Use Your Skills

As October slowly walks into our lives, I need to reflect on how productive my September was. I wrote a short story and I cracked down and began to write my very first novel. I do have a working title and I would share a sample here, but I cannot risk someone stealing my work. Trust no one; question everything - that's my motto.

Carlo has started working on his novel too. He has a full first chapter. I am really proud of the two of us. It is an exciting time for writers and I cannot wait for the day that he and I both have a finished product in our hands. 

I think I want to try and publish my short story somewhere. It still needs some tweaking, but I will work on it until I am ready for it to go somewhere. 

My goals for October:

• Write 2 chapters of my novel
• Finish and submit my short story somewhere
• Lose two pounds
• Go to the gym two days a week for 30 minutes.
• Catch up on all my school work

Cheers to a successful October!

I need a stress ball...

These past couple of weeks have been stressful ones. The work load is insane this year. Duty nights feel longer and the repetition of my schedule is driving me a little insane. Why did no one stop me from scheduling a class at 10:45 on Monday and Wednesday mornings??? It is so boring, but it is part of my minor so I need to get through it with my head held high. 

I am kind of behind in some of my classes because of all the online components they have. Why do schools have to use online assignments? What ever happened to the good old fashioned hand graded, hard copy, put it on the teacher's desk at the start of class assignments? That's what I grew up with. If I am being completely honest, I would have to say that my favorite class this semester is The Composing Process with Dr. Cole because she makes us hand our work right to her. She brings in her manila file folder and we place our weekly writing in there. 

So many of my classes have online forums and readings. You know what? I cannot read school work on a screen so I then have to find a printer and get the reading, take notes and somehow remember to answer a forum online. It's just not worth it. 

My RA stuff is getting to be too much as well. I am finding that I am exceedingly more ornery this year than I was last year. Sitting on duty from 8-12 or 8-1 is getting harder and harder. Hosting floor functions, constantly redecorating bulletin boards, and acting as a disciplinary are no longer my ideas of a good time. I have zero free time. My free time is the occasional night I am neither at work nor am I on duty. Those nights I will often do homework though. 

At this point, I can only hope that things will get better soon. It is so important to feel well rested and energized for your week. I try to soothe myself by reading for a few minutes, but it is never pleasure reading...it's more school work. 

Saturday Night's Alright for Duty

Tonight I am on duty in Sansbury Hall and it is definitely a dead zone here. The place is so incredibly silent. I find myself missing McAuliffe Hall because it is a 24 hour quiet dorm, but Sansbury is practically the same.

My night consists of sitting at the front table, smiling when appropriate, and watching my way through my "Must Watch" list on Netflix because apparently there are only 500 slots in which to mark things as a must-watch. There is one hour left and I have just started viewing the first season of ABC's Lipstick Jungle. It had all of, like, two seasons when it was on television, but it is actually kind of good to me. The women in this show have cell phones that could rival the dinosaurs at this point: a pink Motorola Razr, a flip cell and a blackberry (series 1). The show is good, the writing could use a little work, in my opinion, and the characters are these chic New York City not quite socialite corporate women. They lead such scandalous and fast paced lives, but there is just something about them that makes my mind soar.
I love them!
Watching them makes me want to write my book and read the novel Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell. I may have to make a trip to Barnes & Noble to acquire said novel.

This weekend, I got to hang out with my best friend, Courtney Pray. It was amazing! For one full afternoon, her attention was all mine and we just fell back into place as if she never graduated and moved to Albany. We had lunch and then hung out in Downtown New Haven as we made our way through College Night. Together, we picked out the perfect gift for my boss, Justin. I just hope he does not already own the gift I am giving him.

As a non-sequitur, I want to bring up the fact that I have been giving serious thought to a new life plan. I have actually considered looking into Grad School...particularly MFA programs. Right now, I am considering Albertus, College of St. Rose in Albany NY, Adelphi University and some places out in LA. Now...let me clarify something about the Los Angeles plan. The only way I could do grad school in Los Angeles is if I have a job out there and I can find an awesome apartment. Los Angeles might be on the back burner for a bit longer. I am serious about applying though. Anything that I can do to further my writing experience, the better it will be for me. I know that as a writer it might not be super important, but as a future Editor, it could very well be the difference between Penguin-Random House and unemployed. My plan is to apply for graduate school and if I get in, I will look for a job at the same time. Potentially I will work and go to school and maybe during that time, I will find an apartment. I guess it depends where the job is. This is an exciting time for me...even though transitions are always tough for me. As my mother pointed out, the yearly move from home into the dorms is enough to shock my system. I cannot imagine what finding a job and moving to my own place will do to me.

I have to start doing some research because applications are probably due soon.
Back to the Lipstick Jungle marathon.

Today Was a...

Today was the day that I looked at the sprawling greenish-brown hills, the gorgeous sun set on the horizon and the tall buildings of the Albertus Magnus campus and asked myself, "Am I ready to graduate?" Yes I know that I am getting way ahead of myself by thinking about graduation in May in September, but you have to talk to yourself sometimes; or, at least I do.

I look around this campus now and I reflect on how I felt about being on this campus for the very first time. I recall telling myself that I would never live in one of the dorms up the hill and how I was not going to join any clubs or hold any major roles on campus.
I live in Sansbury.
I am an RA, WA, Breakwater Co-Editor, SAA VP of Philanthropy and Fundraising and a Dean's List student.

Looking around the cafeteria is like admiring a train station in a foreign country; I do not speak the language, it is over crowded and I feel lost once again. There are so many new faces. None of them know how things were at Albertus when I was a freshman. The old cafeteria, prior to the re-model, cannot even exist as a fond memory for them because they did not live through it.

Today was an interesting experience for me because I went downtown with my friend and fellow RA, Matt, and we had such a good time. It was strange though. I am so used to having my best friend Carlo as my travel companion that it feels weird going there without him. While we were there today, Matt and I were walking past this man who was asking for quarters...to park his car. I recently emptied all of my quarters into the bank in exchange for cash. I felt terrible for him.

I glanced in his direction, muttered some semblance of the response to the question and kept walking and it was not until way after the fact that I thought to myself. "Maybe I should go back and offer to pay the money for his parking," but it was too late. By that time, Matt and I were crossing the street to continue our journey downtown to Rite Aid. I feel terrible. This will most likely be one of those haunting memories every time I go downtown.

What is Creativity?

I am taking this course called The Creative Mind taught by Professor Dell. It counts for either a Communications or Drama C-Level, 3 credit course. I seriously recommend it. We were discussing today what we thought our definitions of the word achievement were and we think that links to how curious people can be. I thought this was interesting because is it not true that every person on this planet has their own standards for what they believe to be achievements in life? Some people consider making a certain salary, owning a fancy car or buying a house to be an achievement. Other people might consider something you imagined and made come to fruition to be an achievement.

Professor Dell gave us this quote by Ken Robinson. It says, "Curiosity is the engine of achievement."
If curiosity is the engine of achievement, then it is those curiosities that cause people to ask the questions that will help them work towards achievements. In some ways, for me at least, the realization that you can ask questions is an achievement on its own. Achievements are whatever we want and need them to be just so long as they are special to us.

We also touched upon the idea behind Humor and creativity.
Are they linked?
Are they distinctly good or bad when put together?
Is too much creativity a bad thing?
Is too much humor a bad thing?

These are some of the questions I have been assigned to answer. I'll let you know what I come up with.

Senior Year is Here!!!!

Yes, you read the title correctly. I am finally a senior at Albertus Magnus. The long road to Graduation day has begun and I am happy to be a part of it. All of my classes have been pretty interesting so far. They involve lots of critical thinking and creativity, which happens to be my department.

As if starting my senior year was not enough, I also started a new job. I can now call myself a Work Study student because I work in the House of Bollstadt Pub. I am very excited to begin my career as a Pub Worker, but I am a little nervous. After all, what would a new job be without nerves? I will be working the Welcome Back Dance Wednesday, September 9 so if you are 21+ and you come into the Pub for a drink, please...be kind to the new employee. I am still learning. It is glow in the dark themed so it should be super fun!

I want to talk to you briefly about this English seminar I am taking with Dr. Cole this semester. It is called The Composing Process and I highly recommend it to all my future Creative Writing concentrators. I submitted my first poem in the class on Wednesday and it is a completed poem...besides the title. May the spirits bless the soul of whomever my future book publisher will be because I am awful at creating titles for my work. Literally, I think I have submitted 20 pieces to Dr. Cole that have been called "Untitled" until portfolio presentation day. So, I am going to share with you my poem that has been granted Final Portfolio status on the first try.

Untitled

I sit down at my computer
to try and figure out the words
to write,

but the words do not come
and instead
I begin to read.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed that. Please feel free to offer any opinions on the piece you may have as long as you are respectful while critiquing. Bullying is not taken kindly by me.