Five Things that Don't Suck, Random Edition

1. the expert forager lady on NPR yesterday*
2. whatever that excessively cheerful bird is that likes to hang out in the rhododendron right outside the living room window
3. coffee
4. alligators
5. Mr. T

*who knew you could eat Japanese knotweed?

Five Things that Don't Suck, Last Day of Classes Edition

1. having really great students
2. getting office visits from really great students
3. the uptick in the amount of hugging on an already significantly huggy campus
4. the prospect of full-time poeting*
5. playing the how-many-students-will-be-sleeping-in-the-stacks game on my way to work (today's guess: 3)

*not yet--too much end-of-semester stuff to get through first. But soon.

Big Poetry Giveaway 2014 Winners

Well, hi! This morning, I used a random number generator to pick three commenters as winners of the Big Poetry Giveaway. I've notified them all. Congratulations to Mary Jensen, Carol Berg, and Michelle! If for some reason you don't have a notice in your inbox, check your spam filters, then get in touch with me.

Just a word of how this all worked: I only counted the first comment a person made--so if you commented twice, I skipped all but your first post while making the count. I also skipped my own responses, for obvious reasons.

Thanks to everyone who participated--here's hoping that if you didn't win a book from me, you won one from another blogger.

Welcome to May!

Five Things that Don't Suck, Hooray Hooray the First of May Edition

1. the possibility of silencing the pellet stove for a few months*
2. green grass
3. flowers
4. warm spring rain replacing cold winter rain*
5. ice cream trucks

*please, Mother Nature? PLEASE?

Five Things that Don't Suck, Busy Day Edition

1. seeing former students a year after graduation
2. having lunch with a colleague you like but seldom see
3. the last real teaching day of classes
4. a final meeting with a graduating student
5. knowing that it's definitely light at the end of that tunnel, not a train

Five Things that Don't Suck, Tough Morning After a Tough Night Edition

1. banana bread
2. caffeine
3. being able to think past the banana bread and caffeine*
4. plain white plates
5. dogs who come to check on me**

*theoretical
**and who may or may not be solely interested in the smell of banana bread

Five Things that Don't Suck, Last Week of Classes Edition

1. not giving finals
2. not having to worry about taking finals
3. only having to wake up at 6:30 three more times (that I know of) between now and the end of August
4. feeling relatively prepared for the onslaught of end-of-semester work
5. wondering if a post on this subject even needs five specific things or if I wouldn't be better off just saying "Last week of classes" in all five spots..

Five Things that Don't Suck, Random Damp Sunday Edition

1. when it's really too wet outside to do the things you should be doing so you get to hang around inside all day with a book and maybe some chapbook-making supplies
2. having a niece coming to MA for college
3. books. Really good ones
4. a dog who wraps herself up in her blanket like she's in a nest
5. a dog who is a comically ineffective nest-maker but who leans right into whatever nest his people might create for him