April is crazy busy at my small college on the hill, what with the end of the semester, honors, and all the spring events for seniors, and while I am not involved in most of those events, last month I participated in a search committee, a student asked us to be her college parents on honors day when she received an important award, the handful of advisees I have were registering for fall classes so I had to meet with them several times, I observed two classes of a colleague for whom I'm writing a promotion letter, I accompanied a good friend to medical appointments, I prepared for and attended a meeting on diversity with some of the college's board members, I twice met with the potential honors students for next year, I attended meetings about the summer bridge program I help teach, and also had meetings for a new summer program that I helped design.
On top of this, we finally sold the house near the small college on the hill, moved everything back to our new old house in the tiny city, closed on the sale, and, perhaps not surprisingly, I came down with shingles (after having, in March, visited another friend at the hospital, who had shingles).
I realize now that this is why there's been such a long gap here in this space since my last post on April 8.
Oh, and let me not forget that on April 28 and 29 I was in Annapolis, Maryland, visiting with my sister, her three children, my mother, and my brother's oldest son, to see my oldest niece perform as Paulette in her school's rendition of "Legally Blonde."
In addition to my niece's outstanding performance (she really did steal the show), another wonderful highlight of the trip was attending this performance of "The Belle of Amherst" at a tiny theater near the hotel where my mom was staying. My oldest nephew, who is a journalism major at his university and who also is a consummate actor and theater lover, my mom, and I went to see the play and it was sublime.
I was ecstatic because I had read about the play after reading the fabulous recent biography of Dickinson, Lives Like Loaded Guns, which provocatively proposes that the reclusive poet was an epileptic. Although this play was written before the biography came out, it is a tour de force in which the lone actress brings Emily Dickinson to life in exciting and moving ways. I loved that I was able to share this with my mom and my nephew, especially since, after the play, we went to a nice coffeehouse and had an early dinner and great conversation. As my mom pointed out, the memory this day created was priceless.
Dickinson's poetry is very special to me, too, because during my father's last hours, I read him several of her poems, especially those that had to do with death. I could say that her poetry was my farewell card for my dad.
May has now arrived, warm and beautiful, as May tends to be, and the semester ended Friday, and all students, except seniors, will be gone by next Friday, so that the crazy busy pace of April will be but a blur.
While it has been difficult to work on my second book chapter, especially because of not feeling well (the post-rash pain of shingles is quite biblical in intensity and the nerve-pain medication is a little brain muddling), I did manage to push through and get 24 pages (of my 50-page goal) during April. Now I have to do the rest and finish the third chapter, hopefully by this month's end.
No, I won't miss this April, though I am very grateful for the nice memories it provided during my visit to Annapolis. You are very welcome, dear May! I look forward to your stay!
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