Days 104-106

Stayed up with headache and almost total lack of motivation to write book annotations last night, then drove to the main post office to get this month's packet in the post this morning. It will be late by a day -- my first academic transgression -- but I'm trying to forgive myself. April has not been easy. Right now, I would dearly love to not read or write another word for at least a week. But I can't...


Now have 10 page essay to work on as well as my other writing and reading, and my teacher wants it all EARLY!!! Roll on June, when all I have to do is haul my a** to Vermont and sit on it for 10 days!

Days 102-3

Small child with scarlet fever + MFA packet due = aaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

Day 102

Writing, writing, deadline approaching and still not done. Might have to scrape and beg an extra day. Still 2 book write-ups to do, too. Usually they're the first thing I get done, and now I'll be rushing them like an undergraduate, but without the time and youthful energy or any of the chemical benefits from which today's teens seem to 'benefit.' I'm realizing how valuable are my three hours on a Sunday morning with a sitter coming to look after the kids. Somehow, the loss of that time over the month -- a total of about 12 hours in April what with Easter, etc -- has floored me.

Why is it the busier and tireder I am, the more I am able to successfully write a blog entry?

Day 101

"Oranges are Not the Only Fruit" but there's no writer like Jeanette Winterson. Good to have the excuse to go back to her, though Easter rather got in the way!

DAY 100

Yay -- but like the President, the report card is not all glowing!  Also like him, such a big undertaking, so many long term goals that feel frustrating when looked at only partway finished. It's all about the process, of course, but it's hard not to want it all finished and published and shiny already!

Only about 400 more days to go till graduation!!!

Days 93-99

Almost at one hundred days! As is no doubt clear from my recent paucity of posts, the balance between mommying, teaching and being a student has been tipping me dangerously away from my studies. I have been trying to play catch up this week, after the children's spring break, two dentist visits, two doctor visits, hubby's birthday, and numerous other small items pertaining to life with two bubbly, crazily energetic small children.

Have read Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" and Coetzee's "Disgrace," along with Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," all amazing. So many other books piled up beside my bed. I also started watching the "Seven & Up" series on DVD -- powerful and helpful reminders of the England of my childhood.

I'm writing about my time two summers ago teaching on the Upward Bound program for first generation college students. It's a traumatic tale in a quite different realm from my grandmother's death. The words just keep tumbling out, which is thrilling and exhausting, too.

So, upward!

Days 91 and 92

Writing going better than expected. Really excited about what I'm reading too, and the whole book project is coming into focus. Ideas given to me on my way to teach, on my bicycle - in a state of creative frenzy. Thrilling, really. But we're away this weekend, so not so many days to achieve all my wild imaginings...