I Started Writing Again

My friend invited me to her restaurant today and plied me with coffee while I perused my writing again.

It’s been a long month. As it turns out I left off at a much better place than I’d remembered… A bit of tweaking and I think I’m almost set to finish chapter 18.

So. Close.

I think tomorrow I’m going to duck out on all my friends and hide in a coffee shop all day until I at least finish 18. I can’t sit on this for another month. The future is lingering sadly. I fear between my three pending jobs, I’ll have little time to write outside my degree (if even that) so the goal is…finish this damn book by September!

Back to writing first thing tomorrow. I’m actually excited to get back into it.

In the meantime… I ate too much cake and too much coffee.

Day Eighty-Seven: Salt Lake City Airport

Left San Francisco this morning and am now sitting out a four-hour layover here in Utah (all I can think about right now is Book of Mormon, sorry).

The mountains are beautiful. The city, from aerial, is a sprawling mess of suburbia, but the mountains cup it like a snow-capped wreathe.

I need to start hiking again.

Made my grad school decision official last night and am sending off my deposit first thing Monday for California College of the Arts! I’m pretty excited… Less academic, more artistic, but if I wanted an academic career I’d have done my MA in English.

I want to write.

And the best part is that I won’t have to pick a genre. I can do essays, short or long fiction, plays, poems whatever! (Except, not poems.)

So… Cheers to starting my grad school in august! I feel like such a dork because I’m so damn excited.

Now I have to go because I’m reading The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer and I’m wondering if it’s ever going to live up to it’s name…

Day Eighty-Five: God, I Love Bookstores

Normal tourists take pictures of sights and maybe some good views… I take pictures of book stores like a fan girl at a Harry Potter premier.

My cousins asked me while in Denver where I wanted to go last weekend, I remained apathetic for three days until I sniffed out a bookshop as we left the ice cream place. I made them both stand there while I explored my wonderland like a tiny Alice.

Finding great bookstores is like my special tourist talent. San Fran has some great things to offer… I’m so excited to make them my new homes. I spent most of my day wandering in awe around The Booksmith up on Haight Street (pronounced more like “hate” than “height”, I have learned like a shameful ignoramus). God, is there any sight more beautiful?

The store is practically plastered with staff recommendations. It has a whole children’s wonderland. They even have beautiful versions of the classics! I think my dream now would be to find my own book on their staff picks for the week… Maybe one day!

In other news I have picked my Grad School! California College of the Arts MFA Writing class of 2016 (wow, when did it become 2014?)! I hope everyone is as excited as me.

Now I must go bask in the splendor of my newest book. Isn’t it pretty?

A lovely day spent sprawled out in Golden Gate Park writing a stack of postcards and reading in the sunshine. Ah, now that’s my kind of touristing!>

Day Eighty-Four: You Win, San Francisco

Honestly, I’m too tired to write this. I’m Couchsurfing here in San Fran which means I crash literally on generous people’s couches and they also show me places around the city when they’re free. Last night, the nice British gentleman I was with took me to a nightclub for Tutu Tuesday… It was hilarious and frightening… Mostly because I may have accidentally joined an Asian Breaksance Crew and also there were these people dancing:

Which isn’t frightening, so much as expected of a Bay Area night club… I don’t know… The flashing lights and douche tanks just aren’t really my scene. I did like all the tutus though.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is I didn’t sleep much and have wandered the city in a haze today. I also spent all of my money on bread shaped like a turtle…

But then a presumptuous seagull stole it while I was comatose in a park…

San Francisco may have bested me… I can barely walk my feet are ravaged by blisters, it’s colder than my clothes are prepared for, and I can’t keep my eyes open. And I still have a few more days…

The good news is I managed to pack a box so full of chocolate that it took me like 10 minutes to close it in the store. If someone says “as much chocolate as you can fit in a box,” I’m going to accept the mission to the fullest.

Still haven’t made my decision about school. >

Day Eighty-Three: Let’s Talk About Choices

I got in to two MFA Writing programs in San Francisco and have spent the day exploring both trying to make my final decision by Friday.

The only decision I have come to is that I can’t make this decision.

As a writer, clearly I will eventually have to make a general list of priorities about what kind of writer I’d like to be. Sadly, I’m 23 and not ready to put myself in a pocket.

I honestly want to write in every genre. I want to go to the funky art school where I can pick up an illustrator and print a book. I want to go to the academic environment that hosts readings and practical publishing panels.

How am I supposed to decide what is best for my career when they both offer such wonderful paths…? When at the end of the day my career is only a product of the work I put into it.

Honestly, I think both programs are perfect for me. They both want me to be the best writer I can be.

How the hell does that help me make a damn decision?

Day Eighty-Two: From a Cafe in San Francisco

I’m sweating bullets because I just decided to climb a freakishly steep hill in San Fran along Hyde Street.

So now I’m lost somewhere on Nob Hill drinking expensive iced coffee and jacking an electrical outlet.

Sweet Jesus, I like San Francisco. I think I like it a lot. Except I was hoping to find a cozy cafe to hole up for an hour or two and write, at least I have coffee. And multiple free samples from Ghirardelli (like I’d climb a hill without pumping my body full of free chocolate!).

I meet with both of my accepted Masters programs tomorrow and am getting a beer with my super nice Couchsurfing host named Paul, who lives in splendor along the Embarcadero and is hella cool. Other than that, I just have plans to wander… the Haight is definitely on my list. Guess I can scratch off all the Wharfs and Nob Hill.

Oh my god. It just hit me that, come August, I’m going to be living here.

Woah…