Racing
Somehow it is the end 0f March and I see I have written not a word here. I do feel as if I have been running a marathon--work, teaching, grading, preparing, uh-oh, have to write a paper for a conference, uh-oh, have to get to the airport, too much traffic, am I going to make the flight? yes, I made it! uh-oh, am I going to finish the paper in time to deliver it at 3:30 the next day? yes! it's done, sort of, well, I can always ad lib, it's just like teaching, isn't it? Conference is over, race home, see my family for a birthday gathering, uh-oh, it's Sunday night, am I ready to work and teach tomorrow night? Okay, I can do it, I did it, but, now it's Wednesday night, help, I'm being observed in class! Now it's Thursday, I'm going to work, I'm seeing the tax person after work (too late, though, she'll have to file an extension), after the tax person I take the bus crosstown, back to the school where I teach, meet with the observer, whew, she liked the class!
Home, collapse, take nap, watch Grey's Anatomy, whoops, it's a rerun, I'll watch it anyway.
Now it's late, so late at night, but guess what! I'm taking tomorrow off from work and next week, although I do have my regular job, I'm on spring break from the teaching job. So, hello everyone, I'm here, if fleetingly, and spring, yes, spring also seems to be finally here. Grateful for that--for soft velvety nights and people out on the street, thronging the restaurants in the metropolis, dogs kissing each other, bits of conversations overheard on the stoops as friends parted for the evening: "Yes, it was a typical Swedish movie: long and depressing." Last night I had dinner with a friend and he (being from the South--at least temporarily) ran heedlessly across a Manhattan street as the traffic was coming. I held back, saying, "I value my life." Then, to make it more literary, I said, "I set my life above a pin's fee," trying murkily to remember exactly the expression Hamlet used to express the opposite sentiment. My friend was not impressed with the Shakespeare allusion, but it felt good to say that, there, holding back while the traffic sang through the inky and soft New York night.
Home, collapse, take nap, watch Grey's Anatomy, whoops, it's a rerun, I'll watch it anyway.
Now it's late, so late at night, but guess what! I'm taking tomorrow off from work and next week, although I do have my regular job, I'm on spring break from the teaching job. So, hello everyone, I'm here, if fleetingly, and spring, yes, spring also seems to be finally here. Grateful for that--for soft velvety nights and people out on the street, thronging the restaurants in the metropolis, dogs kissing each other, bits of conversations overheard on the stoops as friends parted for the evening: "Yes, it was a typical Swedish movie: long and depressing." Last night I had dinner with a friend and he (being from the South--at least temporarily) ran heedlessly across a Manhattan street as the traffic was coming. I held back, saying, "I value my life." Then, to make it more literary, I said, "I set my life above a pin's fee," trying murkily to remember exactly the expression Hamlet used to express the opposite sentiment. My friend was not impressed with the Shakespeare allusion, but it felt good to say that, there, holding back while the traffic sang through the inky and soft New York night.
posted by Sarah Sometimes at 1:04 AM
4 Comments:
I may not visit very often, but I'm glad I came here right after you posted for the first time in over a month. :)
Happy Spring!!
Lilian--always glad to see you! Happy Spring to you too!
Even if you only show up once a month, I'll come visit!
And I think I'm going to crib your first two paragraphs -- with proper credit to you -- because they so perfectly describe my life right now.
I'm familiar with the feelings you express in that first paragraph, and then I find that last paragraph just exhilarating. What a delightful, breathless portrayal of spring.
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