Thanks Justin and Mary for letting me in on the good news. "The Orchard" has made it onto Jordan Davis' Notable Poems List. That's pretty darn cool.
Also found out this week that I will have 3 poems in the 2007 issue of The Penguin Review.
I'd say 2007 is shaping up to be a pretty good year so far.
I have to miss this today because my family decided today is the day to help my dad clean out his ginormous barn. To call him a pack rat is an understatement (he built this building special for his stuff) and it is definitely going to be an all day project. Maybe it will be long enough for me to figure out how to describe the smell of the place. It's my favorite smell in the world, kind of musty, kind of cold, but there's something else to it and it makes me feel at home. I've never figured it out.
Oh, and if you look real close, you can see the blue Ford tractor that appears in "The Orchard"
I think it should be illegal to make people go to work/school on days when it is below 20 degrees. The only requirement on days like today should be staying in your pjs, drinking hot chocolate, and reading good books.
Alas, I don't make the rules.
So, today, I have to go teach, and despite Justin's fabulous advice, I'm still nervous about facing the peanut crowd in the back row.
On the up-side, when I'm done with that, the first spring semester Upstart Crows meeting will be in full swing. I have a poem to share, which maybe, if I'm lucky, can be revised by tomorrow morning so that I can use it again in class. I hope that's not cheating.
Allow me to be the first in blogland (as far as I can tell) to spread the news...
Hobble Creek Review's first issue is up and running. Do you know what that means? I'm published!! In more than one place!! And better yet, I've got great company. Justin, you did an amazing job. I can't even explain how excited I am.
Also, I found out today that I have a poem coming out in YACK, the NEOMFA's new journal. And, although it isn't official, I heard from a little birdy that more good news is coming, but I don't want to jinx anything.
All of this makes me a little less annoyed about the nail I found in my tire today. The tire that has less than 3000 miles on it, no less. I wish I had remembered to take a picture.
First, it's debutante balls.
Now, if you Google "staying in on Friday night," I am the 9th result.
Hello, Google? I write poems and teach freshman english. Can you find me when someone searches that?
I wrote this list as if it were the beginning of a poem. Then I realized it wasn't.
What I want tonight:
I've been a pretty good quitter (with the exception of a few drunk nights over break) but after one week of school, I remember why I am never a successful non-smoker. Don't get me wrong, I'm not throwing in the towel, not going back to my little foes...but oh how I miss them. (Yes, Courtney, if you're out there, I stole "little foe" from you.)
It seems that cigarettes and creativity are entwined together and with the urge to write comes the urge to light up. I'm trying to write...but my left hand keeps creeping away from the keyboard, looking for the cigarettes that haven't been there for...almost six weeks!! It's so stupid to sit here lamenting the loss of another vice--the same way I pine over men who are no good for me. I seem to have eradicated those men from my life, but can I do the same with my Camel Menthol Lights?
There is a void.
If you google "Akron Debutante Ball 2006," my blog is the 10th result. Cool. Too bad if you google poems or teaching, I'm about one million and tenth.
You won't get that if you're not obsessed with Adam Sandler like I am...
And I thought I was the only NEOMFAer with a blog...Hi Jessica! and Amy!
Have I told you guys I love teaching? I do. Met my class for the first time today, and I'm so excited I don't want to wait 24 hours for day 2. Sadly, I haven't invented a time machine yet, so I'll just have to wait.
Two of my students want to be writers when they grow up.
One of my students is preggers and due in March. Not sure how that's going to work. I hope she doesn't end up dropping.
I told them I don't teach grammar, and one student raised his hand and asked, "well, then how are you going to grade our papers?"
On to being a student...
I am afraid of my lit class. Not because it will be difficult, but because it is more feminist theory than I expected...and for some reason, I have a problem with feminism. I mean, yeah, it's great that I can vote and own property and be anything I want to be, and I appreciate all the hard work that women of previous generations put in so that I can have those rights, but as a literary theory, I think it is...weird. Maybe I just don't understand. Maybe I will by the end of the semester.
I have to read Gertrude Stein tonight. Somehow, I've made it through six years of post-secondary education without ever doing so before. We'll see how it goes.
Still thinking about PhDs. Had a nice talk with AA about it yesterday and am feeling more optimistic.
I'm officially working on my thesis. Yikes! But I'm trying to have fun with it instead of stressing myself out. We'll see how that goes.
That's all for today. Lot's of homework to do.
Well, I did it. I updated my blog.
Still working on that blogrolling thing. It seems I can't use the one-touch blogroll thingy without changing my security settings, and I don't want to do that. I think I forgot some people I had on there before, and added some new ones. Really, I shouldn't be messing with my blog right now anyhow (so much to do before school tomorrow!) so it's just going to stay that way for now.
I'm excited about the labels, though. That's probably the main reason I broke down and updated.
For once, I didn't procrastinate on something until it was too late. I'm so proud of myself. I now have 19 poems being considered by 8 journals/contests (well, I will after I go to the post office on Tuesday, anyhow). An odd number, but it works for me. I'm feeling very accomplished this evening.
I'm crossing my fingers for quick responses. Good or bad, I hate waiting six months.
Hopefully in a month or two, I'll have enough new poems for another round.
I wonder, when is it time to retire a poem? If five or six editors don't like it, does that mean it's not great...or do you just keep tossing them back out?
I'm tired. Good night.
is like a week without, well, nothing much really. I didn't even notice it had been that long. I've been really busy getting ready for school and such.
I read Jeannine Hall Gailey's Becoming the Villainess and Simone Muench's Lampblack & Ash this week (thanks to Mary's great reading list for Poetry of the Body). Really enjoyed both books, and I've started picking up on how other poets write narratives without sounding prosey (my biggest problem--I think), so hopefully this means as I embark on my thesis writing, I'll be writing less prosey narrative poems, and lots of 'em!
There are 25 kids signed up for my Comp class this semester. Last semester, I had 16. I'm a little intimidated by this number. And bummed out, because I think my super-cool, high-tech classroom may be too small for this many students. We'll see on Wednesday, when they're packed in like sardines and sitting in the aisles between desks. I don't want to give up my plethora of white boards and fancy-schmancy projector/AV system, though, so I'm going to be mean and try to get half of them to drop (insert maniacal laugh here).
I'm excited for AWP. Some friends and I are going down early to explore Hotlanta and surely get into trouble. I hope we can find Virginia Highlands and the cool Irish pub I went to the last time I was down there...but it was a few years ago and I am directionally challenged, so we'll see. Luckily, if I do get into any trouble, my cousin is on the Atlanta PD, so maybe he'll keep me out of jail.
I must, must get my submissions out on Tuesday (why does Monday have to be a holiday? I need the post office!) or I will put them off again until it's too late. 2007 must be the year of publishing for me, or my future will start looking a little bleak.
I'll be updating to the new blogger soon. Seems I'm the last one and I can't comment on anyone's blog anymore. Means you all probably can't comment on mine. Wish me luck.
Well, I was wrong. I don't feel better. I'm still all wound up about PhDs and trying to figure out what's next. Three years is not so long...and now that two of them are over, I am consumed by the need to have a plan. I'm a planner. And when I don't have a plan, I have a tendency to make bad decisions.
Maybe five weeks away from academia is too much... I'm already losing my focus. Perhaps that is an indication of what I should do next?
I can't believe there's less than two weeks before spring semester starts. I'm a little sad that I haven't been more productive (Damn Tyra Banks, VH1, and America's Next Top Model Marathons for stealing the last two days from me!) and wishing that I had another month or so before the daily grind starts again. I have another temp job starting tomorrow and the weekend before school starts, I'm hoping to go visit my sister in Virginia, so I only have a few free days left. Still want to write/revise a few more poems and work on my syllabus and class plan, but I'm probably not going to get as much done as I hope.
I'll try to keep this short--but I'm fretting about PhDs again today. I just wish there was a little crystal ball that could tell me if I'll end up in academia or not. I'm feeling kind of risk-averse lately, and am scared to death about being broke and jobless in 6-8 years. I was watching Oprah today (I'm ashamed to admit) and the episode was about "Class in America." Most of what she and her experts said wasn't very surprising, but there was one statistic that made me a bit uncomfortable. They said that most people don't move from their parents' social class, and if they do move from one class to another, they're more likely to move down a notch. Great. Just makes me wonder how wise it is to continue living off student loans when I could get a job that actually pays decently.
Well, now that I'm thoroughly depressed, I think I'm going to go watch some TV and go to bed early. I'll feel better tomorrow.
