The second full week of September is a weirdly special time in Pendleton. When I first started teaching we taught Monday and Tuesday of that week & at the hundred year mark it changed to not teaching for the whole week—fundraisers, pop-up parking lots, closed Main Street, PBR, regular rodeo days, concerts…so, so much. Twenty-five years ago some students didn’t show up until after; now we get them for two short weeks prior to Hedonist Holy Week (no shade and not my clever).

I spent my time reading 18 perfect trash books. And I moved my yearly book goal from the standard 120 to 160…92% of the goal is met. Pretty much this means I’ve read about 5% of my TBR pile.