Publication

My piece about the mule deer in Topanga Canyon has been published by University of New Orleans' literary journal, Ellipsis.

Here's the link:

http://scholarworks.uno.edu/ellipsis/ 

Wake up, little school girl

First day of classes in 2016. Late Victorian literature, in an hour.

Our lady of the Bywater

Seen on Desire Street. I hope she will intercede for me tomorrow during my final exam.

And then, buy me a drink! I've been studying hard all weekend, I need one!

The home stretch

We have had our final day of classes for Fall Semester. We're coming down the home stretch.

Yesterday I turned in a final paper that I sweated bullets on. It was 12 pages long; I wrote a prospectus for it a month ago and crunched away at it for several weeks, before realizing that I really didn't have a clear thesis. I met with my professor, who pointed out something secondary I'd scrawled in my messy first draft that he thought I should focus on instead, but I resisted the suggestion. After all, I'd worked so hard already, I just needed to whip it into shape, right?

I brought my laptop to Key West, figuring I just needed an hour or so of work, and I'd be done. And the whole time I was there, I resisted turning the thing on.

Hemingway's study

Let's go to Hemingway's house instead.

Hemingway's toilet

Another daiquiri, please!!

I knew I'd hit a wall. I came home and realized I needed to start from scratch. I had two days' time, and - luckily for me - someone to help bounce ideas off, advise me on structure, and proof-read. (THANKS, Chris!!) I worked for twelve hours on Wednesday - less an hour for lunch, and two twenty-minute walks with Jack.

Thursday morning all I had to do was make sure all the citations were correctly formatted, proof-read it again, and print. I handed it in at 11:00 AM.

Now all I have left is to put the final touches on another paper before turning it it (I got this one solid!), and study for a final exam scheduled for Tuesday morning. Final writing workshop Tuesday evening will be a celebration at the tavern.

I will have completed my first semester at graduate school! Now I can relax a little Next semester starts January 11th.

Study hall

Taken with my Microsoft Surface-Pro

I'm settling in to the habit of school. Thursdays, after my first class ends at 12:15, I have lunch and then set up my little computer at a table in the casual bar-room of the Student Center. I can work here until my next class starts at 4:30.

The only draw-back to this has been the Muzak - they play a Pandora station with current, pop music that is so trite and repetitious it can drive you mad.  It's also so loud you can barely tune it out.

Today, however, it sounds like someone of my generation has commandeered the music. It's not deafening (thank you!), and it's a mix of late '80s early '90s metal grunge with a few classic British punk tunes (think the Clash, think Talking Heads.)

Bravo, kind sir, whoever you are!

Camp Bow Wow

Today Jack had an interview at Camp Bow Wow.

It's a doggie day-care and boarding place, over in the Lower Garden District. Before they accept your dog for care, you have to leave him there for three hours to be observed by the staff while playing with other dogs.

We probably won't leave Jack for day care, unless extreme circumstances require, but we do want to be able to travel out of town. You have to get a reservation early for the holidays, so I wanted to find the right place now.

Jack's an old hand at boarding - he loved the Topanga Pet Resort so much he'd never give a backward glance each time I dropped him off. The staff there loved him so much that even if they had a waiting list for boarding, they'd still take him in.

The folks at Camp Bow Wow seemed to like Jack, too.  I was allowed to watch the first five minutes of his day on video cameras in the waiting area. The trainer returned, and said, "He's going to be fine! We'll see you later!" When I picked him up after my class, he had a personalized folder with a photo!

When I told some of my classmates I had to go pick up my dog, I learned that several of them had used Camp Bow Wow. At first I was a little embarrassed to say the name, so when someone asked where I had dropped him, I said, "It's a place down on Tchoupitoulas."

"Camp Bow Wow?" she asked. She knows the place well.

Even our professor has boarded his dogs at Camp Bow Wow.

I'm reminded again that New Orleans is a small town.

My first publication!

I've got a piece on the Bayou Magazine blog! Go read it HERE.

Deep into the mix

Oh, I am deep into the work now! I am reading 18th Century feminist tracts, while also trying to decipher a Deconstructionist's take on William Blake ( GAH!). I'm also writing a paper on a heartbreakingly beautiful memoir about growing up on the Mississippi Coast in a poor, African-American community, as well as reading pieces submitted by my classmates to our Writing Workshop, and writing my critiques of them

I am not in over my head, but I am definitely treading water!!

Today I worked from about 9:00 am to about 4:00 pm, and then I took a break and went down to a neighborhood bar for a beer and a burger.

While I was there, a ferocious rainstorm came down, clattering on the tin roof of the gallery, and sending people running inside with their shirts spattered with raindrops. I waited it out and then came home to walk Jack the dog.

There was a rainbow over the Poland Street Wharf. Things are going great.

Homework

 

I spent the whole day doing homework. Critiques, readings.

And then I went out and ate some of these.

Homework

I have a lot of reading to do!

By Tuesday, I have to read two poem cycles, one 15 page overview essay, three memoir excerpts, three non-fiction excerpts, and one book.

I'm lucky, in a way, because I don't have to read a Writing Workshop piece and write a one-page critique for it...because the piece being critiqued in my Writing Workshop is MINE. Yikes!

First day

It's my first day of classes! Wish me luck.

Welcome aboard

Mural at Rampart and France Street

Yesterday I attended the official orientation for new students at my program. This was followed by the unofficial orientation, at the Parkside Tavern on Carrollton, near City Park.

I met my fellow students and program faculty. I spoke with one of the professors whose class I'll be taking this semester - he teaches the non-fiction writing workshop I'll be taking on Tuesdays. He remembered me from my spring visit, which was flattering.

I also met several other program professors, a couple of fiction writers and another non-fiction prof. And I really enjoyed meeting students - they are a diverse group. Some quite young, others, like me, returning to grad school after busy lives. This is a group with a lot of good stories.

This evening there's another event at a local restaurant, with food and - I'm told - killer daiquiris.

I feel so welcomed, and I am really looking forward to jumping in and getting to work.

Work ahead

My classes begin a week from today. I've ordered the required books for my classes, and they've started to arrive. I'm renting some of the books - it's cheaper than buying, and you just have to return them at the end of the term. Others, I'm buying because I think I will want to own them. Others, I'm buying digital versions of them.

So far, I've received about eight books. There are a couple more I'm waiting on.

For my "Non-Fiction as genre" class, these are actual books, not textbooks, and when I signed up for the class, I started reading the suggested list, taking them out from the Los Angeles County Library.

My other book-intense class is on British Romantic poetry, and I've got a couple of poetry anthologies. I've dipped into them randomly, but it's hard to know what poems the class will be focusing on.

In any case - it's all about reading. Books, books, books!

A time of change

Well, I'm feeling a little foolish to be writing about this now. Some of you have commented; other discussions have gone on  Facebook. I didn't mean to be secretive, it just never seemed to be the right time for An Announcement.

You know that I'm in for a big change - I've submitted my retirement and notice at work, and I'm going to New Orleans to become a graduate student in Creative Writing.

But there's more change for us. Yesterday [The Man I Love]'s colleagues and co-workers honored him in a celebration of the thirteen years of service he has spent serving in an administrative role at the university. At the end of June, he steps down from that position and returns to the faculty again as a professor. It's been a good, long run with many great accomplishments. But it's great for him to get back to the work he loves.

But before he returns to the classroom, he is on a year's sabbatical. So for that year, we've decided that both of us will go to New Orleans - along with Jack the dog. [The Man I Love] will return to Los Angeles the following year to resume teaching, while I stay in New Orleans finishing my degree. We'll see what happens next.

The other decision we've made is bittersweet. We are selling our house in Topanga. We love our house; we've lived there almost twenty years. But it is too much for two people. When we return to Los Angeles, we'll live differently; a more urban life, perhaps, more downsized. We want to be more nimble, less burdened, with shorter commutes and fewer things to maintain.

It will be hard to leave this wonderful community, and the glorious natural world outside our windows. When we're back in LA, we'll be close enough to return, of course, and hike our favorite trails. I'm not sure how it will feel to be an outsider, though.

It feels good to go through the vast amount of material objects we've accumulated over the years and jettison them.

Do you ever wonder why people tend to say they're "buying a home" but "selling our house?"

Classes

I just received a list of classes for my first semester, and instructions how to sign up. Students are to choose their top five choices, and send their list back to the department director so he can determine how to fairly sign people up.  I think of those five choices, students end up in three classes.

One class, a workshop in my genre, non-fiction, is a given. But there are so many other choices! There are literature classes ranging from Chaucer to Milton to the Modern Novel. This is exciting!

But so hard to decide!

I'm mindful of mistakes I made as an undergraduate, not paying attention to the schedule I was setting for myself. So I'm thinking about that carefully.

I don't want to give myself too heavy a load at first. I have to take the workshop - but should I also take a workshop in another genre? Would that be too much writing? Or would a literature course, with readings and papers to write, be even more demanding?

The workshop takes place once a week in the evening.  There's a class on Nature Writing that sounds really interesting, but it takes place the same day, mid-morning. Since I don't know where I'm living yet, I am wondering whether this would be wise. Will I want to hang around campus all day between classes? Or travel back and forth twice?

On the other hand, maybe it would be nice to cluster all my classes on the same day, leaving the rest of the week free.

Another thing to consider is getting some fundamentals under my belt. I have zero knowledge of literary theory or pedagogy - and frankly, I don't much care about them. Should I just get those out of the way at the beginning? Or wait until I'm more accustomed to scholarly life?

So far, the classes on my wish list include:

1)  Literature class (Nature writing) that meets Tuesday/Thursday from 9:30 am - 10:45 am
2)  Writing workshop in my genre (mandatory), Tuesday 6:00 pm - 8:45 pm
3)  Class that analyzes craft in fiction, Wednesday, 6:00pm - 8:45 pm
4)  Literary Theory, Wednesday, 4:30 pm - 7:15 pm (obviously, if I take this I can't also take the craft class)
5)  Non-fiction literature, online

What do you think?

Got my suitcase in my hand

Lucky Dog cart!

This time I'm walkin' to New Orleans
I'm walkin' to New Orleans
I'm going to need two pair of shoes
When I get through walkin' me blues
When I get back to New Orleans

I've got my suitcase in my hand
Now, ain't that a shame
I'm leavin' here today
Yes, I'm goin' back home to stay
Yes, I'm walkin' to New Orleans

I've got no time for talkin'

I've got to keep on walkin'
New Orleans is my home
That's the reason why I'm goin'
Yes, I'm walkin' to New Orleans
 

        - Bobby Charles, written for Antoine "Fats" Domino, Jr.

No, I'm not walking - but I'm going to visit the city next week. I'll be visiting the University, attending a fiction reading, meeting some internet friends in person, and looking at apartments.


 

A lot to do

Over the last couple of weeks, the impact of my acceptance to graduate school has been slowly sinking in. There's an awful lot to do between now and the start of classes in August.

Some of it is super-important and life-changing - I will be retiring from my job, and getting my pension from the State of California. I need to find a place to live, figure out what to take with me, figure out how to get it there.

Other things seem silly and trivial -

I have to get immunization shots, as any other entering student would, even at my age.

Will I take the bus to class or drive my car?

Will I have to change my phone service?

At work, I'm processing paperwork for projects that will take place well after I'm gone. I haven't put in notice yet, not until I iron out the details of retirement dates. But each time I do something, I'm caught up short and think - holy crap, I won't even be here then!

Other times, when doing ordinary things like picking up prescriptions or gassing up my car, I think wait, where will I do this six months from now?  Or I drive by the Pacific Ocean and think, this won't be part of my day anymore.

So many things in my life will change. I'm excited, and eager for it to start, but sometimes it feels overwhelming.

Super Sunday

At the Barkus Parade, Mardi Gras 2011

On the Sunday before St. Joseph's Day (March 19), the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans, traditional African-American social organizations paying homage to Native Americans, parade in the streets of the City.  Each member creates and wears his own costume, elaborately beaded and feathered garb fantastically based on Plains Indian attire.

Each group dances and sings and have mock battles with one another, vying for the best, most elaborate celebration of joy and revelry.

Super Sunday is truly a day of celebration, especially for someone who JUST GOT ACCEPTED INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS CREATIVE WRITING MFA PROGRAM!

Wild Tchopatoulas gonna stomp some rump!

Buh bye, 'bama

Rejection email from University of Alabama came on Friday. With an attached pdf that was the same message on official stationery!

Two more left.

Six

Topanga mural

I'm very sad to get rejected by University of California at Riverside. I had a wonderful visit there, and had a good meeting with a professor. It was one of the schools on the top of my list, and the one I thought I had the best chance at. 

It's not to be. At least, not this year.