A Self-Pity Picture Post!

All right. It's time for me to post something, not because I have something wildly original or artistic to say, but because this is my life right now, and you have to write from where you're at. Forgive the unfortunate grammar, but considering "where I'm at" (namely, trying to figure out how to be an adult living with my parents in a tiny, tiny town in South Carolina), it would be wrong to say that you have to write from "where you are." So where am I at right now? I'm in the oddest place. I'm a grown person (mostly) who has been out of college for a year. I keep thinking, "Can it possibly have been that long already?" At the same time, it feels like it's been forever. Nothing new there; I'm sure most people experience that sensation when they're starting their life as independent grown-ups. I've been living in my parents' house, but without my parents up until last Wednesday. And then Mom and Daddy moved in. Cue not knowing what to do with myself. Part of what came with them moving into their house, in which I had already been living, was that I had to consolidate all my worldly possessions into my bedroom. Madness. I have pictures to prove it.

To the right is my bed. And that heap in the left of the picture? Yeah, that's a bed too, only you wouldn't know that on account of the massive load of stuff on top of it

A better view of the junk heap. My poor beleaguered bookshelf in front of the window, shut off from my access by more stuff on the floor. 

And of course, the floor. Let's not talk about it.

The really heartbreaking thing for me is that I had this room so beautiful before now. I had just rearranged the furniture and things were working beautifully. But anyway, my point in this post was not originally to talk about the state of my life so much as to discuss the unrealistic, disheartening, impossible, overwhelming list of things that I want to "straighten out" in my life. Get this room in order. Go through my entire wardrobe, discard what I don't need, buy what I do, and become efficient at dressing professionally and attractively. Go through all of my documents on my computer, get things backed up so I don't lose things I've written like I did earlier this year, get started trying to get some stuff published. Start cooking again (and that one's probably not going to happen, what with my parents being here...I mean cooking in a different sense than just preparing food. Perhaps I'll post more about what I mean about that some other time). Learn everything I can about how to better teach Josh, the fourteen year old boy I tutor. Write a novel draft. Read the books I own instead of just accumulating more because I can. Figure out my finances, budget my current income, figure out how best to use my money. Start looking at MFA programs and begin to get things in order for the application process this fall. If I kept going, I could think of more, but I really need to stop now so I can get to bed to go to work tomorrow. But before I do, I've got to end on a good note. Nice thing is, a long history of experience with overwhelming to do lists (English Major...'nuff said) allows me to remind myself that no one ever ate a whale in one bite. Thank you, Shel Silverstein. 

Melinda Mae

Have you heard of tiny Melinda Mae,

Who ate a monstrous whale?

She thought she could,


She said she would,

So she started  in right  at the tail.

And everyone said, “You’re much too small,”

But that didn’t bother Melinda at all.

She took little bites and she chewed very slow,

Just like a good girl should…

…And in eighty-nine years she ate that whale

Because she said she would!

–      Melinda Mae, Poem and Illustrations by Shel Silverstein