juniper-licious

I was accepted into the Juniper Summer Writing Institute.

Is this a big deal? I have no idea.

It's only for a week. It costs a little more than five times what I thought it did when I applied and I found out about it too late to apply for a scholarship.

Oh well. I will do it anyway.

I am one-up on the other people who will be attending since I live nearby and they will have to pay for housing unless I am not one-up on them.

They probably don't work at gas stations though.

I think I might be excited.

I wonder if I shouldn't use the story that got me into the Juniper program in my writing sample for the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (since that is where the Juniper program takes place). I wrote that story specifically for my UMASS writing sample. I wonder if I should workshop that story. Maybe it would help me improve it and ultimately get into an MFA program?

It would be a little weird to workshop the story that got me into the Juniper program while in a Juniper workshop. I could workshop my usual stuff, but it is my "usual stuff," not my "literary stuff." I think I only write "literary stuff" for MFA writing samples.

I rented a P.O. box. That angry, crazy man will not murder me now, unless he is waiting when I go back to my old house to pick up stuff to bring to my storage space in Connecticut. I am paying three dollars and thirty three cents to receive two pieces of mail a month and go a month without being killed by insane submitters. Pretty much all of my Bust correspondence happens online.

I have moved all my non-going into storage stuff into my new place. I still need to put a bunch away.

A bus passes my window every five minutes. This would be very nice if I was lazier (I would rather walk to town) and ever had somewhere to be during the day. I am sure the bus will come far less frequently during the week of the Juniper program in the summer.

My co-worker, Jessie (of An Interview with Jesse fame), is too lazy to do his job properly, so the new manager banned laptop use.

This is the way of the world. One person ruins it for the rest of humanity.

I will need to become more comfortable with writing fiction in a notebook. I am so dependent on my word processor.

I will probably end up reading more books now.

I might blog less, since I mostly blogged at work.

Or I will decide to be more ok with writing blog entries when I'm tired.

I will apply to the gas station that's near my new place. They are hiring for the third shift.

Gas costs so much. I drive a gas guzzler. My gas station is too cheap to pay me a little extra for working third shifts. Every other gas station in the known universe seems to do this.

Being able to use my laptop at work was probably the only reason why I would prefer to work at my gas station over another random gas station. So I will see what happens.

I just finished In Watermelon Sugar. It was great! It was sort of what I wanted Motorman to be like. I do not really remember Motorman though, so I don't know what I'm talking about. Oh, I do remember one thing. I remember that I did not like it.

I also read Trout Fishing in America because it was in the same book. I did not like it. I liked some chapters in it. Some chapters were some of the greatest chapters ever written. But overall, I did not enjoy it. I do not like to read books about fishing. I do not like to read books about nature.

To me, reading books about nature feels the same as watching a sports event.

Watching a sports event is incredibly boring. Unless it is "pro" wrestling or a monster truck rally and the five minute mark hasn't passed yet.

Sometimes, playing sports can be fun.

I like doing nature-y things like hiking. I would not want to read about someone going on a hike. Unless that someone was a "pro" wrestler who is driving a monster truck up a scenic trail with the intent of driving his truck off the top of the mountain after he gets to the summit.

But I would only like the first five and last five pages.