Grad School

Intrepid 
[in-trep-id]
resolutely fearless, dauntless 

This word always strikes me as weird, because it sounds so weak, doesn't it? I always think it should mean frightened.

But, it's a good word to describe this semester and my approach with writing. Both because what it means and what I always think it means. I feel like more and more I just want to strive to be fearless in my writing. To kick myself out of my comfort zone so much that I no longer really have a comfort zone. This is pretty scary sometimes. I submitted a few poems to a contest, which was a new thing for me. So we'll see.

So this is the first week of semester #2 of grad school. So far, so easy. But then I've only had one class so far. But I did teach my first class. It's co-taught (with my roomie!) and just a work shop of 12 students, but still, I taught/am teaching college. Weird.

But this semester promises to be a good one. I scheduled myself 2 hours to write every morning 9-11, which has been a wonderful way to jump into my day. Today I edited a poem and worked on my WIP. Later I'm going kickboxing (so excited!) and out to $1 pint night with a good friend to celebrate his new job!

If you're looking for some good stories to read (for free!) check out Ninth Letter. I recommend the fiction piece by Matthew Burnside which is fantastic and he's a great guy. But seriously just check this out because the website is SO cool.

And/or, check out my blog post on the Flyway blog. 

Ain't a New Year w/o Some Resolutions

Avidity
\uh-VID-i-tee\ 
Enthusiasm or dedication

I like resolutions, because I like goals. Goals give you self-competition which has has always worked for me. And I think the whole point of a New Year's Resolution is to make you a better version of yourself. You don't have to meet all your resolutions to do that, but if by the end of the year you're a better person than when you began, I think that's a win.

And let's face it, we all like winning. (If you don't, then you lose, and then you're happy anyway, so everyone goes home happy).

Last year I hit nearly all my resolutions. Which, might be a first.

I:
-Got a story published!
-Got into grad school!
-Read a lot (maybe not 50 books, but quite a bit and a lot of poems/short stories)
-Lost weight
-Wrote a lot (maybe no every day, but more than I ever have)

So for this year I have a few more resolutions
-Drink my coffee blacker
-Dance in the rain more
-Continue publishing
-Make $$ somehow off my writing (paid, winning a contest, or?)
-Make more mistakes
-Read 50 books
-Write all the time
-Laugh more

So am I better person now than I was this time last year? Yes. In a lot of different ways. Definitely, yes. 

2012 and All that Jazz

Exordium

 \ ig-ZAWR-dee-uhm \

The beginning of anything.

So it's a bit of a tradition (started by Kaitlin, methinks) to wrap up the year with a list of fun stuff that took place that year. Plus, my memory is pretty bad some times, so it's nice to document life.

I don't believe in chronology, I believe in chaos. So in no particular order...

In 2012 I:

-Got into grad school (my top choice! hip, hip huzzah!)
-Completed first semester of grad school.
-Was flown to Iowa to visit said school.
-Got my first story accepted for publication. It's about dragons, and is getting published on an island with lots of whiskey (lit mag: Whiskey Island) (yep I'm a real writer!)
-Got paid essentially just to write/go to school (point #2 for being a "real" writer).
-Acquired a very cute kitten, Bueno.
-Moved across (half) the country to Iowa.
-Visited good friends in WI and took a fabulous road trip to St. Louis and New Orleans with Kaitlin.
-Enjoyed many a $1 Wednesday pints in Ames.
-Tutored people from: Saudi Arabia, China, Korea, Peru, Mexico and of course, the US.
-Canoed to Canada.
-Went to the International Food festival in Des Moines with some lovely company.
-Started an Etsy Shop
-Got paid to write an article.
-Was a guest blogger on Tell Tell Poetry
-Camped in the Boundary Waters.
-Went to oh so many potlucks.
-Saw Pres. Obama and helped him get re-elected.
-Spent a birthday in Vegas and saw LOVE.
-Had a car illegally towed.
-Spent a few wonderful nights in San Diego with friends.
-Drank wine with friends on a friend's terrace in Chi-town.
-Flew with a kitten.
-Ate pricey fondue (cheese and chocolate) and discussed philosophy at length one night.
-Started a YA Gothic novel.
-Read a ton of books--including a lot more lit mags, poems and short stories.
-Got my own apartment (which lovely friends helped me move into!)
-Lived using just public transit and a bike (and loved it).

A Jumbled Life Update

Cumulus
\ KYOO-myuh-luhs \ 
-A heap or a pile



Alright, it's time for a quick life update, in list form because who doesn't like lists? I actually don't really like lists, but I'm trying to become more of a fan, because they do help with organization. Not a big fan of organization really either, but I figure it might be a good thing to work on. Maybe.

-I've done some writerly things. Like sending in submissions to lit mags. I've heard a few no's so far, but I have gotten another personal rejection. So maybe someone will bite. If not I know how the story needs to get edited, so I s'pose I can do that and re-send it to different places.

-I've visited Iowa State and signed all the paperwork so I am 100% officially going here:

 How beautiful is that?

-I bought a flight! I'll be flying to the Twin Cities on August 8. Then at some point after that I'll be driving down to Ames.

-Easter happened.

 We dyed eggs. Notice the TFIOS egg?

Harry apparently was not pleased. He looks like this a lot.

-I dyed my hair red. And I really like it!

The necklace was made by yours truly.

-I found a second roommate and have signed a lease to an apartment! It looks pretty cute, it's a 10 minute walk from downtown, a block from the bus stop, is very inexpensive, is in a small apartment complex (only 12 units, no undergrads) and has air conditioning. SWEET. Plus both roommates have cars. One is doing an MFA with me and has a dog and a cat (score!) and the other guy is a MA student in Lit.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Venerate

[ven-uh-reyt]
to regard or treat with reverence 

Today is the birthday of a very special guy--my dad! So Happy Birthday to him! Because his real birthday is on a Tuesday this year, we celebrated on Saturday.

As you can see he was pretty excited.  

We had a nice dinner at home followed by the most delicious cake ever.

So happy birthday Dad!!!

April Fool's Solemnity

Tom·fool·er·y

[tom-foo-luh-ree]

noun, plural -er·ies.

1.

foolish or silly behavior

So tomfoolery is absolutely one of my favorite words. It's one of those great words that sounds exactly like what it means and just has a great, silly zing to it. Plus it's perfect for today, April Fool's Day, (still 32 minutes left of it!).

I thought of doing a really lame joke type post, but couldn't come up with something silly yet still (a little) believable. So instead this is like a part 1.5 of Kaitlin and my Epic Road Trip Adventure! This is some of the very strange (sad? terrifying? disturbing?) billboards we drove past, mostly in Missouri (or was it Mississippi?). I wasn't quite quick enough with my camera to catch them all.

And I know what you're thinking, "what do weird billboards have to do with jokes and April Fools?" Well, I find some of these signs to be a lot more enjoyable if you just imagine they were written/made on April Fool's and it's all just one big joke.

And here they are....

Just joking! We love religious tolerance!

And we love porn!

Yay! Christ for me!

But does anyone love cancer? But still, I'm all for hating cancer.

Yay life! Oh wait....

(On a side note this is particularly chilling because of the header text: "your vote is their voice" because your vote for "life" (sans choice) is also silencing you know, women. I just think the rhetoric for Pro-Lifers a lot of the time is really eerie.)

And there you have it. Possibly the most depressing April Fool's Day post ever.

Let's just end on a happier note shall we?

OMG this is the cutest thing I have ever seen ever.

Visiting Friends and Road Trip Part 1

Peregrination

[per-i-gruh-ney-shuhn]

1. Travel from one place to another, especially on foot.

2. A course of travel; journey.

Okay, I am taking a jump back in time because I lost my camera for awhile so I couldn't update this as soon as I would have liked to.

So last January (I know, I know, a loooong time ago) I hopped on a plane to visit some very lovely people in Chicago:

We went ice skating in Millennium Park in Chicago and it was lovely.

After a lovely weekend in Chicago staying with two incredible hosts, I headed to Beloit, WI with Hannah and Kaitlin (the two sexy blondes above) to stay with them in their very cute apartment there. It was so strange and wonderful to be back at my undergrad college. I felt very much like I no longer belonged yet everything was so familiar. It was very nostalgic. But I saw some old friends, visited the Costume Shop where I worked for 4 years and said hello to a few professors. I also baked all of my MFA letter of rec writers cookies, which they all seemed to enjoy immensely (seriously one did a jig type dance when he saw them and the other two opened them immediately).

Hannah had to leave after a week to go to a real adult type job, so Kaitlin and I kicked it for awhile and were visited by another friend, Coley and it was absolutely fantastic to see her.

After that Kaitlin and I hopped into her very brave car, nicknamed Earrings to start our road trip.

We, we, we so excited, we so excited....

We drove to St. Louis, where we stayed with one of Kaitlin's old buds. The drive was pretty easy, only about 6-7 hours or so. And we read a lot of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars and listened to sweet tunes. Though sadly my all Weezer mix CD didn't burn properly.

St. Louis was a really great city. It seemed like culturally it was a true mix of MidWest and South. The downtown area was really diverse and eclectic. We went to an organic/local bakery, got bread from a panaderia and got bubble tea. Kaitlin's friend was so kind and drove us all over giving us a stellar tour of the Loop, many used book shops and antique row. We even saw the arch.

It was a little gray out that day.

But I have to admit the highlight of the trip was spontaneously walking into the St. Louis Church of Scientology. Now I've got to admit, I knew very little about scientology before this trip. Kaitlin pretty much took the lead and said she was interested in learning more for a writing project and we pretended we were current WashU students. But the people there were very sweet and gave us an extensive personality test to help us assess the problems with our lives or something like that. I thought the results were pretty great. A perfect score has rankings all above a certain baseline and ideally your ranked score is pretty straight. Most of my areas were above the "good" line, but my line was definitely not straight (which means what? I don't know). Maybe I'm not very stable. But they did tell me I was very cynical, which I find hard to believe. I'm not gullible certainly, but I'm a very optimistic person and am idealistic and believe people can save the world and make great change, etc. etc. I think it was my scientific side surfacing. They also told me I was too honest and consequently mean. I admitted that I liked people who are brutally honest and thus am brutally honest myself at times. I think a lot of this comes from being an undergrad creative writing major. My writing can't grow if people consistently sugar coat feedback, so I like to tell it like it is. That doesn't mean I just say mean things; I do have tact. But I will point out flaws in a constructive way. But, I always do so in a constructive manner. And that's the whole point of workshop.

My favorite quote from the trip: "When you're brutally honest you don't have to be mean."

I really wanted to ask her if she understood the definition of the word "brutal" but then I thought she'd think that was mean.

So that happened.

It was really strange because when I watched the informational videos Scientology seemed pretty legitimate. It seemed like it was super tolerant (religiously, racially, etc.) and focused on making you a better, happier person. I'm all for those things! Like 150% But the videos talked about Scientology very generally and when we asked for more specific information things stopped making sense. Like they accept people from any religion yet their symbol is a cross (with some very, very small lines intersecting with the main cross like a small star). The lady said the symbol of the cross predates Christianity, which is true, yet Scientology was founded in the early 1900s, when the cross was THE dominant symbol of Christianity. Fishy. And when they showed us an e-meter, which is supposed to read negative mental energy (or something like that) the lady couldn't explain how it worked. I asked if it went off blood pressure or temperature (you grip two metal rods to be "read") and she said no. Then I asked if it read changes in charge in the air and she said "yes, among other things". Firstly, that's not really possible (okay it's possible but not with that piece of equipment). Secondly, what "other things"?!? Scientology pretend to be so scientific and then completely tries to distance itself from Psychology and real scientific method science. I'm all for helping people, but I'm not such a fan of the illogic.

Anyway, I could go on more about Scientology and how strange but fascinating it is, but I'll leave it at that. Apparently I'm mean and cynical but beyond that I am an a-okay person. Huzzah!