This news is 36 hours old, but:

I did it. I bit the bullet and accepted Texas. I'm moving to Austin in a few months.

I'm a little nervous, but mostly extremely excited. I can't wait to see the rest of my incoming cohort again; they are going to make it more than worthwhile.

Here we go future.

Started a new project on the grownup blog. Behold: Songs for an Impending Future, volume 1. It's the first in a series of (hopefully regularly occurring) posts about songs I find apt for life on the brink of major change.

Happy reading!

The University of Pennsylvania had 680 English Ph.D. applicants this year, of which I am one.

They will be admitting five.

Those Iowa and Nebraska apps are looking like mighty good decisions right about now.

By the way, I'm done with applications. Time to start searching for better jobs.

Felt like compiling a list of the first line of the first entry of every month of 2009, because I think I did that a couple years ago and it was a nice exercise in self-reflection.

January: These are my new year's resolutions:
February: I finally got tagged in the latest round of facebook herpes, which comes in the form of a note in which you have to ( Read more... )

My veins are full of sawdust. My thoughts evaporate before my brain can catch them. I read other writers' blogs -- young writers, mind you, people my age, not already-established, publicly fawned-over writers -- and feel the pulse of their ideas, the crystalline precision of their language. I look at my work and I realize it's all gone, or perhaps ( Read more... )

Today, while sitting on my bed, wrapped in my warmest robe, strumming "Fake Plastic Trees" on my guitar and watching Law & Order re-runs, I arrived at a sad realization:

I did the exact same thing in high school.

I guess I needed a reminder of how everything and nothing can change.

Listen to this new Shearwater song. Seriously. Click that link right now. You will get goosebumps.

It basically redefines the term "sweeping." Magnificent.

The Golden Archipelago is out February 23rd. I'm not sure I can wait that long!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, a new post is up on the big girl blog. Enjoy!

Seriously, how did I not find this earlier?

Click to view

I adore him beyond belief. John K. Samson rights all wrongs.

Also check out John Darnielle's commentary at the end. So excellent. I will remember these two like my parents remember Dylan and Cohen.

I NEED TO GO TO BED BECAUSE NEW ENGLAND AWAITS.

( Read more... )