Virtually Home

 Here’s a quick recap of my highlights for the year 2025. January We began the New Year in Omaha and roundtripped home to Knoxville through an ice storm. I learned to make orecchiette by hand. Construction finally began on my long-awaited lab space at work. February I baked a lot of sourdough using the starter that survived our move home from Australia. I stayed inside a lot with the cat on my lap. I saw Adeem the Artist play the Blue Plate Special in Knoxville and went to Nashville to see Christian Lee Hutson play the Blue Room. I gave a seminar in Pittsburgh, which was fun. Construction continued on the lab. My mom had spinal surgery, necessitating a trip to Oklahoma. March In March we protested unsavory actions by our government, including massive threats to science funding. I saw Bright Eyes in Knoxville and in a cavern in Middle Tennessee and Tulsa with Stephanie. I visited some Cherokee historical sites with my folks in NE OK before I drove home to TN. I stopped in Nashville ...

I've been accustomed in my adulthood to reading between 40 and 60 novels a year -- almost entirely science fiction and fantasy. But this year, I spent virtually all of my free time trying to learn Cherokee. It used up all the time an energy I might usually spend on fiction. The books I managed to read this year were largely in support of my language learning, and uncharacteristically and disproportionately skewed toward non-fiction. Here's the list: Cherokee related: Original Teachings: Designed to Stand as One: Early Keetowah Teachings and Traditions by Crosslin Fields Smith Think Cherokee: A Cherokee Language Student Reference by JW Webster Cherokee Reference Grammar by Brad Montgomery-Anderson Cherokee Earth Dwellers: Stories and Teachings of the Natural World by Christopher B. Teuton A Lifetime of Healing by Crosslin Fields Smith Journeying into Cherokee: Help and Encouragement for Learning the Cherokee Language by Ed Fields and Mary Rae Other Non-Fiction: The Frogs and Toa...

Living in Perth had many perks, but the biggest downside was the lack of live music. Since moving home from Australia, I've been making up for lost time and seeing as many shows as I can. It was fitting that my first run of shows back was to see Bright Eyes, my longtime fave, who were touring in support of their long-awaited record Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was , released at the beginning of the pandemic. Here's a list of what I saw in 2022. The Bright Eyes Tour 1. Bright Eyes with Christian Lee Hutson at the Sylvee, Madison, WI 3-25-22 2. Bright Eyes with Christian Lee Hutson at the Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL 3-26-22 3. Bright Eyes with Christian Lee Hutson at the Pageant, Saint Louis, MO 3-30-22 4. Bright Eyes with Christian Lee Hutson at Old Forester's Paristown Hall, Louisville, KY 3-31-22 5. Christian Lee Hutson album release in-store performance at Grimey's in Nashville, TN 4-1-22     Best day ever. We ran into Christian in our hotel in Louisville a...

January We started the new year on the south coast of Western Australia, vacationing in the region that has Albany and Denmark. We were almost two years into Australia's border closure for covid-19. We hadn't seen our family in a long time. I had a verbal job offer and plans to go for a visit to campus when Australia planned to open its border on February 5. It was summer, and we were trying to make the most of our time Down Under. The south coast is really beautiful, and though the Southern Ocean is cold and violent (and so makes for bad and dangerous swimming), it offers really stunning views and some good fishing. On New Year's Eve, we spent the day hiking in the Stirling Ranges. We considered driving to town to watch the fireworks on New Year's Eve but ultimately we didn't. We had a steak dinner at our hotel's restaurant and went to bed early so we could do plenty of outdoor adventuring the next day. It's the first time I haven't stayed up until mi...