Five Things I Did This Week
ceci n'est pas une pipe (the treachery of images)
Dear Leon,
As requested, here are five things I did this week:
made a picture-perfect loaf of sesame sourdough bread and ate it all week slathered in butter
read Lidia Yuknavitch’s new book and loved it as well as some Dorothy Parker that I also really liked and that I can’t believe I haven’t read before
taught 26 classes of middle and high school English with individual students reading (and me re-reading) Pride and Prejudice, The Outsiders, Never Let Me Go, Little Women, Into the Wild, The Bell Jar, Julia: A Feminist Retelling of 1984, The Maze Runner, 1984, Stephen King’s novellas, The Joy Luck Club, and In Cold Blood (I teach at a private school with a one-to-one ratio and differentiate curriculum for each student’s particular needs and learning style) — also, countless poetry, essays and short stories are sprinkled throughout, as well as plays: Pinter’s One for the Road, Caryl Churchill’s Far Away, and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
took a stab in the dark and asked Nice Neurologist whether Sophie could have developed dystonia which prompted him to say he’d “look into it” and me to think that my English and French literature double major has more than paid for itself
obsessed over Sarah Kendzior’s Substack that is both terrifying and strangely comforting as it confirms what I can only moil and muse about but never quite articulate and that has to do with the broligarchy and the mafia, the thieves and predators wrecking our country (yes, that’s you, Leon)
Extra Credit: edited and finalized with a colleague another edition of our school’s creative journal
Reader, what five things did you do this week? Leon wants to know.
1. I have reveled, rocked, and rolled in spring which is coming upon us so quickly here, especially paying attention to the sky and the newest tender green.
2. I have been lonely and at the same time, ecstatic at my aloneness.
3. I made soup and have done other things involving my kitchen, my garden, my heart.
4. I have talked with other women in various places and settings, groupings, and numbers.
5. I have loved my beloveds the best I know how.
6. I have despaired.
1. Fed my family every night, a homemade meal.
2. Provided homemade lunches to my grandson for his school lunches.
3. Obtained an doctor appointment on short notice for my disabled daughter, and took her to said appointment.
4. Called my provincial (Canada) representatives and called out their corruption.
5. Dealt with my depression about the general fuckery in the world by walking my dogs and getting some fresh air.