Oh, Google. You made me giggle.
Writers play hide and seek
I’ve been surprised by how much the characters and situations I’m writing about in fiction class are based on my experiences in Texas.
I write about people, places, and feelings from NYC, too. So past and present mix to yield interesting results.
Playwright Neil LaBute puts it beautifully in the preface to his play Reasons to Be Pretty:
Stranger than fiction class
About six weeks ago, I started taking a fiction writing class every Thursday. This was just a few weeks after taking a 10-week comedy class, also on Thursdays.
So it’s been a long time since I didn’t have homework to do every week.
And I love it.
Love it.
I’m feeling can’t-wait-’til-marriage, I-swear-on-my-grandmother, tattoo-your-name-on-my-ass kinds of love for fiction class.
NaBloPoMo… No?
One of my New Year’s resolutions for the last few years has been to participate in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo).
However, one of my other resolutions was to do yoga at least once a week. That certainly hasn’t happened.
The demanding workload of my fiction class is reason enough not to commit to a blog post a day, but I’m covering November 1 just in case.
So…
One of those weeks
This last week has been busy. Lemme sum it up all easy-like.
Another innovative domestic solution*!
Tonight I got home and immediately prepared to sit down with the rotisserie half-chicken I’d just purchased.
It’s been a long week. And what do adults drink with their dinner after a tiring day? Wine.
And what do I want to drink with my dinner after a tiring day?
Grapefruit soda. The good Italian stuff, not Fresca.
Because I keep it classy.
Songbirds
In case you forgot why the Internet is amazing, I’d like to share “Birds on the Wires.” The video and music are by Jarbas Agnelli.
Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
Reading and riding
One of my favorite things about NYC is that people read more here. You need something to do on your way to work, and listening to your iPod gets old. I plow through at least 52 books a year with the help of the subway, where I spend about an hour a day.
Getting a job in NYC public schools: Teach For America vs. NYC Teaching Fellows
I still get questions about teaching in NYC from time to time, and they make me feel a bit like a dunce.
Yes, I taught in Harlem public schools for two years. I helped a few kids master reading comprehension and threatened many more with calls home, recess detention, and eternal damnation.
I’m no expert on how to be an amazing inner-city school teacher who could be portrayed by Jennie Garth in a made-for-TV movie.
I’m also no expert on how to be a good inner-city school teacher with her paperwork turned in and half her students in a straight line.
Two years was not enough time for me to get my shit together. I don’t think three years would’ve been, either.
Here’s a question from Jessica:
What one might call “foliage porn”
Let’s talk about Sunday again, shall we?
I spent some of the day traipsing through Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, official burial grounds of Washington Irving, Andrew Carnegie, Elizabeth Arden, and Leona Helmsley, to name a few.
This may sound creepy, but what a gorgeous place to be dead. Or alive.
