�Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble�
10:02 p.m.
What a day I had, dressed in organdy, clothed in crinoline� This has got to stop. The music department is being SPARCed. I�m not sure what the acronym stands for. If I took a few minutes I could look it up, but I don�t feel like it. PMS has landed on my brow like a black storm cloud, and will sit there for the next two weeks or thereabouts. I�m also tired, which certainly doesn�t help matters.
ghanima�s chapbook arrived in the mail today and I look forward to perusing it at my leisure. I taught four students today, which is quite a few when you think that it means four hours of one-on-one contact in a very intense way. I have a brand-new young man who has never sung before, ever, and is willing to pay me money so that I can teach him how to use his voice in a pleasing and efficacious manner. I had to remind him a couple of times that he is in fact paying me, so that he would not be embarrassed about trying some of the things I wanted him to do. I mean, how hard is it to look in the mirror and watch your soft palate go up and down? Or to demonstrate the Bernoulli effect by grunting? What was the other thing? Oh yes, try to sing on pitch. Anyway, I think he�ll definitely be back, since he�s caught a tantalizing glimpse of what could be his. This singing thing has a siren call.
One of my students is a very weird young man. I think I�ve mentioned him before. We�ll call him David. He�s very into martial arts and wants to teach my kids how to use a sword. I am not amused. I think he is a bit of wild man, as well as being an anarchist and a great candidate for kamikaze missions. I wouldn�t trust him anywhere near my kids with a sword!
Anyway, back to the SPARC thing. Every so many years every department in the university gets reviewed by a committee of its peers, and this year our music department is the recipient of such a visit. Two professors from other Canadian music departments have come specifically to interview professors and students, observe things and make a report which they will then submit with suggestions on how to improve the department where they see problems, or to congratulate us and say we�re doing a wonderful job, etc. At my interview I kind of let the cat out of the bag about how some interpersonal and professional relationships were making the department a prickly place for me and some students, and whereas I hadn�t meant to complain or say anything bad about anyone at all, it all came spilling out. I felt like a traitor. Oh, well. Nothing ever comes of these things anyway.
There was a dinner tonight in the principal�s dining room, known as the Adams Room (I have no idea who this Adams was or why the room bears his name), and the food was university food services bland. The main course for non-meat eaters was Arctic char, which at the best of times is a very delicately-flavoured fish. This was absolutely tasteless. The vegetables were unseasoned and flavourless, and the cr�me caramel was mediocre. But Hubby and I sat next to one of the SPARC reviewers and had a very nice and lively conversation with her. She is a prof at the university in Hubby�s home town, so they had lots to talk about. I overate (I have a bad habit of loading my plate up and then finishing everything because I hate waste) and now I�m sorry. Tomorrow we go to a restaurant for my birthday and I�ll overeat again. This is not good for my diet, which has been going very well, thank you for asking. I now weigh a cool 111.5 lbs. My goal is 109. Those leather pants are almost within my grasp!
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