Graduation Day

12 May 2012

Note: This is yesterday's post, but I was so exhausted last night, I couldn't finish it. It was the good kind of exhaustion.

I graduated with my Masters Degree in English - Creative Writing Emphasis (with Honors) today. I came very close to skipping the ceremony, but it was especially rewarding because one of the students I taught in my first semester as a graduate teaching assistant earned his Bachelor's Degree today too. I spent the rest of the afternoon celebrating with friends, all the while toting my grandson around because my daughter had to work.

In the evening we saw a play, The Kitchen Witches, at the Stone's Throw Dinner Theatre, it was so funny, cheek and gut crampingly, teary-eyed, can't catch your breath funny. It was an audience participation of sorts, and from the stage, they kept asking how my rash was. Stone's Throw is a non-profit organizaton, and one of the ways they raise funds is to sell tickets for a drawing for a door prize, and tonight, I won. I was able to choose from a selection, and I picked a set of tiny bowls, which evidently have some specific purpose, but I'm not sure what that is.

Progress, Glorious Progress

First off, to stop putting the date on top of my posts. Evidently, the blog does not operate in Central Time, so I look like an idiot, which I'm not (not usually, anyway).

In my quest for something fulfilling to do after getting my master's degree, I'm making great strides. (Here's where I start getting negative.) Nothing to do yet, and I just put all my eggs for next semester into one basket, turning down a sure position for the possibility of a better position. I don't know why the whole application process needs to be so complicated and tedious. I guess, the process does eliminate the slackers. Such is life. I've managed to turn my CV into a resume, quite the challenge. I needed to get it from 5 pages to 3, all the while adding my new accomplishments. I filled out necessary applications. I hate forms, and I'm no good at them. I always print multiple copies because in the face of an application, it's not beyond me to spell my own name wrong. I still need to do more work on cover letters and letters of intent. How do you "brag" on yourself without sounding arrogant? Um, yeah, I just got those little awards, my students think I'm awesome, I'm the best teacher out there, so you should hire me. In the back of my mind, I fear that someone has already gotten the job, and the process is just a formality to satisfy some agency or university policy. I just need to get the committee in my head to shut up because I'm awesome, and they'll love me.

My grandson, who's napping while I write this, is not snoring for the first time since my daughter's family moved here. It's freaking me out. I keep going to check to make sure he's actually breathing. I keep telling myself to relax, that he's fine, but I must go check. It's nice for him that he can breath easily, but I don't have that reassuing "zzzz zzzz."

I'm as excited about Obama's announcement as anyone who's relatively moderate to left leaning. It's about time we rethought what it means to be equal, which doesn't necessarily mean being the same. Carolina was a disappointment, though.

This morning I read Mark Twain on James Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses. JFC is in my family tree, on nearer the trunk somewhere, so it was a bit of a blow. I'm further out in the branches than he is, where the wind has more power. It would have helped if I'd actually read  The Deerslayer or The Pathfinder, but when I do, I'll know what to look for--according to Twain, some hideous writing. I appreciated Twain's list of what writer's should do, though. I may not follow it, but at least if I don't, it'll be a choice rather than an oversight.

I'm off to face cover letters and letters of intent, where I'll chant Stuart Smalley's mantra: "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me."