Well, after a shameful lapse in working toward my initially stated writing goals, I'm back on the wagon, or whatever. I started a writing group with some friends--we just had our first deadline last weekend and another one looms only a week away. Finished a book this afternoon, started an essay I am so far very pleased with... so now, of course, it's time to watch reruns of House and eat ice cream while playing Scrabble on Facebook.
It occurred to me (by way of my therapist) that my obsessive focus on being productive over the past couple of weeks has actually paralyzed me creatively. So I promised myself that I would focus this weekend on being rather than doing. Somewhat annoyingly, I have ended up getting a lot done despite myself, but at least I'm not allowed to feel bad for not having gotten more done. More importantly, I wrote spontaneously. I'll credit a bit of inspiration for that, though--the book I finished was Alexander Chee's Edinburgh, which was fucking beautiful. His writing style cuts to the heart of me and opens me up, the way I expect books to do--but so few actually succeed. I'm thrilled to have found this one. His story, 13 Crimes Against Love, published in Lodestar Quarterly in the fall of 2002, is a great example of his talent.
In other news, I came by a blog post complaining about the lack of funded creative writing MFA programs in the U.S. I couldn't believe that this woman would make such a ridiculous statement after claiming to have made a "pretty thorough investigation." I would have told her how wrong she was on her own blog if she'd enabled comments, but apparently she is too cool for that. So I thought I'd post about it here. There are, in fact, several dozen funded MFA programs in the U.S., one of which I'll be attending in the fall and about 12 others from which I was rejected earlier this year. Anyone who is thinking about applying to creative writing MFA programs needs to read Tom Kealey et al's Creative Writing MFA Handbook, check out the MFA blog, and carefully peruse Seth Abramson's MFA/PhD rankings, statistics, etc. I thought this was obvious, but apparently some people have still managed to miss these very prominent online and print resources. SIGH. Well, if you do miss them and consequently despair at having no hope of MFA glory, you have no one but yourself to blame for being too lazy to do any real research.
On that pleasant note, happy summer solstice, everyone!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
sometimes it is necessary to shop
Sunday, May 3, 2009
ah, sunday. it had been far too long since i'd spent 90% of a weekend in bed with no plans or obligations. i even finished julie's The Body is Water yesterday--finally. go me! (it was good. so good. i cried at the end!)
also this morning read the first story, called "The Brown Coast," in wellsie's collection. i was not floored, and so have not gotten around to picking it up again. i felt rather the same about the title story when i first read it: it was weird and kooky and had depth, but i didn't love it. i haven't yet decided what i'm going to pick up next from my stack of pitifully overdue library books.
so in lieu of reading today, i took advantage of my hard-earned laziness by spending literally about seven hours obsessively researching the sundry items i'll have to buy for my minneapolis apartment. certain fruits of my labor might be of interest to my future classmates:
need a car? while i'm coming to minneapolis with a car in the fall, i know i won't use it much, and it will be gone by the following september, so i've been looking at alternatives to car ownership. the obvious answer: car sharing. zipcar has a deal worked out with UMN to offer students membership for $35/year, with rates at $8/hr and 180 miles included per day. unfortunately, they only have two car locations in minneapolis: one on the west bank campus and one on the east bank. this sucks if, like me, you're planning to live in uptown, or really anywhere other than dinkytown or on the river. luckily, hourcar is apparently the real car share operation in MSP, and it has a handful of locations convenient to uptown. yay! their rates are slightly higher than zipcar's: a $5/month membership fee gets you $8/hr car rentals plus $.25/mile. if you pay $15/month for a higher membership status, you get your rentals at $6/hr. sadly, neither zipcar nor hourcar offer trucks; hourcar has only priuses and yarises, and the closest zipcar gets is the honda element. looks like i'll be going to u-haul to assist with my furniture-acquiring needs, but a prius should be satisfactory for handling my grocery runs in 2010.
bedding? target seems to offer their standard jersey sheets at a regular price of $19.99 for all sizes. and seriously, who the hell doesn't love jersey sheets?! ikea has the corner on quilts and comforters, though; you can get a really cozy one with down fill or down alternative for $40 or $50 (depending on how cozy you want to be).
EDIT: a friend just informed me that she doesn't like jersey sheets o_0 if this is the case for you, i recommend overstock.com for your sheet-buying adventures.
appliances: you can get a decent toaster oven from either craigslist or wal-mart for $30 or less. w00t. microwaves are probably best acquired via craigslist; apartment-appropriate models are constantly being sold for between $10 and $25 as people upgrade their living units and their relationships. lucky us!
guests: i've been sort of agonizing over this commitment i made to myself, my friends, and future fellow MFAers who will eventually wind up at my apartment too drunk to get home, to host guests in my new place once i get settled in. of course, this means that i need extra sleeping quarters. unfortunately, 99.5% of sofa beds to be had on craigslist are unacceptably hideous (not to mention huge), and new ones go for more than i want to pay for my mattress. by chance, though, i happened to sleep over at a friend's apartment a couple weeks ago and she brought out a queen-sized air mattress with an electric pump that could plug into the wall. it was actually pretty awesome to sleep on -- definitely way more comfortable than a ratty old sofabed any day. the best part is that it folds down into a relatively tiny piece of plastic that can be shoved in a closet when not in use. i have to ask her how much she paid for hers, but i've found promising models on amazon.com that run between $60 and $90.
entertainment: i feel like i'm breaking some tacit rule of MFA students, and of writers in general, by even considering getting a decent-sized TV in my apartment. but i've already committed to throwing regularly scheduled DDR parties next year :-| so, you see, i have no choice. still, it's not something i'm willing to spend much money on, and ideally i would like to be able to hide it completely when i'm supposed to be reading, writing, or grading upsettingly bad student papers. (you can read that sentence two ways and that's fine with me.) my options at the moment are: getting a 22-24" LCD TV for somewhere between $125 and $175 from ecost.com (if they're sold cheaper anywhere else, i don't know about it), which would be great for conserving space and make it easy to hide behind a large painting or mirror when not in use; or buying a used 26-32" CRT TV off craigslist for around $40-50. i'll probably take the latter route if i end up in a larger apartment, but there is something so pleasingly unassuming about an LCD TV... sigh.
ok. as you may have guessed, the only reason i wrote this post was to make myself feel for a moment like maybe i hadn't actually wasted my whole day thinking about this stuff. so if any of this info has been useful to you, maybe i can justify my ridiculous procrastination once again--just until tomorrow, of course...
also this morning read the first story, called "The Brown Coast," in wellsie's collection. i was not floored, and so have not gotten around to picking it up again. i felt rather the same about the title story when i first read it: it was weird and kooky and had depth, but i didn't love it. i haven't yet decided what i'm going to pick up next from my stack of pitifully overdue library books.
so in lieu of reading today, i took advantage of my hard-earned laziness by spending literally about seven hours obsessively researching the sundry items i'll have to buy for my minneapolis apartment. certain fruits of my labor might be of interest to my future classmates:
need a car? while i'm coming to minneapolis with a car in the fall, i know i won't use it much, and it will be gone by the following september, so i've been looking at alternatives to car ownership. the obvious answer: car sharing. zipcar has a deal worked out with UMN to offer students membership for $35/year, with rates at $8/hr and 180 miles included per day. unfortunately, they only have two car locations in minneapolis: one on the west bank campus and one on the east bank. this sucks if, like me, you're planning to live in uptown, or really anywhere other than dinkytown or on the river. luckily, hourcar is apparently the real car share operation in MSP, and it has a handful of locations convenient to uptown. yay! their rates are slightly higher than zipcar's: a $5/month membership fee gets you $8/hr car rentals plus $.25/mile. if you pay $15/month for a higher membership status, you get your rentals at $6/hr. sadly, neither zipcar nor hourcar offer trucks; hourcar has only priuses and yarises, and the closest zipcar gets is the honda element. looks like i'll be going to u-haul to assist with my furniture-acquiring needs, but a prius should be satisfactory for handling my grocery runs in 2010.
bedding? target seems to offer their standard jersey sheets at a regular price of $19.99 for all sizes. and seriously, who the hell doesn't love jersey sheets?! ikea has the corner on quilts and comforters, though; you can get a really cozy one with down fill or down alternative for $40 or $50 (depending on how cozy you want to be).
EDIT: a friend just informed me that she doesn't like jersey sheets o_0 if this is the case for you, i recommend overstock.com for your sheet-buying adventures.
appliances: you can get a decent toaster oven from either craigslist or wal-mart for $30 or less. w00t. microwaves are probably best acquired via craigslist; apartment-appropriate models are constantly being sold for between $10 and $25 as people upgrade their living units and their relationships. lucky us!
guests: i've been sort of agonizing over this commitment i made to myself, my friends, and future fellow MFAers who will eventually wind up at my apartment too drunk to get home, to host guests in my new place once i get settled in. of course, this means that i need extra sleeping quarters. unfortunately, 99.5% of sofa beds to be had on craigslist are unacceptably hideous (not to mention huge), and new ones go for more than i want to pay for my mattress. by chance, though, i happened to sleep over at a friend's apartment a couple weeks ago and she brought out a queen-sized air mattress with an electric pump that could plug into the wall. it was actually pretty awesome to sleep on -- definitely way more comfortable than a ratty old sofabed any day. the best part is that it folds down into a relatively tiny piece of plastic that can be shoved in a closet when not in use. i have to ask her how much she paid for hers, but i've found promising models on amazon.com that run between $60 and $90.
entertainment: i feel like i'm breaking some tacit rule of MFA students, and of writers in general, by even considering getting a decent-sized TV in my apartment. but i've already committed to throwing regularly scheduled DDR parties next year :-| so, you see, i have no choice. still, it's not something i'm willing to spend much money on, and ideally i would like to be able to hide it completely when i'm supposed to be reading, writing, or grading upsettingly bad student papers. (you can read that sentence two ways and that's fine with me.) my options at the moment are: getting a 22-24" LCD TV for somewhere between $125 and $175 from ecost.com (if they're sold cheaper anywhere else, i don't know about it), which would be great for conserving space and make it easy to hide behind a large painting or mirror when not in use; or buying a used 26-32" CRT TV off craigslist for around $40-50. i'll probably take the latter route if i end up in a larger apartment, but there is something so pleasingly unassuming about an LCD TV... sigh.
ok. as you may have guessed, the only reason i wrote this post was to make myself feel for a moment like maybe i hadn't actually wasted my whole day thinking about this stuff. so if any of this info has been useful to you, maybe i can justify my ridiculous procrastination once again--just until tomorrow, of course...
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
in which i welcome myself back to the blogosphere
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
i've been sucked into blogging once again. it's a little like writing, i guess, but oftentimes more like vomiting on cue. i like to say these experiments in online self-exposure are opportunities for me to push my limits in terms of how transparent i'm really comfortable being. of course, sometimes transparency is just not appropriate, or even desirable. i like to push those limits, too.
after being accepted to the University of Minnesota's MFA program this spring (and this after a year of agonizing about nothing but my MFA applications and various romantic tragedies i created as a diversion from the former), i dove right into a full-blown obsession over the logistics of moving to Minneapolis. this got to the point where, a week ago, i was downloading floorplans from apartment complex websites so i could scroll through them on my laptop and imagine different furniture layouts. two days ago i decided on a color scheme for each room; my future apartment is so clear in my mind i could draw it for you in under two minutes (and i don't draw). so i thought it might be time to move on before i started researching the possibility of installing chair rail molding in my apartment-to-be.
new plans include a sort of pre-MFA bootcamp, which will involve reading at least two books a week, writing twenty hours a week (on top of a full-time job and a part-time boyfriend), and churning out at least one first draft of a story or essay each week. woo! my ambition usually outpaces my ability, but it's good to set the bar high, right?
for my fellow incoming MFA-ers who feel like indulging in a bit of interior design-related fantasizing, following are some blogs i found especially delicious:
design*sponge
decor8
apartmenttherapy
craftynest
one of my next projects involves researching writers' websites in preparation for creating my own. coming soon: a list of super awesome writers' websites! woo!
after being accepted to the University of Minnesota's MFA program this spring (and this after a year of agonizing about nothing but my MFA applications and various romantic tragedies i created as a diversion from the former), i dove right into a full-blown obsession over the logistics of moving to Minneapolis. this got to the point where, a week ago, i was downloading floorplans from apartment complex websites so i could scroll through them on my laptop and imagine different furniture layouts. two days ago i decided on a color scheme for each room; my future apartment is so clear in my mind i could draw it for you in under two minutes (and i don't draw). so i thought it might be time to move on before i started researching the possibility of installing chair rail molding in my apartment-to-be.
new plans include a sort of pre-MFA bootcamp, which will involve reading at least two books a week, writing twenty hours a week (on top of a full-time job and a part-time boyfriend), and churning out at least one first draft of a story or essay each week. woo! my ambition usually outpaces my ability, but it's good to set the bar high, right?
for my fellow incoming MFA-ers who feel like indulging in a bit of interior design-related fantasizing, following are some blogs i found especially delicious:
design*sponge
decor8
apartmenttherapy
craftynest
one of my next projects involves researching writers' websites in preparation for creating my own. coming soon: a list of super awesome writers' websites! woo!
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