Sunday Coffee

Sunday Coffee:  Finally Fall
My windows are open, finally. Even the dogs seem excited by the slightly cooler weather. The little Maltese-Chihuahua mix was quite frisky this morning. She suddenly and inexplicably became enamored of our neighbor's cat.

Last week was homecoming at my high school. Can I just say that I'm glad that's over? It was fun, but I'm glad it's over. My husband and I went to the football game on Friday night, and our undefeated team had to work just hard enough for their win so that it was satisfying.

Now for the grading to begin. I've been diligently working away at the accumulated papers that never seem to go away entirely. First quarter grades will be due week after next, and I don't want to be scrambling at the last minute.

I've been following the Occupy Wall Street movement with great interest. It really reflects what I've observed about young people: they don't need mainstream media, they don't care about our hierarchies, and they are passionate, flexible, and determined. Have you seen any of the videos of the speeches? Laws prevent the use of megaphones, so the crowds are becoming their own human megaphones. The speaker shouts out a few words or a sentence at a time, and the whole crowd chants back so that everyone can hear the speech. I find this brilliant. There is a video of Bill McKibben at Washington Square using this to great effect. It virtually forces the speaker to be pithy and to to the point (like twitter). It goes without saying that the movement is being built and spread on social media, and I can't wait to see where this goes.

Books! As I look back on September, I read more than I realized. I finished Dave Maine's Gamble of the Godless, Me Again by Keith Cronin, To Be Queen by Christy English, The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell, and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. I started (and intend to finish) Burned by Ellen Hopkins and My Lobotomy by Howard Dully (nearly finished with this one). For professional reading, I've been working on James Pennebaker's Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions and Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity by Susan K. Perry. I'm about halfway through Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-How and Kristen Painter's Living and Teaching the Writing Workshop. And during September I dipped into Rebecca McClanahan's Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively for exercises for my creative writing students. I'll keep reading this one, as it is beautifully written, and enjoyable not just for the exercises and ideas, but for the writing itself.

I notice that I tend to jump around in my reading much more than I used to. I have books that I read just during mealtimes, books that I read while at school, books that I carry with me everywhere. And still, somehow, there isn't time to read all the books that I want to read. I wish I could take a readcation and just hide away with my books and just read for a week or two.

What are you reading? If you could take a readcation, what would you read?