Wednesday, January 29, 2014

January 2014 some more

The creative writing course is keeping me quite busy.  It is offered on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12:30 to 2pm.  As those mornings are already occupied by my volunteering in an elementary school, located near the PNE, I have to rush out of the school at recess (10:30am) and hurry to the bus stop on Hastings Street.  The #14 UBC bus is reasonably frequent, so if I miss one, the second is not too far behind it.  It takes an hour and twenty minutes to get to the bus loop, end of the line, at the university, but I still have about a 10 minute walk to get to the Geography building where the lessons are held.  If I'm lucky, I can stop for a quick coffee before class, and maybe eat my lunch.  If I've missed a bus, however, I have to skip that and just rush to class.  Being on the Jenny Craig program is very helpful.  I carry a Jenny bar and a Jenny snack and a Jenny salad kit (all prepared in neat containers, complete with a fork), and a bottle of water.  It's a busy schedule on paper, but not as exhausting as you might think.  Eighty minutes sitting on a bus is very restful--sometimes I get ten or fifteen minutes catnap.  I'm only sorry that my time at the elementary school is so short--just an hour and a half--equal to the bus trip.  I try to make myself useful there, though.
All in all, with the variety of activity, the healthy diet and extra walking, and the resting (catnaps), it's a good way to spend the day, and I get to do it twice a week.

January 2014 before it's over

Today I learned something about writing these posts:  can't use the tab key!  I did that and lost what I'd started to write.  I wonder if it will turn up again somewhere.  If it does, I have to edit it!
I started to say that one of the most important things happening in my life this month is the beginning of a course at UBC: Creative Writing 200.  Yesterday, we had a lesson on writing poetry.  I love poetry, but rarely attempt to write it.  Yesterday, we were given a short exercise to write a poem (essentially just a list of things) as suggested by one of the examples the instructor offered.  This is what I wrote:
"Please Take These Things Back"
Gloomy, drizzly, teary days;
Hot, humid, nights with sweaty sheets;
Tasteless food;
Nausea
Pain
Fear
Need to tell loved ones bad news
Need to ask for help
Dependence on everyone and everything
Hospital noises
Death.
~~~~~~I offer this in memory of Ken, who inspired it.