- I lounged in bed with my second favorite cat just long enough to find a slice to write. A short slice, a slice with exactly the right amount of constraint to support my writing.
- I was nearly late to work. That short slice took far longer to write than I thought it would–an hour for just a few lines! (When I say I’m a slow writer, I mean that I am a s-l-o-w writer.) I lost track of time, and suddenly it was 7:12. I’m supposed to leave by 7:12! Instead, I was still sitting in my pajamas, covered in cat, playing with arrangement and the tone of the final line.
- The person in front of me at Starbucks paid for my order. It felt like Teacher Appreciation Day came early. (Yes, I still went to Starbucks even though I was running very late).
- My school director supported my request to develop a new unit for Quarter 4. I had 3 ideas for units; he had one; we combined 2 of mine plus his into a Franken-unit that’s actually streamlined and straightforward: Graduation Speeches. I’ve already started collecting mentor texts.
- I accidentally swore in class. My ADHD brain was struggling to stay organized and remember and do all the things, and I forgot to send a document to a student when he’d asked for it twice. He gently prompted me a third time, and I blurted an F-bomb. Oops! (ADHD blurting: also a thing!) At least I teach seniors.
- My amazing teacher friends texted extra hard and fast in our group chat, supporting me through sticky assessment work, processing some difficult meetings and emails we’ve all had this week, and sharing cat photos and memes when things got too heavy.
- My last block of the day, which is usually a bit low energy (me included), needed some re-teaching to prepare for a high-stakes assessment. Yes, there were a lot of tangents, and they did require a snack break in the middle. But they showed serious stamina sticking with poem analysis for nearly 70 minutes of review, close reading and questioning (all the while, Billy Collins’s line about tying the poem to a chair and torturing a confession out of it rolled around my head.)
- I had been dreading my after work task: getting a feral cat out of a kennel and into a container for transport without harming either one of us. My first idea didn’t work at all, but then I realized the cardboard box she was hiding in was technically big enough for transport. I gently folded the flaps around her and held on tight.
- My husband and I had one episode left of our current show, the original BBC version of Ghosts, which is simply perfection. We told ourselves we’d watch just half of it and save the other half for tomorrow, but once started, we had to finish.
- I ended the day with my first favorite cat curled in my lap, snoring peacefully.
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Once again, my theme for the March 2023 Slicing Challenge is finding inspiration in the words, ideas, and forms of others. Each day I will write in community and conversation with another slicer and link to the post that inspired me. Today, I was inspired by Amy’s 10 Things About Today.
the dirigible plum 
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