even it's a couple of weeks before, but it's a small town, folks are ready to move on to valentine's day i figure, they're already tired of the green & red stuff. i'd like some mistletoe, that's something i wouldn't mind teaching those students, but i'm not sure it would go over too well. too much to do, and besides, where would i get it? i lose track of whole ideas, if i don't write 'em down here, they float away in the cold hard wind. fact is, i didn't hardly get started, got out a fresh list-paper to write some of it down, and still didn't write anything, because i got distracted and it just went by the wayside. it's the way it goes. a busy season, and things are fixin to get worse, before they get better.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home