With a smile on my face

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday ended joyously with the meeting of the Columbia Shakespeare Seminar at Faculty House. Dear Laury picked me up and took me home to make the trip easy for me. I had hoped that José Ramón would join us at Columbia since he planned to visit us this weekend from the Folger in DC, but he is coming today instead.

It's quite clear that no matter how tired I am on my own, I am energized by being with others, especially people I know well. Our speaker was John Archer, from NYU. He is not a regular attendee at the seminar, and though I am completely satisfied with the people who do come, I wonder why so many Shakespeareans from around the region do not come. Through the whole event the smile never left my face. John's paper was utterly different from anything I would think of writing, and that of course makes it fascinating on a couple of levels. He spoke about three Shakespeare sonnets, 108, 128, and 8, and the connections between them and the contemporary technology in the instance of the virginal, a musical instrument of the time, and printing presses, with the compositors who set the type for books at the time. He had lots of pictures, Vermeers for the virginal, and I admired the easy way he accessed them from his computer. I am thinking about pictures for my talk too, but I won't have anything nearly as advanced—probably an overhead projector.

At the end of the evening, Laury came in to see the bedroom, in which I had puttered a bit during the day, I now have easy access to photo albums that had been out of reach on a top shelf in the study. I imagine myself propped up high on pillows in the bed with friends around me looking at these albums and wondering at the changes that have come with time. The room gives me an amazing amount of pleasure. Dave is going to add a finishing touch, fairy lights, a feature I have always admired in Barbara's homes.

I heard from the editor of SQ. After I finish touching up the essay, it will go back to the same readers for their further comments. No specific date for publication. I hope it is not too much delayed. I had asked the editor whether the readers would be the same ones. I have had the experience of initial readers making suggestions, me resubmitting with suggestions attended to, and then the work handed off to a totally new reader who of course disagreed with the first readers. Ugh. So at least that won't happen.

The snow continues to be delightful here because it is still pristine. Down the street there are huge gray piles, not pretty at all. I focus on the view outside my study.

Love to all,
Bernice