Day 2

Another glamorous day in academe:

Baked brownies. Baked 6 batches of cookies. Baked my first-ever homemade cheese cake. (Delicious, if I do say so myself.) Graded some papers. Taught two classes. And spent the next seven hours with two sets of freshmen. At my house.

By ten p.m., every dish in the house was dirty. Every remaining crumb of dinner and desserts had been boxed up and and sent back to the dorms. And the dining room table was piled high with pumpkin innards.

Many a jack-o-lantern was born in this house tonight. Other types pumpkin art, too. (Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the seeds are everywhere, everywhere under foot. We'll be finding them until Christmas.)

These students are not my regular students. The students said, "Thank you! Thank you! Good-bye!" And tonight I felt happy for having fed something beautiful.