Writing my way out of a funk

So, I have two essays due this coming week. Three really, but only two that I've been trying to work up the energy to type up today. Our house is currently serving as a the hosting locale for my sister-in-law's baby shower. The lil' tyke is due sometime in February. I'm assuming they'll be inclined to name him after me, but that's strictly conjectural at this point. Anyhoo, since our house is under the occupation of a bunch of females, I've retreated to the office. I was here at 8:00 this morning after very little sleep. Saturday mornings have become my "hang-out" day with a bunch of guys who work and/or congregate in the computer lab. So I come in in the morning and hangout with them until I get bored and decide to go home. Today, I was here until 11:00-11:30 and then I went back home and had a minor part in readying the house for the party. Actually most of my time was committed last night to knocking out some of the dishes, laundry and cleaning up the nursery -- which has been serving as a storage area.

So, I came back up to the office around 1:00. It's now about 5:30 and I've not accomplished much. I did find a couple of interesting job leads, but I don't know if I'm in the mood to go through the interviewing process. So it might be considered to be a complete waste. Karen was here and we spent most of the day discussing the state of DMACC. With all that talking I've not done much typing. So, here I am writing this in the hopes it'll wake up my creativity enough to churn out a couple of papers. Thus far it's been a moderate success. I'm not convinced that it is enough to bother trying to start my papers. If I get off to a bad start today then I spend precious time tomorrow trying to figure out where I was going with what. However, since I think the party started only an hour ago, I figure I have at least another hour before I should go home. Not that they wouldn't welcome me, but I have little interest in sitting through hens clucking about babies. Another of Renee's sisters, Ronnie, is pregnant. She just found out this last week. It'll be her third. She has two boys right now. Ironically, this will be Renee's first chance to show-off her nursery to most of her sisters. Ironic, of course, because two of her sisters are pregnant and have no such dedicated rooms.

One of my essays due is on the topic of the management of my workplace. So, in away, my discussion with Karen wasn't a complete waste of time. I had her also fill out the questionnaire that we're using as a guideline for the paper. I'm sure hitting the five-page minimum will present little challenge. It rarely does, but something this rich with material should be a slam dunk.

My other assignment has to deal with the class Kara and I are in together. That won't be much of a problem either. Over the course of the last couple of weeks I've decided that, hands down, we're the two smartest people in the class. Or at least, the most well-rounded thinkers in there. There are, arguably, a few others worthy of mention. Since, I don't know their names, they'll go without mentioning. Most of those in the class seem to have a distinct lack of historical or cultural perspective and some have what seems to be an almost complete lack of logic. Guess my time spent in psychology, history and anthropology classes did me some good after all.

There is one guy, who sits in the back of the room and sometime says a lot and other times says very little (which is what I tend to do based on the leadership of a given conversation), who I think is probably on the same tier as Kara and myself. There is another guy who talks a whole lot and puts up some decent points, but ultimately strays away from logic to the point of making what he adds have minimal (meaningful) impact. Though he can ramble on.

I managed to do this myself on Thursday. It was a long conversation, in which I probably had close to 1/5 to 1/4 of the input. One of my more critical points (which I'm not currently posting in too great a detail because it's going into my essay, which I'll probably repost here for the hell of it) dealt with the idea that not all dissent toward the state is necessarily good. Apparently I was the only one who felt that the government should always reserve its right to bring into the open what people might be saying in contrary to its practices. The instructor asked me to clarify, which I tried to do, but since I thought my first explanation should have been sufficient, I was caught off guard. I ended up rambling for several minutes and I think I managed to hurt my case as much as I did good for it. But we'll have those moments. I had been forced to give a shortened history lessons and to enlighten my classmates throughout the class before this and was pretty well thinked-out. Tis early in the semester yet, sure to work out the kinks, I will be.

All right, I think I'm ready to write some papers. But first, a phone call to Renee to see if I have the time to start them.

Good night.

Recapping Grand View

I confess. I intentionally skipped last week’s update. But, rest assured my loyal readers, I have my reasons. Mostly, I skipped last week so I could have something substantial to write about this week. Not that last week was an unending carousel of eventitude, but still had I written last week, I’d probably not be writing this week, when I have a helluva lot more to say… well maybe not helluva but definitely more this week than last. I think the best way to structure this would probably be by class. However, first is first and I wish to address my sweetie first.

Renee be doing good. This week there is considerably less news on the potential baby situation than there was a couple of weeks back. She went to the doctor this week and had an official pregnancy test, it came out negative. The doc said there’s a good chance that her body is still recovering from being on birth control, hence the upsetness of her tummy and other pregnancy-related symptoms. But take heart, we shall continue our dances of love until we conceive… or until we become dehydrated and need to take a break. (Yes, that should be substantially more than people really wish to know…)

Speaking of my baby, she’s taking a comparative religions course and an accounting course. The former was the class that made me realize that I am far closer to having Chinese virtues than Occidental ones. The latter, well she’s mostly taking it for her job. It’s very handy now that she’s moving on to concerning herself with profit and loss and cost accounting than she had previous – where her only true concern was managing people.

Now for a topic of which I have not only expert qualifications in speaking about, but also an immense interests concerning: Myself.  I’ll go through my classes in the order in which I had them. I do intend only to summarize each of my four classes en totale.

First, the drive was a lot better than I initially feared. It takes me about 10 minutes to get down there using E 14th – so far the only route I’ve taken which,h because of some rather infuriating incidents this morn, I never intend to take to GVC again. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it before, but I’m a Grand Viewian Norseman now.

Secondly, some generic thoughts on GVC itself: I like it immeasurably more than I did ISU. I don’t necessarily feel like I belong there, as yet. However, I don’t have the feeling that I made a huge mistake this time around. Thirdly, it seems fairly similar to DMACC, only with advanced classes. It’s nice to feel a connection with my instructors. Alright, there’s more “Eric’s personal feelings” stuff to come, so I’m going to move on with my classes.

Creative writing: My professor for this class is a fellow called Dr. Paul Brooke. If the name is familiar it’s because you are odd and follow the arm-wrestling championships. Personally, I’d never heard of him, but apparently he is a former arm-wrestling champion. It would seem that he injured himself last year and was unable to compete, however, he has assured our class that he is at 100% and intends to return to competition and regain his lost title this year. I told you that because I find it amusing that my Creative Writing professor is an arm wrestling champion, and no other reason.

Our first assignment for class was to take an epiphanical moment from our lives and turn it into a one-page memoir of sorts. I wrote mine on my time out in LA. It was a… difficult time for me. I don’t think there are more than one or two people who know even the summary of my time out there (though now there are 20-some strangers who know). It wasn’t a particularly happy time for me. I decided that the topic fit for what the memoir called for. Primarily, it is damned good reading. Also, it’s something that I’ve thought about often, but never really saw the necessity of telling anyone I knew because it’s not a time that I’m particularly proud of, even if it did help to shape my current self. I have strong feelings about my time there as well as what led up to it. It was difficult to pare down the story to one page and I’m not thinking it’ll be much easier to sum it up in three pages. That, however, is the next project – due on Wednesday – and I intend to finish off the three-page version either tonight or tomorrow. BTW, I’ve decided to furnish anyone with a copy who might want to read it. Send me an email (also, we’ll be getting new cell numbers the middle of next week. We’re jumping on the Cingular bandwagon, so email me for that, too.)

I told you that, so I can tell you this story. Today was our first workshop. Since Monday, the good Doctor, had been telling us that the memoirs were due on Wednesday and he’d choose one to workshop on Friday. I tell you, with no false humility whatsoever, that mine was the one chosen. There was high praise rained down upon me, as well as some productive criticism levied my way. My ego aside (for at least a moment), it was nice to be chosen first and lauded in the manner that I was. Mostly, I’m proud mostly because of the praise that the instructor cited about it getting the class off to a good start for the semester. (Ego back in the picture) I’ve been told by several people that I have a talent for writing, but it feels nice to be recognized for such in such a manner. This is one of those classes that, like my Comparative religions course, will hold a place of high regard in my memories.

Next we have my “Money, Banking and Financial something or other” class. This one is taught by a guy from somewhere in the former Soviet Bloc. It sounds Ukrainian to me, but that might be because I used to work with a guy from the Ukraine. It’s definitely Russian-esque (I’m somewhat embarrassed I don’t know the specific ethnic name for such things). In this class our major project deals with giving a presentation on something that has to do with the financial industry. Normally, I’d turn it out with little fanfare. However, this is a group presentation and since I didn’t know anyone in my class (and everyone else seemed like they did), I didn’t have a group for awhile. On Wednesday that changed. We were paired off in groups for a different reason and I pan handled my way into a group with two females who were in this other group with me. They seemed hesitant, but I made the comment that I was “reasonably intelligent” and it appeared to calm them. Although one of women still seemed resistant. Today, we had an extra person join the class and the one who was still unsure tried to pawn me off into a group with the new guy. Ho. I’ve had to work with this girl twice in three days worth of class. She should be begging me to be in her group, not fighting my presence. She and her partner were bound to give an “okay” presentation. My additions to the group will secure an A – I’ve rarely been so sure about other things. After consulting with my better half, I’ve decided that my best option to gain the ho’s trust is to produce an outline with my ideas this weekend and give them an idea of what I can offer come February 26th. So that’s my mission, along with the minor changes to my memoir, for the weekend.

My management class is taught by a pretty cool guy. He’s older and conveys a very relaxed demeanor and a subtle, respectful wisdom. I’ll have a lot to learn from him and look forward to this class most behind my creative writing class. ‘Nuff said.

Lastly, and most surprising, is my capstone class. Imagine my surprise when I’m sitting there, the second day of class and not feeling well, and Kara walked in. RahRah! To be honest, I’ve not done her enough justice as yet. First off, I was shocked that she was in the class. I thought that I might perhaps see her on campus at some point, but never did it enter my head that we’d be in the same class. I have, unfortunately, been rather self-absorbed this week. I owe her an apology for that, which she will get this weekend in an email. As a matter of policy, I try to hold women in my life in the highest of regards and, thus far, I’ve failed her on that note. My own concerns have come before that of Kara’s, which is not only morally wrong, but incredibly selfish. I don’t think I can endeavor to explain my feelings on that in this post, maybe I’ll try in a subsequent email. Suffice to say that my general hierarchy goes (Renee Mom female in-laws and Mom2 female friends (a small group indeed) my brother (Robbystyle included)  myself everyone else). In fact, I have several emails I need to send out in that vein.

I’ve not a lot more to say about this class (or in this post, period) except that it’s a seminar class and I think that both Kara and myself will both be surprisingly reserved. Oh and at some point Kara’s going to realize that I’m a poor public speaker and she’ll see my face and ears turn read from the attention – something I’m not sure she’s prepared for. ;p

Gutten Nacht.