All in a row.

Dear Clematis, you died. You're still hanging in there, however. Birds don't want to make nests in you now. Do you like that? Are you mad that you can't whisper to the other clematis around the corner, back on the garage, until spring is here? Would you like to comment on some student poems? What are your thoughts on marmalade? Tasty, or an abomination? What were your New Year's resolutions? Are you sticking with them so far?

I have successfully eaten several meals at a table, including breakfast, so there's some resolution progress inside the house while the clematis ponders its demise outside. We had a snow day on Friday, which caused major chaos in my "get ready for the semester" efforts, but I am catching up. There's been some exciting news, then some more exciting news, and I am starting to think that 2010 is a very good thing.

I'm off to teach my second class in a little while, and I am really excited. Not that I'm ever not into teaching, but this semester I am particularly charged up. The more administration I do, the more I appreciate being a teacher and an artist. Some day, I'll get to go back to those things full time again, I hope.