If you’ve never experienced this, it’s hard to understand. (I imagine chronic pain is similar. I imagine high-functioning autism is similar as well.) Everyone (I assume) occasionally doesn’t feel like doing some task. It takes a little get-up-and-go to get it done. The bit of internal oomph that pushes you over the threshold between doing … Read more
Setting: a Sunday afternoon in early October in New Jersey. Small college library music room. A week before my 20th birthday, I was a junior in college, studying to be a music teacher. I was sitting in the music room in the campus library, working on a massive score project, when my right ear started … Read more
This is the fourth time this has happened. One of my eyelashes is really long. Just one. I don’t know what makes this happen, but I get a disproportional amount of joy from my long eyelash. People try to pull it off to prevent it from falling into my eye, thinking it’s one that fell … Read more
Some time in the last week was my 16-year anniversary of arriving in Arizona. (I could look at a calendar and figure out which day exactly, but it’s not that important. Early August is good enough.) I came out here to go to grad school. To go somewhere hot and far away. To try to … Read more
Twenty years ago, I graduated from The College of New Jersey with the education required to become a music teacher. I’ve become really good at teaching. But at music? Mediocre at best. Historically, I’ve been a fast learner without much grit. It took a lot of life before anything crossed my path that I was … Read more
August 1 marked nine months of a post here every day. I made it through the holidays, through the end of the school year, through 2.5 weeks out of town, and now through the beginning of the school year. I feel pretty good about that! There are posts I’ve written that I think are pretty … Read more
I was always a night owl. As a kid, I would sleep until 15 minutes before I needed to leave for school. Clothes on, breakfast in, out the door. Saturdays, I would sleep until 10 or 11. (Marching band at Saturday morning football games killed that.) Nights were always my best time. Best for thinking, … Read more
The last couple of years, most or all of my classes (as a whole—not every individual student) had self-control issues. Inability to stay quiet, to accept directions, to follow through on assignments, regardless of where the task fell on the fun meter. In extreme cases, yelling and swearing. Unrelenting back-talk. Things said to me that … Read more
A workout definitely feels more accomplished if I’m sweating hard at the end. Of course, the photo was taken after an outdoor run the other morning. It was hot and sunny, so the sweat wasn’t really indicative of the run being harder than the same run in the winter, but it still feels better. (In … Read more
I found a photography game via Facebook ad and joined it. Simply: There are a bunch of contests with themes. You enter one or four photos (depending on the rules of the contest) and other users vote on them. Whoever created the contest also chooses their favorites. They run between two and eight days. The … Read more