I am going to list some of the good things that have happened to me over the last few days.

1.Mignon Fogarty (a.k.a. Grammar Girl) recorded the story I wrote last year for National Grammar Day! (National Grammar Day is celebrated annually on March 4th/March Forth!) My nerdy heart almost burst when Mignon contacted me last week; I told her I was chuffed; she said chuffed is actually on her list for future topics. (Stay tuned!)

2. The director of the writing program at Stockton told me that she thinks I look like Benedict Cumberbatch (pictured below), which I will gladly take.

(I know –– I honestly don’t really see it either, but thank you, Pam –– you are so lovely to think so.)

3. One of my Stockton students had her ethnography on the “bug-eating club” that she wrote for my class published in the student newspaper. We were both a little too excited about this. I need to pick up lots more copies tomorrow to give out to you & everyone else I know.

4. I got to have my weekly, Monday morning pre-class convo with Trevor outside of D-Building. We chat/complain about life. It is not a bad way to steady oneself for the week, really.

5. (Actually, maybe I do look a little like B. Cumberbatch. Maybe if I got my eyebrows shaped up I would even more. Which reminds me…) Officially, #5 is that I had lunch with Effie at the mall yesterday. Why does eyebrow shaping remind me of my lunch with Effie? (See Fig. 1.)

Figure 1. Yesterday afternoon status update.

Quote Effie: “It’s weird, isn’t it? I mean, I get my eyebrows shaped, but not in the middle of the mall!”

6. I ran into an old friend from preschool –– so randomly –– at a class I was observing in Mays Landing last night. The first thing I thought of was how his dog had eaten the head off one of my He-man action figures when we were both 4 or 5; luckily, it didn’t ruin our friendship. I feel a bit old knowing that I’ve known someone for such a long time; that I’ve been around long enough to have first met someone almost thirty years ago now.

7. Kathy Graber’s class was lovely as always. I sat next to Aubri, who suggested that my “old ladyish file folder” and her “old ladyish purse” should go on a trip together, which was a delightful sentiment indeed. (To be fair to me, I inherited the folder from a friend who passed along some dossiers in it last spring. But who doesn’t want to go to old ladyish-folder-Paris in the almost-springtime?)

8. Today I remembered to wear my gray wool blazer that I have forgotten to wear all winter, and it was actually cold-ish enough to justify g.w.b. (Gray wool –– with whisps of cashmere for comfort.)

9. I see progress being made on the literary magazine at school. The editors seem to be getting somewhere (even this guy). I love working with the layout team; I just wish we could have more “sitting around kibbitzing,” less fussing with fonts & text placement. (It is a lot of tedious copying & pasting of accepted work into InDesign at this point.)

10. The layout team (under my direction, of course) left a thank you and some shortbread cookies for the editors of the college newspaper, whose office we have rather taken over this week. The Editor-in-Chief just sent me the nicest e-mail:

11. I finally made a haircut appointment for over spring break –– which is next week!