The Good, the Great, & the Frustrating.

I washed my sheets, my pillows, my clothes, the carpet, the bed, the couch, the ottoman, the rugs, everything. Twice. Plastic-wrapped my bed and box springs. I haven't seen another bug since. So I'm lead to believe it was a lone hitchhiker. I started washing my backpack, bags, everything. I still haven't seen another bug, so I'm hoping this is the end of the bed bug paranoia. I may just wash my sheets again next week. Just to be safe.

In terms of academia, a lot has been going on. Reading books, analyzing them, doing small imitation exercises, working on a mini conference paper presentation; constructing syllabi and lesson plans; working on my "thesis." I use quotations because I still have no idea what I'm doing, just two good ideas that I may or may not follow through to completion. I get the first workshopped next week; the next is Visual Storytelling, so I'm getting started now so drawing it doesn't take over my life later. I'm very excited about my classes and everything I'm learning. I am absolutely loving this.

As for work, you could hardly call it that. The main thing is remembering to grade on time, otherwise it piles up and gets forgotten. As the weeks progress I've become a harsher and harsher grader; my students don't necessarily appreciate that, but by the fourth week of class, if the assignment says 100-200 words and you give me 24, that's not going to fly. Simple as that. My interns are all doing great; the Winter 2010 issue of The Florida Review is finally out (huzzah!) and Summer 2011 should be out soon, too. :] I also got word that I may be able to interview a certain poet-memoirist with a movie adaptation coming out next year... very exciting! Work on the Reading Series I'm helping put together is going slow and steady; just trying to send out the Press Release and get readers for the event!

I've been trying to work on stuff on the side for submissions... There are so many places to submit, and I have nothing finished to sumbit! I'm really regretting not using the summer to really work on more writing. :/ But it's okay, I will recover. I even got invited to do a reading in December, but more on that as it approaches.

It's not all sunshine and happiness and rainbows, though.

Immersing myself in the MFA program has been great for personal and professional development, but it is putting a bit of strain on some, most, of my relationships. (I wrote a big long paragraph here, and then cut it because it ended up just being a rant.)

And a random note about ZAT: I've been at it again, slowly. Something to keep me sane. I'm missing Aikido really badly, though. I'm not sure how much longer I can go without it.

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

I've never had issues with bed bugs. Never really even knew what they were; just knew they existed, and they weren't my problem.

Until last night.

I was writing on my bed, looked over, and a small, flat, round bug was walking on my pillow. I didn't know what it was, so I picked up t he pillow and attempted to photograph it. It was too quick. So I brought the bug and the pillow to my dad, said, Hey, look what I found. What is it?

He squished it, look a look at it from under a light, and flushed it down the toilet.

I googled "bed bugs" to see if maybe that was my invader, and lo and behold, yes. Dammit.

I slept on top of my covers with a throw and a pillow I pulled from my closet. My morning dreams were filled with bugs infesting my bed.

So today is laundry day. Stripped the bed of everything, washing everything in hot water and drying on even hotter. Everything that can't get washed gets heat dried twice. That goes for the pillows, too. And since I have a small loveseat next to my bed, all of the cushions on the bed are getting heat dried (the fabric is water sensitive and will stain them, so no washing) and then I'm going to find a hot iron and go over everything I can't wash, since heat kills the bastards. There will also be copious vacuuming involved. Oh, and I have regular laundry (for clothes) to do, too. So this will be fun.

Did I mention I have a huge workshop piece due tomorrow, and I'm only about halfway done? Yeah. Grad-school Fun. Thank goodness one of my classes is cancelled for the week, but I still have office hours and some grading to do.

On the bright side, at least this is forcing me to finish organizing my room. (It's been in a quasi-organized state for about a month.)

Back to grad school for a moment--it's doing well. I'm really enjoying my classes. They're a lot of work, but I am absolutely loving it, so it's really not like work at all. I'm finally being really productive for the lit magazine (I'm doing more than reading backlogs and saving jewels from the trashpile! Hooray for real editing!) and I think I'm getting more efficient and consistent with grading my online class.

Now to get back to work.

I'm officially an MFA student!

First week as a grad student: long days, but they passed quickly.

I am excited about my classes. My professors are all so esteemed and have a wealth of knowledge to share. Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry--all three genres are represented, and this is actually quite accidental. In my workshop class, it was made quite clear from the get-go that I'm [supposed to be] working on a Thesis. The class is designed to help me with that endeavor while also helping my classmates. (My classmates! I guess I should call them colleagues. They're all so incredibly talented, I'm flattered by being in their company.) Studying contemporary nonfiction will have a heavy-workload, but it's primary purpose is to further my understanding of the genre as a writer, complete with writing exercises, practice in a panel, and [hopefully] a conference-worthy paper. And a class about teaching a multi-genre creative writing class? Epic. I'll essentially get to design an introductory-level class. And I'll probably get a conference paper out of this one, too.

I'm excited about being's a GTA. Since I got a split appointment, it is like having an extra two classes to take. I hold office hours, help my interns, do online grading. I have to be familiar with the syllabi and pay attention to deadlines. I need to remember not to forget about my online class--those are 120 students I need to record grades for! But working with The Florida Review, that's really incredible. Its a crash-course in literary journal publication, and even though I've only been around a week, I can tell I'm going to absolutely love it.

And of course, my life wouldn't be complete if I didn't get involved in extracurriculars. I found an Objects in Motion club with jugglers and poi-spinners and the like, just hanging out outside of my main building. I will probably join them every once in a while--they're more than happy to teach. Maybe I'll finally get backwards weaves and thread-the-needle. I'm still looking for a dojo--aikido preferably, but at this point any martial art will do. Preferably on-campus, so there's less travel and little-to-no fees, but it appears that training times only occur while I'm in class, so that's a buzzkill. But one of my professors happens to be 3rd Dan in TKD, and one of my--colleagues (gosh, it's weird saying that)--her parents own an Aikido dojo in south Florida, so there still seems to be hope. I've been trying to go to the gym with my cousin for basic in-shape purposes, possibly to lead back up to Zombie Apocalypse Training, but for now that's on temporary hiatus until I can get the rest of my life organized.

I'm also on a committee to start a new reading series for the MFA program, but more on that later. It's literally just starting, and there's a lot of work to be done, but I'm excited. I've got a great group of people to work with, and I really think it can be something great.

Overextension is a big, massochistic problem I have. I'm trying to avoid doing fifty-million-things-all-the-time like usual, but I hear about projects and I just get so excited I can't help myself. I need to remind myself to keep time for homework and writing, and I'm really going to need to come up with a no-BS policy for myself in regards to organization and time management. (That may be my biggest challenge.)

Nevertheless, there are tons of opportunities for me here. I'm so excited about everything.

Being in school has never been so awesome.