Enough of that -- the anthology and my grading are both taking enough of my attention, and the most frustrating parts of both I can't really talk about. I would love to rant about a few of the student papers, but again, it wouldn't be fair. (I do have to keep reminding myself that they're not wilfully malicious; they're just provincial).
Did you know that Utah (and much of the country, I gather) doesn't have sex ed in grammar school? I had no idea. I was shocked. I'm provincial too, in my own way. This is such an alien land to me...
But beautiful. I wish I were a better photographer. I have never seen such gorgeous skies. I suppose it's the thin atmosphere and relative lack of smog -- there's a clarity and grace to the sky here, from sunrise to sunset, and even after. More stars than I'm used to seeing. Maybe I'll put up a few decent sunrise photos I did manage to take. Actually, I have photos of my house (I rent the upstairs of a nice little house) and neighborhood; should I scan them in? I have no idea if that's the sort of thing people are interested in.
The weather's gotten chilly, finally. It's been marvelously warm for weeks, which is grand, but I've been itching to plant my bulbs and it hasn't been cold enough. Heather, do you know about narcissus bulbs? (I think it's narcissus, anyway -- paperwhites?) I've been growing some indoors, which you can apparently do all winter, and it's so easy and they're just lovely. I'm getting all excited about bulbs now -- not just for outdoors. I may go back to the garden store and get one of their pamphlets on forcing -- if I understand the concept correctly, I can have bulb flowers indoors through the winter with just a little work. Is that right?
I'm also debating whether to heat my sunroom; I'm not sure whether the plants need it. I think I'm going to set up the cable modem in there, which means that my computer will live there (less comfy than the couch, but more practical) and so I'll probably heat it some of the time for that, in any case. I seem to remember Elliot telling me that it was more cost-effective to leave the heat on at a stable temperature than to turn it on and off, but I'm not sure (he was a roommate 3 years ago who worked for the electric company (is that right? he did something with power, in any case)).
Sorry, rambly this morning. Lots of little thoughts in my head.
Clean Sheets is doing well! Remember that fund drive? It's really going to happen; not sure if we'll get it in time for Christmas, but perhaps Valentine's Day? You want to buy a CS mug for your sweetie, right? :-) And the feedback section is set up somewhat better (we're going to improve it more) and people have been posting a lot more there. The bookstore is immensely improved now that Kris Bierk has taken over (she's motivated 'cause all the income from there goes to poetry, her department). And we actually have some advertising revenue again, and hopefully ongoing. The Pif Advertising should be bringing in some real money, so that we're no longer running on quite as much of a shoestring. All of this is mostly other people's efforts, not mine, but I'm still really proud of my little magazine. :-)
Well, I should go read Clarice Lispector's _The Hour of the Star_ for theory class. Susan called me this morning after she'd finished it to tell me it was really depressing, so I guess I'd better brace for it. Talk to you later, munchkins!
It's so good to be writing regularly again.