The Triumphant Return
Joy! Blogger is working again.
Let's see if I can remember the past week....
There haven't been any more stalker sightings. My plan is to have one more go at a stern talking to and if that doesn't work then I'll speak with a manager. Did you know people can be banned for life from the store? Yep, yep. I've been talking to some of the other girls in the cafe, apparently at some point or another we all get a crazy admirer or two. I guess I've been initiated into the club now. Yeah!...er, no.
Thursday was a very good day. I opened, which kinda sucked because my B&N has started opening an hour earlier. That meant I had to get up at five-something to eat and open the cafe. I'll tell you during the march to the store, I thought I was going to fall over and die. I got to the point where I'd close my eyes and walk blindly forward in an attempt to give my eyes a break. But then I opened the cafe and what followed proved to be one of the slowest shifts ever. I kept myself amused by humming bad 80's music.
A middle-aged man I have two classes with came into the cafe. He made a point of mentioning that I'm "a good writer. Don't get stuck working here." While I appreciated that he liked my writing (and he'd only heard one or two small compositions) I didn't really appreciate the insult to my current job. I feel that the barista life-style doesn't get enough respect from people in their forties and fifties. *cough* my parents *cough* Whenever I talk to my parents about work they always end the conversation with "when are they going to move you to work with the books?" They're ashamed of having a barista for a daughter.
Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of working in a cafe or at B&N for long term, but I'd still like a little respect for what I'm doing, especially from the rents. [rant over]
Anyway, one of the reasons Thursday was so good, was that I can finally give my parents an answer. One of the managers told me I will be trained on the bookside in about two week. Plus, they'll allow me to specifically focus on the children's section. Score!
In terms of the post-training future, the manager said I will still be in the cafe a lot, but I will be on the bookside about once a week. That's fine with me.
My mom sounded a little disappointed when I told her about still being in the cafe. So I yelled at her, and by yelled I mean I spoke enthusiastically and didn't give her time to disagree with me.
Also, I decided I didn't like my teaching creative writing class. In fact having to take two classes on the subject then student teach for a semester to be prepared for something that the act of receiving my MFA allows me to do anyway seemed kind of like a waste of money and time. So I dropped the class and the teaching component off my degree.
I decided to take a creative non-fiction course that will focus on nature and the environment instead. I've already missed the first class though. I meant with the professor, aka the head of the MFA writing program and one busy lady. She was less than supportive of me joining the class. In fact she put forth a good effort at discouraging me. But none the less, I've joined. I've done the homework for the past two weeks (yes, she assigned work before the class even met for the first time). But I still feel a little nervous because:
1) She only had me photocopy pages 1-23 of one of the reading assignments, but the syllabus says to read 1-35. So of course, I've convinced myself that those 12 pages contain the key to writing the best creative non-fiction ever read by man and contain the key to life in general. I also fear that the professor will, naturally, direct any questions about those twelve pages to me.
2) None of my friends will be in the class. In fact, I will probably be the only children's writing person there. And all the other students there will at least have been introduced to each other.
3) I really want to impress the professor with my writing. I feel good about my first piece (granted, it still needs some editing), but I'm worried it's not what she wants.
Sigh. At least I'll be able to breathe easy after Tuesday.
But catching up with my new creative non-fiction class and keeping up with my other classes has means I've had a lot of work this weekend. I did work all day yesterday and will do work all day today to make a proper dent in all the work that must be done.
The past two days have been beautiful here. Yesterday was light jacket weather, so I spent several hours outside reading. Which was nice, cause I was reading a depressing book about the Holocaust. It's nice to look away from depressing historical information and see the sun. Today, alas, there is rain and snow. It matches the holocaust book too perfectly.
Wowzers, that was a lot of typing. Are you still reading? If you are, you're a cool devoted friend. If you're not reading, then I'd like you to know, I've never liked you and you smell. But I guess you wouldn't know that...what with your lack of reading.
Let's see if I can remember the past week....
There haven't been any more stalker sightings. My plan is to have one more go at a stern talking to and if that doesn't work then I'll speak with a manager. Did you know people can be banned for life from the store? Yep, yep. I've been talking to some of the other girls in the cafe, apparently at some point or another we all get a crazy admirer or two. I guess I've been initiated into the club now. Yeah!...er, no.
Thursday was a very good day. I opened, which kinda sucked because my B&N has started opening an hour earlier. That meant I had to get up at five-something to eat and open the cafe. I'll tell you during the march to the store, I thought I was going to fall over and die. I got to the point where I'd close my eyes and walk blindly forward in an attempt to give my eyes a break. But then I opened the cafe and what followed proved to be one of the slowest shifts ever. I kept myself amused by humming bad 80's music.
A middle-aged man I have two classes with came into the cafe. He made a point of mentioning that I'm "a good writer. Don't get stuck working here." While I appreciated that he liked my writing (and he'd only heard one or two small compositions) I didn't really appreciate the insult to my current job. I feel that the barista life-style doesn't get enough respect from people in their forties and fifties. *cough* my parents *cough* Whenever I talk to my parents about work they always end the conversation with "when are they going to move you to work with the books?" They're ashamed of having a barista for a daughter.
Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of working in a cafe or at B&N for long term, but I'd still like a little respect for what I'm doing, especially from the rents. [rant over]
Anyway, one of the reasons Thursday was so good, was that I can finally give my parents an answer. One of the managers told me I will be trained on the bookside in about two week. Plus, they'll allow me to specifically focus on the children's section. Score!
In terms of the post-training future, the manager said I will still be in the cafe a lot, but I will be on the bookside about once a week. That's fine with me.
My mom sounded a little disappointed when I told her about still being in the cafe. So I yelled at her, and by yelled I mean I spoke enthusiastically and didn't give her time to disagree with me.
Also, I decided I didn't like my teaching creative writing class. In fact having to take two classes on the subject then student teach for a semester to be prepared for something that the act of receiving my MFA allows me to do anyway seemed kind of like a waste of money and time. So I dropped the class and the teaching component off my degree.
I decided to take a creative non-fiction course that will focus on nature and the environment instead. I've already missed the first class though. I meant with the professor, aka the head of the MFA writing program and one busy lady. She was less than supportive of me joining the class. In fact she put forth a good effort at discouraging me. But none the less, I've joined. I've done the homework for the past two weeks (yes, she assigned work before the class even met for the first time). But I still feel a little nervous because:
1) She only had me photocopy pages 1-23 of one of the reading assignments, but the syllabus says to read 1-35. So of course, I've convinced myself that those 12 pages contain the key to writing the best creative non-fiction ever read by man and contain the key to life in general. I also fear that the professor will, naturally, direct any questions about those twelve pages to me.
2) None of my friends will be in the class. In fact, I will probably be the only children's writing person there. And all the other students there will at least have been introduced to each other.
3) I really want to impress the professor with my writing. I feel good about my first piece (granted, it still needs some editing), but I'm worried it's not what she wants.
Sigh. At least I'll be able to breathe easy after Tuesday.
But catching up with my new creative non-fiction class and keeping up with my other classes has means I've had a lot of work this weekend. I did work all day yesterday and will do work all day today to make a proper dent in all the work that must be done.
The past two days have been beautiful here. Yesterday was light jacket weather, so I spent several hours outside reading. Which was nice, cause I was reading a depressing book about the Holocaust. It's nice to look away from depressing historical information and see the sun. Today, alas, there is rain and snow. It matches the holocaust book too perfectly.
Wowzers, that was a lot of typing. Are you still reading? If you are, you're a cool devoted friend. If you're not reading, then I'd like you to know, I've never liked you and you smell. But I guess you wouldn't know that...what with your lack of reading.
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