How do poets prepare for the biggest social event of the spring semester at BFA?  They launch themselves off high places into the arms of long-suffering (and hopefully sturdy) friends.  I blame the fresh cinnamon rolls I’d brought to class for the sugar high that caused the stunts! Junior-Senior Banquet happened tonight, with all the […]

I should have known, when I looked up at the sky on the afternoon of my small group’s long-planned final picnic, that things weren’t going in my favor. Okay, so maybe the funnel cloud is a slight exaggeration…  But it was cold–bitter cold–and after four straight weeks of nothing but heat and sunshine, it sure […]

…or maybe it’s the other way around. These have been exciting days.  Days of soccer fan’ing… …of fan-photographer’ing (isn’t she beautiful??)… …of concession stand’ing… …and general issue-having (note t-shirt)… But before soccer became the piece-de-resistance in BFA’s spring banquet, the entire student body was driven to Basel by a Friday night activity, where the students […]

I like them… …a lot. And yes, they do drive me nuts (nutser, to be precise).And no, I wouldn’t want it any other way. And you know what?  They’re brilliant.

And not a moment too soon… It was my pleasure, on the girls’ first evening back, to take them into town for kebabs and ice-cream.  I’d like to say I was motivated solely by a missionary’s zeal to minister to her students, but the fact is–I kinda like junk food too!  And it’s always convenient […]

[Note:  see the section after the pictures of Cinque Terre for an update on the search for my Italian Stallion…) Well, boys and girls, I went, I saw, I took pictures.  And it was worth every penny and every hour of insane Italian driving!  Cinque Terre is….it’s stunning, that’s what.  And though my legs and […]

I’m off to Italy in the morning!  I’m being foolhardy and actually driving my car there, which means it may very well come back lacking some paint and a tire or two, but who am I to distrust my Italian neighbors?  I’m heading out with my favorite traveling companion, Mari Ellen, to see this: Cinque […]

I’m feeling–how shall I put it?–feeling tired.  Or as the southern might better say, “Tahred.”  Pretty much as wrung out as my buddy Spud, pictured here: The ICEC conference is finally over, but it was so much more than I expected it to be.  It pushed me into some decidedly unfamiliar or uncomfortable (as in: […]

It all began quite innocuously.  We were celebrating the last poetry class before Spring Break with the traditional Kickaboo-Joy-Juice-brownies and silly games about rhyme and meter, when I made a potentially lethal suggestion.  “Let’s go take some pictures outside,” I said, looking out the window at the sun we hadn’t seen in so long.  Had […]

It’s on days like today, after a week of irritatingly foul weather (pardon the previous snow rant!), that I come to profound realizations that go something like this:  “Huh?”  As in, “What have I ever done to deserve this?”  I was out on a walk this afternoon in the hills above Riedlingen, looking across the […]