The Weekend.

So it's Friday morning. I am sitting at my teeny tiny white desk and completely putting off getting ready for the day. Normally weekends signify one thing to me: WORK WORK WORK. With my class schedule, the only way to stay afloat is to work Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays all day - damn money! Why does everything come back to money? ANYWHO, this weekend is different. I was able to swing having Saturday off so I can accompany the boy to Steven's Point, meet up with some of his friends from college, and simply relax before the last two weeks of the semester overrule my life. It should be a good time. Apparently everyone piles into a bus, gets carted off to some bar called Rusty's on the edge of town, where they procede to spend the day drinking and listening to music with friends. What's bad about that? Afternoon cocktails are always a good time if you ask me.

Before I can leave on said fun trip, I have to endure today's shift and pack before hand so we do not have to stop back by my apartment before leaving. Now if I could only get motivated. Packing for even a weekend trip is always such a pain in the booty. Especially at this time of year when the weather pretty much does Whatever The Heck It Wants. Will it rain? Will it be hot? I don't know - so clearly, I'll overpack and look like a very high maintenance gal in the process. But I can't help it if those shoes don't go with that skirt so I must bring the jeans and the tennis shoes just in case, right?


I'm getting closer to finishing "The Bell Jar." I am planning to bring it on the trip this weekend and finish it in the car. I love reading in the car. I used to do it on every trip we took when I was a kid. After I finish that I have a list growing of things I want to read over the summer. So far the list is as follows:

1. Sylvia Plath's Unabridged Journals (Started it a while ago but gave up during the school year)
2. Jane Smiley "The Age of Grief" (A rec. from my favorite professor who said it'll remind me that marriage and children aren't everything)
3. Lee Smith "Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger" (Found this rec. on my favorite author, Sarah Dessen's blog - Apparently Smith was her mentor so I'm incredibly intrigued)

I'm sure I'll continue to add more books to this as summer approaches. I can't seem to get enough of reading lately. When I was a kid, I went through a Read-Everything-Near-Me stage and it seems that I've relapsed. I think this has something to do with my sudden desire to write write write write write. Maybe I outta bring a notebook this weekend in case inspiration strikes... Then again, that might look extremely neurotic. But I digress.

I will leave this post with a few things I am enjoying this morning:
1. Dark Purple Nail Polish. I haven't had my nails painted in a long time. I feel a bit fancy and yet emo at the same time.
2. Missy Higgin's "Night Minds" on Pandora. I don't know how Pandora does it, but it always finds a song that completely envelopes me at the right time. Rarely do I feel disappointed by Pandora.
3. Skinny Vanilla Latte creamer in my coffee. Mmmmm. Thank you International Delight. You are quite Delightful.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Five Fun Things....

I am feeling rather indifferent to writing anything substantial today so I decided maybe I'll list some random things in no particular order. *deep breathe* ready! go!

1. I am really excited for Hannah and Jay's wedding. It's a little over a month away and we're getting ready for the big day. I'm still searching for shoes that will work with the bridesmaids dress. I've checked Payless, Kohls, JCP's, DSW, and Gap - so far, nothing worthy of noting unfortunately.

2. I am half way through "The Bell Jar" - my first time reading it! I'm not sure how I feel about it. Plath is great and an amazing poet so that's a huge plus. I keep expecting it to have more of a central plot but right now it seems like the whole novel is just this main character, Ester, talking about random experiences. Hoping it all ties together. I'm sure it will.

3. Some person's cell phone keeps going off very loudly and near me and scaring me half to death. Sir, please turn it down. You're in an enclosed space with other human beings and none of us are deaf. Thanks.

4. "Sex and the City 2" had a new trailer out that I just saw - Wow! I am behind the loop. I'm really excited though. It looks like Aiden reappears for a chunk of this movie, and he's look nice! Can't wait for that to come out. I am also very excited to see "Letters to Juliet." It looks corny and silly but I cannot help myself - I love love stories about writers! Gah!

5. I'm going to Steven's Point with Jamie this weekend to meet some of his Point friends. I'm a bit nervous but more excited than anything. A Saturday off from Schneider?!?!? It's amazing and fantastic and beautiful and exciting. Woot!

Have a wonderful day all!

Early Morning Revelations

So .... it's been a long while since I've been on here. I was reading this morning, a book by my favorite author, and I suddenly got very intrigued about her life. What does Sarah Dessen do when she's not writing the books that highlight my life? In the back section of her books there is always the same short bio about how Sarah lives in North Carolina and teaches at the University of Chapel Hill. 'Well,' I thought to myself, 'I want to go to grad school, maybe they have one there.' Turns out - after a little research - that they do not have a grad program for creative writing (MFA degrees) and disappointingly enough, Sarah no longer works for the U. Slightly saddened by this - now how will I randomly walk into her classroom and say, "Hi! You've influenced my life in ways you'll never even understand..." I'll have to come up with a new plan.

Also as I am reading about Sarah's life, with her dogs and her daughter and her husband, I am suddenly saddened that soon, very soon, I will graduate from college - the place where I have spent most of my time for the last 5 years and I now realize that I won't have this wonderful excuse to sit around and read poetry, or write lots of pointless pages of stuff about life and that kind of random thing that makes no sense... But then I wondered, why can't I continue to do this? And I read more about Sarah - in her bio she took 5.5 years to complete her undergrad (just like me) and she spent a few years post-grad waiting tables and writing (I'd love to do that), then she got her first book published and was hired to teach WITHOUT an MFA (as far as I can tell) - well WHY CANT I? is what came to mind. I had this flash of brilliant light in my head with a choir singing AMEN! at the top of their lungs - Why couldn't I teach at a college level? I loved being a TA with my CW professor last semester. It was one of the most uplifting and interesting experiences I've ever had. I want to teach. I want to be submerged in writing All The Time. I want to sit and read and discuss fiction and poetry with people a lot - every day if I can. It keeps my mind happy. I literally can feel my brain smiling when I am reading an EE Cummings poem or learning something new about how to write a convincing character. So this is the plan - graduate at UWGB, write every day, and do what I can to stay creative, even if that means waiting tables some day.

After all this super intense thinking about my future and what I want to do, I feel very worn out. I was awakened by Jamie around 7 am saying "Time to get up..." in that way that means "Get out of bed right now or you'll make me late for class... again." I can't help that 7 am is very very early for me. Yet another thing I'd like to do - Learn to get up early and enjoy it.

So I sit her procrastinating another boring analysis paper of a movie for Intro to Film that I did not watch, and wondering if anything is going to turn out the way that I hope it does. Probably not. But isn't that why we write? Those always turn out the way I want....

Have a beautiful day out there, world.