We Knew What We Didn’t Want To Know

The dorm room was smothering in the Georgia heat. It was about the size of the average truck trailer and undoubtedly just as hot. Outdated wooden furniture. Twin beds on each side. Just enough room to sit or lie there and cook. A fan would do nothing but blow hot, muggy air around, but at … Continue reading →

Research Topics I May Set On Fire

Man, I hate this time in the term. The. Worst. My department requires all ENC1101 — basically freshman comp/term 1 — students to write an informative research paper. It used to represent intellectual inquiry around a topic that was  interesting from an academic perspective. That was 10 years ago. Now, it’s just the equivalent of … Continue reading →

This is how a Monday begins.

I can’t believe I have time to write right now. (Quickly now. Trying to recall everything thus far.)   Day four of my Monday/Wednesday 9am class:  Ten minutes into class, a female student — burnt, two-toned hair; huge lash extensions that made her seem as if butterflies had been glued to her eyelids, and fingernails so long, I don’t know … Continue reading →

Yearly Recap of Work’s Best Of the Worst.

So I’ve amassed the handful of postings I’ve left from all of the lunacy that is my job. Since the school year is coming to a screeching halt (bang-not-a-whimper, in other words), and I’ve had little time to really blog (is that a verb?) over the past month or so, I figured I’d simply share … Continue reading →

Ulcerous

Socrates hit it with his “Envy is the ulcer of the soul.” Oh, ENVY, that green-eyed dickster, keeps popping up like a horrid party guest during times when I really don’t feel it, don’t want it, don’t need it around.  I’ve a friend who always reminds me that for every person you’re envious of, there are … Continue reading →

“Neglects…I’ve had a few…”

(Wait. Is that how the song goes?) I’ve neglected this blog, the antho (off and on), writing, and other things for the past couple of weeks. Work. Busy. Timing. That stuff. Not as many students this term thanks to a schedule that mainly consists of 12 week classes and two of them in the afternoon … Continue reading →

(I didn’t know!)

A list of excuses over the past few weeks. I’ve unfortunately had to suffer through all of them because What Else Is New…? I was out of town over Thanksgiving, so I didn’t know! I didn’t have email where I was, so I didn’t know! We have WHAT due on Wednesday?? I didn’t know! You mean we … Continue reading →

That Ever-Elusive A

An acquaintance of mine — a sharp, sweet, conscientious lady — recently posted her dismay at the grade she’d received in one of her college classes. An 89.45, to be precise. It’s understandable. It’s a tease of a percentile, ridiculously close to THAT possibility, the very possibility of the much-coveted A. While this was going … Continue reading →

A Spring Break of Self-Doubt

I’ve not gone anywhere over the break this week, and I’ve no plans to do so, really, as it’s a week in which I’m steadily querying publishers and agents. In other words, I’m Getting Shit Done. I don’t like the fact that my job, ironically one in which I have to teach writing, keeps me … Continue reading →

Him What Know All.

When I was a teenager, my father was stationed in the UK at RAF Lakenheath. We moved into a very old house in an even older village not too far from the base, the kind of place where the the fields went on forever, and the muddy marshland of the Fens sank the slackers. Everyone there (apart from the other … Continue reading →