Interludes

The first snow came on the 21st, the day the semester ended, and then returned, fast and furious, while I was in Memphis, visiting with my entire family at my brother's place. The visit was lovely, especially because I saw my mom and sister, and spent quality time with my luminous nieces and nephews, and with my brother and his wonderful wife, whom I had not seen since my father passed away in 2010.

We all went to our favorite fried chicken place, we all went to see "Les Miserables" (way too much crying and singing for my taste), and we all went to a Mongolian-style grill place for dinner, which was definitely a first for me (you even get to choose your spices! I was intrigued by the concept of "Dragon Salt.")

I may have missed the first big storm in Ohio on the 26th, but overnight between Friday and today we got about 4 inches of snow and there's more expected on New Year's Eve.  I am so glad that I canceled my plans to go to MLA in Boston this year since that would have meant I'd be traveling, again, next week. No way, José! There's no place like home for the holidays, like the Carpenters' song says.

I've basically spent the entire day in my basement office (with the space heater on) in a writing and revising marathon, and now have the book's Introduction,  Epilogue, two chapters and the Working Bibliography updated. Tomorrow will be more of the same but I'm going to aim to finish it all by tomorrow night so I can email the 256-page manuscript to the editor a day early. That will allow me to focus on the grading (my husband says this is probably the most-mentioned word on this blog nowadays) and on letters of recommendation for current and former students, all of which are due on the 2nd.

Hang on, I tell myself, once the New Year is two days old, I will be done with EVERYTHING! I can taste freedom, which awaits. In the meantime, I'm diving back into my work after taking a  quick interlude.