Tag Archives: life

Work

I Write, You Know

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So, what’s new with me? What? Nobody asked? Don’t care. I’m going to tell you anyway.

I have an awesome part time job writing for a fantastic SEO Company full of terribly nice people. Among other things, I write a blog about Richmond that talks about the best of the city and highlights certain things and people and places. It’s www.richmondvapresents.com and I would love it if you’d visit it let me know what you think. Also, if you’re a Richmonder and have a business or thing (not THAT thing, you perv) you’d like me to write about, I’ll consider it. 🙂

I am in graduate school and beating my head against a wall for taking three (3) THREE literature-intensive classes this semester. The reading alone is enough to blind you, and on top of that you’re expected to be able to form cohesive thoughts and scholarly opinions about things. Don’t let me fool you – I love it, but I’m totally overwhelmed and freaking out.

Those are the two main things going on in my life other than The Hubs, The Rents, The Cat, The Dog, and The House, which are all doing pretty good and say hi, Internet.

Off to the weekend, which will not feel like a weekend at all because I have to do a ton of work and write a paper, prepare a presentation, and read practically everything Oscar Wilde ever wrote. But it will be fun, so who needs a weekend?

Uncategorized

A Pity Party

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When I was a kid, I used to get excited for my birthday about 10 days early. Now that I am older, I start dreading it 5-10 days before it happens. I have people tell me all the time that I’m so young – that I shouldn’t complain about my age. They roll their eyes and sarcastically say, “Oh yeah, you’re so old”.

Well, I am old. Older than I was last year, and the year before that. Can I help it that I have an overdeveloped sense of my own mortality? Of course I can’t. Can I help it that I keep a mental list of things I haven’t done yet, and that I worry that I’ll never do them? Maybe…Maybe I shouldn’t care about the things I haven’t done, and celebrate what I have done. Maybe I should look at that list as a “nice to do” and leave it at that.

Travel: I really want to go to Europe and see Paris, Rome, Dublin, Athens, Naples, Edinburgh, Barcelona, London, and more. I want to go to India, I want to go to Japan, I want to go to tropical places, I want to go to Pitcairn, I want to see the Galapagos Islands, I want to go to Austrailia, Iceland, and see pretty much all of South America. This takes money, and time. I have neither.

Children: Every year, more and more people tell me that the older you get, the harder it is to have kids. “Don’t wait TOO long”, they say. I’m not ready. Dwight isn’t ready. “Well you’re NEVER ready – if you wait until you’re ready you’ll never do it!” I have no ticking of the biological clock persuasion. Not just yet, at least. I’m finally at the point where the thought doesn’t freak me out completely. One day at a time, folks.

Education: I’m whittling away at this one. I finish my BA in May, I’ve applied for a MA program. Of course if I get in it will mean diving into about ten grand worth of school loan debt, and it will be hard to do another four or five semesters of full time work and full time school, and I can’t be completely sure that I can keep it up for four or five more semesters. Is it really smart to go into more debt? Is my ultimate goal attainable? Will I be able to get my PhD and still have a job and have kids? Will I be sacrificing my quality of life in order to answer this literary impulse? Is it an impulse or a calling?

Ah well. Self reflection is good for you. It is helpful to ask yourself questions. Keeps your priorities straight and yourself on track. I guess…

School

So much to do and it's almost noon

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I am writing a paper on Christ In Concrete and The Fortune Pilgrim. Here is the assignment:

“In the texts that we have read, we have seen very different relationships between a character’s Old World and New World selves. Looking at two or three of the texts we have read, discuss the relationship between the self in the country of origin and the Americanized self. Is it possible for the two selves to coexist? Is continuity between the former and present self possible? What kinds of theory of identiy are proposed in these tets and what larger conclusions can you draw from this about the project of becoming (or not becoming) American?”

I chose these two texts because there is the lack of assimilation in both. The characters in these books are trying to become Americans, necessarily, but they are trying to adapt to American life, and trying to eke out an existence in extreme poverty – which they were trying to do back in Italy. The Fortunate Pilgrim, especially, speaks to the opportunities in America – and how the new dreams available to immigrants in America can both benefit and destroy an immigrant’s soul.

So I’m not following the assignment EXACTLY, especially since the two best examples of what the assignment is asking are Yekl (from Yekl & The Imported Bridegroom), and Mary Antin’s first person narraive in The Promised Land. She goes so far as to say that her Old World self died when her New World self was born.

The thing is, I really really loved The Fortunate Pilgrim and want to write about. I could compare Mary Antin to Lucia Santa, but their points of view are so different that I would be comparing and contrasting rather than drawing a definitive conclusion. There is a definite common thread between the idea of America in Christ In Concrete and the idea of America in The Fortunate Pilgrim.

Dwight is going this week to play music with a guy from work and his band. I’m excited for him, as he really does need that creative outlet, and he is so talented that it’s a shame to keep all that bottled up. He’s going to play keyboard, which is great, but it would really groovy if he practiced on the keyboard downstairs, rather than the piano in the den. It’s out of tune, it sounds like it’s about to come through the wall where I’m sitting and trying to work, and it’s distracting. I don’t want to say anything, though, because I don’t want to discourage him. I guess I’ll deal.