Just Keep Swimming
I thought this past week was going to be one long pain in the ass, but it's turned out to be one cosmic gift after another, Wednesday in particular. It was warm enough out to wear cute shoes to the Sarah Manguso dinner, and Elizabeth and I's first day in the middle school was canceled - and thank god, because for some reason I'd broken out so badly they'd probably have thought I was one of them - so I had time to sit down and start my second story for Mary's class. The bad news is, the premise I had in mind didn't work so well. The good news is, I went back to this piece I started and abandoned last fall and discovered that it was the shit. Even better, I remembered having written only a page on it before giving up, but I'd actually written five plus. So I found this awesome, half-done story, and that immediately took about five tons of stress off my spring break. Which is cool, even though I can probably get a lot of work done in Columbus. I don't know what else I'd be doing while Ryden's at work, other than watching daytime court programs with Allan, not that that's not awesome.
Right now, they're doing the search for the new fiction professor. They're bringing in all the candidates this week and next week. I got to go to lunch with Alix Ohlin yesterday, which is another great thing about this week: free food. I was perplexed by the girls who ordered only salad. Do you want to spend more money on your groceries? I ordered an appetizer and an entree and I left with two more dinners' worth of food. But okay, aside from my gluttony. Katie asked her, how do you get motivated to write a novel, especially if you don't know that you can do it? And Alix said, you know, the great thing about writing in general is that no effort is ever wasted. She told us about how Michael Chabon spent like five years writing the novel before Wonderboys and it ended up sucking, but then he wrote Wonderboys in a month, or something crazy like that. So, she said, it doesn't matter if you're having a hard time right now because you never know what the pay-off will be as long as you write through it. And I breathed, oh, that's awesome, and then started laughing.
Also, last night Tony, Mikael, Francesco, and I went to our first non-MFA house party. It was with all the architecture professors, and they were all totally faced. One of them was DJing, all 70's songs, and another tried to do the worm, but was too drunk, and instead lay on the floor moving his arms and legs as if he were making snow angels.
Right now, they're doing the search for the new fiction professor. They're bringing in all the candidates this week and next week. I got to go to lunch with Alix Ohlin yesterday, which is another great thing about this week: free food. I was perplexed by the girls who ordered only salad. Do you want to spend more money on your groceries? I ordered an appetizer and an entree and I left with two more dinners' worth of food. But okay, aside from my gluttony. Katie asked her, how do you get motivated to write a novel, especially if you don't know that you can do it? And Alix said, you know, the great thing about writing in general is that no effort is ever wasted. She told us about how Michael Chabon spent like five years writing the novel before Wonderboys and it ended up sucking, but then he wrote Wonderboys in a month, or something crazy like that. So, she said, it doesn't matter if you're having a hard time right now because you never know what the pay-off will be as long as you write through it. And I breathed, oh, that's awesome, and then started laughing.
Also, last night Tony, Mikael, Francesco, and I went to our first non-MFA house party. It was with all the architecture professors, and they were all totally faced. One of them was DJing, all 70's songs, and another tried to do the worm, but was too drunk, and instead lay on the floor moving his arms and legs as if he were making snow angels.