BNT = Blog Not Titled
In one of my early posts, I mentioned that there are two lines I love in the Semisonic song "Closing Time." One is "Time for you to go out to the places you will be from." The other is "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." I love this line because it acknowledges the bittersweet reality that having the opportunity to start something new often means leaving something else behind.
That's exactly what I'm experiencing as I leave Paris to make a new beginning in the Twin Cities, and so "Every New Beginning" was one of the original titles I considered for this blog. That name was already taken, so then I thought I'd use "Some Other Beginning." I registered that name and had even starting setting up the blog template, but then I realized what the obvious abbreviation for that name would be. Neither the word "sob" nor the common usage of "S.O.B." was pleasing to me for my blog, so I scratched it and went back to the drawing board.
.....
My last new beginning was on March 28, 2002, when I moved from Washington to Paris. Officially, my legal residency in France began on May 14, 2002, and ended today, June 30, 2008. At 5:20 p.m. CDT, I cleared U.S. Immigration Control at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, where I declared myself a U.S. resident for the first time in over six years. My profile in the sidebar has been updated accordingly.
Every new beginning.
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15 comments:
Welcome, um, home?
Thanks! For the record, another BNT (and the favorite of everyone but me who was allowed to vote) was "Which Way's Home?" (That title was also already taken.) The definition of the word "home" will be the subject of long reflection and blogging, I suspect.
Right now, I'm busy and mostly numb, with options for a vague sense of "Ohmigod how can I possible live HERE?!" as I rode from the aiport to Mankato last night.
I haven't heard that song in probably, oh, a good year? Wait, no. IT WAS PLAYING AS I GOT MY HAIR CUT THIS MORNING! No lie.
I guess we're psychic.
Here's a free language tip:
You may be tempted, now that you are back in the land of mostly English, to start pronouncing English/French cognates with an American accent.
But beware.
All the cool kids (Stacy and Clinton, Ina) are pronouncing "empire" and "endive" comme les francais. It's an Ahhm-peer waist on a dress and it's Ahhn-deev you add to your salad.
Just like in 14th century England, our royalty speak another language.
You are welcome.
Hmmm.
It looks like Ann is blogging more on this blog than a certain someone whose picture appears on it.
So, I'll just pretend to guest blog.
Here I am in Iowa at the summer writer's conference, only 85 pages into the novel-which-was-supposed-to-be-finished. I'm especially glad our session is on, since they have had to cancel most of the workshops this summer due to flooding on campus. Most of campus is still closed, so our first session was held in the Old Iowa Capitol building, which is a museum now. We met in the old senate chambers. Yeah, I felt important.
My group is wonderful, filled with people from all walks of life: law, science, agri-business, non-profit fund raising, NASA/Vietnam helicopter pilot, Canadian (does that qualify as a walk of life?). Novelist Sandra Scofield, otherwise known as "the Queen of Structure" is our facilitator/leader. She is generous, challenging, and pulls no punches.
Funny moment of the day: a classmate originally from the east coast who now lives in the midwest (a cheesy state that beings with W) was recounting her initial love affair with Minnesota Nice. A friend from back east told her, "Enjoy it while you can, sweetheart, but at some point you're going to miss people giving you the finger."
I spent more than I should have at two local, independent bookshops. The only reason I didn't spend WAY more than I should have was the building-shaking thunder that woke me out of my book-browsing stupor. I hurried the man checking me out so as to get on the street faster, hoping to beat the downpour home. Yeah, the man was the owner of the store and the customer in front of me with whom he was having a conversation until I set my things on the counter and began tapping my fingers impatiently was mystery writer Deborah Crombie, who had given a reading (which I attended) earlier in the evening. Whoops.
Six blocks into the twelve block walk back to the B&B, the sprinkles started. At eight blocks, it was pouring. My pants were soaked and the aforementioned book purchases were in danger of waterlogging. I should have found a nice tree and waited it out, in retrospect. It was only sprinkling by the time I made it all twelve blocks.
Strike that.
I should have found a nice bar or tea shop (there were plenty open - it's a college town after all) and waited it out.
Here is a link to my B&B. I'm in the yellow room.
www.brownstreetinn.com
I have an assignment to do tonight, although I think I'll put it off until tomorrow, since we don't meet until 2:00. Once a procrastinator, always...
Ann, I love your new blog! And I love hearing about your writing conference. Speaking of procrastinating, I'm presenting for 40 minutes tomorrow morning, at my collaborative research seminar. Guess how many words I've typed as of 5pm? That's right. Zero. I've spent the day thinking, and organizing notes, and rereading, but damn if I can't commit one word to the page. Ugh.
Who was this Stephanie person?
Stephanie withered away from lack of frozen custard.
And the two of you are amateur procrastinators! On Monday morning, I had to give a one-hour presentation at the U of M Medical School (yeah, I have NO idea how Dr. K roped me into that, either), and I didn't even start reading my research materials for it until 8 pm on Sunday. I finished the Power Point presentation at 2:30 am on Monday. How did it go? Well, I didn't die from it, and given how much I HATE public speaking, that qualifies as a rousing success for me!
- Your former blogger
We have some questions to answer together, friends. It’s not as much fun as a Cosmo quiz, but I’m in Iowa. Enough said.
Tonight, back at Prairie Lights bookshop, I heard Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop read from her new novel December. It’s her second novel. Question: If she graduated from college (Harvard, Summa) in 2001, that makes her how old?
Answer: Impossibly young to be published. Let's all boo together.
I didn’t stick around to interrupt her conversations or bully the shop owner or get caught in the rain. I dutifully headed home to blog to you, ex-Stephanie fans.
I hope you all checked out my B&B in the link I posted yesterday. You may note that it is run by Bob and Mark. When I mentioned that to my mother a while back, she was pleased. Select a reason for my mother’s wonderfully casual acceptance of Bob and Mark:
a) My work (and the work of Bravo and HGTV and the Food Channel) converting her to love gays is starting to pay off
b) I would be staying in a house with not one but two men to keep me safe and the bad guys out.
c) She was just pleased that I wasn’t staying in the same B&B as last year, where the theme was pigs. Yes, an entire house decorated in pigs. Pig pictures, pig figurines, pig towels, stuffed pigs, rooms named for famous pigs, etc. Here's the link:
http://www.goldenhaug.com/ You have to click on the hog to enter the site.
As for the actual workshop, I had a small group conference this morning where Sandra significantly challenged each of my fellow group members’ work. She had great suggestions for them, but I can’t imagine being told my entire novel needed to be rewritten from another perspective (ouch) or that my piece was “thin” (double ouch). I told you she doesn’t pull punches. When it was my turn, all she had to say was “Wonderful! You need to get this thing written.” Why was it that I escaped unscathed?
a) Our group time went from 9:00 to 10:00 and it was 9:55 by the time we got to me.
b) It truly is wonderful and will win the Newbery Award, if I ever finish writing the dang thing
c) I named the town in which the story takes place after her: Scofield, MN
Tomorrow night is open mike. I shall be in attendance. I will read. True or false?
Are you KIDDING???? I am WAYYYY too much of a perfectionist to share work that isn’t done.
In conclusion, may I just say how much I appreciate being in a town with a vegetarian/vegan Indian restaurant. I am neither vegetarian nor vegan, I’m just glad to be in a town where that’s one of my choices.
Until the return of the frog,
Ann
Was Stephanie kidnapped? Is she being gagged? Is she struck in traffic? How can she leave us stranded like this? Though Ann's account of her writer's seminar is quite interesting!
Someone formerly-known as a friend of Stephanie's in Paris
Avid readers can only assume that you are forever lost either in Target, or in a Minneapolis supermarket where "baguettes" are displayed on aisle end-caps.
Give us news!
I think we can all assume that Stephanie has now been completely assimilated. She is no longer able to blog because she is watching a Law & Order marathon on TNT.
Wait, there's a Law & Order marathon on TNT? I've been so absorbed by the West Wing marathon on A&E that I hadn't noticed! Can I get one of those TiVo things delivered to my apartment . . . apparently, VCRs are no longer considered acceptable recording devices by the Department of Homeland Security. Or something.
I have to go. I don't want to miss the next commercial break!
- Resistance was futile
I think one of the things we all need to decide is how to recycle this space now that Stephanie has abandoned. If she had written her thoughts on paper, we could have composted the whole mess, but I'm not sure if there's a cyber equivalent? I assume we'll just need to turn native observation into a porn site. Who's in?
Guest blog: the finale?
This morning's elevenses lecture was held at the Dey House, home to Iowa's legendary MFA program in literature. Yes, I bowed a bit as I passed Marilynne Robinson's office door.
(In case you want more info: http://www.uiowa.edu/~fyi/issues/issues2002_v40/03072003/workshop.html)
Most of this week, I've been coasting, relaxing, and socializing. Don't get me wrong, I've been learning a lot and the work I have done will profoundly affect my finished piece. But I've also watched two movies, gone out to eat half a dozen times with classmates, taken long walks, shopped in the local bookstore and artisan shops, guest blogged, ordered hardware to mount a railing on my steps, and consulted (at length) on the light fixture choices for my mother's new house.
However, last night I got some serious work done. I was up late and up again early. Saved it all on my flashdrive to print at the university IT lab on my way to class.
I thought I had my assignment done for today (thousands and thousands of words, Scott, on paper). I was wrong.
I hadn't saved it properly on the flashdrive, so there was nothing to print. And instead of a new scene, I had revised an old scene, which I learned was wrong.
Ah, well. No grades! You gotta love a festival seminar class, just for that. The work helped me figure out my ending better, so it was all worth it, even if I had nothing to technically "show."
Tomorrow I get a second chance at the new scene bit, so I must depart.
Avec cœur ouvert,
Ann
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