muh.
So, you know what's weird? I check my friends page at least a few times a week, but I hardly ever post in here anymore. I suppose I just don't feel the need to. Most of my writing energy goes into working on short stories, and I feel that's where I'm happier expressing myself anyways. But perhaps for my own sake, an update of sorts.
I'm basically just going to school and working a lot. This semester's load of classes keeps me busy, but the good thing is I enjoy all of my classes. I have a renaissance lit class that's one of the last for my English major and the professor is fantastic. It's interesting and I managed to snag a 94 on my midterm while not actually doing any reading before class. It's mostly poems, which is why I can get away with this strategy. I'm taking Fiction Writing Workshop which is sort of a letdown after some of the really solid workshops I've taken before, but it gives me new readers which is never a bad thing. I'm still plugging away at 'Heart Shaped Rock' (three years now of intermittent revisions) and my prof. really liked it. I feel confident in including it in my MFA applications. I'm starting a new story (titled 'A Swift Twisting Motion') tonight and I hope it can be a nice supplement to HSR, which will be my main submission piece. I'm also taking an Acting for Non Majors class (another initial letdown, mostly things I've learned before several times over) but it's proving to work out well. Intro to Cinema, Italian (classic lit. and poetry along the lines of Petrach, Boccaccio, Dante, etc), and a Psych of Gender and Sex Class round out the roster. They're all good, but I'm looking forward to taking a contemporary Italian authors class next semester. I know what I'm doing now is the classics and it's clutch and all (especially considering that the names I mentioned above are the pride and joy of Italian fine arts) but it just doesn't resonate with me.
I'm working at the Phonathon (now as a supervisor since the end of summer) and I really enjoy it a lot. The people I work with are great, and while the callers often push me to the edge, it's nice to have a job that I look forward to going to.
I had a poem published today on the University of Iowa Daily Palette website. It's something I wrote relatively quickly and revised only a couple of times. It isn't a big deal, but it was definitely encouraging, even though poetry is by no means my area of semi-expertise. My mom and dad were really excited about it, so that felt nice.
I mentioned the MFA on here sometime over the summer and I can now say that as long as I'm accepted and awarded either funding straight up or a teaching assistantship, I'll be going. I was torn between going and taking time off, and unless I get a position as an SLA at the Rome Center, I'm just going to go. I realized that the only reason I was considering taking time off before going to grad school was a fear of getting burnt out. I thought about this a lot in the back of my head, and I also noticed how sitting down to write gets pushed aside constantly by the need to finish my other schoolwork. I read somewhere that MFA programs allow writers the gift of time. I would be immersed in a (hopefully vibrant) literary community of dedicated and talented writers, with a faculty mentor and TIME to write and also perhaps learn to teach college writing courses. This sounds like Christmas twenty million times over, and taking time off to work some office job sounds like Purgatory. So, that's that, eh?
Steph and I started doing weight watchers about a month and a half ago. My main reasons for joining were that A) my clothes didn't fit me right and B) I'm 21 years old and felt like I was a hundred and five. All that junk food made me exhausted all the time. It's working, too. I lost 13.6 lbs as of two weeks ago (haven't weighed in in a while since I was in Iowa City last weekend) and even after the first week I noticed how great I felt all the time. It was a great decision. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to change the way they feel and eat and think about food for the better.
Oh, and speaking of Steph. Over two years, and couldn't be better.
I guess I better be getting started on my newest piece. This felt nice. A recap.
I'm basically just going to school and working a lot. This semester's load of classes keeps me busy, but the good thing is I enjoy all of my classes. I have a renaissance lit class that's one of the last for my English major and the professor is fantastic. It's interesting and I managed to snag a 94 on my midterm while not actually doing any reading before class. It's mostly poems, which is why I can get away with this strategy. I'm taking Fiction Writing Workshop which is sort of a letdown after some of the really solid workshops I've taken before, but it gives me new readers which is never a bad thing. I'm still plugging away at 'Heart Shaped Rock' (three years now of intermittent revisions) and my prof. really liked it. I feel confident in including it in my MFA applications. I'm starting a new story (titled 'A Swift Twisting Motion') tonight and I hope it can be a nice supplement to HSR, which will be my main submission piece. I'm also taking an Acting for Non Majors class (another initial letdown, mostly things I've learned before several times over) but it's proving to work out well. Intro to Cinema, Italian (classic lit. and poetry along the lines of Petrach, Boccaccio, Dante, etc), and a Psych of Gender and Sex Class round out the roster. They're all good, but I'm looking forward to taking a contemporary Italian authors class next semester. I know what I'm doing now is the classics and it's clutch and all (especially considering that the names I mentioned above are the pride and joy of Italian fine arts) but it just doesn't resonate with me.
I'm working at the Phonathon (now as a supervisor since the end of summer) and I really enjoy it a lot. The people I work with are great, and while the callers often push me to the edge, it's nice to have a job that I look forward to going to.
I had a poem published today on the University of Iowa Daily Palette website. It's something I wrote relatively quickly and revised only a couple of times. It isn't a big deal, but it was definitely encouraging, even though poetry is by no means my area of semi-expertise. My mom and dad were really excited about it, so that felt nice.
I mentioned the MFA on here sometime over the summer and I can now say that as long as I'm accepted and awarded either funding straight up or a teaching assistantship, I'll be going. I was torn between going and taking time off, and unless I get a position as an SLA at the Rome Center, I'm just going to go. I realized that the only reason I was considering taking time off before going to grad school was a fear of getting burnt out. I thought about this a lot in the back of my head, and I also noticed how sitting down to write gets pushed aside constantly by the need to finish my other schoolwork. I read somewhere that MFA programs allow writers the gift of time. I would be immersed in a (hopefully vibrant) literary community of dedicated and talented writers, with a faculty mentor and TIME to write and also perhaps learn to teach college writing courses. This sounds like Christmas twenty million times over, and taking time off to work some office job sounds like Purgatory. So, that's that, eh?
Steph and I started doing weight watchers about a month and a half ago. My main reasons for joining were that A) my clothes didn't fit me right and B) I'm 21 years old and felt like I was a hundred and five. All that junk food made me exhausted all the time. It's working, too. I lost 13.6 lbs as of two weeks ago (haven't weighed in in a while since I was in Iowa City last weekend) and even after the first week I noticed how great I felt all the time. It was a great decision. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to change the way they feel and eat and think about food for the better.
Oh, and speaking of Steph. Over two years, and couldn't be better.
I guess I better be getting started on my newest piece. This felt nice. A recap.