Class plans are done: a three-Atwood day on the docket for Tuesday . . . flash memoir, flash fiction, and a poem; a study of speaker's voice/time movement/character treatment in each; writing prompts that let the kids try out what they see.

So today I'll start working on my reading list for next Thursday in New Jersey. I've got to fill 40 minutes, an enormous block of time, and I'm worried about being boring. I might read a few newer pieces, not just book ones,  which means sorting through the stack and trying out poems in the air. And then, after that, I've got to start dealing with clothes. Hiking clothes, teaching clothes, city clothes, reading clothes, with not much luggage space for the city/reading outfits and very little time for laundry between stints. Perhaps this is why rock-and-rollers stick with black.

Apparently it's 32 degrees outside; I wonder if we finally got a frost. If so, that means yard work too--yanking out collapsed marigolds, digging up the last dahlia.

Tonight I'll be going to my friend Betsy Sholl's book launch, which I'm sure will be a crowded event as she is much loved. So altogether it will be a busy day, though in an odd way. I'll be packing food for our cottage stay this weekend, so that means a cooler and baskets of bread and vegetables and olive oil and coffee and such. In contrast, I really, really need to keep my NYC packing basic as I'll be lugging books to sell and it's tiring to toil up and down those subway stairs with extra weight. All of this necessitous confusion makes me sure I'm going to forget something vital, like salt, or pants.

But at least the class plans are finished, and printed, and stowed in my teaching bag. That's one big done to check off the list. I am not quick at syllabus making. The big slowdown is tracking down the right materials to teach from. Once I do that, the conversation starters and writing prompts come quickly. But it can take me hours to choose models that will lead to focused but natural discussions and experiments.