five-sense Friday (finished on Saturday)

tasting: blueberry green tea; chickpeas and wilty lettuce and cucumbers and feta in tangy red-wine vinaigrette; an abundance of chocolate from my stocking and generous friends + Saturday: egg-in-the-hole and decaf coffee; a pot of strong tea filling my cup over and over again

hearing: the humming air-return system; students walking by my office all day, commenting on their new professors ("She seems really nice, but she's a hard marker," etc.); WFMT + Saturday: upstairs neighbors' footsteps; Josh's typing in the other room

smelling: wet-boots-and-coats classrooms; new books; + Saturday: a pine-scented candle that truly smells like the best fresh tree; lemony lotion on my parched hands

seeing: light deepening and glowing over all the treetops in the park behind the houses across the street; my own slow progress toward a tidy home after all the time away and unpacking; books that demand my attention, as well as lecture notes

feeling: toasty in my new slippers; cocooned in my warm apartment; excited to try my new big pot for making something good tonight (soup? a braise? a curry?); motivated and sleepy, by turns