Big Stuff!!

Well, need I say that this, a long hiatus from blogging, was a bit much. Even now, over break, I still have a hard time finding time to sit down and write a blog post. As usual, there are a thousand other things that crop up, things that really seem more pressing at the time than writing drivel to be read by no more than ten people. I find a list format would be useful for a quick update on what I’ve been doing for the past few months.

1. College. That time suck. I think I am stuck in that sophmore space — the newness has faded off, while the classes got harder, so really I just want to be done — I get bored easily and am ready to move on. I think about if I wasn’t in college I would have so much time, and do so much, then I realize that it would be like trading a fishing pole for a bucket of fish. Yes, it would be easier — for now. So onward I go, studying German (of all things! Kill me!), and English.

2. Work. Hey! Did you know that I got a job? Hey, did you know what sucks? My job. I am, what I like to say, a telephone research specialist for a data collection agency, which is a fancy way of saying a telephone surveyor. (Not a telemarkter. Call me one, I dare you.) It is awful, but it’s a job, which is what everyone says to people that have awful jobs and it is not the least bit comforting. However, they have very flexible schedules and were willing to give me a leave for Christmas break. And it’s second shift too, which I love because mornings are awful. (Tell that to my morning German class all next semester.)

3. Well, I started writing another book this fall. This one is about a heroin addict who dies. Because of this I now have a very incriminating Google search history. I mean for this one to be more experimental than my other books — thus making it more fufilling to write. (And I crave fufillment.)  The narration style is less direct and controlled than my earlier works — making this one more flowing and artistic.

4. The Beatles. I had listened to them before, but I never really appreciated them, you know? I recognized the cultural phenomion that they were, however, I never actually liked music. Then, I don’t know, something clicked in me, and suddenly it was like Beatlemania up in here. Guess what is playing in my ears as I write this?

(Also, as an aside, do you know why they spelled their band “Bea” instead of the more common spelling “Bee” ? It was due, in part, to the Beat Generation — a school of writers with whom I’m infatuated — there are like three beat books on my desk now as I write this, and one book of really awful poetry that was obviously trying to imitate that — but failed.)

5. Virginia Woolf. Are you afraid of her. For a long time, I confess that I was, till I had to read A Room of One’s Own and “The Mark on the Wall” for a class, along with Mrs. Dalloway because I wanted to, and fell in love with her beautiful prose, which walks the line between poetry and narrative plot.

6. Knitting! Well, I’ve been doing some of this. I finished my coat this fall, knit another vest, a few little things, and am working on a sweater now. I’ve been very busy, can’t you tell? (School was, um, like hell there for a little while — I didn’t really sleep for about three or four days there for a while during finals week because I had too much work to do, in addiction to doing 1-2 all-nighters a week for two months prior. My professors were doing that thing where I swear that they get together and try to kill me — the scary part is that they almost won.)

7. That part about the coat above? Do you remember that coat? If you do, you may also recall that it was the last project in Knitting Workshop. Yes, I guess that means I’ve finished it. It may sound like I’m not particularly excited about this, and that’s for two reasons — one, I finished it months ago, and two, I really don’t know how I feel about it. I will explore this more in an upcoming post; I feel that it at least deserves that.

And here I am, back at my old desk, my feet propped up on the same old tin, surrounded by cookbooks and dwarfing piles of paper, post-its with nuggets of wisdom taped all around me, and half-read books waiting for me to get to them — which I will, right now.