Goodnight Little Thesis

Time to fix myself something to eat and to relax although there is a part of me that would like to pull my thesis packet back out so I could continue working on it! But I gave myself a 6pm cut off for working on publishing and writing endeavors!

So, time to do some reading and fix something to eat. But I’m still thinking about the thesis.  Why is it sticking with me even more than when I sent in the first draft?  Maybe because I have some annoying hope in it now.  I think the 48 poems I have picked are fairly strong.  There are quite a few that weren’t in the original draft and now my thesis feels more like a manuscript which just means that I find myself scrutinizing each poem even more closely.

But I have until 12-15 to email it to my two readers and then I’ll have tons of time after that to really polish it before sending it out as a manuscript.

I managed to get a lot done for Folded Word even during a short week and each time I work on a video I’m learning more about my software’s capabilities! Oh and my new microphone came! woo hoo! Can’t wait to use that in the redo of my interview with Lisa Kline.

Wrote up the description of the seminar I will teach during graduation week so things are really spiraling down.  I’ll really have a master’s degree! Can you believe it?

Hope everyone has a great Turkey Day! Or Tofurkey :)

Some Charlotte Resturant Reviews

Over the weekend, hubby and I enjoyed a bit of a food feast.

First on Saturday we went to Noodle & Company which DH had already tried the day before. But so good we went back!  It was really good. It is similiar to other upper fast food Italian places in that you order from a create your own pasta menu and then sit down for them to bring it out to you.  But this place is much better than others I have been to and you get a lot of food.  We both had regular sized bowls and it was too much for both of us.  I actually just ate my leftovers yesterday with some added veggies.  

I tried some spicier penne with the parmesan crusted chicken.  The pasta was perfect.  The veggies were great and the chicken was pretty darn amazing for fast food.  Oh yeah, and they have root beer at the fountain drink stand and IBC in bottles.  How can you go wrong with that? Check out their menu because they have lots of pasta dishes as well as salads and soups.  There isn’t much in the way of parking at the Charlotte South Blvd location so plan to go on the weekend.

For dinner we finally went to Pie Town.  I had heard about Pie Town because the owner is a graduate of the same MFA program I am in now.  We had a really good time at Pie Town but, while it isn’t expensive, it definitely put more of dent in my pocket book than the Noodle Shop (whose prices were like $7.95 for regular sized pasta dishes). That being said the food was great.  I had a 6 cheese pizza (pizzas are brick oven 10-12 inches) and we also splurged and had an appetizer and dessert.

The appetizer we tried was their breaded mozzerella.  This isn’t some flash fried, frozen from a grocery store mozzerella sticks! These were three nicely sized, what appeared to be hand made, mozzerella sticks with pesto.  Oh and when you eat your pizza it comes with olive oil dipping sauce with a twist, pepper flakes in the sauce to give it some kick.  I also had the whole grain crust which I thought was better than the white crust which DH had with his margherita pizza.

For dessert we had gelato. Yum! Oh and they had bottled root beer, Arbrita, which is made with cane sugar so another bonus for them. DH’s soda just came in a plastic bottle but they served it to him in a glass.  The decor in Pie Town, btw, is very lovely and had they had a nice waitstaff.  Definite place for a nice dinner or if you want to share a lunch you could get away a lot cheaper.

And then that brings us to Sunday.  We wanted to just grab something quick for lunch but were having trouble deciding what to get.  I suggested we finally try Bubba’s BBQ on Sunset.  I had heard of it and it is REALLY near my home but for some reason we never went there.  We were not disappointed.  Bubba’s is the first place in the western half of the state that I’ve been to that claims to have Eastern Style BBQ who actually does have Eastern style.  It is still not quite as flavorful as true Eastern style but they had vinegar and tomato based sauces on the table so you could add extra.

We both had BBQ platters.  DH had the combo with a piece of fried chicken which was also nicely good.  Their cole slaw, baked beans and potato salad were quite could.  The hush puppies didn’t have a lot of flavor but went well with some of the tomato based BBQ sauce on the table.  I will definitely be going back.

I used to do a lot of resturant reviews on this blog and I should get back into them but working on the lit mag has kept me pretty busy.  

And then only two more days till TURKEY!

Today, I Just Ran Out of Time!

Today I have just run out of time, due in large part to the fact that I want to get in a much longer walk today (and for now on) then I usually put into my exercise regime.  So I’m typing this away really quickly so I can get out and walk oh and look for a new, warmer hoodie. Cause I still don’t like coats.

Finished a video today for Shape of a Box that will likely show up sometime in late December.  The video for tomorrow has been ready for quite a while.  Plenty of things in the wings to get me through the next few months as a publisher but I need to hurry if I want to get in some nomiations for Pushcart this year!

Hope to have some more interesting posts later this week as I get a bit more caught up! I swear I will try. Right now my brain just feels overloaded but at least the laundry is done. The garbage is on the curb and I’ve got on my walking shoes.

Yesterday Was Epic Fail

I’m recovering but yesterday was a case of Epic Fail on my part.

First, I put together this great looking video of my first author interview but my concern about the audio was well founded. The audio was AWFUL! The video looked terrific but even with lots of different software the audio could not be amped enough and the background noise was ridiculous.  I’m looking into getting an external or wireless mic but I wanted to wait until after the first of the year when I might have some funds but looks like I just need to breakdown and see what I can do.  This author is being great, however, and after Thanksgiving we are going to reshoot the whole thing.

How else did I fail?  The proof of my chapbook came back with notes of additional typos I missed, well more like things like ed on the end of words and such but I had several people read through it who didn’t catch these things! So hard to proof your own work!! I am sending back the carefully reviewed copies with my apologies to the publisher :( I really don’t like to disappoint.

And one final failure. Because of the drama with the video and the chapbook I worked on poetry and publishing after 6pm which was a rule I had given myself and yep, I had trouble sleeping last night.  I will stick to my rule today! 

And at least I don’t have anything to clean today :) Just a thesis to finish putting together and videos to work on BEFORE 6PM!

The Busily Unemployed

Kind of a strange day today.  I felt very busy because I wanted to do some work on the interview video I took last night.  Not only did I have about 5-10 minutes of footage on two cameras but I knew I was also going to have issues with the audio because there was a lot of background noise and, frankly, consumer electronics just do not have great microphones on them.

My first attempt at fixing the audio didn’t really work but I have a new way that will be more labor intensive.  The video won’t get done today and will also put off me getting the video compiled form the writer’s club meeting last night. So sorry! Hopefully, I’ll have time to work on that tomorrow.

I’m also working away at my final thesis draft.  I made a list, yesterday, of 74 poems that I would consider for the reworking of the final draft and today I’ve narrowed it down to 61.  I want to get it down to 48 or 50 before I start trying to put them in the final order and/or revising any of them.

Also spent time today doing edits on my paper for the seminar I’ll be teaching the week i graduate.  That is very close to being done which means I should probably get started on revising the presentation and making a 100 word precis about what the seminar is about.

And besides all this my day got thrown off a little bit because my neighbor locked her keys in her car while the car was running! oops! And she needed my phone, a warm place to stand while the locksmith guy came.

Oh yeah and I still need to buy groceries.

Is it the weekend yet?

Charlotte Writer’s Club Tonight

Trying to get myself organized and out the door for the Charlotte Writer’s Club meeting tonight at Joseph-Beth in Charlotte.  I will be interviewing a local author before the meeting so I need to take my recording equipment as well.  Oh yeah and I’m trying to do some rudimentary work on my thesis in between. Busy. Yes!