Dear Writing Group,

I promise to come back and write you a sweet note detailing my appreciation for you. But, it is Monday morning, and school starts in fifteen minutes, and I am still at home. My apologies.

Sincerely,

Jenny Gorman

up late, once again

I did not mean to stay up until 3 a.m. It just happened. I spent most of my weekend working on homework, with only couple of hours devoted to things like work, church, and the middle school play (which was absolutely fantastic, by the way). I don't know what gave me the strength to stay up so late. Perhaps it was my drive to get an "A"? I really want one, and I had worked so hard up to this point that I was going to let just one more night of sleep get in the way. I guess I knew this would happen when I decided to completely rewrite my personal narrative from scratch. I'm surprised I actually got the narrative written in one weekend. If this class has taught me one thing, it is to stay up late and not the sleep get in the way of getting things done. Great lesson, eh?

My dearest Leyen, this is quite possibly the hardest, most frustrating thing I have ever attempted to do. I can write no more, for fear of going insane. Please excuse my short blog entry tonight, but this literally just took me ten minutes to type out. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGG!!!

"Follow the Leader, the Leader, the Leader..."

CELEBRATE! I have a lead and intro. Yes, I am devoting a whole blog to my blissful feeling of accomplishing the fist part of my film critique. Perhaps this because I am procrastinating the rest of it (at least it's not facebook...right?). But really, these are the first sentences of non-crap I have written in all my attempts to write about this awful movie.

Along those lines, this movie isn't actually as bad as I originally thought. The thing is, it is not entertaining, it is not fun to watch, and it is certainly not fun to think about. But those things aren't what make a film great, or even good. Those things make money. Revolutionary Road is more art than a story. If you can get past all the disturbing-ness (good luck with that...), this movie does have some redeemable qualities. They just don't involve special effects or a happy ending.

Today In Class

Today in class, we had two U of M representatives from the writing department come and get our feedback. I did not really like this, especially today. We had work to do: meet in our writing groups, discuss the film critique, and ask questions. I feel like we basically wasted half the time talking about things that wouldn't benefit us when there was work to be done. Our biggest problem in this class is obviously time, and this did not help. I understand the need to get our reactions and feedback. Why couldn't they come a different day? One that wasn't so crucial to our agenda? Or, they could have just had us write a cover-letter for the class. We're all amazing writers now, and I'm sure they're great readers. We had good discussions, found many consensuses, and debated some of the finer points of this class (blogging, reading). I just think it should have been at a different time.

The Fountainhead

Today, I was surprised. Indeed, I was amazed. I came upon a status that quoted a book I recently read, The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. I was astonished at who quoted one of my recently favorite books. It was not one of my fellow geek/nerds who I can talk to about literature all day. It was not a teacher, parent, or professor. It was one of those girls that you would never even expect to pick up a book, much less a 900 page, tiny print book with challenging vocabulary, sentences, and themes. You know, the party hard, school-doesn't-matter type? I am sad to say that I judged this young woman in the worst possible way. I could not help but comment, and we proceeded to have a quite in depth conversation about the book. I have learned to not judge people based on the appearance of who they might be. I have a complete newfound respect for my classmate.

p.s. Go read The Fountainhead. It is worth the time. It will blow your mind.

"I Want to be Where Your Barefoot Walks"

I want to be where your bare foot walks;
I want to be where your bare foot walks,
Because maybe before you step you'll look at the ground.
I want that blessing.
I open and fill; I fill with love and all other objects evaporate.
All the learning in books stays put on the shelf.
Poetry, the dear words, images of song,
Comes down over me like water.

This is how I would die;
Into the love I have for you; the love I have for you.

As pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight
This is how I would die
Into the love I have for you

-Rumi

Thanks to Jessica for reminding me to do this assignment and for letting me copy-paste this poem into my post.

Our weekend assignment for choir is to write a one-page (single space-hah!) reaction on what this poem means to us. Apparently, as a high school choir, we don't spend enough time on the lyrics of the songs we sing. Therefore, our director would like to hear our 16-18 year old thoughts on love. Maybe he's going through a crisis or something, and would like to subject himself to 80 pages of that. Yes, I am being a little bit harsh on us high schoolers; of course we have important, meaningful things to say about love. Knowing our choir, we will probably come up with amazing things to write about. It's really not that bad of an assignment. I'm just annoyed that we have to do it, because I am sick of writing (me saying this, as I sit here writing, oh the irony). I think I'm going to go to bed before I talk/write myself into an atrocious mood.