It’s difficult to believe it’s been 3 weeks since I posted any news here. I can’t really explain why—I suppose I could offer the excuse that I have limited use of my “mouse hand,” but this would be disingenuous. The splint protecting my right CMC joint is definitely a help not a hindrance.
Perhaps the best I can do is acknowledge that January blew through here like a Nor’easter. One day we were wishing each other Happy New Year and the next we were turning the calendar page to February, issuing invitations to our Passover Seder. I consult my “January 2nd & beyond” to-do list, printed in Times New Roman, single-spaced with deadlines in bold, important items highlighted by hand, and I feel discouraged.
So I start a different list on the back of the wrinkled sheet of paper, scribbling the things I want to remember, the things I accomplished in January 2023:
| Jan. 2nd | Lunch with my eldest and her fiancé to plan their wedding ceremony. |
| Jan. 5th | Burial of Burton Lee Katz, may his memory be a blessing. |
| Jan. 11th | Lively Book Club discussion of The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. |
| Jan. 15th | Celebrating Dad’s 80th birthday, hanging out with our New Jersey family and friends, watching football, eating Jewish food—bagels and lox, hot pastrami on rye—and Italian food, and too many desserts. |
| Jan. 19th | Our 31st wedding anniversary is a busy day of classes and meetings for me and, since my spouse has a dinner meeting in midtown, my friend and I eat vegan Ramen takeout together.
Then we head to the movie theater to see A Man Called Otto. |
| Jan. 23rd | Today begins another full week of teaching for me, and my spouse is out of town at a conference. We’ve already had some warm days this month and the daffodils are reaching for the sun. When I take Henry out after dinner, I see a sliver of the new moon rising above the trees. I sing verses from Psalms as we walk around the block:
זֶה־הַ֭יּוֹם עָשָׂ֣ה ה’ נָגִ֖ילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָ֣ה בֽוֹThis is the day that God has made, let us be glad and rejoice on it. |
| Jan. 31st | Today is the last day of Unit 4 lessons in Spanish 2 and Spanish 3; 12 classes in 9 days. I still need to grade the students’ projects, record notes about what worked well and what can be improved next year. But this can wait until tomorrow. |
I fold the paper and tuck it into my writer’s notebook, which only has about a dozen blank pages left, which will surely be filled in February with musings and observations, poems and prayers. I’m looking forward to celebrating these Janniversaries in 2024.