Word Rampage

I came up with a brilliant new way so say rant! Word rampage is my new saying whenever I start to complain. So look forward to that in the future, if I remember it.

Lots going on at school today. The writer-in-residence, Sheri-D Wilson, was there from Tuesday to Thursday, and I managed to go to every single event. Pretty impressive, for me. I was just lucky that I was at school all those days.

First off was her doing a public reading. It took place in the library, and I feel kind of bad for anyone that was actually trying to study, because damn, she is loud. In a good way, of course. I don't think the reading would have been the same if she had an indoor voice, and especially not with a library voice. So at this reading I realized that I loved her poetry style, and not just because of how she read it. It was real, and understandable. It wasn't trying to be mysterious, or to tie the reader's minds in knots. It was what it was, and it was beautiful.

The next day I sacrificed sleep to be at school by ten. That doesn't sound very early, but bear in mind that it takes me about two hours to get to school, and I like another two hours before I leave. So I was up at six o'clock... But I was at school for the workshop she was holding, and I'm really glad I decided to go. I thought it would be about writing poetry, and some tips and hints. However, this was all on spoken word, and how to read your poems properly. I am horrible at reading in front of people. I've gotten better in the last few years, because for some reason my ego has inflated ten fold (I have no idea why...) I can read loud and project my voice, and I can strut up to the podium or front of the class as if I own the place, but I still talk to fast. At the workshop, Sheri-D taught us all when to pause, and when to give emphasis on words. So now I at least know how to read my poems. Actually reading them, in front of people, is something else entirely. It's like knowing exactly what you'll write for an essay, or knowing all the formulas on a math test, but then you go and write it, and everything has just drifted away.

Today I had a one-on-one with her, which is one of the scariest things I've ever done (somewhere between going into a haunted house, and my first day of college). However, I found it was more the wait until that point that scared me the most. Once I was in there and couldn't back out, I really relaxed. Well, ten minutes in I relaxed. I had read a poem yesterday that she really liked, and we went over it in detail today, picking at every line. I definitely think it's a poem I can make longer and work on. At the moment, it's composed of beautiful lines, but no story. When I was writing it, I didn't really think story, I just thought theme. Now though, I see that there is a bit of a story to it, and I really want to continue with it.
We did a few other poems, but none of them were as in-depth, though she did comment on how she liked them all.I definitely need to keep working on them all, especially on length, but I'm still very proud. I still don't believe that poetry is one of my strong points, but I guess by thinking that, I will only get better.

And finally after class today there was a talk on the writing craft. It was mostly anecdotes and a few tips about Spoken Word, but it was still great. It's a shame that she's not a professor at my school. It would have been great to have a whole class with her.

So Many Books

I'm finally getting onto the list of things I have to do for my Business of Writing class! I think I explained it earlier. I have to do fifty things to get full marks, and some things can be done multiple times to earn more points. So on Sunday I dragged my boyfriend downtown to visit bookstores!

We didn't get to all of them, because there were two groups fairly far apart, and near the end we were just too tired from walking. But we managed to visit three, and tried to find a forth but figured it had closed down. I bought some graphic novels too! I was trying to find a copy of the 1818 edition of Frankenstein for my Romantic Poetry class, but couldn't see any. I guess I'll have to visit Chapters soon.

And on that note, I'm still trying to get a job at Chapters. Or anywhere... My mom still thinks I should stay at Starbucks, if only because of my pay. Once I go anywhere else, I'll be back down to minimum wage. I think it's worth it.

I'm also pretty far behind on this list. I need to go back downtown to go to the library, and maybe visit some more bookstore. I really need to go to some readings or other events, but it seems like they all happen on Wednesdays. When I'm in school... I was expecting they would be happening on weekends, when people are actually free to go to them... But I'm still trying to get weekends off so I can do some of these tasks. But unless I deliberately change the schedule so that I'm not working on Saturday, then I'm still working. In fact, in a couple weeks I'll be working Friday to Monday. And I would try to do some things from home, but it seems that every time I try and actually be productive, my internet crashes.

So that's my rant of the day...

Business of Writing

Alright, so this whole page thing didn't work out. Apparently Blogger is different from Wordpress... So, I'll just continue to keep posting my class updates as regular posts. Bear in mind, this post below was actually posted on Tuesday:

I'm going to start up something new! For one of my classes, Business of Writing, we need to keep some sort of learning journal. This can be on paper, online, a continuous Word document, pretty much any way we can think of that will actually convey our thoughts and what we are learning.

Since I'm already writing a blog, I figured this will be the easiest for me.

Well, as long as my internet decides to work long enough for me to actually get each of the posts up... We'll see how this works out.

But since my class is on Thursday, I will be more diligent about getting up a post on Thursdays. And Tuesday, of course. My current excuse is that my internet is utterly useless at this point. But I'll try not to complain.

So this page (as long as it works as a separate page), will contain posts (which should be different from pages...) that relate directly to my class. So if you're a regular reader that's not interested, I'm sorry, my interesting posts will be cut down to just Tuesdays... Or whenever I get them out.

If you are interested in reading more, I guess I should explain what you will be reading about. This class is meant to teach me how to earn money through writing. It'll show me how to submit work to publishers and magazines, how to protect my work, and how to get into the writing community. This latter one is what I will probably be focusing on a lot, since there is so much to say about it.

We were given a list of stuff to do, and we have to finish at least fifty things. Some things can be done multiple times to earn points, while other things are worth multiple points. It's not as hard as it sounds. Some things are nearly impossible, such as getting a job at a bookstore (though I'm really working on it!), while others are very simple and rather enjoyable, such as going to a bookstore. I've already looked up independent bookstores in near by cities, and I just need a day to go out and visit them, preferably a day when I can go with someone (I don't want to get lost alone...)

I would have started this list a couple Sundays ago, and even had plans to go out and get it started. Unfortunately, my grandma passed away the Saturday before, so I wasn't quite in the mood to be gallivanting around the city between bookstores. This Sunday though! I am determined to get some tasks done!

Taxes and Money

Regular Thursday update! See, I can do this.

So today in class we learned about taxes and write offs. And holy shit, I feel like a baby. Everyone is just nodding along with everything the prof says, asking the occasional wise question. And I'm just sitting here, thinking that I don't even know how to do my own taxes, or even how they work at all.

I'm twenty one. I live at home with my parents. My mom does all the taxes and stuff when it comes up. The most I know is that it's sometime around April, and I have to give her all the stuff to prove that I was in school. That itself sometimes proves difficult, because none of the administrators at school care about the students, or that they're struggling to figure out taxes. They're just like 'it's online. Go find it yourself'. (No joke, this happened. Except the person gave me a slip of paper that explained it all. But still!)

I guess I have a lot of learning to do in this category. I talked to my parents over dinner, and they were chatting about it a bit too, so I think I understand more. From what I understand, I can write off expenses made toward my career, or my progression toward my career. That would include my laptop that I bought earlier this year. However, since there are so few expenses that I could write off, at this time I wouldn't be doing much. I don't pay rent, or any utilities. My phone has nothing to do with writing, so I would be hard pressed to figure out how to write that off, and I'm already paying taxes for school... or is it writing off on school... Either way, my parents and I agree that there is no reason for me to get an accountant while I'm still in school, and not until I'm actually earning money from my writing. For now I'll compile my receipts and learn as I go, probably from my mom when she does taxes.

Wish me luck with that!

The Sickness Begins

And I am definitely sick now. I woke up this morning and thought that my stomach hurt because I was hungry. I barely got half way through a sandwich before I couldn't eat any more. It felt like I was going to throw up, but luckily my body has been nice enough to not reject anything. Yet.

So I took a nice long nap, woke up with a headache but feeling slightly better. I had some water and ginger ale, finished off my sandwich, and was beginning to feel a lot better, just a little drowsy. So I went out to dinner with my family.

My stomach hurts again. It's barely past 8 o'clock, and all I want to do is go to sleep. And I have to work at 8:30 in the morning tomorrow. I'm hoping I can get through the whole day, but I might have to leave halfway through if someone can take the rest of my shift.

The weird thing is, this happened last year close to the same time. If I start throwing up in the first week of February, I'm going to be freaked out. It'll be like Groundhog Day, but more like Groundhog Year...

Okay, it's past time that I stopped rambling. I'm going to bed. Hopefully a long sleep will leave me feeling better in the morning.

Black Feather Earrings

It's been a long week, and it's only Wednesday. I've had a sore throat for a couple days now, I was feeling really sick yesterday, and my grandma passed away on Saturday.

So yeah, not a very good start to a new year.

This was my final grandparent that was left alive, and I kind of expected her to live forever. She always showed such a resistance to death, even when it would have taken anyone stronger than her. I guess in that way she was the strongest. But of course, age weakens everyone, and no one can escape death.

She was nearly 89 when she passed, so she definitely lived a long life. With five children, she left a pretty good legacy, which I suppose I'm part of. I like to think I take after her, though I just can't get that no-nonsense attitude that she had. I wish I had the courage to say whatever I wanted.

My favorite pair of earrings came from her. In our family, apparently it's tradition to get the girls a bracelet when they graduate high school. My sister got one. But when it was my turn, I received a pair of black metal feather earrings. They are by far my favorite piece of jewelry, surpassing the ring I got in Florence and the necklace I got in Rome. According to my mom, my grandma had seen them and picked them out for me, with no one's help or opinion. She knew I would love them, and she was right.

Rest well, Granny. I'll pick up your torch and carry it with pride. We always need an artist in the family, and although I work with words and you with paint, I think I would have made you proud.

Time for a Change?

I am FINALLY starting my third year in creative writing and English. I've finished off all my extra courses, so now I'm concentrating everything on English and Creative Writing. By the end of this year, I hope to be done with English too.

I'm only taking three classes this semester, though I wanted to take four. The fourth one I couldn't get into, because the deadline to pay for classes was before our grades were in front the fall semester. Unfortunately, one of the classes I needed as a pre-req was in the fall, and it had not been counted as completed by the deadline. So... I guess I'm taking the next class in the summer or fall.

What I am taking is Advanced Poetry Forms, Romantic Poetry, and Business of Writing. All the classes have amazing professors, and I think I'm really going to enjoy them.

The one problem is that the Business of Writing class is going to take up a lot of my time outside of school. I already told my manager that I'm going to need weekends off, but of course, I've been scheduled for every single Saturday for the next three weeks. The catch? She rarely ever works a Saturday or Sunday. She only ever works them when there's inventory or a promotion set up. And she's normally off doing something else for most of the day, so she's really not working in the kiosk... I guess I have to remind her. She also scheduled me for a Thursday shift in a few weeks, which I definitely need off, because of school.

On a happier note, I'm looking for a new job! Anyone hiring?