Don't Cry for Me

I'm going to see Evita this afternoon. I've lived and or gone to school in Akron for almost a decade, but I think this is the first time I'll be going to EJ Thomas for anything other than a high school graduation (a lot of Akron public schools use it for commencement). I need to get over to the art museum sometime soon, too. They have weird hours and whenever I want to go, they're closed.

When I was a kid, my mom had a CD of Andrew Lloyd Weber's greatest hits. I used to know the whole thing by heart. But I've never seen any of his shows.

Sometimes, Varley talks about living in NYC and going to shows on Broadway. I can't imagine living a life where going to Broadway doesn't involve plane tickets and lots of planning. Have you read Varley's books? I loved A Company of Three but haven't read the others yet. I hear she's going to be signing The Cure at AWP.

I started The Road this morning. It reads like a giant prose poem, which, in my opinion, is a really, really good thing. I'm only about 20 pages in, though, so I'll reserve judgement for later.

Jason Bredle's Standing in Line for the Beast pretty much rocks. Everyone talks about how funny it is, but when I finished, I was sad and lonely. Okay, so I'm pretty much always sad and lonely, but what I'm trying to say is that it wasn't as silly as some make it seem. In her foreward, Barbara Hamby says, "These long loopy poems make you laugh out loud and then crumple your heart like a Dixie cup." That's what I'm trying to say.

There was something in that foreward that bugged me a little, though. Hamby wrote: "[These poems] do not come from ... a breathless world where people are just too sensitive or confused or mired in their childhood for words." I can't help feeling like she was talking about my ms, which is sensitive, and confused, and mired in childhood. I guess i won't be entering any contests Ms. Hamby is judging.

PS - The 10 day forecast has already changed. Next weekend will be warmer than it is now, but not 50.

Visiting Hours

I have my first "visiting writer" gig today. I'm going to be reading some poems in Mary's new poetry class with Michael Dumanis, Robert Miltner, and Dawson Steeber. After the long line of poets Mary's been bringing in this semester (Kate, Jeannine, HL Hix, please, please tell me I didn't forget anyone) I'm going to have a bit of performance anxiety. Excited to hang out with Mr. Dumanis though, and hear him read. I'm almost done with My Soviet Union, and hopefully I will have time to completely finish it before I go walk Rubi.

*

Yesterday, my boss came to observe me (despite my valiant efforts to postpone his visit again) and told me...I suck at lecturing. *Surprise!* No, he didn't say I suck at lecturing. He just said I rushed through and didn't give enough examples. Duh. That's why I wanted him to observe me on a day when I was doing group work, which I know I'm good at. Lecturing makes me nervous, he makes me nervous, it's really not a good combination. But overall it went well and I think he's still going to let me join the adjunct army next semester.

*

Yahoo weather tells me it is 59 degrees outside right now. I think I have to go check that out.

October, Already?

Oh, how time flies when you only have one semester left of your MFA. It's hard to believe that in just five weeks, I'll be defending my thesis. I think there are still some holes I need to plug, which has gotten me thinking about order. I have been avoiding chronology...although I'm really not sure why...but today I plan to put my poems into a timeline to see what's missing. Maybe they'll stay in that order, maybe not. But I think it's an exercise I can't finish my thesis without.

*

Yesterday, I got really, really mad at my students. But for some reason, I always feel silly and a little embarrassed when I get angry. Maybe it's because I'm conflict averse. At any rate, they asked for more time on their rough drafts last Friday, and I didn't have a problem with that, except that it threw off my plan for the week. So, I told them that if they wanted more time, they needed to bring drafts and questions to class on Monday. But they didn't bring questions, so all I could do was give them quiet writing time. I wanted to slap them on the wrists and send them home, but that would have seemed more like a reward, so I held them hostage.

*

I'm hemming and hawing about going to see Michael Dumanis read at John Carroll tonight. I would really really love to hear Michael read, and to show my support because I think he is such a wonderful addition to the MFA faculty, but I just found out about the reading yesterday, and I really have a lot to do today. (Plus Phil Brady is reading in Youngstown tonight and I had kind of planned that if I got caught up, I would go there. But I've heard Phil read before...) I suppose I could try to be super productive for the rest of the morning and afternoon and reevaluate my level of swampedness later. We'll see.

*

New American Writing rejected me less than a week after I mailed them my stuff. I'm all for quick response times, but I can't help feeling like the girl who goes to the audition and gets kicked out before she reads her lines.

*

You know what's not on my to do list for today? Updating my blog.
Maybe I should go do something that is.

Clarifying

Issue #1:
I am not deleting my blog. I have never thought about deleting my blog. I love my blog. I thought my last post was stupid, and I was thinking about deleting that. Sorry for the confusion.

Issue #2:
Mary B, although a rockin' professor, does not fit into the category of "professors who are significantly older than me." Neither does Eric Wasserman. Nor does hanging out with Mary count as "hob-nobbing" as our friend Dawson likes to say. (Plus, if I remember right, Dawson is older than Mary, so...what does that mean?) : )

Anything else?

*

How smart are you?

GRE study question of the day. Choose the word that is the antonym of this: Sedulity

1. nonchalance
2. loyalty
3. hurriedness
4. willingness
5. majesty

Dictionaries are cheating. I'll post the anwer later.

*

I have ALOT of work to do. Yesterday I did 150 practice questions and missed 39. If it were a test with a regular grade, I would have a C-. And that's just the verbal. I haven't even cracked the math section yet.

I've always thought that for a writer/English major, I have a ridiculously small vocabulary. This test is confirming that notion. However, if all goes as planned, by October 23, that will no longer be a problem.

Last Night

Mary and I drove up to Coventry last night for the Keving Prufer, Wayne Miller & John Gallaher reading. So much fun! Great poetry, great conversation. And now, even though I already spent my Amazon money, I have to go back and order more books. I'm not sure why I didn't buy them last night and get them signed.

I also met one of the 3 new MFA faculty last night, Michael Dumanis. He's going to be good for us (the students) and I think really good for the program. Too bad he's coming in during my last semester.

Hanging out with these academics/poets last night made me realize how not ready I am to go on the job market. Must find a way to postpone that!