Procrastination, again

The fall schedule looms manic, how did that happen? Today I am avoiding the calendar. I am suppose to be filling all the little boxes with all the events to which we are already committed. It scares me. I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised when I finish to discover that in no way have I overloaded things it was just my imagination running a muck and the schedule is eminently workable.

I hope. I really believe at this point it is only my schedule that is out of control and this will change after a week of concentrated class preparation. I am teaching three classes this fall, including two new ones, instead of just one and new classes always require more upfront work than I remember. My oldest is in charge of her own schedule and she has done a much better job this fall than I have. The younger two won't be over booked, because they keep trying to skate on the academics, which makes for no extra-curriculars, makes me a bit sad but I refuse to fight as it's ineffective. So onward to class prep and a lowered heart rate.

Two weeks wasn't enough.

So, I was really good at posting for the first two days. But things got busy - like really, really busy. We were up from 7am to midnight pretty much every day (give or take on a few people - I know many of the guys were up later, but most of us girls got a decent amount of sleep... most of the time).

So, first I'll give you a picture spam, followed by a word spam.

I'm fantastically good at both, so prepare yourselves.

There are some artsy photos in here. This is one of them. Deal. This is one of my poems from the workshop, the one I actually read on the night I got to read. It's part of the "image explosion" prompt where we had to take a line from the poem "Don't Write History as Poetry" by Mahmoud Darwish, and use it as the first line of our poem. So those poems were taped on the board originating from the poem itself.

They're kind of out of order because I'm too lazy to reorganize them. Sorry! This was from the last day. We had sidewalk chalk and got to write messages on the wall outside our dorm. So many inside jokes, so this probably means nothing to you, but that's okay.

This was Pierce Dining Hall, where we ate three times a day. Breakfast was fro 7:30-8:30, lunch 12-1, dinner 5-6. You had to be there. Or you died.

One of the RA activities one afternoon was working with the inkpress they have at the Kenyon Review office. It's super cool - if you ever get a chance to use one, they're super cool. But super messy! This is one of my best friend's hands after using the press.

Another of the walls in our classroom. These are our "found poems," where we cut out phrases from magazines and created them into a poem. That was one of my favorite prompts. CRAFTY STUFF.

This was a sign on the third floor of the girl's side of the dorm. Who knows why.

THE DASTARDLY HILL. To get to the athletic center, you have to go down this HUGE hill. Whoever built the center obviously did not think about placement too much. Because after you work out, to get back to the dorm, you have to climb all the way back up the hill after you're all nice and tired, and just showered... so annoying. It's a huge hill, especially for us flat midwestern folks who don't even have lumps in the road.

This is Middle Path, the main artery of Kenyon College. It's actually really cool, because the whole campus is centered around the path. It's gravel all the way up and down, and at this section, these twinkle lights light up every night. We had to walk this way back to the dorm every night. So beautiful.

Another artsy photo - this time from the inkpress day. This is the ink you use for the press. Yup.

This is in the great hall in Pierce, where we ate at every meal. The stained glass is really cool - the whole hall literally looks like the Hogwarts Great Hall. NO. JOKE.

Another photo of Middle Path.

Oh, there's a graveyard on campus, for whatever random reason. One of the first nights, two of my friends and I went and wrote in the graveyard for about forty-five minutes. It was pretty cool!

Artsy ice photo. Deal.

This is Ascension, where everyone had classes every day. I miss it so much.

All right, now you've got some fun photos (*cough stop bugging me mom cough*).

It was the best two weeks I've ever had in my life, and I can't explain to you how hard it is to come back to a normal life with two jobs that you really don't like every day. It's such a shock - to have been doing something you love every day, to be with people you love every day, to come back and realize you may never see those people again, and you're stuck doing all of this stuff you really don't want to do after you've seen how fantastic life can be.

It sucks.

The people are a whole post in themselves. They're the most fantastic people I've ever met (no offense to my friends here) but it's totally different to be surrounded only by people who are exactly the same as you are - who like the same things, who love the same things, who understand your quirks and accept you. I've never felt more accepted in my life; and I'm not really in an environment normally where I'm not "accepted," so I can't even imagine what it's like for the people who go to school and really don't feel like they fit in.

It was an amazing experience. I've finally found friends who understand me and most of my life - they've seen me, and it's such a confidence-booster to see that they like me for who I am and not for who I pretend to be around them.

The problem is, they're all across the country, and in some instances, the globe. That sucks too.

Everything about it was perfect, and I know everyone wants to just go back and stay there forever, writing and writing with the same people, living in an environment where all you have to do is do what you love.

Man, just writing about it is making me emotional. The last day was the saddest day of my life. I don't cry in public very easily, and I didn't think I was going to cry that day, but all of a sudden as one of the shuttles was leaving, the floodgates opened. I've never cried like that in front of other people in my life. But everyone was crying, so it's okay. But it's hard, because part of me definitely understood that I may never see those same people again - and almost for sure we'd never all be like that together again.

But thank God for technology. If this had been ten years ago, even, it wouldn't have been as easy to stay in contact. We have Skype, cell phones, facebook, blogs, email... the list goes on. I've gained at least 50 new friends on facebook, and many contacts in my phone. Reunions are already being planned. I'm seeing two of my friends from the workshop at Christmastime because we discovered we're all going to be in Vermont at the same time. Technology is fantastic.

Well, in short, it was amazing, it's hard adjusting back to home life, I miss everyone and everything.

The end.

Fall Obligations

Must learn how to post photos and links to keep this from becoming even less interesting. The weeks of summer have flown, and fall is racing forward and I am not ready. I like the peacefulness of summer the unhurried days and sitting by a pool with certain regularity. But I now have to plan for fall.

We have begun some art and begun the religion, but not a whole lot more. Butterflies and gardens are fading and they have asked for more history and french? Math is set and language arts at least I know what we will be doing for that. Chemistry did also emerge this summer and will resume as our instructor's other obligations dissipate. History co-op will resume this fall on Fridays, but I think we will also cover early modern times on our own as well. Theatre and Tae kwon do will take care of themselves. Book clubs continue in September, OH I need to pick a title for the first meeting, now.

I am also looking at creating classes that involve sewing, and maybe recycling, and maybe some crafts, and can you tell the ideas are still floundering? I have to appeal to a wide age range, offer substantive learning opportunities, with minimal supplies, and all in one hour. This is really stretching the creative brain. I plan to hit the bookstores this weekend as I know there are sources there. The library failed me yesterday, nothing of interest on the shelves and not much that was missing or checked out. I did not have time to check the kids department so I may have missed something but the adult section was dismal. These classes need to be pulled together with syllabus and cost by next week.

All while we travel out of town for a birthday party... Enough with the musings must get to work.

No pictures... don't yell at me!

I haven't taken any. I feel like I should have by now, but I don't want to look like some strange Gambier/Kenyon tourist who whips out her camera at every opprotune or non-opprotune moment. It hasn't seemed appropriate, I guess.

First day of classes today - it's more tiring than it sounds. Even though you're just sitting in a classroom for five hours and writing, it's exhausting. And hunger-inducing. I think I've eaten more today than I have in the past week.

Okay, I have to talk about the food. I know there's people here who have to "adjust" to it or whatever, but it is really good. I was not expecting it to have this much variety or amazingness. The area to get your food is shining and clean - six or seven stations with different foods like "desserts," "deli," "international," "comfort," etc.

It's so easy to understand the freshman fifteen now. Man.

But really. For breakfast, they had eggs and cereal and delicious pancakes and hash browns and bagels and toast and peanut butter (the peanut butter has its own station at every meal, Lord knows why) and every type of juice imaginable plus milk and chocolate milk and oh my goodness it was like a feast.

Plus we ate in the "great hall." Our program director referred to it as the "Gryffindor hall" because literally, and I am so not joking, it looks like the Hogwarts great hall. I swear I'll take a picture sometime this week because I feel like I'm in Hogwarts with my delicious food.

In workshops it was kind of introductory. I like my group, and there are a couple girls who I've already *bonded* with almost immediately. I won't judge anyone yet, so I'm not complaining. Yet. But there are a couple people who made me ask myself, "why are you guys here?" But I think they may just have a bit of trouble opening up - so we'll see how the workshops work out.

I'm excited for day two.

Quotes of the day:
"Don't make the self-depricating writers angry with your hotness."
"I see you guys go into the bookstore and grab ice cream. That is not water. Drink WATER. Learn the difference."

Arrived.

I am here.

Gambier, Ohio.

It's about as small town as you'd think Gambier, Ohio would be. Basically, the campus is the town. No one's in danger of leaving campus. Trust me.

The people are fabulous - my roommate is awesome, she likes photography and writing as well, so that's something we can *bond* over.

It was interesting to introduce ourselves - I got to know a lot of people because everyone's all over the place and interjecting themselves into the conversation. You get to know the people in your dorm and people who you've walked around with a lot, and I'm excited to start classes tomorrow so I'll get to know more people there.

The day has been exhausting - I didn't get much sleep last night or in the car, and then when we got here, it was pretty much a go-go-go day. We had a tour of the campus, dinner, then met our program directors/RAs/instructors and introduced ourselves to the entire camp by saying our names, where we were from, and one word to describe the trip.

You could definitely tell some people were trying to impress - there were some words I didn't know at all. Ah, well, it's a time to learn, right?

The campus is beautiful - the dorms are bleary, but it's only two weeks. I hope I'll be outside or in some of the pretty buildings a lot of the time. The dining hall is FANTASTIC. There's a modern section and then part where it literally looks like the Hogwarts Great Hall. And it's amazing.

I'll see if I have time to take pictures tomorrow - from what it sounds like, it's going to be a busy two weeks. We already have homework.

I'm back... again...

I swear, I still want a blog. Time just gets away from me, you know? One day, it's the beginning of June and I have an entire list of things that I just know I'm going to get done over the summer, and the next minute... it's July 14th and I'm leaving in two days.

I realize this blog is kind of turning into a rant spot for my mother, which is fine, because I'd much rather she rant at a computer than at us (love you, mommy!). But I do want to keep going, and I'll try and do a better job at posting.

I'm going to try and use the blog as a journal for the writing camp I'm going on for the next two weeks - most people who read this blog know where I'm going, but just for the sake of ease I'll explain.

I was accepted to The Kenyon Review Young Writers' Workshop. It's a highly selective, intensive two-week writing camp held at Kenyon College for high-school-aged young adults who love to write. I applied last year but got wait-listed, and this year I was accepted (with a full-ride scholarship to boot!). Kenyon's been called "the Harvard of creative writing" so I'm pretty excited to go. The camp consists of 3 classes a day - each an hour and a half long, so five hours of writing per day (it consists of about 50 hours of in-class time over the two weeks, plus there's homework and readings to do. Yes, it's more than most college courses. It's intense. And I'm super excited.) We live on campus, and all the facilities are open to us - gym, track, swimming pool, etc. We live in dorms with roommates, so it's basically like two weeks of college. But just writing.

It's going to be awesome.

So anyway, I leave on Sunday and I'm *hoping* to use the blog as kind of a journal to keep fam and friends updated while I'm away. If I have time, I'll post pictures, but since I can't do lengthy posts on Facebook, I'll be doing it here.

Summer has been intense. I've been working full time (generally 50-60 hours a week) with two (basically three) jobs. I've been outside all the time, since both jobs are lifeguarding, so it's safe to say I'm a little sick of being outside (how often do you hear that?). I cannot wait for these two weeks off to relax, have fun, and actually wear clothing that doesn't involve a swimsuit underneath.





I'll try and post more often. Seriously.

My Country My Choice

Tomorrow marks our nation's birthday and what did they play at church in honor of this holiday weekend? "This is My Song," what a cop out!! The pages surrounding this communist trash included "America the Beautiful" " Star Spangled Banner" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" one of those beautiful hymns could not have been chosen, please for just one day can we be proud of our great nation? I am sorry that so many feel we need to apologize for what we have but I am too far down on the economic chain to feel anything but grateful for the country in which I live. We have enough, and "Enough is as good as a feast" per Mary Poppins. I don't believe that being proud of my nation is putting other countries down, just expressing a personal opinion which is allowed in this country. I don't believe that patriotism equals arrogance either. Any more than when I was in junior high and high school and supported my school's athletic endeavors. I didn't hate those other schools or the young people that attended them, I wasn't snubbing or bashing, often I was actually scoping out the hot guys, but we had school spirit and let them know it. We shook hands when the battles were over and congratulated winners.

I truly believe I live in the greatest country on earth, especially for women, and all this greatness didn't come free. We need to honor our heritage and those that fought to gain and protect our freedoms not make excuses for what we have. We should offer it to others willing to pay the price. They may choose to join or go their separate ways, but I do not have to be ashamed because I was blessed to be born here and choose to remain.

No, it is not a perfect country, we daily make mistakes and our freedoms are threatened just as often by ignorant do-gooders. Yet, even those times when I am sad for my nation because of poorly made choices, when I wish that life were more fair, I still believe this is the greatest nation on earth.


O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

Katharine Lee Bates