Five Things that Don't Suck, What Was I Thinking Edition

1. a 5K during the first week of classes
2. spending the afternoon before said 5K hauling and stacking rocks and shoveling 3 yards of crushed stone
3. kind of being up for it anyway
4. beginning to plan your nap at 7AM
5. Tylenol

Five Things that Don't Suck, Working Poet Edition

1. having people think I don't work because I'm having such a good time
2. having a good time
3. being lucky enough to do work I love
4. enjoying teaching (which, you know, pays the bills for the whole poetry thing)
5. being enthusiastic about projects instead of dreading them

Five Things that Don't Suck, First Off-Campus Day of the Semester Edition

1. lunch with Nan (hi, Nan!)
2. dessert with Nan
3. not having any grading to do yet
4. not waking up to an alarm clock
5. Thom Gunn's birthday*

*possibly thematically unrelated. Also, not Tim Gunn, whose birthday is also worth celebrating by having lunch and dessert with Nan. Everyone should have lunch and dessert with Nan, given the chance.

Five Things that Don't Suck, Elvis Stuck in my Head Edition

1. Almost Blue
2. The Only Flame in Town
3. Brilliant Mistake
4. Oliver's Army
5. Baby Plays Around

Five Things that Don't Suck, Bring on the Tears Edition

1. knowing that the crying jags in my office will diminish by October*
2. meeting a brand new crop of first-years
3. the fact that the first week of classes is pretty short
4. having the opportunity to practice being good at transitions***
5. asterisks

*note: it's the students who are crying in this instance. My crying jags continue unabated until winter break**
**just kidding. I actually kinda love this whole professor thing
***see: silver lining

Five Things that Don't Suck, Begging Forgiveness from Alice Cooper Edition

1. having class
2. having principles*
3. having innocence
4. thinking of a word that rhymes
5. school being in for Autumn

*or is that "principals"? Alice Cooper, you clever wordsmith, you

Five Things that Don't Suck, Transition Time Edition

1. having a job I love that also allows me many days of full-time poet-ing
2. watching first-year students come into their own
3. being asked when Cookie Day is this semester*
4. the hope of being able to read myself to sleep with poems through the semester
5. football season

*I don't know yet.