working

A  number of things have been percolating along agreeably from winter into spring. I picked up a class at the Hudson Valley Writers Center in Sleepy Hollow. I had forgotten how much I love teaching. The class has been going really well -- largely because of the talent, diligence, and enthusiasm of the students -- and I'm on the calendar through the end of the year. In the unfailing spirit of "work begets work" they asked me for a second class and that's going into the next catalog. This tiny job doing something I love is so much nicer than sitting in the house nursing the fear that I'll never work again.

I recently saw a call for entries on the theme "How Simple Can you Get?" I can get pretty simple. There was some confusion about the date that the call would close. I was ready in time, but decided not to enter. I'm enjoying this free-form embroidery in a scroll format and I want to make a few before I start thinking about sending them into the world. One day I will learn either to focus the camera or how my software works (or both) but clearly this day is not that day.


Time and Tide
9 inches x 34 inches /23cm x 86cm
Muslin, lace,tone-on-tone commercial prints.
Hand embroidered, machine constructed.
(monks cloth background)

 

 

ch- ch- ch- ch- changes

I've been away from this longer than I realized. A lot of mental and emotional energy has been caught up in trying to decide a direction for the next bit of time -- years, maybe. I've been an adjunct professor of writing at the Gallatin School for Individualized Study at NYU since September 10, 2001. I fell into teaching and was shocked to find that I love it. I was such a reluctant student, I never would have chosen teaching. An odd confluence of things brought me to it, on the day before 9/11, and despite frequent bouts of doubt, I've stayed ever since. The students are exhilarating -- talented, eager, daring -- but it's a part time job that can never be anything but a part time job, and that's not enough anymore. In the
7 1/2 years that I've been there, Gallatin has not hired a single full time writing teacher (not that
I would qualify, being without a PhD, a Pulitzer, or both) and the commute gets more frustrating and exhausting each year. I recently picked up a part time day job that's four miles from the house and that will go full time in January. I thought, I'd hoped, that I'd be able to keep on at Gallatin with a night schedule but I keep forgetting that I'm not 18 any more and I seriously overestimated my stamina. I was getting a lot of "tell us what you need for the spring term" email and decided the most honorable thing to do was to resign. So I have resigned. It is wrenching, and necessary. The students pay full-time prices and deserve more than flagging part-time attention.

So I've been preoccupied with that and not attending to blogposts and Moby Dick panels and such like. There is some peace in having made the decision but it was a tough road to get here. I hope there may come a time when I can go back, and I expressed that hope, and it was encouraged, so that's something. So now, I'll see what I see. And keep you posted.