what I learned in grad school

Well, there are many things, actually, but the better title for this post might be, how grad school has changed the way I write. I came to grad school, I thought, to improve my writing. I had done all I could on my own, and I was ready for some assistance in moving what I [...]

Korean night

I stayed up way too late last night, but sadly The Official Day of Sleeping In did not live up to its name. The always noisy Cambridge garbage men woke me up at 7:30. Well, it wasn’t the men so much as the truck, which ridiculously plays that annoying beep-beep-beep (the noise that trucks make [...]

dramatic developments

The past few days have been a blur. There’s no good reason for that except that I haven’t quite gotten enough sleep. I am looking forward to tomorrow, Friday, which is my official day of sleeping in.
Aside from that, my most recent chapter was workshopped in class on Tuesday. My professor said it’s my most [...]

missing girls

I spent the weekend reading and writing, all battened down and hermit-like. I have learned that in order to be productive over long stretches of time when I am alone, I must leave the apartment. So, for the past three days I have done a little work in the morning at home, then headed out [...]

reading

Last night I met some friends for a drink at a bar near school before a ritual of our program, “the reading.” Every other Friday night four or five students get up and read some of their work, and other students, friends, and significant others come to listen. It’s a nice tradition, and as all [...]

in search of the cerebral

Even though it was damp, abnormally cold and often rainy when I was in San Francisco, at least the landscape was an optimistic green. Not so in Boston, where everything is still in shades of winter brown and gray. Today the wind is howling, and though no weather forecast mentions snow, it’s been flurrying heavily [...]

You know you’re in San Francisco when…

You’re in the bathroom at the gym and a mother is talking to her two kids (both of whom appear to be under the age of 4) and says, “Hurry up, we’re going to find Daddy and then we can go out for pizza.”
And then one of the little girls says, “No, mommy, I want [...]

hairstyles of the rich and famous

It’s 20 degrees warmer in Boston than it is in San Francisco today. This is of course because I did not bring a coat to San Francisco. I’ve dragged my big bulky coat to the west coast every other time, and usually I don’t even end up wearing it. Today, I miss my coat. It’s [...]

chapter limbo

The thing about writing a book is that you are always writing a book. When you aren’t working on it, you feel like you should be. If you write something else, or take a day off of writing, you feel guilty. The next time you sit down to evaluate where you are in the book, [...]

A shopping rant

I’ve had it. I realize that many people in the United States are overweight. I’m sympathetic, to an extent. (Here’s the place where if you are bothered/offended/bitter about skinny people you might want to click away and read something else.) But here’s the thing. I’m not overweight. Not even close. In fact, most of the [...]