We were in a car, grey wet sky and the faint stain of mountains behind clouds visible through the car windows. I had no idea where we were going.I’d been on a plane for five hours. Got four hours sleep the night before. We drove on and off of various ramps, veered past fast…
Stories. I want stories. You see, I’m about to get on some planes, see some loved ones, some liked ones and some tolerated ones, and engage in the bittersweet, aggravating, soul-warming, rich, shallow, crazy, predictable, surprising, labour-intensive rituals of the season. In between I’ll be doing some course prep, some marking. Christmas, for academics,…
To-do lists as interminable as the December night is long. Fifty emails a day. Dirty dishes piled up, a basket of clean but mangled laundry on the floor of my study. Marking hell. My mother says, as she always does when I get to this point: You. Have. To. Throw. A. Party. And so…