Category Archives: Iowa Writers Workshop

Gutterballs

21 Saturday Mar 2009

Posted by in Grandma All, Iowa City, Iowa Writers Workshop, Meredith, New York City, Sam, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Spring Break, St. Paul, The Big Lebowski, University of Iowa

≈ Leave a Comment

Watching The Big Lebowski. I decided to watch it after reading I’m a Lebowski, You’re a Lebowski, which I had to do to cheer myself up after reading about the bombing of Hiroshima for class. I didn’t think I would find a book more depressing than Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz. Then I read Letters from the End of the World: An Eye-Witness Account of the Bombing of Hiroshima. It turns out that things can get even more depressing than an account of someone being systematically dehumanized while being physically, mentally, and emotionally crippled by the intense suffering inflicted upon them by their fellow human beings.

As it happened, I was not accepted into the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, but I’m actually pretty happy with this turn of events. I’m excited for the future. Still haven’t heard from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, from which I’m supposed to get a letter sometime soon. I’m going to be glad when it comes, whether I get in or not. It’s the waiting that kills me. Plus, the program is really unique and innovative, which makes not knowing ten times harder. I could see myself living in the South Loop, going to grad school. And when they called me for my phone interview, it sounded like they thought they were stealing me away from the Worskhop. I just let them keep thinking that.

Woo hoo! SPRING BREAK!! Yeah, I spent it traveling with my parents. I spent St. Patrick’s Day with my parents and grandmother. I was in Spencer on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, celebrating my grandmother’s 96th birthday. She’s starting to talk more about going into a nursing home. Of course, she wants it to be near Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary. When we got to St. Paul, we spent an evening having dinner with Jim, Mary, and Kate. I told Jim about how Grandma manages to steer the conversation to Jim no matter what we’re talking about. For example: I was telling her about that book I was reading for class, and how horrifying it was to imagine this poor man running around the bombed-out city of Hiroshima, desperately seeking his family, and somehow, we went from talking about that to talking about how Jim spent so much of his free time helping the neighbors out with yard work without being asked. She also mentioned during this trip that Jim was such a perfect son, he never once threw a temper tantrum.
Anyway, we took Grandma to Cindy’s Steakhouse for her birthday dinner, and they brought her a small, yellow cake that was still warm. The whole meal was good, but the cake was especially nice. I think Grandma enjoyed herself, and she got to see a couple of her former students.

Then to St. Paul, where I bonded with my nephew and spent some time with my sister and her husband. Got another great meal from a fancified restaurant. We talked about my possibly staying up there for a while when the new baby comes, helping out a bit and saving money. I thought this might be nice, especially since Sam and I get along so well, and Meredith is able to get so much more done when she runs errands if there is someone else along to keep him occupied. When we went to Lowes on Thursday, she was able to get all of her business done while I took Sammy around the store. He seemed to like it. We looked at all the tools, then he sat in every riding lawn mower there. He calls them tractors. He also wanted to test out all of the bathroom fixtures: toilets, faucets, whathaveyous. It’s pretty easy to keep him entertained. I think we spent at least an hour over a period of three days sitting in their front window looking out at all of the cars passing by on the road. “Big truck!” “Where are the people going?”
Also, he’s scared of the car wash. Interesting.

So, that was spring break. Now I’m back in Iowa City sorting through things that I need to get rid of, being that I know for sure now that I’m not going to be here in the fall. The question is, where am I going? Chicago? St. Paul? New York City? Even Los Angeles is in the running.

For tonight, though, I’m keeping a narrow focus on movies and a Tombstone pizza that is currently cooking in my oven. Perfect, lazy end to a lazy spring break.

Twisted

01 Sunday Feb 2009

Posted by in Books, Iowa Writers Workshop, John Steinbeck, Mia Gallagher, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Super Bowl, the Loop

≈ Leave a Comment

Some one has used my debit card to make purchases at Wal-Mart. I have decided to track this person down and make them dead. I am hoping to get this on video tape.

I applied to the last school on my list, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They sent me a giant book full of information about the school and the city of Chicago. Now I’m kind of thinking that it wouldn’t be terrible if I wound up going there, though some of the student work they chose to include made me wonder if someone isn’t trying to sabotage the SAIC.
Two of the most awesomest things about Chicago: (1) The Gene Siskel Film Center – brand new, state-of-the art, the book calls it “the most technologically advanced film-viewing facility in the Midwest,” which I have heard repeated elsewhere. The Center shows movies every day of the week and only charges students $4. Plus, it also hosts courses and lectures, and panel discussions with guest directors, artists, and scholars. There is a cafe, but no booze. Anyway, number (2) The Poetry Center of Chicago, which is a non-profit organization that offers readings, workshops, residencies, and arts education. Their goal is to make poetry accessible to the general public, and their past guests include Billy Collins, Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Mary Oliver.
I would probably spend all of my time in these two places. Plus, there’s the Blues Fest, the Irish American Heritage Festival, and Taste of Chicago.
One more thing: a recent exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago was called, “2001: Building for Space Travel.”
Maybe it would be a bad idea for me to remain in Iowa City, even if I did get into the UI workshop. Twenty-three years old and I haven’t lived outside of Iowa yet – not really. Maybe Chicago is the right place to go. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about missing subzero temperatures and snow inside my shoes.
SAIC is right off Lake Shore, south of Wacker Drive. It’s probably really expensive to live there. Stuido apartments in the South Loops, where the school is located, start at around $1000 per month. Things are looking pretty bleak for me financially – I would have to work my ass off to get enough money together. Right now, all I can think about is how much I’d like to set here all day and read this book by Mia Gallagher that I picked up for on the plane in August. Still haven’t read it. It’s called “Hellfire,” her debut novel. And next to that, “East of Eden,” by Steinbeck. I should probably read that one first.

Today people are watching the Super Bowl. I have hamburger meat, beer, and high pulp orange juice. I am ready. Oddly, I have come to loathe the commercials that play during the Super Bowl. They used to be innovative, but now they just try way too hard. I will be keeping track of the game online.
Also, I am rooting for the Steelers because their defensive coordinator is named Dick LeBeau.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

29 Thursday Jan 2009

Posted by in Iowa Writers Workshop, Philosophy, Sam, school, travel

≈ Leave a Comment

Everyone:
I’m sending in my last grad school application on Saturday, I think. I will not know anything until April or May. It’s kind of disconcerting, not knowing where I’m going to be after my lease runs out on July 31 of this year. On the plus side, I get to ask people to give me suggestions about where I should go if I don’t get accepted into any grad schools. It is a possibility. If it happens, I will be running away to a big city. But where?
I don’t want to do that thing where you just spin the globe and go wherever your finger lands, and plus I don’t have a globe, but I am considering moving my entire life to a place I’ve never been. Or maybe I was there once and didn’t dislike it.
So please, if anyone out there has been around, I must decide within the next six months what to do with the next couple of years. Please send suggestions. I have considered becoming a matador.
I’m taking a philosophy class in a last ditch effort to expand my mind before I leave school – perhaps for good. This is a chance for me to learn something about truth and the universe, which I probably need because I’ve spent the last four years watching movies and reading books and writing. So I sit in class and I try to listen because I want to do well, and I really do want to learn this stuff. However, I can’t stop myself from writing poems and synopses for future short stories.
I’ll be taking notes in my notebook, talking about Frege and probably Sartre at some point, and somehow, I’m not sure just how it happens, I start copying lines that I think sound particularly poetic. Or maybe an anecdote in one of the texts gives me a good idea for a story, and I have to write it down before I forget. And that is stupid because most of the ideas I write down never end up becoming a story anyway. So I’m pretty much just throwing away perfectly good knowledge to think about something that probably doesn’t matter.
When I start thinking this way, I look at pictures my mom sends me of my sisters’ kids.
That’s my dad with the kid on his shoulders. And those shoes on the kid’s feet are Timberlands.
I love this kid, but I watched Juno the other day and was reminded why I never, ever want to be pregnant. Yucky. He’s cute though, right?
I think I’ve fulfilled my updating obligations now.
One more thing: Yes, one of the grad schools to which I applied is the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. I will definitely not find out anything until at least late March, probably April. If I get in, I will post an ecstatic message here. If I think of it. You’ll probably hear about it somehow.

If anyone has any extra Christmas cookies they need to unload, you know, taking up valuable freezer space, I can help you out with that. I’m still driving my van, and it has plenty of room for boxes and boxes of cookies, if need be. I will be responsible for the picking up and the hauling and all that stuff. I’ll also work with you if you’ve got cake, pie, fudge, or something with potatoes in it.