Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Hello, my poor abandoned blog

I have survived my first year of graduate school, and although I have plenty of work to do this summer (reading for fun, reading for my thesis, writing and revising for my thesis, planning and later teaching a summer class, planning a fall class, etc.), I may also make more time for posting on my blog.

Last week I turned in my poetry revisions, and my seminar paper; I'd submitted my last nonfiction piece the week before. And I taught my last English 15 classes. I went to a party for my nonfiction class. I went to the MFA Variety Show, which was a fantastic time, and I went out afterward with some of my classmates, and we sat on the patio at Mad Mex and drank beer and enjoyed the nice weather and the knowledge that we'd made it through a year of grad school.

M. went back to California today - he's probably in flight right now - and I'll be flying out there in three weeks to see him. I'm greatly looking forward to that trip, to see him of course, but also to see San Francisco and Berkeley.

I've started my summer reading list. I'm still actively soliciting suggestions to add to it - poetry, especially, but any and all genres as well. The first thing I'm reading is Annie Dillard's An American Childhood. I love her writing so far, but I find myself wanting her to be conscious of, and reflective on, class and privilege; she does reflect a little on race, and her privileged position as a white child. I'll see how the rest of the book comes together and report back more in-depth then.

Also, in the arena of things on which I am to report: there is supposed to be a new Thai restaurant in the plaza near my apartment. I plan on stopping there on my walk back from campus today, and I promised M. I would issue a full report. Neither of us are holding our breaths, and we remain nearly as disappointed with State College's food as we were this past fall. We've discovered a few gems, but very few. Yet another reason to look forward to my SF trip, and the time I'll spend in Columbus.

Speaking of food, I am starting to get hungry, so I'm going to gather up my books and run a couple errands downtown, then head back toward home and pad thai. (On, and on the issue of walking, I've decided that I won't buy a bus pass for summer, just a roll of tokens. That will make me walk unless it's bad weather or unless I have a lot of stuff to carry. It's about 40 (hilly) minutes to get to Burrowes, perhaps less to where I'll be teaching this summer. Good exercise!)

3 comments:

Kara B said...

Mmm, Thai food! I just read two books of poetry that I enjoyed: The Human Line by Ellen Bass and Carolina Ghost Woods by Judy Jordan. When are you going to post more of your poetry on your blog?

insertbrackets said...

congrats emily on finishing up year one. i'll join you in a bit more than a month :-P kinda scary now that i think about it!

have fun in my home state! i am going to be in berkeley/sf for independence day. if you've never been i anticipate you will love it!

Emily said...

Hi Kara, the Thai food was pretty good. Thank you for the poetry recommendations - I will check them out. I think I read something else by Ellen Bass last year, maybe. As far as posting poetry here, I don't do it much because a lot of journals and contests count poems on blogs as "published" :(

Hi Tory, thanks for the congrats and good luck to you finishing up in June! It's kind of funny that when I'm in your home state, you'll be in mine. I have not ever been to the Bay Area, and am definitely looking forward to it. My previous experiences w/ California were L.A. for a couple days in high school and San Diego a couple winters ago.