Good Book Tuesday

Look at that, it's Tuesday. I have my Aflac interview tomorrow so wish me luck as that job would make all my financial dreams come true.

This week's good book is On The Road by Jack Kerouac. Considering my last post I thought it was fitting. The book has intrigued me for years and it was always one of those books that people tell me I will like but I wait forever to read. I love the stream of consciousness writing and I went a step further and got the "Original Scroll" version. For some background information; Jack was a beat poet and went on this drug induced road trip across America. he wrote the whole book as one giant thing. No punctuation, no page breaks, no paragraphs. I thought that this style would bother me more than it did. The story read like it was being told to you by your over the top hyper friend. The only reason that style bothered me at all was because there was no convenient place to end reading.

I liked the book, I like Jack Kerouac and his crazy road trippin' ways. His prose is pretty impressive and I would like to read some more of his novels. As great as it was to have the original format of the book I may go ahead and suggest getting it in the mass marketed normal format. It would be easier to read that way. If you like travel, road trips especially, pick it up sometime.

I want an RV for Christmas

Every now and then, more so in the warm months, I get a need to travel. Symptoms are looking for modes of transportation, searching for destinations, and a general restlessness. I get anxious and sometimes a bit panicky too. I think right now I am in some weird limbo of freedom and impending responsibility. School may not be an option this year so I don't have that keeping me here. I currently am hired at JCPenney but it's not a career. While everything (most things) is giving me the "its now or never" go-ahead I am still sitting in my house. How would I get the money to leave? How would I pay for my massive accumulation of loans and bills while I'm gone? How would I even pay for car insurance?

I had a plan for the longest time. The plan was that when I was free from school I would spend one whole year traveling the world. That plan has seen some major issues. One issue is that I have spent the last two years gung-ho on the idea of moving immediately after school. But once I have a monthly rent payment isn't that dream of wandering around aimlessly done for? The plan dwindled down to six months, since that's when my loans would start to need paying. Now its just North America. Ideally, right now, I want to get some sort of vehicle and spend a year (or six months, or hell even three) just driving. I have an overwhelming feeling that if I don't do this now I will never have another chance.

My dad asked me yesterday what I would do if I could do anything I wanted. I told him I would travel, continuously. I want to be nomadic. To have a home to go back to but to have the option to stay away. I just need to figure out how to do it.

Oh Me of Little Faith

I planned (plan) to update every week day but some where between getting a job and landing an interview for a better, full time one the days just got away from me. I've felt so much better since this happened and wanted to celebrate and enjoy the feeling of good karma.

On a similar note there is the story of the website I signed up for called Freelancer.com. Freelancer sends me about a billion emails and tweets a day. I have gotten so sick of it that I stopped following them on twitter and have tried to send their mail to spam. I can always just check the website for open projects. Anyway, you find a project, you bid on it, plea your case as to why you're amazing/perfect/gifted/their dream come true and hope they pick you. I applied for a lot. A lot a lot. My two jobs are fine and well but I need money for next years Big Move, I need a virtual hope chest if you will. All my money from writing is going towards the Big Move. Just as I was about fed up with freelancer, I got a project!

My mission for them is to write five "erotic horror" blogs. The horror part I can do. It's the erotic part that has me a tad worried. There are many words in the english language that make me giggle. 90% of those words involve erotica. It should be a fun challenge though and maybe there can be a link to my blog here so that more people than Amanda (hi Amanda) can read this because that would be cool.

On a side note, I saw Inception last night with Branden and it was much better than anticipated. I thought maybe it was all hype but oh my goodness it was one of the best movies I've ever seen. Go see it, you'll like it. Then we went back to his house and ended the night with some Supernatural. I have secret fantasies involving Dean from that show and I think if Branden knew that he wouldn't be quite so happy that I'm watching it.

Tonight is Amanda's belated birthday extravaganza and I am super excited to get to hang out with her and some of the other people who are going to be there. Should be a whole lot of fun.

About Me Wednesday: How I was convinced into wanting to write

While trying to find theme's to write about on each day I figured I could share a bit about myself on Wednesdays.

When I was younger (and possibly still today) I was much more fickle than most kids. I would change my clothes half way through the day, change my taste in music constantly, and change my desired vocation close to everyday. I remember wanting to be (in some order) a ballerina, an astronaut, an artist, a rock star, a scientist, and an actress. I was easily dissuaded too. I stopped wanting to be a scientist and an artist when I realized I wasn't the best in my class at either subject and when I noticed I had a slight fear of heights the whole astronaut thing went to hell to.

When I was in my actress phase during sixth grade I had a fantastic teacher. Mrs. Estridge is still one of my favorite teachers from school. She was so nice and very good at her job. I wrote something for her class about wanting to be an actress. She sent it back to me asking to see me after class. I went to her desk and she told me that she thought I should try to be a writer. Mrs. Estridge was the first person to tell me that I could write and more than that, make a career out of it. I thought about it and decided that if she thought that I was good at it I might give it a try. I already loved reading and could lose myself almost completely in a story, why not do it myself? I visited her when I was in High School and she still remembered me and told me that if I write something to let her know and she will find me a publisher. Whatever I write in the end my first book will be dedicated to her. She also turned me on to the Harry Potter books. I just got a lightening bolt tattoo on my wrist last month.

The second teacher who I owe my perseverance of writing to is Mr. Simpson. He was my Junior year English teacher and his style of teaching was captivating. He could hold everyone's attention and make the class time go by in the blink of an eye. At that age, being told that I could write may not have been enough. He told me that I have a distinctive style to my writing. I turned in pieces of my own writing for class and he always made sure to encourage me to continue with them. He assigned everyone in class a movie and asked us to try and figure out why he felt that movie related to us. He gave me "The Girl With the Pearl Earring." To this day I have no idea why and the closest I have got was when I told him I wanted to publish a book with an accompanying CD and he told me that was why he picked the movie.

These two teachers, more than anything else, have helped make me the person I am today. As flawed and mostly irresponsible that person is I have never lost the belief in myself that I can write and that my writing is unique to myself.

First Good Book Tuesday

I read. A lot. I once got in trouble for reading in an English class. I figured I might as well share a book that I like and/ or am reading on Tuesdays.

I started reading Franny and Zooey after the news broke that Salinger had died. I remember reading Catcher in the Rye in High School and my teacher telling us that Salinger was a hermit who had a cabin in the woods. The rumor was that he sat in his cabin and wrote. He had stopped publishing by this time and just let the manuscripts pile up. In his will it was supposed to be stated that he wanted his cabin, along with all the manuscripts, burnt. I had loved Catcher in the Rye and knew I wanted to read more of Salingers work.

Franny and Zooey is about two siblings. Franny seems to be going through an existential break down based around religion and her up bringing in a family of geniuses. Zooey, her actor brother, tries to help her get through her melt down while relating to her and her views of their childhood abnormalities.

I love this book. I haven't finished it because it is one of those books where the characters are so intriguing I want to keep hanging out with them for as long as I can. I love the relationship that Franny and Zooey have and the very adult like way that they talk with one another. With the semi- new term "quarter life crisis" being used more frequently I think that this book sums up the extreme panic that a person can have if they examine their own life too much.

Puppies Make Everything Better

I finally got a call for an interview! It's not an ideal job, being a cashier at JCPenney, but it will pay the bills just fine. My interview is tomorrow so hopefully I will soon have a way to start paying my student loans back.

Yesterday, after a day full of temp agencies I went to play with puppies at petland. This always makes me feel better. I played with an adorable basset hound. She was so sad looking and calm in the cage but when the attendant took her out she was crazy hyper. With her sad little face I just wanted to make her happy. I even let her chew on my shoes.

Today is full of pretty normal things. Cleaning my mess of a room, making dinner, and applying to more jobs (ideal jobs) will take me most of the day. After my parents get home though I'm going out to spend some time with my friend and fellow job hunter, Branden.

Tomorrow I'm going to be taking a stack of books to sell for some spending money. When shit starts getting sold thats when you know you're broke.

So, this is new

I'm perfectly aware that as I post this first blog there is no one to read it yet. Quite frankly that helps a bit since not since the days of Myspace have I posted a blog about myself. What I have posted are blogs for other people. I am a content writer and have spent the past year writing things that will go on other people's websites.

A friend of mine asked me today why I wanted my own blog. I said it was because writers need to network and for the most part that's true. I want to meet other writers and generally become an easy person to find online. But the second part of this new desire to blog is that I am aware for the first time that my life is changing, and in none of the ways I expected it to. I'm twenty two and I don't have a full time job, or a car of my own, or an apartment, and I may not be going back to school in the fall due to an unfortunate twist in finances. I am currently not tied down by anything but nervous about what that may mean.

I suppose I should maybe have an idea about what this is going to all be about...

It's about a girl who wants to be a nomad. About finding a career after college. About coming in to myself and becoming someone I am happy to be.

So please come back and check on me every now and then. If you want to say hi I'd love that.