Pretty good day overall, full of stuff. Woke up and spent a few hours prepping for class, then put some more stuff in the car to take to the studio (fruit of all the cleaning / organizing yesterday), then realized I didn’t really have time to stop and unload, so I guess it’s just living in the car for a bit.
I have done SO MUCH hauling of stuff in that car in the last year, between home / Berwyn Sprout / Berwyn Shops / new studio. Going to be nice to just leave it all in one place, mostly. Although I do have to pack a bunch of it up for the Chicago Artisan Market in Ravenswood Valentine’s weekend. That’s a problem for NEXT week, though. My arm muscles are definitely stronger after the last year.
Went in and taught — the food class got Nora Ephron (“Potatoes and Love”) and Lara Vapnyar (“A Bunch of Broccoli on the Third Shelf”) — similar themes about love and relationships and shelf life, which I was pleased the students picked up on, though the authors have very different writing styles (which was also fun).
In the SF/F class, we managed three short pieces: “Feathertop” (Nathaniel Hawthorne), “The Frost King” (Louisa May Alcott), and “The Tartarus of Maids” (Herman Melville). The students didn’t necessarily love the style of these pieces (they would have liked more plot in the Melville, for example), but they did seem to enjoy the subject matter, at least after we’d discussed it some. I’ll take the win.
I take a historical approach with this class, so as the semester goes (and we all get more tired), the texts become more contemporary and a little easier for them to digest.
(I have TWO new students in one of my classes this week. Folks, week 4 of the semester is very late to be starting a new class. You now have three entire weeks that you missed to catch up on. We expect some churn at the start the semester, but try to lock in your schedule by the end of week 2 if you possibly can, or you will likely suffer.)
Walked to the car, startled by geese. Geese! Some of the further out IL campuses have geese, but in over fifteen years of teaching at UIC, I don’t think I’ve ever seen geese on our campus. What is up with that???
Then drove home, swung by and dropped off studio rent check (oof, need income to start up again soon — although hey, I did have two sales last Saturday, so that’s cool, especially since I haven’t really done anything to advertise the soft open. One woman also came in, looking a little bewildered, and said she’d seen the plants in the window, and wanted to know what kind of store this was.
I’m still figuring that out, people. I’ll let you know when I know, okay??
Then came home (too tired to go unload car at studio, it’ll keep), made tea, went to bed to read for a few hours, which was lovely. Second wind, ended up doing some ironing (why? because I had a lot of napkins that would be happier ironed, and apparently I do that once in a while), and then some sewing, making three new scarves for the studio.
Sewing accompanied by Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, new on Netflix — it’s told in three episodes. The main character is charming (the young Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent), and Martin Freeman is always reliably great — he’s the Scotland Yard figure in this one. Recommended.
And now, bath and bed, reading a little more Rebecca Thorne. Tomorrow, podcast recording with Benjamin Rosenbaum in the morning, and we’ll see what happens after that.
