Reading: I plowed through David Yoon’s Frankly in Love, in part getting ahead for the YA Lit course I’m teaching. It’s been a long time since I read a YA romance novel. What a treat it was. A total delight. I can’t wait to talk about it with my students.

Writing: Field notes, related to the community songwriting and beatmaking project I’m a part of. Here’s one of my favorite parts from last week.

K bursts out into laughter. I laugh with her – mostly just because she is laughing – because I don’t even know what she’s laughing at. I bring the needle back so we can hear that part again. “…energetic and deeply FO-cussed” says the speaker. K. approximates the grain of her voice to intonate and inflect like the speaker: “Deeply FO-cussed” she says through laughter, placing a hard emphasis on the first syllable of the word. She keeps saying it like this and laughing. “I guess this is the part we’re sampling,” I think to myself.

Teaching: Mostly grading a very rewarding assignment I gave my students.

Listening:

• Inamorata by Methods of Defiance. Jazzy, chaotic drum and bass.

• Fondue Party by Polyrhythmics. Five songs, 23 minutes — just follow the flute.