1. The Summer Job Market. The school I attend requires its students to take a summer class in order to work on campus in the summer, so needless to say I won’t be working all summer to pay for a class I don’t really need. On the other hand, that leaves me with few options that anyone with a college degree isn’t overqualified to do (I speak here of retail in all its forms: a necessary evil). However, to save myself from the drudgery of That’ll Be Twenty Dollars Even, Sir, I have applied the principle of “It’s not what you know, but who you know” and have been asking acquaintances for job information. Reader, consider yourself asked.
2. Limbo. Now that most of my major deadlines have passed (Translation Exam, Master’s Comprehensive Exam, Teaching Fellowship Application), I feel rather like I’m in Limbo. I haven’t heard the results of any of these, and probably won’t for at least a few more weeks. A few more weeks isn’t a very long time at all when you think of the span of a lifetime (or of eternity), but a few more weeks never felt more like eternity than it does right now. In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, I hate waiting.
3. Endings. In my current work-in-progress, I’ve passed the halfway point and am now trying to pull all the threads together into some coherent design. Endings are always particularly hard, in writing as in chess, because often I will have only a vague conception of the end when I begin. It might be an image or a state of being that I want characters to pursue or regain, but in truth it’s nebulous. More often than not, once I’m done, the beginning and the ending will feel off-balance, and most of my rewriting will be spent trying to get them to agree. I hope, however, to finish this one on Friday, or at the very latest Saturday, so I’ll know pretty soon whether the ending was successful or not.
4. Breakfast. I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but I do love eating the same thing for breakfast every day. It gives definition to my morning and I never have to worry about or plan what to eat because I already know: oatmeal and tea. Although today I must be feeling wild, because I put some cinnamon-sugar on my oatmeal. A good omen, I hope.
5. The Far Pavilions. I’m progressing rapidly through my epic novel. I believe I attained page 200 last night, the point at which most other novels are drawing to a close. But this protagonist, still young and quite adventurous, has just set out on a new mission. So that means I’m just over 20% through it. One fifth. Hooray me.
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