Natalie Draper

Luna the cat buried herself into a blanket on the couch and then popped her head out. She stayed like this, snuggled against me while I worked, for a long while.

Little companion. ❤️

A big snowman on the quad at Syracuse University.

The snow keeps coming, so it’s nice that it formed itself into this end-of-semester celebratory figure.

Just got back from my second holiday concert of the weekend - this time SU’s annual Holidays at Hendricks concert, complete with candle lighting and silent night at the end. Between this and the snow, it’s starting to feel a bit festive around here! 🎄

Just went to a performance of the Messiah (which brought me back to all the choral concerts of my youth) and you know that piece really holds up. Gotta love the Baroque era. ❤️

This morning when I left the house to go to campus it was five degrees out. Reevaluating all my life choices that led me to live in the north.

The most French thing ever. 😂

Omg giving tuesday is destroying my inbox. 😵‍💫

This is accurate for one of my cats, but the other one must be a dog in a tuxedo suit. 😂

That’s insane!

A lovely tuxedo cat and a lovely black fluffy cat have smushed themselves into the upper part of a cat tree and are staring out the window, observing a snowy street.

Taking stock of the snow. Happy caturday!

Why don’t we have semesters that just go from mid-August until Thanksgiving?? It’s so absurd to go back for a week and two days of classes. Also I have gone into vacation mode and am grumpily realizing I need to snap out of it and grade late work.

A loaf of cranberry nut bread

It ain’t a thanksgiving in my house without some cranberry nut bread. ❤️

Lovely tuxedo emerges from underneath blanket, looking like a hooded ghoul.

🤣 Happy Caturday, folks. I don’t even know how to properly caption this one.

He is a slimy husk of a human. There is no there there.

A society that keeps allowing this to happen is a deeply immoral and misogynistic one.

Sorry for those dealing with the ramifications of Cloudflare being down. Not sorry that ChatGPT and Claude are down, though.

Lovely tuxedo cat named Lexi on couch with paw touching a blanket mound that contains a lovely black cat named Luna.

We have officially entered the cats-burrowing-under-blankets season. It’s nice that even in these conditions, Lexi and Luna still like their paws to touch. 😂❤️

Alright alright alright. Just one more week and then turkey break. I am ready. 🦃🍹

NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.

Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.

When ICE came for Jeremy, Syracuse’s underground railroad helped him escape the country Friends and family helped a well-known Syracuse man elude detention and flee to France

Syracuse immigrant defense and LGBT communities are heroes

www.syracuse.com/news/2025/11...

Syracuse Regional Market offers $20 in free groceries for anyone who needs it, no questions asked Central New York Regional Market has more than 8,000 coupons to help families buy groceries this month.

Syracuse Regional Market offers $20 in free groceries for anyone who needs it, no questions asked

It's always a nice surprise when you stumble upon a youtube video of a student performance of your music that you didn't know about. But it also reminds me - please tell living composers when you play our stuff - we get very happy about it!!

One of my students wants to submit his aleatoric piece to a young composer award, but the app requires that he submit a midi file along with the score. This seems to be an attempt at equity, but it strikes me as deeply flawed, especially for young composers who are writing highly experimental music.

FIFA will use Kennedy Center free of charge for World Cup event, contract says The Kennedy Center booked the World Cup draw at President Donald Trump’s urging. It will occupy much of the campus and displace planned performances.

I just keep thinking about the concerts I have been to in this building and keep wanting to scream. This situation is utter trash.

Lovely black fluffy cat snoozing on a completely squashed sofa cushion.

Sprouting out of a couch.

I got this useful bon mot from a middle school teacher recently.

In response to, “I DONT UNDERSTAND,” he calmly said, “okay what steps have you taken to understand?”

And that’s when I realized that a lot of folks have no steps.

Syracuse University campus covered in sloppy snow.

And so it begins…

Lovely tuxedo cat sprawled out on top of a heat vent. Her cat bed is next to the heat vent, unused.

The heat vent will always be > the cat bed. 😂

[Exit Clown.]

Ahhhhh!!! 🎉🎉🎉 Good freaking lord all this good news is so welcome right now.