29

I turn twenty-nine in two days. 29! How old is that!? It's weird that I'm that old. But that's all I really have to say about that. Next year, I'll be 30. 11 years ago I graduated from high school--I barely learned a thing.

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This picture. My dad's barely twenty, my mom twenty-fourish. HA TWENTY!?

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It's been a frustrating week. Well, not completely, but I have to apply for jobs. I've applied for a handful of teaching jobs, but none of them start till the fall, AND no one has emailed or called to say, "Hey, we'd like to interview you." Meanwhile, I'm doing this tutoring this and it's frustrating the shit out of me. But whatever, it's good for me. But what's depressing about job hunting is that I'm gonna have to work a shit job and depending on what I get offered by schools, I may have to keep it. I've applied to Microsoft and Nintendo and stuff like that, but I doubt I'll get those; I have no work experience in the office--and I don't know excel worth a shit. Plus every app asks you for a resume (not a CV) and you upload, then they're like "please list education and work" and I'm thinking, "Why the fuck did I just upload my resume?!" It sucks. I've got a BA AND a MA! But in English. Who's gonna want to hire me. Actually, I kind of hope I get a job in the call center, and a couple English classes this fall. That way, I can maybe do both...I don't know. We'll see.

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I've been writing a lot of material, a lot of poetry. I should be transcribing it, but I don't want to. I think I'm gonna read when I'm done with this.

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My dad's reading The Story Thief. He's making comments to me as he reads. First, though, he's reading on a Kindle, so he keeps looking up and saying, to no one in particular, "45%" or "84%" He's actually made some great comments. And pointed a couple things out to me that, I was like, "Really?" or "Oh, shit that's brilliant!" He's a good reader to have. I'm excited to see what the other readers have to say. Hopefully, it's mostly, "Brilliant. A Masterpiece. Can I give you money or a back-rub?"

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Been getting a lot of rejection letters. That's actually good. I've been waiting a while, and I think journals are cleaning out their stacks of manuscripts...so if you're waiting expect some returns.

I even got a rejection letter with some notes (and I'm not saying their not right, but) and I thought, "You're rejecting me and you're giving me notes?" Something like, "Tighten this up and work on tone." Thanks McGrueber. Look, if you're gonna give me notes in a rejection, please be concrete about it...it read like he was making editorial comments (you know, the kind that you get when they've accepted with conditions...the kind I saw Puerto del Sol send out a few times. The ending is off. The middle is really clunky. We would just write something that said, We loved the piece, but were curious about if you're willing to make some edits...and then we'd ask them about the edits. But whatever. It's not like I'm mad. I just thought it was an interesting way to reject someone. But don't worry, I will be submitting to them again in the fall. Why? Why not?

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Em's doing good. She's been real tired this week. But the midwives suggested Iron and Vitamin K (along with all the prenatal stuff she's already taking). It's like a pharmacy in there! But yesterday she was feeling a little better and we went for a walk. It was nice. There were birds in the trees, and fish and ducks in the water. Indie is being a brat and I think she needs to poop.

After that, I'm gonna read and drink coffee.

Later,

Joshua