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: