La Porte d’en Arrière: Sally Meets South

Let’s skip the whole part where I say I haven’t blogged in an eternity. Okay, good. Now: updates! Done with school! Got my assistantship to be full-time this summer! Am new poetry editor at Atlantis! Am new assistant editor for Ecotone! I moved downtown! With Eric! Into a pink house! Visited Michigan! :)! And now…

warning: long blog post to follow

I went on a fantastic 10-day road trip to see the real South. And it was real amazing.
The following blog post is a recap with some sprinklings of my actual journal notes along the trip (NOTE: Sometimes I was drunk when I wrote them, but mostly I was just in a rush to get back to seeing things, so they’re tiny and weird.)

Story: When I moved to Wilmington I kept being all, “yay, I live in the South now! It’s amazeballs and I love it!” But then I wrote this terrible poem about it and turned it into workshop and this girl with dimples and feather earrings was all, “we should talk about something: You know Wilmington isn’t really the South right?” Then I probably pointed to my hand and mumbled about being from MI so: I was in the South, okay, so let me enjoy my cockroaches and sunshine, please. But miss lady was not about to let me know Wilmington, NC as my only Southern experience.

Jade (miss dimples and feather earrings herself) became my official tour guide on this road trip. She is in all ways amazing and lovely. I trust her more than anyone I’ve ever known. Here is a picture of her when she was teaching an all girls bible study horse back riding class in high school:

And here she is now:

Jade is from Louisiana. Cajun country, Louisiana. Like, really: the exact location of the Cajun heartland. She’s Cajun, her family is Cajun. It’s a beautiful thing. I bug her all the time to tell me Cajun French phrases (like La Porte d’en Arrière which means “through the back door”).

We visited MI together and she got to see my family and the place I grew up and then we thought we should trade. Jade wanted to make sure I was fully aware about this Southern business and we started planning a long road trip to visit her family. We kept adding cities where she knew people or wanted to visit until finally we had: 10 days and 8 cities. One B&B and the rest of the time we were couch crashing and hoarding floors of friends.
I swear to goodness this is (part of) our actual itinerary, because I’m not normal so I had to write weird things:

And for visual learners:

Trip Calculator!

So, here we go:

We left on a Monday and traveled to Ashville. I didn’t start journaling until we left there but Ashville was amazing. A tiny, artsy town nestled in the mountains. We found good food there and I bought a leash hanger that is an orange beagle head. I know: awesome. On the road, Jade and I switched driving and paying for gas and Jade kept telling me I should buy a real book since I brought my Kindle.  (I had some crazy idea that I’d have a lot of time to read? So I had 5 new books for the road and I loaded them to my Kindle so I wouldn’t have to carry 5 books. I finished 1 and ¾ books. Which, actually, is amazing considering we didn’t have a lot of down time.)

Banana chair in Asheville!

HIGHLIGHTS: Harmony Bowl at the Laughing Seed, GF brownie, orange beagle head, not tired of driving yet
NOT SO GREAT: …….we couldn’t find a place to park for, like, five minutes?
We’re fifteen minutes from Nashville now but we went back in time so we’re right on schedule. Jade has to pee every 10 seconds but she still drinks water and coffee regularly anyway.

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Went to fancy drinks with Tom and Laura tonight and I ate the best gf sandwich of my whole life. Jade’s friends are the sweetest and I am so lucky. How could I deserve this? So many fireflies on the porch, we lit back signals with lighters.
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Tom and Laura are good friends of Jade’s and I met them previously. They are both wonderful people you’d want to be stuck on an elevator with. (or, in a plane for 30+ hours like Laura once was. Remember that earthquake in Japan? Remember that flight that was stuck? Yeah, that was her.)

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So much good food in Nashville it hurts. 

Went to meet with my uncle and he is in love with Jade. Then we ate burgers where not 6 months ago a man took his life. Life is the strangest thing.

Beer garden after and there was a cowboy named Harry who caught me a firefly with his hand like magic. Everyone in Nashville is magic. Everything is magic.

best latte since ever, Nashville, TN

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HIGHLIGHTS: Best GF Sandwich ever, fireflies, Parthenon at night, Hey Y’all Bye Y’all T shirt
NOT SO GREAT: Racist gas station

Onto Birmingham! We stayed 2 nights in Nashville making it the only place in our trip where we slept in the same bed more than once. Woah. Birmingham was just like Ashville in terms of our trip since we only ate lunch there and got (snooty) coffee.

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Birmingham just for lunch. met with Laurie who is so sweet and funny. It finally feels hot enough outside. Ready for real Southern heat, “like a mouth,” Jade says.

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Laurie went to Africa with Jade. She’s hilarious, and I only got to spend 1-2 hours with her.

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Car poem?:

To pull a river from its roots
to not find everything dirty
to be in your bed or any bed. To sleep
and sleep and eat the meat of coconut
before sleep. To light matches for the smell.
To be on the road; in the car on the road
needing to pee, needing coffee, caring hands
sleep again. To break bread and bawl in the basement
of a stranger during a storm. To want, really want
and to need. Need like water like place like
dust to know you’ve stayed somewhere long enough
to love, to die.

-

Woah, melodrama. But, the road does this to people.

HIGHTLIGHTS: people watching, Laurie, pretty side roads
NOT SO GREAT: mean barista at coffee shop
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Jackson today and last night. Smoked the sweetest tiny cigarettes from India. The dark is loud with bugs in Mississippi. Our waitress at the bar was awful. Kelly and Steve are so awesome. Hoping to taste grits today. The sun is shining. 

Kelly is Jade’s best friend and Steve is her boyfriend. They are hilarious. Kelly teaches elementary students so she has the funniest stories about her kids. I can tell where Jade gets a lot of her jokes/humor when I spend time with Kelly.

Jade and Kelly’s dog, Louis

HIGHLIGHTS: Whiskey sours, sunshine, Rainbow Grocery Store/Café, Blueberry Lemonade
NOT SO GREAT: Left too soon

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Vanilla scented smoke on the way to Louisiana, Jade’s state.
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We arrived in Baton Rouge to rain and more rain. Jade was sad about this, but I was so excited to meet all her friends. Jade went to LSU so I knew that a ton of her stories and experiences I’d heard about before would be from this place. We got to see the coffee shop where she worked, the campus (GUYS THERE IS AN ACTUAL LIVE TIGER ON LSU’S CAMPUS. HIS NAME IS MIKE. I’M SERIOUS), and we stayed at Gustavo and Andrew’s place. How do I describe Gustavo and Andrew and Laura to people who’ve never met them… They’re just really effing fantastic. And, let me tell you, good at karaoke.

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Karaoke at Skeeters last night. came home drunk and happy to a weak air mattress we borrowed from Eric. Everyone here is brilliant. Kind and welcoming. I can feel the home here.

Brunch in Baton Rouge

HIGHLIGHTS: Karaoke, all the food, Truly Free Café and Bakery, Meeting everyone
NOT SO GREAT: rained quite a bit, a little sick
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From Baton Rouge to Lafayette. Baton Rouge was amazing. Lindsey and Jade and I buried a poem at Radio Bar. My hands smelled of sazeracs and dirt. It’s raining now and we’re headed to hear Cajun music.
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Jade showed me around her hometown. Mary and Jai are so sweet. We drank too much, listened to blues and ate good food. The sky was stormy pink and prettier than anything I’d ever seen.

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HIGHLIGHTS: Got a nasty t-shirt at the oyster place, the oyster place was delicious, sunset, blues band, good company, and that crazy guy at Artmosphere asking us to buy him drinks
NOT SO GREAT: no Cajun band, and that crazy guy at Artmosphere asking us to buy him drinks
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New Orleans tried to not welcome us, what with the highway shutting down with us right in the middle. After a long detour we made it to drinks and Vietnamese food with Paulo and Margee

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So, yeah, when we got on the bridge (the only way into New Orleans if you want to get there fast) we slowed, slowed, stopped. Jade was driving but she got nervous after I tried to look up what was going on with my phone and could only find the words, “police activity shuts down highway.” So, we switched seats. In the car. Because there were people walking around our car smoking cigarettes/killing time/scaring the shit out of us. So, then we’re stuck and we can’t figure out why police activity would be a thing since there are no police, no ambulances, nothing around us. People start panicking/getting anxious and they exit from the on-ramp, they start turning their cars around and driving down the sides of the interstate to get to the previous exit. We stay put until an officer/man with a vest shines his light at us and tells us it would be faster to turn around. No further instructions. This is when we discover Jade and I panic in totally opposite ways. Me: YELL AND GIVE INSTRUCTIONS AND TAKE ACTION THAT IS NONSENSICAL. Jade: frozen.

So, there was that. Turns out there was a guy on the interstate bridge with a gun. He ended up jumping… but he was fine since the bridge wasn’t that high and the water was deep. So, no harm no foul?

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Slept on a pull-out couch, woke to a tiny cat named Milks staring at me with her blue eyes. Probably wondering if I was alive. Today, in New Orleans, I am so alive.
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New Orleans: amazing. we found a bearded dragon and kept him overnight. Got so drunk on wine and happy last night- feeling it today in the car on the way to Savannah. Scenic route through Georgia, red clay lines the road and Jade keeps gasping at beautiful houses.

HIGHLIGHTS: Coffee, walk-around margaritas, that place where we saw Seth Rogan (IT WAS DELICIOUS and a garden and there was too much wine), found a bearded dragon
NOT SO GREAT: Bearded dragon in bathroom, we thought we were going to die when we drove in

So then we’re on the road to Savannah and we’re excited because the CUTEST people have called us to tell us our B&B reservation is all set and they ask us our dietary restrictions (of which we have many) and they were so nice and then they call and say “Something happened…” so we can’t stay there. Cool. I immediately think someone was murdered there. Jade says it was probably a leak. One of us was right.

We got accommodated at a neighboring B&B and it was gorgeous! So, so pretty and we had the place to ourselves! Our hostess? the owner? She was interesting. She basically has been to school for everything under the sun and she is trying to be a government employee next. I think? Because B&B owning, makeup artistry, coast guarding, public policy, dive bar operating, etc wasn’t doing it for her anymore. She was nice and really sad when we let her know a bird hit her window and died right there on her back porch (seriously) but she was a little neurotic. Let me tell you though, that woman could cook. Mmmm rosemary potatoes under eggs with fancy coffee and fresh-squeezed juice. Okay by me.

The inn at 909 Lincoln

HIGHLIGHTS: New B&B was amazing, Flannery O’Connors house, lunch at Kayak, walking along the river, plans to come back, crazy hostess lady, petting farm, moon river
NOT SO GREAT: change of plans, crazy hostess lady, dead bird, not enough time!

Sentimentality, USA: When Your First Semester of Graduate School is Over and You’re Basically a Brand-New Person

You would think, since I’ve been in graduate school for one whole semester now and since I graduated college and since I say I’m a writer, that I’d be able to adequately, intelligently and concisely describe my emotions and thoughts regarding this past semester. You’d be very wrong. See, these past four months have been some of the best, most important, and terrifying (in a good way!) months of my life. I cannot describe to you my happiness in meeting all of these wonderful, talented, kooky, courageous, beautiful people. I cannot explain my elation at being in a program so welcoming, so established, so forward-thinking, so motivating. I cannot tell you about the ways in which this break up, and this search for the new me has changed me and made me a stronger person, a better person; a person I am proud to be. I cannot make clear the ways in which my writing has been better, been new, been something I’m really, really excited about since coming here. I cannot do any of those things with any hope of perfectly getting down how much all of this has meant to me. But I can try.

So, I’m living in this tiny apartment with this tiny dog and this enormous happiness. I moved to this tiny apartment with a plan to not buy a parking pass, with a man, with a general idea of what the next three years looked like. And then, because I needed it, life just said: fuck all that. Because that man was not right, because that general idea that people have about their lives only works if it’s a general idea and not planned minutia. The world just doesn’t work that way. So. I was broken. Remember that? But, then it turns out it was like I was always broken. It was as if my arm was out of place for so long and then this doctor comes in the room to give me this awful news that they have to force my arm to break so it can heal correctly. And this doctor says, listen, this is going to hurt. A lot. But then it will start healing and then you’ll see how bad it hurt before. How it hurt all along and you didn’t notice it since it was this constant thing you just dealt with all the time, and that it could have felt better.

So, now, I’m living in this tiny apartment in this tiny town and making tiny promises to myself. And I have the most wonderful and supportive people around me to help me keep those promises. To have met these people at all, and to see how brave they are, how talented, would have been enough. But instead, I am finding a home. I am finding a comfort in being the exact person I am and not making any apologies for that person. And all these people are helping me be that person, and helping me like that person. It’s incredible. I don’t know how to thank them. I’m the baby of this program and I feel as though everyone here, including a smaller group of people I’ve grown exceptionally close to, are cheering me on and watching me take these first steps in being a freer, better me, one even more-so than the girl they first met, just four months ago.

And I don’t know how to thank this program and these people and the professors that make it so great. The classes I took this semester were so unbelievably rewarding. My workshop was amazing: I grew so much as a poet in that class. And a poem workshopped in that class is going to AWP. I learned so much about my aesthetic and what I like to read in Ecotone. Writer’s Week was phenomenal. Getting to take Melissa Range to Strictly Business would have been worth it all, but the whole experience was really exceptional. I learned SO much in Book Building and am so, so thrilled to get to work for LookOut next semester. Listing them so shortly like that really doesn’t do them justice, but, for now (as I’m crying) it will have to suffice.

I had such high hopes for this post, and now I’ve spiraled into a crying, sappy mess at how happy I am and how much I’ve grown as a person and how much things have changed in such wonderful ways. On top of this, I’m seeing my family on TUESDAY, which is really close, and I’m going to be a ball of love in a city where it snows.

Oh, Wilmington, with your palm trees and excessive U-turns, and your brunches, and your downtown, and your horses, and your ghosts, and your late-night establishments, and your inhabitants: how I will miss every inch of you while I’m gone to the Mitten. I’ll be back for the New Year, but it seems I’ve already started new. Seems I’ve already made resolutions, already counted down to a beginning, to a fresh start. Seems I’ve already put on a sparkly too-tight dress, sky-high heels and toasted to the hope of all things new and exciting and good. Wait for me on that midnight, Southern sky, and I’ll be back to kiss you into the new, new, happy new year.

 

Uh-huh, yeah, write

 

when things are broken

When things are broken you have to fix them or get new things.

Aren’t the rules of broken things so deceivingly simple?

Lately I’ve been dealing with so many broken things and to evaluate each one is getting exhausting: fix or throw away and get a new thing? But, it’s not all bad. Sometimes you just really need a new thing. Sometimes fixing something feels so very good when it’s fixed.

And then, sitting in this sea of broken things I’m broken, too. And of course I need to just fix me. But, being only 22 I’m sort of searching for a way to just get a whole new one of me. A one that doesn’t back down or be too forgiving of people or events that break things. A one that stands up for everyone she loves and recognizes (as this new person) that she is someone she loves.

See, I’m broken out in hives right now. Broken skin. What I do when I’m this kind of broken is fix. I take a shower. Apply too much lotion. Take a couple deep breaths, a Benadryl, and go to sleep. I wait for scarring. I wait for a new layer of skin to come back. So, then, this fixed thing really is new. And I’m so lucky to have this affliction that sheds itself. That rids itself of its outer layer all the time, saying, leave, you broken thing, we need a new thing. 

But my littlebig heart can’t do that. And I wouldn’t want it to. But, as all the clichéd songs may tell you, you can’t fix a broken heart with duct tape like maybe I do with a lot of broken things. You can’t go to Target to buy a new one like you do a shower curtain, a sweater. This is the biggest broken thing I’m dealing with and maybe I’m not being so fair to it, because I’ve been neglecting it the most. Even not posting on this blog in fear of saying it out loud: Sean and I broke up. Broke. I failed him and he failed me in a way that can’t just be fixed like I tried so, so hard to do for so, so long.

And don’t give me a handful of time and say it will do the job of toiling hands. It won’t. Not on its own. But I don’t want a new thing. Not now. Not yet. So instead I just have to fix this half a thing, which is me. For now, at least, I’m just half a broken thing. But when I get to fixing that thing, which I’ve started to do (with the tremendous help of wonderful people here in Wilmington and my family back home and miss Molly and with the writing of about 12000 terrible poems), I’m going to be a whole fixed or a whole new thing. And then I’ll be breakable again, and that’s more than terrifying, but you don’t buy a new thing or fix a broken thing with the intention of never using it again, then you wouldn’t go to all that trouble to replace it. It has a job to do or it has a person to make smile or it just has a special place in your heart or home and it needs to be fixed.

But all this may take a while. Or it might be really hard. Harder than my initial forced smile wanted to admit. But, I have made the hardest steps in admitting I am broken and in searching for the way to fix or make new this brokenness.

It’s not entirely fair all the things that happened to me to get me this broken, all the things I let happen. And so in fixing myself I need to evaluate what it is that made me that way. Maybe I was always broken, that little mechanism that said that’s not right was turned off in me or turned down too low. Maybe I just wanted to be happy and wanted to make another person happy, so much so that I ignored it. Looking back it’s much easier to see how many times a little broken me should have fixed herself and said something to the effect of no or look, darling, you’ve got the wrong Holly Golightly but really I was quite blindsided by so many truths that turned out to always be just little broken lies. I should have known. Feel stupid for not knowing now, but how could I have? I really was in love. I really did think we had a whole thing. But, you can’t have a whole thing made of two people if one of those people doesn’t think the same thing.

And, so I’m broken. But just for now.

“I’m not Holly. I’m not Lula Mae, either. I don’t know who I am! I’m like cat here, a couple of no-name slobs. We belong to nobody and nobody belongs to us. We don’t even belong to each other.”

-Holly Golightly, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

 

Uh-huh, yeah, write

 

It’s Been So Long

Well, a whole month has gone by without a post, and the news here is: I’ve started beekeeping school. And I’m busy with real (grad) school. And I’m busy with my assistantship. And I have started to accumulate the most fantastic people around me. I feel very loved, cared for, and welcomed.

Also, my poetry is changing. I’m writing about new things. Different things. I’m writing them differently. They are looking different on the page. Maybe my blogs will, too. Maybe I will, too.

I realize that I am very young and have quite the way to go before cementing a self (in fact, I’ve thought lately that I hope I’m 92-years-old some day, still asking: who are you? what do you want? what do you like? I’d say that’s realistic, rather than unstable).

Nevertheless: I have started a list of values. A list of Dos. A list of Do Nots. Of toleration, and absolutes. Because I think this is important. I need to make sure I know these things for myself, and I encourage you to have your own list. Maybe you’re older than me, or just wiser, and you had this figured out so long ago. But, alas, here I am. And here is my list so far. I made the first page pretty. And then it started growing… so the rest will have to be in boring type. But, it’s okay.

Do not play games. The kind with people’s hearts. The kind with your heart.

Be up front.

This, too, shall pass.

Tell others how you feel.

Tell yourself how you feel.

Try something new.

Try more new things.

Do something that scares you.

Travel.

Your life is not a movie.

Do not judge.

Learn. Keep learning.

Believe in romance, but do not fall for charm. There is a difference.

Looks are just looks.

Remember how strong you are.

Find someone, find lots of people, that make you laugh.

Find someone who challenges you.

But who accepts you. For you.

Find out who you are.

Even if you’re changing.

Accept that person.

Only change if it is for yourself.

Life is not a competition.

It’s okay to talk about sex.

It’s okay to find beauty in everything.

It’s okay if your workshop poems are bad. They are there to get good.

Crying is necessary sometimes.

Being lazy is necessary sometimes.

But: smile more and work harder.

It’s okay that you don’t have the same political and religious views of some of your loved ones. It doesn’t mean you love them less. It shouldn’t mean they love you less.

Maturing and finding your values are changing does not make you a hypocrite.

Accept the trials you were given.

You need money. You don’t need a lot of it.

Question everything.

You can be realistic and optimistic.

Tell someone when they have something in their teeth.

Hug people often.

Laugh.

Keep laughing.

Try to remember everything.

Act your age, otherwise you’ll miss some good years.

Goof off, though, that’s perfectly acceptable.

Do not litter.

Be a good loser.

Be a good winner.

Read more poetry.

Write more poetry.

Submit more poetry.

Borrow more books.

Trust people.

Be trustworthy.

Do things you like doing.

Make decisions for yourself.

Be happy.

∞

The list is ever-growing.

∞

Uh-huh, yeah, write

Asking for an Inch: And Getting What You Get When You Ask for an Inch

The past nine days have been: a lot.

A week ago today, my older sister (Kelsey) and her boyfriend and best friend of 7 years (Travis) got married. I was a bridesmaid along with my two other sisters and three of her closest friends. The groomsmen were composed of my two brothers, Travis’ brother-in-law, a good friend of his, and the other two guys that make up Kelsey’s closest friends. What’s cool about my sister’s group of friends, which includes Travis, is that they are so inseparable. Ever since I can remember living in our new house (we moved when I was in 5th grade and Kelsey was in 6th) I remember these people being around her- or accumulating through the years and then never splitting up. Kelsey’s maid of honor referred to her as “the heartbeat” to that group of friends, and my dad described her passion and unfailing loyalty, which I think put a finger on exactly what is so special about my sister. I went the funnier route and opted on telling about her stubbornness and “animal” skills.

The wedding was perfect, really. We all had so much fun dancing and catching up and now we have a forthcoming “quote book” of all the crazy shenanigans that happened in the days leading up to, the day of, and the day following the wedding. I returned how one should after a wedding: exhausted. I got there Friday morning, which meant I left my apartment Thursday night (after class) to sleep at Sean’s family’s house (2 hours away) which is near the airport. I got up at 3:45 to be at the airport by 4:30 and boarded my first plane. I had a layover and was then in Grand Rapids by 9:30. It was nice since I got to have breakfast with Sean’s mom and catch up with her and then I went to get my nails done with the ladies.

After the wedding (read a weekend of not sleeping) I needed to be back to class by Monday, so I did the whole get up early thing all over again to board and unload off two more planes to get to Raleigh by 9:30 and then drive the two hours back to Wilmington. Oh, and I had homework. A lot.

Then came Tuesday. And I got really sick. Full on head cold: cough, stuffy/runny nose, sore throat, headache, achey, just blahhh. But, I didn’t have class that day so I just stayed and worked from home trying to feel better. Too bad I was also sick Wednesday and Thursday and yesterday. I’m only now starting to feel better, but luckily it’s randomly cold here in Wilmy so I feel like snuggling up and relaxing while doing homework.

I was starting to feel pretty overwhelmed with everything: being sick, feeling behind since I was gone all weekend, class, my assistantship, my second job. I remember I was doing the dishes and just venting to Sean, “It’s all so much. I feel like I’m always behind on something. Maybe I’ll work a few less hours at my job. But, I can’t since I need the money to, you know, eat.”

Then there was Thursday night. I went to a reading of David Gessner’s after class and was walking home, feeling sick, but it was the perfect temperature. I could hear all these cicadas and crickets and the fountains of the 3 lakes in the center of campus. It was pitch black and I stopped to watch this toad that was hopping across the sidewalk and I was like: Duh. What am I complaining about!? This, right here, is exactly the place I need to be right now. At UNCW, in general, busy, in general, and at that place on campus after a David Gessner reading in specific.

But, dear readers, I had asked the grad. school gods, or whoever for a little breathing room. For an inch. And I was given, well…

Well, I was laid off from my job. Not my assistantship, which pays for school (SIGH OF RELIEF). But the extra job I had to pay for everything else the assistantship didn’t cover. Realistically, Sean and I discovered, it will be fine. After I was mad and sad and confused we realized it will just be a little tighter around here, but not disastrous. And, anyway, maybe when you need a break you’re given a break. A big one. I feel relieved that I was let go because the company we do outsourcing work for pulled its business from the company I work for, so it wasn’t something I did, or it wasn’t some rearranging of the company that was personal in even a small way. Which is the weirdest part, maybe. I was working as a freelancer technically. I could always go back to work for them again, if they ever have enough work for me to do. But, for now, I guess, I have a lot more time to do exactly what I came here to do:

Write. Read. Live off cheap meals and complain like a good starving artist that I’m broke. Go to Class. Learn. Absorb. Work for my assistantship. Write some more, read some more, learn some more. Complain some less. And just be happy.

Now, to just not be sick anymore…

Uh-huh, yeah, write

Weathering All: First Weeks of Classes, Busy Schedules and a Nice Lady Named Irene

Okay, blog, we’re alive. I can’t even blame the hurricane for my lack of posting. But, this is what you can expect now. Fewer posts or smaller posts seeing as I’m now currently working 2 jobs, going to graduate school full-time, am getting involved in the GSA, intramural sports (!?) and BEEKEEPING CLASSES.

Let me see if I can start from a logical place and move in a logical order. It will be a challenge since my mind is literally all over the place.

Okay, last week was my first week of classes and I am even more the crazy in-love-with-school girl than even I anticipated. My professors are amazing– they are wonderful writers, teachers and mentors and I’m so, so glad to be in the classes I am in for this semester. In a last-minute switcheroo, I changed my theory course for a book building and design course. So now my classes are: a workshop (where I work on my poems and get to read others), the bookbuilding, the literary magazine class and writer’s week. I’ll explain more about writer’s week when we get there, because for now I only meet with that class at random times, but suffice it to say it’s going to be ah-may-zing.

Speaking of exciting things, North Carolina weather has decided the whole let’s-be-sunny-everyday thing was getting old so it decided to throw a few waterspouts, earthquakes our way. And of course Miss Irene came to town. Which is when we promptly left town. But not before our friends Josh and Alyssa came to visit, I was on a live interview for Kalamazoo news reporting the storm (????), and I had two of my first classes. Always exciting over here, folks, always exciting.

Onto: BEEKEEPING! Our new friends Chrissy and Nathan found out about these awesome beekeeping classes in Wilmington starting in October. HOLY EXCITEMENT I CANNOT BE CONTAINED. This is literally the most wonderful thing invented, as far as I’m concerned, and I can’t wait to report on how awesome it is.

Bottom line and summary for all you skimmers: This semester is going to be amazing, fantastic, wonderful, busy and a blast.

 

OH! And I have pictures up on my Facebook of all our adventures thus far (park, beach, campus) and we saw an alligator, a real one! Wish us luck with all this craziness and swamp monsters!

Uh-huh, yeah, write

Something to Write Home About: DIY Projects, First Week, and Pictures

It is our one week anniversary with our little apartment (awwww). Though, actually, Sean’s still in Cary so it’s just me and Molly hanging out in our new place.

We're getting really good at just hanging out, I might add.

These past seven days have been full of a lot of new things, faces and places. I’m gearing up for school to start next Wednesday (!) and Sean will be officially moving down here that same day and bringing our friends Josh and Alissa who will be visiting from Michigan. The next couple weeks are going to be crazy busy with class, work, assistantship, Sean’s birthday, our 2-year anniversary (another awww) and getting Sean settled. Then, once we’re probably all into a good schedule I’m going solo to Michigan for my sister, Kelsey’s wedding while Sean stays back in Wilmy for his orientation. Phew, I’m exhausted and excited just thinking about it all!

Being in Wilmington has been a blast so far. When people ask me how I’m liking it I reply: It already feels like home. There’s something so right about living here, something that fits. Maybe it’s because I’m going back to school where I feel most comfortable and confident, or maybe because I’ve gussied up our place with all things Sean and Sally (and Molly) but the atmosphere of this whole town, all the people, the weather are just fitting me like a clichéd little glove. I haven’t even gotten lost yet, which is miraculous, but also probably lends itself to the fact that I should get in my car and drive around more of the city.

Nerd alert: I’m getting so excited for classes. I bought my books (2 books of poetry and one enormous anthology of theory) and was all giddy, even shelling out $120. I’ve been walking to campus for meetings for my assistantship and for orientation, and I am still in the honeymoon phase of loving campus. Loving campus when it’s sunny and warm, when it’s raining and flooding, when the shadows are as long as the dripping moss. Every building is just classic brick with white pillars and accents. They are gorgeous. It helps that it’s warm and it’s not busy on campus yet. I’m going to try to keep my love affair smouldering for campus even when it’s packed with a lot of hurried bodies and when it starts to get colder. But, I can’t wait for fall. Autumn is my favorite season: I love the leaves, the smells, the cooler air for layering, the fact that school is back. Everything. I’ve been assured by some NC natives that I won’t have to go totally without my apple-picking, apple cider-drinking, hay-riding fall tomfoolery, so that’s a relief. And, I think since this isn’t Michigan acting like a teenage girl about the seasons, it will become fall slowly and beautifully and stay that way until a slow and beautiful winter emerges.

Meeting all of the other MFA students is making me so grateful. Everyone I meet is so genuinely nice and welcoming, or as anxious as I am, or ready to take me under their wing. They supply words of wisdom, warnings and a lot of good laughs. I’m so lucky to be surrounded by such creative and inspiring people and I can’t wait to get to know them even more, as writers, mentors and friends as the years progress. AND Chrissy, Nathan, Erika (new friends! Chrissy’s blog here) went to a free showing of Vanishing of the Bees and got really depressed because bees are dying or disappearing due to Colony Collapse Disorder (AKA pesticide poison), tortured and raped and all sorts of terrible things…but THEN Chrissy found a beekeeping class for this fall and we are going to enroll! Holy happiness this is the best thing. Sean is just as excited, and I’ll make sure to take plenty of bee pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Speaking of pictures for your viewing pleasure: here are some crafts I’ve been working on to help Casa Wetherell/Johnson (Wetherson?) get to lookin’ mighty fine:

Clothespins+Magnets=Easy Peasy Magnetic Chip Clips

Sean and my budget is pretty tight, seeing as we’re grad-students and I’m a starving artist in the making, so we said: we’ll decorate and make nice our place but only with gifts, freebies, things we already owned and dollar store items. Done and done, ladies and gentleman.

Dolla sto. Organization at its finest... I mean, cheapest.

A place for Molly’s leash and my keys and the umbrella. And it was one Washington. Perfection.

Cork board and pins and Original McKenna Landis Jewelry.

This looks so fancy and it was very easy. Bonus: It’s actually very functional. I was afraid I’d just stop wearing the things on the cork board for fear of messing it up,  but actually, now that everything is in full view I’ve been wearing a better variety of my jewelry. P.S. The first four earrings in the line are all earrings I made with McKenna (Sean’s 10-year-old cousin). She is an amazing jewelry-maker and has made me quite the fashion icon.

"Can I help?"

Note: Molly’s cuteness is her own DIY project she’s been working on. She’s reached perfection levels.

My shelf filled with inspiration and knickknacks

I’m loving these built-in shelves/offices.

I'm a really big fan of using shells as jewelry holders. Pretty thing holding pretty things. You can't go wrong.

Seriously, shells are so free/inexpensive and beautiful.

Add shells to my magnet-making abilities.

And so versatile.

Shadow box in the making...

I just need a shadow box…

Before

These are maps from London, Paris and Rome from Sean and my trip to Europe last summer. We wanted to have them all framed but that would be costly, so we got this big frame for me to play around with. I rearranged the maps and added pictures from our trip and THEN our friends Chrissy and Nathan very generously gave us these gorgeous, canvas natural vegetation maps of all the continents. I decided to put North America on the right and Europe on the left, sort of signifying our journey.

Ta-da!

I’m in love. And Seany got us that pillow from a Dollar General and it’s the coolest, nicest feeling thing. If I hadn’t just told you it was from Dollar General, you’d mistake us for rich folk spending oodles on just throw pillows.

Sunny!

That’s all for now! Molly wants another go at her evening walk since this last one was cut short by an impromptu rainfall. We’ve had to reduce her walks since she exerts so much energy getting up and down our 3 flights of stairs, but I’m hoping that’s just building her stamina.

 

Uh-huh, yeah, write