The entire last week like an old-fashioned Coney Island roller coaster creaking and clattering and inching up, and up, and up . . .

Tomorrow grinding up to the very top to teeter on the precipice for a moment, and then whoosh!

* * *

On Friday night, my exceedingly marvelous friends threw me a tenure party. There were mojitos! And amazing Fat Tire beer! And meat on a stick and pot stickers! And a lemony refrigerator cake that was better than sex! And sitting in an old corn bin in the middle of the country with party lights and the sounds of late-August insects rolling in and out in great windy waves of sound!

* * *

Today was New Student Convocation and okay, so I’m kind of a dork, but I love how New Student Convocation officially kicks off the start of the school year. And even though I always feel a little bit bittersweet about letting go of that precious summer writing time, I love fall, and that bright copper penny, shiny apple, tangy-sharpened-pencil-smell, circadian back-to-school newness that sets in this time of year.

* * *

Ticonderoga No. 2! (Just say it a few times to yourself. It’s kind of compulsively irresistible, isn’t it?)

* * *

Tonight my house is clean, my office organized, my summer projects (more or less) wrapped up, my manuscripts out, my classes prepped, and my school clothes hung out and ready to go. I feel too excited to sleep, in that same way I used to feel when I was a kid before the first day of school.

Whoosh!

Tenure? Congrats!!

Thank you!!

The Dixon Ticonderoga #2 rocks.

Congrats on tenure and happy back to school!

holy moly~~congrats, miss *associate* prof!! :) the lemony cake sounds dee-vine!

Huzzah, Associate Prof!

Yay stability!

Congrats!

And this year is the first year in 20 years that I haven't been going to school in the fall. That Whoosh is the sound of me standing still while everyone else rushes past me and goes back to school. Have fun!

- Luminous

Hey, thank you, everyone!

And Eek! Oh, it's murder being assigned a too-hot classroom. One semester, I had a class that was mistakenly assigned to a broom closet. That was sad.

C-shake: Ooh, the lemon cake was so delish!

Hi Luminous! Sometimes it's good to stand still, I think. Although I know that when I was working in the "real world" I would sometimes suffer from Back to School Envy.