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Of Poets, Pudding and the Ice-Cold Sophia
May. 15th, 2003 11:58 pmToday was an interesting day. I got up early, as usual on a Thursday. I woke from strange dreams and light sleep, again as usual on a Thursday. In addition to that, my Krishna pendant was sticking to my neck and I was sweaty all over o.o;. I had decided to wear the pendant in bed for protection, in case that thing that scratched decided to pay me another visit. I locked the door for additional protection.
So, I was on the train and I even nabbed a seat, thus enabled to read the story of the creative writing class. Alice Walker, Everyday Use. Very nice story. At Creative Writing (conducted by the wondeful Richard), I was surprised by a guest speaker, a poet called Gene Justice. He told us a lot of very interesting things, including the creation of a poetry quarterly. To finish off he let us play editorial board and we had to choose two poems among four, pretending we were going to publish them. It was interesting, because we just couldn't agree. Some hated things, some loved them, otheres wanted rewrites, others made fun of it... it was a mixed group. Then in the end Gene let us know that we should remember that this is what going to happen to our stuff when we submit it somewhere. It might get rejected, but it doesn't mean it was horrible or we suck as writers. It just means that we didn't meet their criteria or that we didn't fit the style or we just didn't hit the right note. So, it's nothing personal to be rejected. That was a good lesson to learn. I found it interesting how Gene kept telling us that his journal was at a point where the were just "knocking back things", which apparently an editor's dream. Figures, I'd say! XD
After that we had a public reading of stuff we had written. Well, of three volunteers anyway. I couldn't have been dragged up there if my life had depended on it. There's one boy in my class, Sebastian. His English is horrible and so is his pronunciation. Yet he's so courageous. He went up there, read out his story that was riddled with mistakes and yet very good and he just... did it. That impressed me. I wrote lots of suggestions on his paper and I think his flash fiction can turn out to be really nice. The other story we looked at was nice, too, but it wasn't really finished yet, so it was a bit hard to talk about. Gwen, a girl I already knew from Nature Writing, and I had a lot of fun writing comments on her page. I drew a small pirate smiley on it that said "Arrrrrr!" *g*. The story was about a Jacob and I wrote "The biblical character? XD". Then I considered some and added "Works actually... wrestles with God and all... heh."
When the class was finished, I noticed that I had three calls on my cell. One of them was from work where they told me that the boss had called in sick and I didn't need to come in. Too bad that I would have to hang around five hours then and I really didn't feel like that. So I insisted I get some work. Especially since I'd have to do those five hours some other time then >_<. And I actually got a task. I had to do an errand for the boss. I was very happy to, because that meant I could take a nice walk. I did my best to enjoy that. I saw lots of nice things on my way to the other building.
I went to that office where I was supposed to drop off a paper that needed to be signed, then take it with me and drop it off at the office that needs it. The boss-boss-boss was in some conference, so I waited outside for a bit. Suddenly she came out with the paper and started ranting, "I can't believe [name of boss] sent a student worker with this paper! Don't you have better things to do? What a waste of resources!!!" and she ranted and ranted. I was kinda standing there and didn't know what to say. I assured her that I didn't mind coming and that the paper probably was urgent, but she wouldn't want to hear about it. She kept insisting it was such a waste of working power and then the dean came past and she told him that, too. I mean, she never actually attacked ME, she rather attacked my boss, as if she was saying "You poor thing, look at what this woman is making you do!" but I kinda felt like I had to be loyal to my boss. Mostly because I'll get it back if she gets yelled at -.-;.
So when I got back to the office I told the secretary and she kinda went -.-; and said she expected that. Since, of course, the boss waited till the last possible moment to hand in an important paper. She needed some parking permission and tomorrow is the deadline and she waited till today and it was clear that the paper won't go around with house mail that fast. So, I kinda understand the boss-boss-boss because she hates it how my boss always waits so long with everything. But that doesn't change the fact that whenever the boss gets yelled at or into trouble she'll give it back to us right away. So I'd rather have my boss be yell-free.
What annoyed me the most about this incident was that the boss-boss-boss kept insisting that it had been such a waste and I just wanted to say, "No! It wasn't a waste! I got to take a nice walk in the fresh morning air that smelled of fresh air. I got to gaze at the Academy of Fine Arts and pine for a bit. I saw two pidgeons build a nest on top of a ticket machine. They just flew into the passage with twigs in their beaks. They flew so close past me that I could see their eyes and I felt like I could touch them. They were so sure of me not disturbing them as they flew past me again and dove into a bush to grab more twigs. How could that have been a waste? I saw the posters for Matrix Reloaded and felt a jolt of joy in my heart at thinking about seeing it. I thought about a beautiful story I could write. And then it started to rain, Ice-Cold Sophia's tears touching my face. And I could see her, how she looked, imagine her in all details, standing next to Bonifatius and Pancratius in icy grey and I wanted to draw her so badly. How could that have been a waste? I had a homeless man talk to me and give me a magazine. I saw students preparing some odd demonstration who couldn't even spell the word "resistance" right and I was given a goody-bag with pudding and shampoo and lotion and tomato soup! How could any of that have been a waste? Do you really feel the need to get so cooked up over something so stupid as some signature?" I really wanted to say that. But then I didn't want to give her my thoughts. They were all mine.
At around 1 PM I gave up trying to pretend I had work to do and I called it a day. I decided to skip my 4 PM class and drove home. Having found an early time slot, the travel back home was rather smooth. At home I found a pissed Sherlock who had gotten into hail and was now hating the world. I kissed his head and changed into my comfy clothes.
No, this day definitely wasn't a waste.
So, I was on the train and I even nabbed a seat, thus enabled to read the story of the creative writing class. Alice Walker, Everyday Use. Very nice story. At Creative Writing (conducted by the wondeful Richard), I was surprised by a guest speaker, a poet called Gene Justice. He told us a lot of very interesting things, including the creation of a poetry quarterly. To finish off he let us play editorial board and we had to choose two poems among four, pretending we were going to publish them. It was interesting, because we just couldn't agree. Some hated things, some loved them, otheres wanted rewrites, others made fun of it... it was a mixed group. Then in the end Gene let us know that we should remember that this is what going to happen to our stuff when we submit it somewhere. It might get rejected, but it doesn't mean it was horrible or we suck as writers. It just means that we didn't meet their criteria or that we didn't fit the style or we just didn't hit the right note. So, it's nothing personal to be rejected. That was a good lesson to learn. I found it interesting how Gene kept telling us that his journal was at a point where the were just "knocking back things", which apparently an editor's dream. Figures, I'd say! XD
After that we had a public reading of stuff we had written. Well, of three volunteers anyway. I couldn't have been dragged up there if my life had depended on it. There's one boy in my class, Sebastian. His English is horrible and so is his pronunciation. Yet he's so courageous. He went up there, read out his story that was riddled with mistakes and yet very good and he just... did it. That impressed me. I wrote lots of suggestions on his paper and I think his flash fiction can turn out to be really nice. The other story we looked at was nice, too, but it wasn't really finished yet, so it was a bit hard to talk about. Gwen, a girl I already knew from Nature Writing, and I had a lot of fun writing comments on her page. I drew a small pirate smiley on it that said "Arrrrrr!" *g*. The story was about a Jacob and I wrote "The biblical character? XD". Then I considered some and added "Works actually... wrestles with God and all... heh."
When the class was finished, I noticed that I had three calls on my cell. One of them was from work where they told me that the boss had called in sick and I didn't need to come in. Too bad that I would have to hang around five hours then and I really didn't feel like that. So I insisted I get some work. Especially since I'd have to do those five hours some other time then >_<. And I actually got a task. I had to do an errand for the boss. I was very happy to, because that meant I could take a nice walk. I did my best to enjoy that. I saw lots of nice things on my way to the other building.
I went to that office where I was supposed to drop off a paper that needed to be signed, then take it with me and drop it off at the office that needs it. The boss-boss-boss was in some conference, so I waited outside for a bit. Suddenly she came out with the paper and started ranting, "I can't believe [name of boss] sent a student worker with this paper! Don't you have better things to do? What a waste of resources!!!" and she ranted and ranted. I was kinda standing there and didn't know what to say. I assured her that I didn't mind coming and that the paper probably was urgent, but she wouldn't want to hear about it. She kept insisting it was such a waste of working power and then the dean came past and she told him that, too. I mean, she never actually attacked ME, she rather attacked my boss, as if she was saying "You poor thing, look at what this woman is making you do!" but I kinda felt like I had to be loyal to my boss. Mostly because I'll get it back if she gets yelled at -.-;.
So when I got back to the office I told the secretary and she kinda went -.-; and said she expected that. Since, of course, the boss waited till the last possible moment to hand in an important paper. She needed some parking permission and tomorrow is the deadline and she waited till today and it was clear that the paper won't go around with house mail that fast. So, I kinda understand the boss-boss-boss because she hates it how my boss always waits so long with everything. But that doesn't change the fact that whenever the boss gets yelled at or into trouble she'll give it back to us right away. So I'd rather have my boss be yell-free.
What annoyed me the most about this incident was that the boss-boss-boss kept insisting that it had been such a waste and I just wanted to say, "No! It wasn't a waste! I got to take a nice walk in the fresh morning air that smelled of fresh air. I got to gaze at the Academy of Fine Arts and pine for a bit. I saw two pidgeons build a nest on top of a ticket machine. They just flew into the passage with twigs in their beaks. They flew so close past me that I could see their eyes and I felt like I could touch them. They were so sure of me not disturbing them as they flew past me again and dove into a bush to grab more twigs. How could that have been a waste? I saw the posters for Matrix Reloaded and felt a jolt of joy in my heart at thinking about seeing it. I thought about a beautiful story I could write. And then it started to rain, Ice-Cold Sophia's tears touching my face. And I could see her, how she looked, imagine her in all details, standing next to Bonifatius and Pancratius in icy grey and I wanted to draw her so badly. How could that have been a waste? I had a homeless man talk to me and give me a magazine. I saw students preparing some odd demonstration who couldn't even spell the word "resistance" right and I was given a goody-bag with pudding and shampoo and lotion and tomato soup! How could any of that have been a waste? Do you really feel the need to get so cooked up over something so stupid as some signature?" I really wanted to say that. But then I didn't want to give her my thoughts. They were all mine.
At around 1 PM I gave up trying to pretend I had work to do and I called it a day. I decided to skip my 4 PM class and drove home. Having found an early time slot, the travel back home was rather smooth. At home I found a pissed Sherlock who had gotten into hail and was now hating the world. I kissed his head and changed into my comfy clothes.
No, this day definitely wasn't a waste.
