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Tag Archives: grad school
Summer Anthems, One More Time
I let my students out of their final and told them all, “Have a good summer.” I had to come down on them, this morning. There was a thing with grading, and grades, and whether they had to complete the … Continue reading
Posted in 300 words a day
Tagged girls, grad school, I wish, pop life, Temperance/Prohibition, vacations
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Commute
My commute takes fifty minutes when there’s no traffic. Here are the times I’m guaranteed not to have any traffic: Saturday at 7 am. I commute to a college campus, generally speaking, in order to teach composition and writing classes. … Continue reading
Posted in 300 words a day
Tagged city of angels, dream life, grad school, promos, public transit
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Building 29
When I first visited UC Irvine, I was already committed to going to grad school there. I thought I should take a look around. We drove down from Los Angeles for the afternoon and spent the entire time lost. Irvine, … Continue reading
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
The Atlantic, while a storied magazine that hires talented writers, seems to have adopted an editorial policy that can be summed up in three words: “Provoke, provoke, provoke.” It’s like they lopped off the top of the BuzzFeed hourglass, the … Continue reading
Index
End of the quarter: 9 days from now Hours on the train: 2 Hours commuting: 4 Hours out of the house: 11.5 Predicted height of stack of student portfolios: 2.5’ Number of things in the media that made me cry: … Continue reading
Posted in 300 words a day
Tagged dream life, grad school, public transit, Temperance/Prohibition
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Occupy the University
One of my students showed up at office hours to talk about the protests. She wanted to tell me about the general assembly. She wanted to know: Why did thousands of people turn out at Cal, and only hundreds in Irvine? … Continue reading
Posted in 300 words a day, Uncategorized
Tagged city of angels, dollars and sense, grad school, occupy
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The N.A.C.C.O.P.A.
Nashville. I drink endless cups of coffee and read poetry and yes, listen to country. Earlier, H. was experimenting with an old Casio keyboard. Now, P. is downstairs learning songs to play on his guitar, at a wedding. The wedding … Continue reading
Posted in 300 words a day
Tagged dollars and sense, grad school, Nashville, poetry, weddings
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The Problem With Me
I am in Marina Del Rey because I have spent money on a workshop about pitching freelance ideas. (That’s not the problem. That’s fine, in theory.) Backstory: I was once a journalist. Hones to G-d. People paid me enough to … Continue reading
Spring Quarter: A Thank You Note
I taught them Mark Doty, Mercy on Broadway and Description. These are poems, and it was a short fiction class, but they got it. There are stories that can be told in a line. There are stories that have no … Continue reading
Meetings
The politics of scheduling: We do not reschedule. They reschedule on us. Sometimes right before-hand, hours before. The assistants are unfailingly polite, effusive. “We are so sorry.” People in their lives get sick. They themselves get sick. Their excuses are … Continue reading
Posted in 300 words a day
Tagged dance dance dance, dollars and sense, grad school, jobs, shit
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