dunhaven; ic community.

One of my kids flew into the classroom this morning to give me a hug and tell me that they missed me "soooo much" during spring break. If that's not a good way to start the week, I don't know what is.

PHILLIPS SISTERS

I am very lucky to have you both, so thank you for being the best.

OSCAR

Thank you for being so understanding this weekend. I appreciate you.

is anyone near athena that can pick me up? thank you.

Happy Valentine's from Ms. Phillips's classroom! ( Cut for image! )

Maybe it's cheesy, but I've gotten progressively better at doors and bulletin boards with each passing year. They didn't even teach us that part in college.

PS: I don't watch the Oscars, but I saw all the coverage after and can we talk about that "Parasite" sweep? 🙌

ANGIE

Can I tell you something that stays between us? I know that the answer is yes, but I thought I'd at least say it.

MAGGIE

Hey, you. Thank you for the setup.

OSCAR

I just wanted to say again that I really had a nice time on Saturday. ☺️

KESI

Tell me good things.

It's almost February 1. Do you know what that means? Valentine's Month. 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 And it's a LEAP YEAR which means twenty-nine days of celebrating the best feeling in the world.

OSCAR FORD, added later

Hi! Do you have any fishing trips planned Saturday evening?

[Foster, Waters Siblings, Rachel, Calliope]

I suppose I should be thankful that a very ambitious idea for the Dreamery's third anniversary has hit me a full four months in advance, so there's at least a chance I could pull it off. 😬😬😬

[/]

What are some of your favorite places to travel? Or, if you're not-so-widely-traveled (like me), what are some places you'd love to go?

TEXTS TO DAHLIA - sent ~7AM

-- Good morning!
-- Jun proposed last night.

FILTERED TO STELLA, ANGIE, EMBRY - after lunch

You know what's a hilarious thought? Me being a politician's wife. I mean, me being a politician's girlfriend is kind of a humorous thought on its own, but here we are.

Anyway, it turns out I'm going to be one, after some time as a politician's fiancée.

FILTERED TO TALLY

Hey, you. How are you?

Happy Lunar New Year!

I only know a handful of things about my surrogate mother, but one of the things I do know is that she was Korean American, her family having originally come from Busan. I became interested in learning more about that side of my heritage once I was old enough to really understand that it different from the rest of my family and my dads were really supportive and helpful in letting me explore it. There is still a lot that I haven't experienced and someday I am going to just jump in and plan that trip to visit South Korea, but until then I do what I can to embrace my heritage here, in whatever way I can.

And so, today that looks like making tteokguk and jeon! I've only made both a few times before, both to varying degrees of success, so any wishes of luck are appreciated. The recipes also make a lot, so if you're looking to try something new, my kitchen is open.

All that said, I wish everyone a wonderful and satisfying new year. I hope it's full of new beginnings and overflowing happiness.

January term ends on the 29th. In theory, this should be no surprise if you've been studying for your final.

Someone a great deal cooler than me informed me that a lot of you use Instagram to communicate. As someone with a perpetual allergy to social media of any kind (read: snobbery), what will having an Instagram account provide me that having a social media "journal" on this platform can't?

More specifically, I left Facebook due to my inability to keep myself from making acquaintances' great aunts cry over their terrible political opinions. Am I going to have to fight any of you on Instagram? Am I going to be approached by someone working from home who thinks I'd be a great fit for the bottom segment of a pyramid scheme? How are the privacy settings? For those of you still in school: is Instagram sufficiently uncool enough that none of my students are on it?

Thank you for any information you can provide.

ANONYMOUS (but public)

Happy birthday, my son.

RACHEL

Do you want important news or most important news first?

OLIVER

Hi. So, guess what.

FRIENDS, MINUS WENTWORTHS

I don't know how much of a surprise this is, but I wanted to let you all know that Wyatt and I are together -- again, I know. But this time we actually talked to Kylie about it, so it's more serious than it has been in the past. It's [...] very good, I'd say.

OCEANA

Just over a month to go! How are you feeling about everything? Anything else I could be doing to help you that I'm not already?

For those at the University of Dunhaven trapped in waitlist purgatory, my current available courses are as follows:

Linguistics 101 - an introduction to the scientific study of language with specific focus on the core areas of morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonetics and phonology.
M, W, F: 8:00am - 9:00am

Linguistics 210 - Introduction to cross-linguistic phenomena and methods of analysis in phonology, including phonological categories, features, alternations, and phonological models for capturing related generalizations; as well as syllable structure, tone and stress, and morphologically conditioned phonology.
T, TH: 1:00pm - 2:15pm

Linguistics 232 - Examines different languages in terms of their historical origin and their cognitive properties with a particular focus on "dead" and endangered languages. What causes language endangerment and death, and why does it matter? Can dying languages be revitalized? How are thought, identity, and culture influenced by language, and vice versa?
F: 5:30pm-7:30pm (I'm as thrilled about this as you undoubtedly are.)

As a reminder to my (current) students, the last day that you can drop the spring semester without penalty is February 29th.

To everyone else - hi, I'm Theo Salazar. Teacher, obviously, relatively new in town and still trapped by cardboard boxes. I'm likely to die in here. You have my niece to thank for getting me online.

( Instagram Post! )

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been spending every day since Christmas snuggling the puppy my sweet and perfect fiancee got me because he knows me so damn well. :')

EVERETT

I [...] have terrible news.

QOTD: How tf is it 71 degrees outside right now when we literally just had a massive snowstorm less than a week ago??

BRIDGET

Do I get birthday cake today?

Best I can tell, these Dreams that so many of us are having can be related back to people's lives to varying degrees. I've been having them for a while now, but I haven't been able to really find a good distraction method or coping mechanism for when the memories are [...] particularly familiar or remind of a time I'd rather not relive.

So, to those of you that might sometimes find themselves in the same situation, how do you handle it?

Happy birthday, me. 🥳

Roads are bad so if anyone is in desperate need of a rescue, shout out - my jeep's basically made for bad terrain. At least before it gets TOO bad.

I am a successful fisherwoman!

Well, I didn't actually catch anything, but I was able to eventually cast without assistance or guidance and I didn't fall into the water once. The latter was, quite frankly, a large worry. It just seemed like something I might do. Feel free to celebrate with me, Dunhaven, during this moment of triumph.

Unrelated, but we will be sending out information to everyone who volunteered to read to the kids on Monday. I couldn't believe how many people signed up and it really does make this teacher's heart happy to see how many are willing to set aside their time to help out, especially when it comes to helping out kids. You are all absolute gems and I can't wait to get to meet those of you I don't already know to thank you in person.

Have a great rest of your Saturdays, friends. ☺️

It occurs to me that as of next Thursday, I will have been back in Dunhaven for a full year. That just doesn't seem possible.

ANGIE, DAHLIA, STELLA, & TALLY

Just so you guys know, since you're the ones most likely to just show up there, I'm moving out of my apartment and in with Jun. My lease ends at the end of January and I had technically renewed it, but luckily with all the issues with the heating and cooling, they couldn't do much when I said that I wouldn't be paying anything for breaking or going back on my renewal. Lua is already all moved in, but I have until the end of the month to get everything else taken care of.

Also, funny story. He asked me to move in months ago when the cooling went out the second time, but I didn't think he was serious and just went back to my apartment when it was fixed so if you're ever in a situation where you feel like you are the most clueless, you can always be assured that I would probably win that contest.

TALLY

How have you been doing? I wanted to check in, now that we're on this side of the holidays.