2: number of happy Things in my life, to my endless astonishment, relief, and gratitude
1: number of doting, understanding, forgiving, challenging, funny, knee-knockingly sexy husbands I have
3: number of dogs I've married into
1991: miles away from me said husband/ dogs live
2: number of wheels on which both Things can now bike
2: number of adenoids currently possessed by Thing 2
0: number of adenoids Thing 2 will have 3 weeks from now
5: scholarly papers delivered in 2009
7: poetry readings in other states
2, 3, and 4: ranks of three of the hotels in which I've been put up this year during those travels, in order of poshest of my life
1: books published in 2009
1: articles published in 2009
350: lines of translation from Homer published in 2009
16: poems published in 2009
4: poems reprinted in 2009
10: technically, number of pages I've written on my scholarly monograph this year, but
35: number, actually, of pages toward the monograph, since talks I've delivered feed directly into the project, and
2: number of times I've written up good solid abstract/ annotated table of contents of the thing, which has been an incredibly useful exercise and has helped me to conceive of the project in global terms, to identify the most persuasive throughlines, and to discover the necessary work for the introductory chapter
2: chapters left to write
1: semester of confirmed leave in my future, with fingers crossed for fellowship support for two
99.8: percent completed in my endless Upload All the CDs to iTunes project
6: camping trips this year
2: deaths of people close to me
1: times I became an aunt in 2009
98: percent of days I feel generally sunny about the universe, despite the catharto-therapeutic gloom of this blog, in which I too often exorcise (and exercise) my frustrations
39: my age next week, which appeals to the math geek in me. 39 years I've been alive, though I feel the same as I did when I was 18. This year seems to be starting off with renewed self-confidence and equanimity. I feel square, in the good, stable way, in addition to numerically. Happy, happy, all!
Portrait of Clara (as a chemist)
3 weeks ago
7 comments:
Happy (early) birthday!
And I must say: You really rocked out 2009, didn't you! I'm impressed with all you accomplished -- lots of publishing, poetry, and paper-giving!
Do you ever teach creative writing -- e.g., teach poem-making?
happy new year, RG! love this post.
Damn, girl! And I thought 2008 was good in your life; 2009 was apparently even better.
Grateful I got to see you on a couple of those trips and hear one of those papers.
Happy happy to you & yours~~
Sounds like a great year! Way to go, and hope this one's even better!
Wow. What a year! I am so impressed! Happy early birthday, and I hope 2010 is great for you, too!
(My word verfication is "befoxic." I want to add this to my vocabulary, but I have to make up a definition first. :) )
Thanks for your kind words, all. It's useful for me to review sometimes, because on a day-to-day basis I often feel completely overwhelmed, and have this sense that I'm not accomplishing ANYTHING just because I haven't finished EVERYTHING ON MY LIST. (My listmaking constitution is both productive and organized and also daunting and self-undermining.)
It is worth noting that 2009 largely registers effort from 2008 or earlier, in terms of publication. I'm sure that 2010 will be reduced in terms of quantifiable productivity, just because I didn't get very much FINISHED in 2009. With any luck, 2010 will be a year of process rather than product.
And Squad: Half of my teaching gig is teaching creative writing. The other half is 16-17C. So I teach both, every term.
Wow, that's quite a list! Congrats on the wonderful things (and my sympathies on the sad things).
Good luck with the adenoid-removal (tonsils, too?).
I have to note, too, that when I moved to blogger, I lost my link to your page (I lost a bunch and have been realizing it slowly). Anyway, added you back and hope not to miss any more of your posts...happy 2010!
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