Eighth Week of Term

As best I can recall, to the tune of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969).

On Sunday, I went to church, bought some cookies and pumpkin bread at the church auction, graded two sets of papers, and watched two (or was it three?) episodes of season three of Dexter.

On Monday, I marked another set of papers (actually, bibliographies for research papers-to-be), attended a staff meeting on Luther's On Christian Liberty, held office hours (during which students came to talk with me about their research papers-to-be), went to a department colloquium on the history of pirate broadcasting in the UK, and spent the evening having dinner with the search committee for our parish rector. We spent a fair amount of time talking about whether we give money to beggars.

On Tuesday, I led discussions on monastic reform and the relic trade in the Carolingian empire in the morning and on Geert Grote and the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life (a.k.a. the devotio moderna) in the afternoon, met with my son and his homeroom teacher about how he has been doing this term, listened to the last part of St. John of the Cross on the "dark night of the soul" on my way to yoga and fencing practice, and fenced six bouts (the most I've managed in a single practice since I hurt my foot in July).

On Wednesday, the contractor came to take out the old window in our kitchen and do the masonry for fitting the new window. (Among other things, this involved having the floor covered with dust despite the fact that the masons did all of their work outside.) I made a list of essential equipment that we are going to need to buy before we get our puppy, reread Thomas of Kempen's The Imitation of Christ, took my son to his dentist appointment, sat in on an agility class, read about Vikings and got to bed well after midnight.

On Thursday, I woke up at 4 a.m., finished preparing for the morning's discussion on the Vikings in Frankia, led the discussion on Vikings in Frankia, graded another set of papers, sat back and enjoyed while my graduates led the discussion on Thomas of Kempen (really, they rocked!), met with more students about their research papers-to-be, began listening to Patricia McConnell's For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in Your and Your Best Friend (2007) while sitting in a traffic jam on the way to yoga and fencing practice, did lots of ab-work in yoga class and fenced another six bouts (or was it five?), including one in epee and one in which I was ahead 12-3, only to lose 14-15 (sigh).

On Friday, the plumber came to rod out the stack that drains the washing machine and kitchen sink so that our floor will stop flooding every time our upstairs neighbors do laundry. I read excerpts from John Wycliff on the study of Holy Scripture, took a walk with my husband, got my hair cut and had lunch at the local diner, bought a book by the ASPCA on dog breeds and confirmed that Cardigan Corgis adapt well to cats and city life, began reading Denis the Carthusian's treatise on contemplation, and had dinner with my husband, one of my senior colleagues and his wife in their beautiful apartment on the north side.

On Saturday (or such is the plan), I helped direct a tournament for our high school [correction: college] fencing team and had dinner with yet another senior colleague, her husband and various friends to celebrate this year's beaujolais nouveau. Hopefully, tonight I will not have a tummy ache (although my abs are still a bit sore from that yoga class on Thursday)!

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