and the laundry

There's a book (which I confess I have not really read yet, other than to dip into) called After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, which is founded on the idea that after "mountaintop experiences" (the example given in the book being religious enlightenment of some sort), one has to go back to one's everyday life and deal with the mundane.

And while I don't consider winning this silly thing to be on a par with understanding the mind of God, still, it's something different and something I had much hoped for in my life. (And maybe I do need to make a little bit of a bigger deal about it than I originally was going to...I had lots of people congratulating me, my Best Frolleague Forever came over and did that weird little 'don't read anything funny into this' side-arm hug that some men do when they want to hug someone but don't want it to be misconstrued, my parents promised some kind of celebration when I came up there in May). It really is kind of a little thing, I think, but it is a recognition that I'm not just chopped liver, and that's nice.

And it's nice to have the little voice in my head going, "You know, you might be good enough, after all" for a change.

(But yes, that tiny bit of my psyche that is maybe a little bit non-Asian-Tiger-Mother said, "Work really hard on your teaching and maybe you could win a teaching award to go with it." That would be NICE, but....I don't know. I'm not going to kill myself to get that)

But today, there's work to do: last class section of one class to teach, some grading to do, the big grading of tomorrow to prepare for. And thinking ahead to summer research.

And our secretary is out - her father, who was having some medical issues, had a massive heart attack. Right now he's in ICU but things don't look great. So I decided: there's something here I can do. I sent around a message telling people if they need copying done for tomorrow, to get it to me by 2 pm today and I will take it over to print shop (this is normally one of the things the secretary does daily). It's a little thing but I know there have been times that getting over to Print Shop was just a Hard Thing because of all the time pressures I had, and right now I have slightly fewer pressures, so if I can make it easier for someone else....


I'm contemplating getting myself some kind of a "treat" as a reward for winning the award. At the moment, I have no "oh, my gosh, WANT" items in mind (Build-a-Bear came out with New Pony but it was Big Mac, and I already have the nice crocheted one I made - had it been Sapphire Shores or Sunburst, I would have bought it, but I don't need a Big Mac).

Possible thoughts:

- in a couple weeks (maybe during exam week, one of the "off" days), going to Whitesboro for a day off at the yarn shop

- arranging for a "professional" wash and blow out and maybe hair advice at the Ulta or a local salon if I can find one recommended. I'm still not totally married to the idea of growing out my bangs but I'm not sure I want to go back to bangs.

- some kind of nice display shelf (a floor unit) to hold my Ponies in my bedroom

- buy a couple more vintage ponies, and maybe even go up a tick in price to get rarer/fancier/still-have-their-accessories ones

- Some kind of fancy collector doll.

- New set of plates to replace the 15 year old plain Corelle I use and have broken a few pieces of down through the years.

I'll have to think about it. (If I get new plates, I'll box up the remains of the old set and perhaps donate it somewhere. I suppose there are places where they'd take an incomplete set)