The Beginning Of The End (somewhat..)

Holy cow!

The end of summer break got away from me! I get semi-busy (or just too lazy to log on and post) and then I turn around and here I am already through week one of school! Crazy!!

The rest of the roadtrip was excellent!

We made it up to Wisconsin, went water skiing and minigolfing. We went to dinner at the Olive Garden and watched the Departed. Then we went to Madison for a day, and then the Dave Concerts. For the whole previous week it had been raining torrential downpours on Wisconsin and other portions of the midwest (finally making up for that drought we'd been hit with earlier in the year). The Friday before the concert Alpine played host to a Rage Against The Machine and Queens of the Stoneage concert. Rage Fans+Torrential Downpour+Outdoor venue... You do the math. Suffice it to say that things were muddy... But no worries. James and I managed to stay high and dry.

That sunday at 12am after the concert I had to make a mad cross-country dash from East Troy, Wisconsin all the way back to Haslett, Michigan, in order to get James to class on time. As planned I rolled into home at 7AM on the dot. There was only one brief incident behind the wheel of the car when I woke up as we were plunging off the road into a ditch. I managed to save us, caffinate heavily, and continue onward. (which reminds me that I need to pay a toll that I still owe...)

Now I'm back in Chicago, beginning my last year at Columbia College (YAY ME!). This, in and of itself, proposes a whole new series of problems and questions which I am starting to answer. Namely that of Grad School. Where am I going to go? I'm down to three major choices. UCLA, UW Madison, and UofM. I don't want to elaborate right now on this (seeing as I need to do some more research and soul searching) but the idea is there. Any and all opinions are welcome.

In terms of writing (the major focus of this blog (supposedly)) I'm starting to make some serious headway in the rider's story. I sat down the other day and worked the kinks out of the story (sort of). While I am refusing to tie down any major plot line (instead let it find its own way) I have figured out some major vibe directions that I want it to go to. While at home I debated and chatted with my writerly friend, Duke, the story, and some vague long term goals. He convinced me that I should look into doing it as a trilogy, and, in order to drive the pace of the book, I should figure out the vibe of the book, the mood, and some major storytelling techniques that will be employed. That will allow me the freedom to have the story be its own exciting self, while allowing it to actually have some semblence of direction. So yesterday I sat down with pen in hand and hammered out the major mood direction for each book of the trilogy (thinking trilogy now, debating maybe longer if necessary). Things came together. Now I just have to write the damn things...

Anywhoo I'm back on the reference desk at the library, and I need to look productive

Summer Break, Day Forty

This is really bad. When I was filling in the title I almost wrote fourty... And i'm paying a boatload to learn how to write...

Day one of the roadtrip is coming to a close. We're in Chicago at my apartment.

Today we went into the city. Ate lunch at the Elevens City Diner, my favorite restaurant in the city. Then we wandered around the city to give James a flavor of my life without the class and work.

He told me about this great tea place in the Water Tower Place called Teavana.

Back when Beaners was still a decent coffee place, before they became this evil corporation, they had a tea called Temple Of Heaven Gunpowder. Or just gunpowder for short. This was the best tea I'd ever had. It tasted great alone, and even better when smoking a pipe with Campbell's 50th Anniversary blend. Then they changed brands, and I was out of luck... Until today. Teavana had Gunpowder, which I bought four ounces of. Yay!

This evening we went for a run. It was cut short by James's need to do some business in the gentlemen's room.

Tomorrow we are going up to Evanston.

It's raining outside right now. Thank god it held off until after we got home from dinner. But at the same time thank god it's raining. It's so bloody humid right now.

Enjoy the pictures.

Summer Break, Day Thirty-Nine

It's the end of summer.

I'm hitting the phase that strikes the last three weeks of every summer. I call it (uncreatively) the "end of summer slump." It's the weird mid-phase where the idea of summer ending and work restarting is still far enough off to be something desirable, and the amount of time spent just sitting, not actually doing anything, but just sitting, has lost its novelty and you want nothing more than to just work, lose yourself in it, and watch the time pass like a rushing stream beneath you. It always happens about three weeks before the end of summer. Usually right after the end of my family vacation. I've spent a week doing nothing in a place that means everything to me, and I come home feeling more exhausted, but my level of activity is still higher than it was at home. I get home, and I sit. Friends are working, some are starting school early, and I just sit. It doesn't matter how many months have preceded the summer. Take this summer for instance. Most people have around 15 weeks to do what they please. I took summer classes and had seven. One of which was spent at the cottage. I've gotten through the first four. Three weeks till school and BAM! the summer slump hit like a ton of bricks.

The problem is that I'm still lazy enough to not do anything to remedy it. Just gripe.

Enter the solution:

My friend James and I have made it an annual tradition now to go to The Alpine Valley Music Theater to see The Dave Matthews Band for a two night concert series.

So here we are. It's Tuesday night. We made a mad 3 hour dash from Haslett Michigan to my apartment on the north side of Chicago, where we will spend the next three days just bumming around and giving him the touristy time he never gets.

We left Haslett at about 5:30, and about twenty minutes later came to the realization that I'd left my apartment keys hanging conveniently on a key hook at my parent's home in Haslett. After a series of worried phone calls I managed to plan and execute a hook up with my roommate, Matt, on the south side of Chicago, where he was going out on a date with his new girlfriend. Then we braved the gauntlet of the Dan Ryan and another 40 minutes wandering the streets trying to find a parking spot...

Only a few pictures tonight, we were too tired to remember, but tomorrow I promise there shall be more of the insanity.

School is now only two weeks away.

Summer Break, Day Twelve

I have a problem finishing stories. And songs. And journal entries. Lots of things really. My problem is that I'll get into the story, crank on it for some time, and then I'll hit a snag. The characters have been speaking to me up to this point. And like a dog, I've been dumbly trailing along behind. Led by their leash. Watching where they go. Writing it down. Suddenly they stop talking. They stop moving. They stare out from the page and say "ok what now, Mr. Writer?" And I end up shrugging because I'm nowhere near ready to carry on with them. I've tried to avoid this with the rider. Anything he does has opened new doors. Those doors have raised questions, and I just nod and say, "what about this?" and he does the rest. I've hit a dull spot with him, and haven't added to his story in weeks now. Instead I've picked up a fresh story and I'm trying some new ideas. Getting myself bogged down further.

While being a writer is fun, sitting in front of blank pieces of paper and declaring loudly that "I know you're in there, story, so come on out!" It also helps to be able to have something to show for all my hours of play. Be able to take something tangible that's 8.5x11 and fits into an envelope with stamps. This is usually a good thing, because this is what publishers are looking for. This is what they like to then copy into magazines. For which they will send you copies of said magazine, and sometimes (hopefully) little slips of paper that can be exchanged for other little slips of paper that can then be exchanged for edibles.
With all that preamble said, I have a new idea. Another short story that is speaking really loudly to me. It's starting to look like a very likely entrant to the Rosebud Mary Shelley competition I've been hotlinking here for the past few weeks. The current working title is "Bern and the Society of Miracle Workers." While the connotations are right, and that is, more or less, what the story is about, it's not the title I want to send it in under.

It's been almost two weeks since school ended for the Summer Holiday. I've not written much more than ten pages in those two weeks. Many of my non-writing friends would choke at the mention of that many pages written for pleasure. As I writer I choke at that many pages for a wholly different reason. I'm sinking cash on this program. Or, in all actuality, I will be sinking cash on this program for the next thirty years (hopefully less if I manage to make money (see end of paragraph two)). I should start to see some return. With that said, it is time that I start writing again. I want to start actually showing product. And, dear reader, I am going to set myself a goal of 100 pages by the 31st of August. That should give me enough time to be amply productive, and amply lazy. Anyone who reads this should feel entirely comfortable harassing me via email, facebook, myspace, or any other medium of communication. Harassment is a perfect way to make me feel guilty.
I found a really interesting blog the other day. Its title is "Geoffrey Chaucer Hath A Blog," and it can be found here:
http://houseoffame.blogspot.com/

For the most part life has been on the quiet side. I've been running the past couple days. I took today off and walked the dog instead. It's a very enjoyable mode of exercise. I went and saw the new Harry Potter film (nothing to write home about, but nothing to shake a stick at either). Last week my dad won tickets to see Blues Traveler at Meadowbrook Music Festival in Rochester Hills. That was this evening. My friend Zach and his brother and I went to see them. They were good, but a little too long and repetitive by the end. At the very least it is getting me stoked for the Dave Matthews Band two night concert at Alpine Valley that my friend James and I are going to see at the end of August.
Now I'm going to write, and enjoy my pint of Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale.