I’m feeling pretty sad this morning — when I think of my students scared to come to campus, it’s very distressing. I can’t do much to support them other than telling them I’m here to help them with resources and switching to Zoom for now. I hate feeling helpless.
It’s raining and cool, first real autumn weather we’ve had in a while, and it’s very welcome — this is what it’s supposed to be like in October. The weather’s been so weird, I’ve had both summer and autumn clothes out, making a lot of chaos in my bedroom — I’ve been putting away the summer clothes finally this morning, which is helping.
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Just looking for little bits of comfort right now. Some of the things that have brightened my mood a little:
• seeing all the white women on the local moms’ group who are absolutely outraged by ICE in our neighborhood and who are signing up with ICIRR and doing trainings and volunteering to escort the immigrant kids to school, so their parents don’t have to risk leaving the house. They’ve set up a SignUp Genius to organize and are escorting affected staff too. I appreciate them.
• wearing my new cashmere unicorn sweater — this was a splurge, but I have no regrets. It was the only one left in the store, and I had to talk them into letting me take it off the mannequin and try it, and I didn’t think it would be my size, since it’s XS, but it’s cut boxy enough that it fits fine, and then I had to talk them into asking a manager if I could buy it, and so I felt quite triumphant when I finally purchased it, and then it’s been too hot to wear it until today. It is very cozy with a tank top under it.
• I’ve cooked some tasty things recently. I’ll do a separate post about that. It helps, though — I’ve been trying to eat better, and taking the time to cook has been good for my health, budget, and sanity.
• reading through my students’ responses to the Chesterton, Nesbit, Wharton, and Wynne stories from the last weeks — it’s possible that they’re using ChatGPT for their reading journals, I suppose, but I think they’re mostly not, and now that we’re several weeks into the semester, I’m seeing a lot more fluidity in writing from them overall — I think they’re gaining confidence in expressing their own ideas. And they generally liked all the stories, though many were confused by Wynne’s “The Little Room” — it’s okay, it’s supposed to be confusing.
• reading their responses to the first two chapters of Becky Chambers’s _A Psalm for the Wild Built_ — they LOVE it, and I’m so glad. I haven’t taught this before, but we’ve done several weeks of historical SF and F, and I wanted to give them something contemporary, to help them trace the connections between those earlier writers and what writers are doing now. And this book is just perfect for a college classroom and these times. Here — have a few excerpts:
“I LOVED the imagery of the environment outside of the city! It felt very much like a homey/cozy video game where your goal was to start your own little tea shop and grow herbs and flowers. And I could 100% see myself playing it. I lowkey want to be Dex. Running away, living in a cute little wagon and growing teas, herbs, flowers, etc, sounds like a dream.”
“…its cool to understand how Dex is still figuring it out at 29 and has so many options but always chooses something that different and odd.”
“Having Dex go on their journey of self discovery at 29 is really cool to see, showing that even people much older still need time alone to figure themselves out. I hope that Dex has a happy ending and finds their peace at the end for a wholesome self discovery arc.”
Chambers dedicates the book: “For anyone who could use a break.” I think that’s all of us right now. If you need a little peace, highly recommended.
• I’ve read a lot of good stuff recently — some suggestions for you: The Summer War (Naomi Novik), Olive and Dragon (Victoria Goddard), Lake of Souls (Ann Leckie short story collection), What Moves the Dead (T. Kingfisher, though it’s part of a series, so start with the earlier books), and I have Queen Demon (the new Martha Wells) waiting for me when I finish teaching today. Possibly also _Don’t Talk About Politics_, if I feel up to it.
• I also went on a binge and read all of Alix E. Harrow’s books, which was time well-spent.
• We’ll soon be releasing the first five stories from The Stars Change as a little ebook on Kindle Unlimited, so people who subscribe to that can have a free teaser for my other work. I’d like to be giving y’all new writing, but I’m having a lot of trouble finishing writing these days — I draft and re-draft and overthink things, I think. But at least I can put some more of my prior work into the world; that makes me happy.
• I signed up for a singing class through the Park District, and last night was the first class. It’s ensemble singing, Broadway Voices, taught by a Sri Lankan friend, Anjali Karia (who was also our kids’ music teacher), and it was good to be with people, melding voices. (Even if I do tend to wobble from one part to the other…)
Little drops of comfort in a sad world.
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Okay, back to prep for teaching. Today I’ll be seeing how much of the world building they were able to discern from the little clues that Chambers drops in the first two chapters; we’re also going to spend a little time talking about contemporary work they love, and start brainstorming paper topics. I’m not thrilled to be doing this on Zoom — in person is overall better for teaching, clearly — but it’ll be okay. And there are some ways I can use Zoom and the breakout rooms to facilitate getting some of the quieter students to participate more, so I should be able to make a little lemonade out of these lemons.
