Mmmmm-mm! Looks good, doesn’t it? Well let me tell you, creating a delicious home-made pizza is hardwork. It requires time, patience, and important ingredients liek red wine, salad, and a Macbook Pro. You will also need a friend who can cook, cause I sure can’t. Thanks Saray.
So graduate school is over. It’s strange, knowing that my degree is on its way to my home in New Jersey, where my mother will frame it and place it next to my high school diploma and Kean University undergrad degree, two other pieces of paper I never bothered to collect in person. Being a student has forever been a piece of my identity, and I’m not going to lie, I reveled in the identity of a graduate student. I don’t know, there’s just something about it, a fun air of sophistication in saying “I’m working on my Masters in English literature.” Or maybe I’m just a cocky, pretentious douche. Whatever.
I had the Dean send a letter home to my parents so they’d believe me that I finished…
Graduation party in September. New Jersey folk, get ready. Philly friends, grab a car from Philly Car Share or buy a SEPTA ticket, cause this bash is going to be in the Garden State.
FTW!
Really? These are the kind of job offers my undergrad sends their graduates?
Thanks guys, I mean, I always knew my BA in English & Creative Writing was somewhat of useless degree. Thank God I’m so close to finishing my MA in English literature at Arcadia!
Just think, in three more weeks, I’ll be able to get job offers from Denny’s! Hooray!
Wow Arcadia University. Sim City 2000’s guide book? In the library?
I’m actually in class right now, but when I saw this sitting on the bookshelves in the library, I had to take a picture and share it. It’s great to know my tuition funds are going to good use, like maintaining a library that has gaming books from 1993.
Maybe next week I’ll swing by and take out a copy of the Echo The Dolphin walkthrough. Seriously, WTF.
With the semester winding down and some new projects in the works, I find myself sitting down at my laptop in my room, far busier than I’ve been since January. This of course, infuriates Mittens, who is in dire need of attention when I come home from work and/or school. He’ll put his little paws up and grab the cage, whining until I take him out. He sounds strangely like a puppy when he does that.
Lately, his new favorite habit is running up onto my desk while I’m working, leaping onto the monitor, and sitting there, sometimes for almost an hour, watching me type, work on photos, or edit video. It’s adorable as hell, but also extremely hard to photograph, what with the monitor and all.
And yes Sara, those are some of your Etsy stickers next to my laptop.
He’s always so curious. Whenever I let him out, regardless of the amount of open space he has to run around, he loves hopping up next to me. I could be playing Halo, reading in bed, or working on my laptop. Just sort of amazes me, seeing this kind of bond form with a little critter like a chinchilla. Maybe it’s because I got him when he was so little. Still, pretty crazy. Who knew!
Well, I’m back in Philadelphia, returning to a ton of work and projects.
I’ll be busy over the next two weeks working on three different papers for two of my classes (due next Tuesday), and two additional papers due for my independent study. I have to finish several more non-fiction short stories for my graduate project and fill out my application for graduation. Seriously Arcadia, why do I have to apply to graduate?
Photography wise, I’m heading back to New Jersey to work with recent Universal Records signees Cash Cash, doing new press snaps for Hello Jersey, and planning for a week stint on this year’s Van’s Warped Tour, a week that will be both exciting and miserable.
Geekadelphia will be hosting a party here in Philadelphia for Battlestar Galactica’s series finale. That’ll be all kinds of fun.
And as for vacation snaps, you can take a look at some Hawaii pictures here.
Back to work!
Today one of my school books came in the mail for my Theories of Writing class, Cross Talk In Comp Theory, a rather large, boring textbook on different… well, theories in writing. Not the sort of reading you do while relaxing on the beach, I can tell you that much. Alas, the plight of the grad student.
There are few things I hate more than politics. Very few. So when I opened my book, delivered from Alibris.com, I was shocked at the bookmark waiting for me inside, fresh from Blessed By Books out in California.
How lovely! A Ron Paul bookmark to call my own. Ron Paul for President 2008. Just what I wanted. A man who claims to be pro-life, but won’t ban abortion and is against gun control.
Well, thank you Blessed By Books!
You’ve just blessed my garbage can.
If there is one thing I get a lot crap for, it’s the whole working full time while going to grad school full time thing. My family, my friends, and even my professors nag on me for it. “You must have no life!” “Your grades must suffer terribly!” “When do you have time for yourself!” “It just isn’t possible to do both!” and so forth.
Well, take that! I’m a God damn Christmas miracle.
Or maybe I’m a robot. This comic just about sums me up.
This semester I have my graduate project, which will be a collection of short stories about working at summer camp, and two classes to worry about. Theories of Writing and Modern Literature & Mythology.
Four more classes. This semester and a summer session.
Bring it!
Note: This blog post will be promptly deleted in case I fail out of school this semester. Any “I Told You So’s” will be greeted with a punch in the neck. Also, if any professor want to give me an award to fill inside that little box above, please contact immediately.
So my first year of graduate school is officially over. I’ve managed not to fail out despite uprooting myself to a new city, moving three times in the span of four months, going on a tour, and working a full time job. Surprisingly, my girlfriend hasn’t broken up with me yet.
Just one more semester and a summer class, and I’m finished. I can’t wait. Then maybe it’ll be time for a break from school before I start my PhD in English. I’ve been in classrooms non-stop since I was… what, 10? When do kids go to kindergarten? At 25, I’m ready to take a break from those uncomfortable desks.
Right now, I’m ready to spend a week playing XBox 360 (I need to beat Just Cause), watching South Park episodes, eating bad food, and then cutting lose with my family and close friends in New Jersey this weekend. Christmas holiday mixtape to follow shortly.
And yes, admire my Photoshop skills with that LOLbunny I just made. Ashlee goes to the vet again in January to get fixed and have some blood work done (she has some swollen glands, poor thing), and Mittens the chinchilla has his first visit in February. My babies are growing up!
My debut novel comes out this Fall. You'll be able to download free audiobook podcasts 
