April showers

March started with the much-longed-for Spring Break and ended in a mad rush that has not yet abated. While I do appreciate the two-week break, especially because it gives us the opportunity to have a leisurely visit in Puerto Rico, the crazy-busy-ness of the last two weeks and that of nearly all of April make the break feel like a hazy dream. But perhaps the idea is that the break fuels us with the energy to make it to the end of the academic year in about five weeks' time. Perhaps.

Thankfully, I have managed to stay above water so far, which is an achievement given my previous track record at my small college on the hill, and clearly points to lessons learned. I also have received encouraging news, such as positive, if unofficial, feedback on the pre-tenure review, a full-year research leave for 2011-12 awarded on the basis of teaching evaluations and student letters, and the acceptance for publication of an article I submitted to a specialized journal. The feedback on teaching, especially, has been most appreciated and helpful in fully restoring my self-confidence, which suffered some last spring because the personal difficulties I was facing with my father's illness coincided with a small group of disgruntled students and created a perfect storm of near-despair. But those days are now only a sad memory and there is nothing like the positive reinforcement of colleagues to restore self-faith and perspective.

Also in very good news, my father's bench on the nearby trails has been installed and the photo above gives you an idea of the view (albeit the winter one) that the resting spot affords to the winded hiker (it's atop a small hill). Soon, there will be plaque on the bench with my father's name and he will be memorialized near the home where he spent his last months of life and at the place that he had come to love so dearly.

The photo of Chiquita below I'm including only because it's so cute and because it shows her doing her favorite thing: snuggling up to me and taking a nap. Because this semester has been manageable and I have not been as severely exhausted as last year, I haven't needed to take life-preserving naps at 8 p.m. every night just so I could get a second wind to finish working until midnight. I've been going to bed at a regular time and getting a good night's sleep so naps have not been necessary. Thus, Chiquita doesn't get the chance to do this very often.

The fact that this semester has been manageable also manifests itself in the fact that I was able to make a batch of aromatic sofrito for all the upcoming bean concoctions that will grace our dining table in the future.

When I prepare this (a "base" for cooking traditionally used in Puerto Rico), I always remember my maternal grandmother, who was famous for her sofrito. In looking ahead to other batches of sofrito, and because from my paternal grandmother, my abuela, I may have inherited a green thumb, today I ordered four sets of seeds for different kinds of cherry tomatoes and for Costa Rican sweet peppers. I remember the plants of ají dulces and recao that my abuela had in her backyard and am going to try to get some seeds next time I'm in Puerto Rico to bring and plant here even if I have to keep them as inside plants over the winter.

April is only a few days old today but it's started with very rainy weather, which I keep repeating to myself means that May flowers will come. Still, there is a chance of snow flurries tonight and severe storms tomorrow, which reminds me that I'm in Ohio where the weather is, as Toni Morrison so aptly said, "theatrical."