Tennessee.
Entry 1, June 3. QUII jubilee occurring now, hope crowds disperse by the time I get there next week. I can’t believe it. So much study could still be done, so much to think about when packing.
Woke up, puttered, went for groceries. Came back, read, refamiliarizing myself with Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. It made me think about about my professional mentors, raucous Sadie Schwartz and clever Dee Hicks. Throughout my spiritual search, Miss Lola and Miss Gertrude loved on me, too. Miss Lola rode horseback to her teaching job, in the old Choctaw School in College Grove, Tennessee, probably in the 1930s! Choctaw School operated from 1871 to 1946. (I ended up buying my first home ‘just down the road a piece.’)
operated from 1871 to 1946
Skimmed more V Woolf, decided to journal. Somehow want to connect memoir with my travel, Mary of Modena’s court, and more feminist history—at a time when I am 15 years into being invisible—some of the most productive time in my life.
[hmmm, Interesting pattern beginning?]
What about your mentors? I would love to hear in the comments!
Entry #2, June 12:
M.L., I got your message; I am sorry we couldn’t get together before I leave tomorrow. I am excited (but anxious about Tony and also whether I will accomplish what I need to in the time I have.) Once I am airborne, though, I plan to leave my qualms behind. I am ready to breathe easier.
I return July 18 and will be meeting up with Jesse July 22 in Chicago for two or three days to look at apartments. Unless she hears form UCLA, it is Northwestern; she is upbeat. She just finished a bicycle ride from San Francisco to L.A. for an AIDS charity.
We settled Tony’s accident lawsuit for a small amount of money.
With a teeny part of it we bought an old pontoon boat, keeping it at a marina on the Tennessee River, only 30 minutes from our door: It is a blast! I feel comforted knowing that Tony has something healthy that can bring him pleasure.
I will be journal/emailing so you will be hearing from me: Long live the queen(ies)!
