* I have suddenly become Someone Who Obsessively Holiday Shops. Not quite to the scale of the rest of the country, but this is pretty extreme for me -- given that I normally argue very loudly each year with anyone who'll listen about why holiday gifts are a capitalist scam. But suddenly this year I've been enormously happy going around finding ( Read more... )

I think I'm missing some crucial piece of understanding... The MFA I want to do happens to be located in a state whose border is exactly 15 miles from my house. Therefore if a scholarship or TAship never happens (which at this school is likely, since they have so little to go around), the degree could cost me over 60k instead of 27k (which, frankly ( Read more... )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCC6_3QwXOc

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I. Once upon a time, when Frog was twenty two and stupid, she had a job that she sort of loved and sort of hated. Then when she was twenty three she found out she was working for truly heinous people, and it broke her heart. So she quit, went on a really long road trip, and landed in a Small Town where she lived happily ever after ( Read more... )

I think have figured out why I keep lusting after falling in love with 70+ year old poetsAfter a life of thinking, they have something to say. After a lifetime of writing, they say things well. And damn, they are humble ( Read more... )

I have become a skilled fire maker. Coals and kindling, stacked just so, exactly fed, from cold to four hundred in a half hour. How many wood stoves does it take to burn a sheaf of letters? One. I have become a skilled immolator. Setting everything except my life afire.

that my great-aunt decided to stay in her house coat all day long ( Read more... )

Hon, do you r'member when ye'as jest a girl in New Jersey, how ye came home from school one day sayin' to yer mama thet the teacher had y'all talk to the class about who yer best friend is. An' yer mother ast ye whether ye'had a best frien' an' ye'said, "Ma, I sure do!" An' yer mother was so tickled. On accoun'of ye bein' so shy'n'aloof'n'all, she ( Read more... )

I am grateful for so much, but especially ( Read more... )

Earlier this week I was talking with one of my staff about my decision to at least start this MFA program and see how it goes. She's an artist who works 20 hours per week in addition to freelance writing in order to have enough cash to support herself and her art. She also has an MBA and was CFO of a big-ass company out in Boston for years before ( Read more... )