Molly Giles Reading

Molly Giles visited USI today to do her Ropewalk reading. I have to admit I wasn't familiar with her work, but she was a very personable... person... and I enjoyed talking to her during the reception. Her reading was excellent; I especially liked her poem about Noah's daughter-in-law and the short short of the father discussing the family dog with his son. The short story she read was very good as well. I was talking to Dr. Kearns after the reading and he said he was surprised at how dead-pan her expression was when she was reading, seeing as she had a lot of irony and other funny material in her pieces. I had noticed that too, and I don't think I would have been able to do that.

Um, I don't really know what else to talk about. My life, personally (which I'm sure you all care about), has been really hectic: this week I had to finish the Molly Giles program handed out during the reading and last week I installed software on the new Mac (yay for being an adaptable computer nerd!). Most of the stuff I have to do is related to being a resident assistant: Monday I had a program start (It's called The Water Challenge, see more information here), as well as census (making sure people still live there) and health and safety checks (basically making sure no one has screwed up the room so far). I also have a staff meeting to go to today, and a program tomorrow. I also have a meeting with the Housing Director and some other RAs on Friday. School-wise I'm just as busy. I was supposed to have two tests and a paper due today, but thankfully one test was moved to Friday and the due date for the paper has been moved to Monday. I also have a bunch of homework to do, Relay For Life and a practice GRE exam on Saturday, and the Honors Symposium on Sunday. Basically, my life is an eternal black hole in which all free time is devoured, never to return again, even in the form of regurgitation, also known as naps.

Okay maybe that metaphor was too heavy. Cut me some slack; it's been a long day.

Jumbled Mess

So in the SIR office we have a metal cabinet right above this computer. It has a lot of word magnets on it. Various words that I don't have the patience to list for you. But interns before me have created sentences, traditional or not, that I thought were interesting enough to share. One says, "blushing boys will bleed from the poison of blazing desires." The alliteration is cool and the meaning actually makes sense. But then there is one that says, "pierce the eye of a waking fool." And it makes me realize that maybe Gertrude Stein was right. Words don't mean a thing. Each word can be torn apart to nothing or everything at the same time and who the judge is, no one knows. 

Because I am a vain writer like so many I know, I'll share my random concoction with you. "celebrate ferocious dazzle, you child of angels." 

Take what you want, oh, judger of words. 

    Spring Break is only exciting for those who have time and money: the two things I never have enough of.  I didn't even bother to make any plans.  The secret life of this college student is mostly filled with the mundane and obligatory routines of work, school, and sleep. Not so much of the latter these days.  Needless to say I worked and studied my way through spring break. 

    I don't know why I was so anxious about going back to my classes, but I was.  I thought it would be difficult to get back into the swing of things.  Turns out, some things take more than a week to lose their swing.  And so I returned, sans renewed vigor.  

   This has been an easy semester class-wise, but very difficult in just about every other aspect.  Lots of demands for my attentions from every angle.  I'm staying on top of things now, but there is little room for relaxing, sleeping in, or slacking.  If I got behind, I'd probably never catch up.  

     Let's see, did anything exciting happen during my spring break? Mmm, no.  Just the usual.  Oh, wait!  I celebrated my twenty-second birthday. I suppose I should be happy I made it this far, what with my propensity for car accidents.  I went home to visit my parents for my birthday. When did their home become a haven?  I can remember feeling like a prisoner in that house, now it's one of those places I want to run to just to get away from everything else.  I spent time with my mother, my sister, and her three year old little girl during the day, then Mom made supper when my dad got home and then there was cake afterward. When the dishes were cleared we watched a movie; everyone was attempting to sit on the couch, including the two large dogs.  We managed to fit five people and two dogs on a couch that is supposed to only seat three. We're a close family.  As usual, Dad falls asleep on the first half-hour, Mom and my sister chat throughout the movie, and the dogs jam bony elbows and knees into our laps trying to get comfortable. It was familiar, comforting, and refreshing.  I stayed the night and left early the next day for work. Back to the grind.  

   In the meantime, I think of the future, elusive though it seems.  I plan my wedding, I write resumes in my head, I schedule next semester's classes.  Eventually, it will all get done. And then there will be more to do.  There is always more to do. 

   

    

      

Some good news for me

So, after months of waiting and more rejections than I'd like to think about, I've finally gotten some good news.

This past week I was accepted to the MFA programs at both Minnesota State University Mankato and Southern Illinois University Carbondale for fiction. I got the email from MSU and before I was even done freaking out I got the letter from SIUC. It was completely amazing and I still haven't really gotten used to the idea that not only am I lucky enough to attend an MFA program next year, I get to choose a program and funding situation that's best for me.

I haven't heard anything from MSU about funding yet, but at SIUC, as per usual, I received a teaching assistantship which gives me a tuition waiver, a nice monthly stipend, and two sections of undergrad English a year. There are many things about this program that I'm excited about. It's three years long, relatively small, gives you an opportunity to work with the Crab Orchard Review, and requires that you take at least one workshop in a different genre than you are working on.

My decision will ultimately be based on funding, I think. Though I have yet to get my funding info right from MSU and have yet to hear from five schools, I'm leaning pretty heavily toward SIUC. I think it's going to work best for me and my needs and interests, plus I'm excited about the faculty. It's going to be hard to turn down a program, but I feel good that someone from the waitlist wherever I choose not to go will get a spot. I know how hard it is to wait.