Morning, everyone. I’m…

Morning, everyone. I'm feeling better! Not absolutely completely better, but clearly better. Only a slightly sore throat today, and I haven't coughed yet this morning. Rest works! Who knew? Yesterday I did putter around at home working -- got myself to deal with bills and finances (which wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated -- somehow it never is), and a good thing too, since I found out that two-thirds of my pay isn't set up to come to me yet -- a mix-up with my fellowship at the graduate school. Theoretically, I'll go in tomorrow and sign some paperwork and fix it all. Between that and student loans and the final portion of the BW payment, I may actually be in financially sane waters again sometime soon. That'd be lovely. My stipend is about $10K annually, plus whatever I can earn over the summer. It's not really enough to keep me in the lifestyle to which I got accustomed back in the good old days when I was earning a whole $25K annually (gosh, I felt so rich back then -- no debts, plenty of money to eat well, buy books, go to movies, travel occasionally). Now I do all those things, but just can't afford them. Ah well -- when I finish grad school, I'll theoretically be getting a job that will allow me to pay the student loan people without too much hardship. That's the current plan, at any rate. Unless I get into trouble somehow and require a loan lawsuit settlement that spans for many years or unless, the only job available is in some small town in the Bible Belt... Aside from finances, I didn't do so much yesterday afternoon. Last night I had workshop, where they thoroughly trashed "Exposure" (the piece about Karina, with the photos). Oh, they found the good bits, but they also found all the weak spots, of which there were many. Sigh. I think I know where I want to go with it next, but it's a chunk of work, and I'm going to put it off for the moment. No rush, especially since there aren't so many markets for creative nonfiction -- I should revise and send out some of the fiction first. I owe Marcy a rewrite of "Wild Roses", and there's certainly plenty of those Sri Lankan stories that could stand to be revised and sent out to lit markets. Soon, really. Right now, my days are scheduled sort of tight, what with recovering from sickness backlog. This afternoon I have some BW stuff, some SH stuff, and a few errands to run so that I can get birthday presents in the mail in reasonable speed. This evening, I should draft the first page or two of my American Studies paper (on something in Ben Franklin's autobiography, probably virtue but possibly writing), so that I have something coherent to say when I meet with Howard (professor) tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm booked on campus from 9-5, but I think I can rest in the evening. Friday there's a luncheon colloquium and a reading by James Welch -- I haven't read anything of his yet -- if I can squeeze out a little time before then, I'll try to read some of his work. Robin (creative nonfiction professor) recommends it, and so far, his judgement seems pretty good. I spent a while talking to Kevin last night; we're slowly negotiating the path of this new friendship/whatever... We both want to stay as close as we can, which is sort of like being very cold and trying to get as close to the fire as you can without actually getting burned. Which is all well and good, and a fine response to the problem of being cold, except if you somtimes have these strong impulses to just dive headfirst into the flames... Heh. We'll manage. One unrelated comment from the conversation -- he told me that Bush declared recently that we were on a "crusade". Argh! Can we all say argh, kiddies?! Heading into the Middle East, on a crusade -- did the man never read any history at all? He did go to college, didn't he? Do we really want to piss off *all* the Muslims? Sometimes I just want to take that boy out back and whap some sense into his pointy little head... Anyway -- enough political ranting. With all this work, I'd better get to it. There's just one very important thing before I go:  

Congratulations Jenn and Kenny!!!

  They just got engaged, and I'm delighted. Jenn and Kenny seem really good together, and I think they'll continue to make each other very happy. Yay!

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