Happy New Year!

Just dropping in to wish everyone a happy new year. I hope you dream the dreams only you can dream and write the stories only you can write. I hope your life is full of love. I hope your hopes become reality. I hope you fall in love or stay in love if you're already there. And if this year has been unkind to you in any way, I hope the new year turns the tide. Best!

Recovering

Sick yesterday, recovering today. Had a fever and couldn't seem to keep anything down yesterday morning (TMI?). Still a little feverish, but not as much.

However, I have Just After Sunset (new book of Stephen King short stories) and The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman) to keep me company. Now if I could only get rid of this damn headache. . . .

Grades

Two A's, one A-, and a B. The B was in Composition, but I think it's a fair grade, as my first two projects for the class were awful. (I was pretty rusty, and learning Logic Pro was . . . well, let's not go there.) So my GPA is 3.57--not too shabby, if I may toot my own horn. The real surprise was the software class, in which I thought, at best, I would get a B (proabably I should be putting these grades in quotation marks, but I'm too lazy today), but I ended up with an A-. When I told my friends, they wanted to know if I'd gotten my professor drunk. (No - but we were drunk along with the rest of my class and the class ahead of us . . . ooh, was that a fun party.) My dad wanted to know if I'd held a gun to his head. (No - not even a squirt gun.)

What I really dig about this program is how supportive everyone is of each other. It's a MUCH more positive environment than my last school (which I shall not name). Everyone is eager to trade ideas and talk about music. And while everyone knows how to loosen up after work, we don't forget the reason we're here. I know I won't have that support after I graduate, but it's nice to have it while I'm getting my bearings. This whole semester has been one long, expensive exercise in a) learning not to panic, and b) trusting my instincts. Hopefully by the time I graduate I'll be ready to fly.

Anyway. I feel even less coherent than yesterday. Maybe I just need a few more days to recuperate. Pics of the ice storm coming soon . . .

It's All Over . . .

. . . finally!!!!!!

So now I'm off to read Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norell or whatever the hell that book was. And a couple of books written by one of my professors, Enoch's Portal and The Last Days of Madame Rey. I'm going to try to pick up The Higher Power of Lucky, but I can't guarantee anything. I still have to pick up some sheet music for a weddding I'm playing and there's only so much money in the pot, you know. *eyes pot and laments the Dickensian amount* (Amount described in Dickens novels, not the oodles of money he had, that is.)

In other news, I learned to use my imac as a disk to which I transferred all my files from my laptop. Good thing. I just realized I transferred all my writing and deleted everything from my laptop to make room for a bunch of stuff I had on a computer at school. I don't yet have Word on my imac. Potentially bad thing? At any rate, now that I don't have those files on my laptop, anything I write over break will have to be new. I really, really don't want to start a new story that I won't finish. So I guess I'll just have to buckle down and finish something.

Am I even being coherent? My brain feels a lot heavier than it should, like an anchor ready to be thrown overboard a ship.

But all pressing work is done. Yay!!!!

You know, with all the bailouts going on, I'm wondering why I and my colleagues can't get a bailout, too.

Bright Spot

It's been one of those weeks. But a small bright spot is that I have a few continuations up on the Best New Beginning of 2008 Ballot on Evil Editor's blog. Surely voting in this is just as important and urgent as voting in this year's presidential election. Right?

No Rest for the Weary

Well, term is over, but things have not slowed down. I still have a paper due, since one of my instructors kindly gave us until this Friday to complete it. Then he'll turn in grades. I also have a sample due Friday to a director/producer guy in Oregon for a potential theater project. I have to go out of town this week as well, so it's unlikely I'll post any video or audio before January. What I'll probably do in the meantime is ramble on about my life. AND I may get some actual writing done. But what I'm really looking forward to is READING.

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You

We had our concert last night. As soon as I get a recording of my piece I'll put it up here.

followers

The only thing that's preventing me from putting up the Followers widget is the potential embarrassment that no one is actually following this blog.

Oh great

Governor Blagodevich—or G-Rod, as he's known around these parts—was arrested this morning for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder.

I'm ready for break.

Tired Post

Spent thirteen hours in the lab yesterday working on getting my score ready for the concert Tuesday. Went in this morning, thinking I would be done by noon. Instead I found myself rushing to get my score and parts finished before the music building closed at six. I was ready to leave at 3, but one of my profs "discovered" three measures at the beginning that needed cut. Which meant I needed to re-align the dialogue and re-do all the separate parts. And I printed a lot of paper. I felt like I wasted the life of a tree today.

But I got through it. And now I'm off to a party soon when all I really want to do is stay home and sleep. And tomorrow I have three lessons and the dress rehearsal for the concert. And I have to remember to call a potential student.

So this is what it feels like to have a life.

7 Book Facts . . . okay, 8

1. I read a lot of fiction and feel guilty about it now that I'm in school.

2. I have fantasies of trying to balance a best-selling writing career with a busy, fulfilling career in film composing. Which, given the lack of time I have to write fiction, is problematic. Yeah, not off to a good start with that.

3. I start a lot of books that I eventually finish, but I often take long breaks in the middle of a book. But I do finish them.

4. I never peek. Ever. I get upset if it happens by accident when I'm picking up or moving a book. I once ruined the climax of a book for D, and while I'm pretty sure he's forgiven me, I still feel guilty about it.

5. I have a knee-high stack of books that I've started and yet to finish.

6. I crave stories that are creepy but not gross. I often leave Borders or Barnes and Noble disappointed that I didn't find something to strike my mood (or that what I wanted was something I just couldn't afford). I started writing, really. to satisfy this craving, because truthfully, like lovers, there are very few writers who know how to meet my needs.

7. I love browsing for books. For me, any bookstore that has a coffeeshop attached rocks, because I love having a cup of chai tea or a mocha in my hand while I'm browsing.

8. I've discovered I'm not as into fantasy or horror as I once thought. When I think about it, there are only a few horror writers I really like, and not many more fantasy writers. Good writing is good writing, and I don't care whether it's genre or lit fic, though. I usually find something of merit in almost everything I read, but as I get older, I'm becoming more snobbish. I think that has to do with lack of time, both long and short. I look over my life, and think, "Holy crap. I only have a good fifty or sixty years left of reading. And that's if I keep my memory intact."