In the adjunct cell, 10:39, and have two full hours to Self. TWO. to write and be me and be free.. and I love this feeling to the point of treating myself to another coffee! Need to upload content to teaching blog, but not after, or rather before, I write for Self. When grading is done and out of the way, as you can see, my entire disposition and temperament is more optimized. Look at me soar in this office meant to make me and all other adjuncts feel imprisoned. Tomorrow’s my travel day, Solano and Mendo.. but I don’t have to think about that now. At all. And I’ll get to recording the grades I just marked around 12:30.. so just under two hours. So I don’t have as much time to write as previously measured but the adjunct’s content, I’m alive and with my fire needed. Had a bit of a scare with technology just minutes ago, when turning on the laptop all you saw was that segmented rotating wheel, the desktop would never land. Just a reminder to use tech less, to write in the Comp Book more and build that content. I’m cutting back on spending, no Starbucks visit this morning, as to save money for laptops, for Alice and I. Not that I’m looking for an excuse to get one, I’m due anyway, but this is a reminder, this latest scuffle, to save more and hurry to buy, before it’s too late.
Talking outside, instructors full-time and adjunct, all disturbing me, and why, why do I let it, this, this campus and the adjunct life and the fact that I’m not in the vineyard or on a crushpad somewhere bother me? I need to be with wine; making it and writing about all steps of the ‘making’ process which I like to now look at as more of a translation, of both vintage and site, the varietal and the Earth of that site. I’m a head of my morning schedule and I allow my mind to wander and wonder but not too far, each thought has to be a solid standalone piece, right? And THAT reminds me.. write another poem for the collection. THAT, I will print, about fifteen copies to start and see how it sells. The poetry of me during my busiest semester, ever.
Didn’t post the teaching blog write, below. And I’m glad I didn’t. Want the Solano students to see the post I put there for them and I want for them to seize the invitation to continue our talks.. but I can only encourage and then hope as the modern student and reader doesn’t want to take the time, I feel.. it’s quickness they want, the same immediacy of social media and email and a text message. Which of course disenchants me, as you see.
Need to keep with my pace this morning and why do I keep telling myself what I already know? Just saw a picture of some hands, in a vineyard and over a barrel, hand de-stemming some Cabernet in Napa. Wish I were there, doing the same, making MY wine, showing how I [!!!] translate vineyard and vintage. So I start thinking about 2016 and my deadlines, with mmc, the startup project, my writings and my daughter arriving in December, and the students and what I have to assign them.. breathing, finding Zen in the hectic hold of it all. Easy.
Switching to the teaching blog, posting the day’s plan and the points I want to hit in my speaking, interact more and depend on student interaction less. That’s many times where the lesson can fracture, when I solicit response and hear the air conditioner.
(9/2/15)