Is there anybody out there?

I haven’t logged into this account in about 11 months and haven’t posted anything in even longer. So for anyone who’s curious about what I’m getting myself into, here are some updates: 

I moved to Washington to serve with AmeriCorps and it was a dope experience! So dope that I applied for a second year and was accepted, so I get a second year with the high school kids I work with and I am thrilled. I’ve been living in Tacoma but I’m moving to Seattle in the next couple of weeks into a house that looks like it could have been in an episode of Breaking Bad (graffiti in the basement, cigarette butts and ash caked into the windowsill, broken EVERYTHING and I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been cleaned in nine years). It just needs some Love and I’m excited to work on it. 

My second job is at a room escape game; I lock people in a room and they have an hour to get out using clues and solving puzzles. 

I have been writing almost nothing-- lots of journaling, which is fine, but I haven’t cranked out a story or poem in almost a year and that scares me more than anything. I also haven’t shared any writing with anybody in about a year (also scary). BUT I’ve been getting more into zine-making since moving here which is a ton of fun and I encourage all writers and creative types to make at least one zine. All that said, if anyone has any prompts for me, I could use a kick in the ass to making writing a higher priority in my life. Leave a reply on this post or message me and I’ll whip out a piece using your prompt & post it on here! Thanks in advance! 

I don’t have much else to add to this, at least that I can think of at the moment. I have no idea whose eyes this post is reaching since I haven’t touched this blog in so long, but it’d be cool to reconnect with some writers or people from college that I haven’t been in touch with. 

Summer reading!

I need book suggestions! I read just about everything-- poetry, fiction, nonfiction, whatever. What are some books that have stuck with you? And if you have copies you don't mind lending me, I would be happy to share some of my own books and we can just do a temporary book swap. Let me know! Thanks dudes!

I didn't wanna post this till the end of the semester because I didn't want you all to learn this much about me, but we're all homies now, so if you want to follow me on my personal blog (I mostly just reblog pictures of dogs and make melodramatic text posts and stuff) like this post and I'll follow you on that blog, and you can follow me back if you want. No pressure though.

I also hope to see some of you at the Ore Dock tonight, and at roller derby on Saturday (it is so much cooler than you can even imagine, so definitely come check it out!). And if not, it's been real, it's been great, it's been really great.

ORE DOCK, TOMORROW (WEDNESDAY), 8 PM

Be there or be square!

vocabulary-obscured replied to your post:So it seems like there’s an interest in a group...

Wednesday would also work for me!

So it seems like there's an interest in a group shindig at the Ore Dock to write, drink beer (if you're old enough), and be merry. I know we're all busy with finals and whatnot, but I wanna make this happen-- would this Thursday, the 24th work? Holla back.

Hey dudes, trying to read Jenni's story but my computer's doing that thing where it chops off the last bit again-- I'm cut off at "Grael sniggered as he and the rest of the dragons came together in an impressive group hug, the sweet sound of--"

Changing the font size hasn't done anything. Can someone message me whatever is left after that? Thanks guys!

vocabulary-obscured replied to your post:maymee3 replied to your post:Hey EN400 peeps, I...

Yeah, for real!! The more the merrier!

iwasdeniedeveryusernameichose replied to your post:Hey EN400 peeps, I just wanna throw this out...

Thanks Erik! Graduating is scary and I am terrified but it'll be exciting to be outside of the world of academia for a while. I'll be on Tumblr plenty too, I usually crank out a lot of writing in the summer so it'll be nice to have a place to put it.

I am 100% down. I'll be busy for most of this weekend but am free every night next week except Monday and Saturday. Let's do a thing!

vocabulary-obscured replied to your post:vocabulary-obscured replied to your post:Hey EN400...

Haha, I just copy and paste the replies and make a text post :) There really isn't a good way to do it and Tumblr should definitely work out a better system for replies on post, but I make do. I will keep in touch for sure. And I will send all my shitty writing your way for Worst.

vocabulary-obscured replied to your post:Hey EN400 peeps, I just wanna throw this out...

lol who knows man

But seriously, no idea, I am just hoping to find somewhere other than Michigan because as much as I love this place, there's a whole lot of this world to see and I gotta go see it.

Hey EN400 peeps,

I just wanna throw this out there before the semester ends and I forget. I'm graduating this semester, but I think you guys are cool cats and this has been one of my favorite writing classes. I don't know if it's just because I have been overly nostalgic lately, but I've been really clinging to the wonder and beauty of human connections and I am trying to make a point of staying in touch with people.

I know that on a very basic level, we are all just classmates, but I think  there's something about sharing our writing with one another that makes our interactions a little more personal and significant than other classes. That said, I just wanted to let you guys know that even though I'm not going to be on campus, I'll be in the UP until at least November, so get a hold of me if you want to get together for writerly things-- grabbing coffee and journaling, looking at each others' work, whatever. I'm serious, dudes. I need writers in my life, and I see my writing grow much more when I have other people to share stories with.

If you wanna keep in touch with me, don't feel weird about adding me on Facebook or messaging me or even asking for my number if that's your preferred way of communication. I am going to repeat: DO NOT FEEL WEIRD. I usually shy away from people who do exactly what I'm doing because I think I'm too hopelessly awkward to make new friends. But new friends are rad, and new writer friends are even radder. So, for real, let's be friends and get to know each other outside of class (if you want. It's cool if you don't. I'm kind of a goober anyways so if you don't want to hang out with me I understand).

Even though there isn't an assignment, it doesn't feel right to not post some writing on here before Wednesday

so here is something I've been working on. It was originally a free write after I took a walk around the DeVos art museum a few weeks ago, and has components from five pieces that were on display. I don't know what to call this-- a prose poem, I guess? I read it out loud for another class today and they said that with some fine tuning it could work as spoken word. I also don't know if I even like it yet, and it doesn't feel complete, but I like some of the things going on it. Here ya go!

The self portrait of John Hubbard reflects, so I saw myself in him, mustached at 39, my face glossed on a head that grows from a pencil lined pile of mashed potatoes instead of a body. At first I thought this was a sketch of a young Chef Boiardi, who changed the spelling of his name so Americans knew that it was indeed pronounced Boy-ar-dee. I wonder if John Hubbard knew that.

“C’mon, Charlie! Goose the gas!”

My house knows what the goose knows, but my house lives on a backwards planet that revolves clockwise, the steering wheel cranking right and Charlie goosing the gas so we burn rubber around the sun, ripping through zero gravity like we’ve been launched from a slingshot. On this planet our mornings start at 6 p.m., which brings me back to my house, lightening up with its knowledge of how to intimidate park visitors into giving it slices of Wonder bread, or how to soar when things get cold, you know, goose stuff. I look at Charlie in the driver’s seat, eating mini ravioli, cold out of the can, using his knee to steer. And I look back at our planet, the backwards one where people breathe like jack pines, remembering that it’s made from acrylic paint peeled from the mirror of one of those planets that turn

left

behind

the waves you can see the brown paint of my house before it was peeled and adhered to its new panel. And then Charlie drops a ravioli on his jeans and jerks left for a moment, steering us in the orbit of those backwards planets, and like a camera flash I saw that my house is actually a nest, and my body is made of eggshell, and I’ve never seen myself as a goose but I have always wanted to fly. Charlie veers us back right and gooses the gas, which only means that he presses his foot as far south as it can go, his toes pointed like an arrow, cruising the apex of our planet’s clockwise orbit.

I catch a glimpse of the face on Charlie’s ravioli can, the man wearing a chef’s hat, Chef Boiardi printed above his face because on our planet we don’t do backwards things like change ourselves when other people don’t understand us, so the name on Charlie’s can does not have a Y or two E’s where I should be. And where should I be, because spinning with Charlie is getting old, and so am I, and when I look in the mirror there’s a shadow of John Hubbard’s 39-year-old mustache somewhere behind my reflection.