By the end of the afternoon I was dragging: not enough sleep the night before and then a long day on Zoom, which always wears out my bad eyes. But I had a lovely group of participants, who worked and talked hard and wrote exciting drafts. So despite my weariness, it was a good day.

This will be my last Zoom class till the fall. I've got in-person teaching gigs coming up at the end of the month and of course the teaching conference in July. Then I'll be taking a hiatus for six weeks . . . undoubtedly designing upcoming classes as well as prepping for my high schoolers, but no actual teaching till September. Though I'll still be working, of course--editing manuscripts and such--I'll have a small respite from performance, and I think it's necessary. I work so many weekends, and travel so much to teach. I just need a few weeks of solid time off from those responsibilities.

In the meantime, we're back to Monday. I've got two poetry collections to edit this week, plus all of my regular house and garden chores. And then on Wednesday I'll head to Vermont for a couple of days to visit my parents and my sister.

So today: my exercise regimen, grocery-shopping, desk work, garden work. Nothing unusual, just the regular round. The weather will be cooler than it has been, but still sunny. I have poem drafts to ponder and a stack of cover-photo possibilities to share with my publisher. I need to call the chimney sweep, and the tree guy, and the firewood people. The to-do list . . . I ended up writing a poem draft in class yesterday that perseverated over the distractions of the to-do list. I also dreamt that I forgot my cat in Vermont. So, as you can see, things are bit unsettled in the land of imagination.