Camping and other things

So, Emily and I went camping this weekend. It was a quick trip, just up over the pass (the pass is a hill. It's pretty much like riding your bike up to Western from downtown--i'm exaggerating), and down a long winding road. Basically, the "mountains" i stare at everyday from Las Cruces...we camped just on the other side. There are pictures on facebook.

It was fun. I haven't been camping in years, and it was nice to get outta the house and town for a day or two. We're gonna go up north to a place with water and stuff in two weeks. I'm stoked.

*

I just looked over my latest manuscript...which probably should be my thesis...and realized it needs a little work. I need to figure out how to format each "type" of poem, and also how to make this novel-in-verse move like a novel...

All this work on poetry is making me want to work on The Story Thief. That novel's been working itself out in my head like crazy...I can't wait to finish a good rough draft of my poetry, get ahead on school work and readings, and then sit down and type out all my chapters that are basically handwritten right now. Soon.

*

I also have to type up the opening scene of a film called Feller. I keep putting it off. But I need to get it done this week. And perhaps work on some more scenes......ahhhhh....

*

I miss my friends from Western. Ian, Kenny, Matt, Chelsea, Eddy, Matt Brown, Cumi, and so many others (I named you guys first cause we hung out the most...), and I miss my professors. School is way different here. I mean, it's similar in ways, but so different. Plus I gotta learn some spanish. I'm gonna get myself a book and start learning. I got three years...and what will be my thesis is pretty close to draft stage, so...I'll have time.

*

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my choice to come here. Part of me regrets it. This town is pretty weak. Why couldn't I have gone to pittsburgh, or chicago, or boston? Well, I can answer that. MONEY. nowhere else could I live like I'm living now. I mean, I can buy food, see movies, pay bills, and go camping. The downside is there's not much else to do. I can't even go to Mexico, cause the town over the border, Juarez, is having crazy murder problems right now. It's fucked. Look it up on the news...murders...

*

On my links wall is a link to Strength and Vision. My buddy Dave writes about music, movies, and stuff. He's hella good. If you want to follow a blog (he's not a daily blogger, but he gets you your fix when you're needing it) check it out. He's good.

*

I get the David Bazan record soon. I'm waiting...

*

Love you,
Joshua

Camping, Poetry, and Fiction

So, Emily and I are going camping in Carlsbad this weekend. We're stoked. We're gonna get out of the house, get out of town and do something we both haven't done in ages! We're excited!
*
Classes are going good. My students are pretty rad and i like them. They all seem to like writing and want to be good writers, or at least pretend like they do. I'm really excited, because I feel like I can just get them to write without forcing them to, or trying to be all fancy. They're just good kids. But we'll see how it turns out.

In terms of my classes. They're cool. My form and tech class isn't what I expected, but i'm gonna write about David Bazan, my dad, my mom, and the church. I think that's what I'll be doing all quarter. Maybe some film stuff in there too...we'll see.
*
I've been sending out query letters for my novel Bumping, with no interest. Until I sent it out to a rad little press from NY, who didn't find the subject matter appropriate for the press, but asked for something else.

I sent out my two collections (actually the first twenty pages); To the Chapel of Light and When the Wolves Quit. See, this press does novels only, but they're all about changing and experimenting with the idea of what a novel is, and since my collections of poetry are really novels-in-verse they might fit the press. We'll what he says, but I got my fingers crossed.
*
I've got a new batch of poems I gotta start sending out. I'm getting all that ready, soon.
*
I saw Harry Potter 6. Awesome. The kids can act now! Pretty rad!! I liked it: dramatic...not that much action, but good drama (malfoy is amazing!) and really funny. Check it
*
Later,
Love,
Joshua

Oh man

So, i registered for the wrong class. actually, i wasn't the only MFA student to do that. A few did. So, i had to drop the class, and now i have to return the books i bought...which is a shame, 'cause they were cool books.

i've been walking to school. It's hot. i sweat. and i drink a lot of water. i just want this semester to get rolling to the swing of things start leading my days.

my grandfather's getting an operation today to remove a tumor from his brain. i'm thinking about him. my dad and jordan are heading there to be at the hospital...i'm there in spirit, i guess.

i saw funny people last night, 'cause we missed the first ten of harry potter (cause the freaking traffic was awful--construction). it was really good. i think my favorite of apatow's. we'll see. i'm gonna let it stew.

ok, i got stuff to do.

love ya'll

joshua

And so it begins...

Well, not till thursday, but I finally get my fin aid check tomorrow morning and i can pay the bills i need to pay. i had an orientation for "grad school" yesterday which was the most boring day of my life. it probably was so boring 'cause i've already been to grad school. whatever, i made it through, then that night Em and I got drunk watched St. Elmo's Fire (which was hard to find in itself, considering that all the Blockbusters in Las Cruces shut its doors and we had to find the Hollywood on the other side of town). The brat pack was quite a relief from the monotony of orientations. I'm just ready to get going, to write, to learn, to fucking get some shit done!
*
I waiting for two things besides school stuff:
1) David Bazan's Curse your Branches
2) Star Trek on DVD.
*
There was supposed to be a storm tonight, but now there's not. It's 101. Hot.

Ok that's all for today.
love
Joshua

Las Cruces III

So, I start teaching next week. 27 kids in a class about Rhetoric and Composition. Hm. I've got the first few weeks planned, and I'm gonna have to figure out the rest of the semester (i wanted to say quarter). I'm excited to start new classes. I'm taking a Comp/Pedagogy class, a form and technique poetry class, and a workshop (the professor is Richard Greenfield, whose first book is prose poems...hahahaha yes! I knew I came to the right school!!!).
I'm excited to work with new profs (though I'll miss my old ones!!) and I've been writing pretty crazy this last week (and a bunch before the wedding and move)...so I'm excited to workshop them...
anyway, gonna go get some beer.
More later,
Joshua

Oh...

I miss Bellingham.

Las Cruces Part II

So, the weekend here is kinda boring. Everything (like art galleries and museums) close early on sat and aren't open on sun. And on Sunday food places aren't open till after lunch or not at all. Oh well, it's not like we got a bunch of money to spend anyway, but still...

We're just trying to unpack the rest of our stuff and keep ourselves busy. Right now we're watching "Micheal and Micheal Have Problems." Pretty funny stuff. We've also been watching a lot of the the Travel and Discovery Channel.

I start training tomorrow. I'm a little nervous, 'cause I don't know what to expect, but I'm sure I'll be fine. Man, I just want everything to start to I can find a routine and start a writing schedule again and a workout schedule. Speaking of that, I've lost some weight since I started working out up in B'ham. Next time you guys see me, I ain't gonna have no dunlap.

Those of you who read this and are on the up and up with lit contest and zines for submission, if you find anything cool, send them my way. I'm gonna start submitting and shitload of stuff these next two months. I got a book (something that's somewhere between a short novel/novella/sh. story collection) that needs to go out to contests/presses/agents. A collection of poems/my thesis that needs to do the same, and a ton of poems and stories that I need to start landing in journals. I got alotta work this fall.

I miss B'ham already. I miss, besides the people, the FOOD. There's some good food here, but not like B'ham (I'm sure once we learn this place, we'll have our spots, but as of now...not much).

That's all for now. i'll let ya'll now how everything goes. Stay clean and just say no.

Love you,
Joshua

Las Cruces

Hello,

So, Em and I have been down here in New Mexico for a few days. And we already got internet hooked up, so we're pretty stoked (plus digital cable). But yesterday she was surfing the web and came to this site, and said, "geez it's been a while since you posted." So, today I got up and decided, after surfing the web a little myself, seeing that nothing's really happening on facebook, or anything, that I would give everyone an update.

We made it here in two long days. Left Sunday the 2nd and made it here on the 4th...kind of...

See we drove no faster than 60mph (not counting a few hill), because the tow-trailer we had couldn't go any faster without exploding. But after a post-wedding celebration with the Fix family, we got up at 6am and left Yakima, and we drove from there, into Oregon, through the dry part, into Idaho, past Boise, and we stopped in Twin Falls.

First of all I was stoked to stop because my favorite Built to Spill song has the same title, but we also stopped cause we were hungry and needed a good meal. We ended up hanging out for a while, taking pictures, and walking around. The bridge into the town is amazing, and there's this little paradise below the cliff, where the river goes, and there were people parachuting off the bridge, and the sun was setting. It was amazing!

So, we finally got back on the road and I drove into the darkness of Idaho, which turned into Utah, which had some amazingly smooth roads, that once we hit SLC, were crap, one lane freeways, construction, bumps...i spent a lot of time cursing to myself and woke up Dan and Em. Then after the city we were supposed to take highway six (a shortcut), but as we got on it there were these weird windmills and curvy roads and darkness, so we opted to stay on the main freeway (we probably lost an hour or so, but that's better than running out of gas where there are no towns). I switched over driving at like 3 in the morning or something and Dan took over, wanting to get us out of Utah and into Colorado. We finally did. It took forever.

When the sun started rising, trying to peek its head over the mountains we stopped at Denny's had some "build your own" Grand Slam and took off again. This part of Utah was amazing. There were rock formations, huge outlooks...oh...then after hours of that (it started getting old, kind of), we reached the town of Moab. This is somewhere you all should go. It's crazy cool, old, and seems to be a freaking hot spot. Em and I want to go. And we probably will someday soon...

We got gas on in a town that (I can't remember the name) was repaving every single road in town. It sucked, but we made it out, and about an hour later we were in colorado, which fields and farms and was a change from Utah, even though they were basically in the same place. I don't know if I got a lot of pictures of Colorado...I'll check.

Colorado was OK. It was nice at first, then got hilly and the roads got shitty, and it took forever to get into New Mexico. There's a place just off the main road called four corners where you can stand in four states. Cool. We didn't have time to we jetted passed at 55mph.

New Mexico (the sign said Navajo country), was dust and straightness forever, with some mountains in the distance. At this point we were just trying to get through the state down to Las Cruces so we could get our keys and sleep in our apartment. But the longer we drove, the more we knew we wouldn't. Then after hours and hours, Albuquerque came and went. It was sunset, and the city seemed cool, and there was a lot of water (rivers and stuff) and green tress and bushes. It was a nice change for a bit. At the truck stop, we got some drinks and food and met a cashier who had moved back from Portland. He said, "I like it here. The sunsets are the best." I was thinking, OK, but Bellingham's got the best sunsets...so, we'll see. (The sunsets here are unreal...I don't know. I'm still partial to B'ham's sky...we'll see...we'll see...)

We kept moving and made it to Truth and Consequences, NM (Yes that's a city) to get gas. Stop. Rewind. Albuquerque we had over a half tank, and an hour out of Truth and Con. we had a quarter, then twenty minutes out we were empty and started freaking out. So, we started coasting down hills and trying to take that momentum up hills. We made it, with not sputtering or anything, pulled into a Chevron or something, filled up, and started to drive, then the truck sputtered to a start.

Long story short it wouldn't start. We had to get a motel. The mechanic who came out said we had a messed up fuel pump. A wrecker-truck driver towed the truck to our new apt. and I had to go and sleep in the rental truck till Em and Dan woke up, and drove the car down {yes we unloaded the car from the trailer).

And here we are.

I'll try to post a lot more than as of late. You can check out pictures at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2186026&id=25903020&page=5

Love you,
Joshua