No, I'm not talking about anything risque, simply about being sick and trying to rest, eat and medicate properly, still feeling sick after antibiotics and virtuously going in to teach the last two days, to hear such lovely phrases as this charmer from one student "I think you should have taken another day off, professor." Thanks for sharing, I said. No, not nicely, but sarcastically in my squeaking voice. Acting class the night before I didn't mind, because the students are so enthusiastic and self-motivated. But a 35 student lecture class that is required of anyone who wants to graduate from BCC, not so much. Especially when you have no voice. And a contract that only gives you 2 sick days, with which fact you wisely decide not to regale this particular student.
However, some students were quite sweet and a number are complimentary of the fact that I correct every sentence they write so they can learn proper grammar. No one has done that for most of them. No one. Like ever. It's horrendous. As I said to one student, yeah, you can get so far in the world without writing properly, but Only So Far and then there's a limit. If you want to shoot high, you Need to Know How to Write.
So I get home, call my mother to whine, which was quite comforting. That was after first rule break: bought Boston Cream Donut and ice-cream. Zero nutritional value but sick of green stuff and my throat hurting. I then had some chicken bullion, which inspired ordering a pizza. I ate some of that along with drinking Diet Pepsi.
I know this sounds dubious but it reminds me of when I had had an operation in the UK in which there were some complications, so I had been under anaesthesia for too long. Afterwards I felt like I was recovering from a drug overdose. I asked for ginger ale, but that is not common in UK. Instead, there is this hideous looking and tasting drink called Irn Bru. It is pink-orange, tastes like drinking bubble gum. My friend Keith brought it to me, chirpily saying: this is the best cure for a hangover that exists.
So, after having not been able to hold down any food or drink, I started sipping this seemingly toxic drink, which, you guessed it, stayed down and somehow defeated the overdose feeling. I think it's like two negatives equaling a positive. Simple math for toxicity and strange infections that Won't Go Away.
I'm hoping now that I feel content this feeling will last - it may or may not. But at least I have one evening of some pleasure, which is more than I've had for days and days and days....
The writing of which brought on a coughing fit.
Fun times.
Welcome to my blog..
"We struggle with dream figures and our blows fall on living faces." Maurice Merleau-Ponty
I am now transitioning into being married again with a new surname (Barclay-Morton). John is transitioning from Canada to NYC and as of June 2014 has a green card. So transition continues, but now from sad to happy, from loss to love...from a sense of alienation to a sense of being at home in the world.
As of September 2013 I started teaching writing as an adjunct professor at Fordham University, which I have discovered I love with an almost irrational passion. While was blessed for the opportunity, after four years of being an adjunct, the lack of pay combined with heavy work load stopped working, so have transferred this teaching passion to private workshops in NYC and working with writers one on one, which I adore. I will die a happy person if I never have to grade an assignment ever again. As of 2018, I also started leading writing retreats to my beloved Orkney Islands. If you ever want two weeks that will restore your soul and give you time and space to write, get in touch. I am leading two retreats this year in July and September.
I worked full time on the book thanks to a successful crowd-funding campaign in May 2014 and completed it at two residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Wisdom House in summer 2015. I have done some revisions and am shopping it around to agents and publishers now, along with a new book recently completed.
I now work full-time as a freelance writer, writing workshop leader, coach, editor and writing retreat leader. Contact me if you are interested in any of these services.
Not sure when transition ends, if it ever does. As the saying goes, the only difference between a sad ending and a happy ending is where you stop rolling the film.
For professional information, publications, etc., go to my linked in profile and website for Barclay Morton Editorial & Design. My Twitter account is @wilhelminapitfa. You can find me on Facebook under my full name Julia Lee Barclay-Morton. More about my grandmothers' book: The Amazing True Imaginary Autobiography of Dick & Jani
In 2017, I launched a website Our Grandmothers, Our Selves, which has stories about many people's grandmothers. Please check it out. You can also contact me through that site.
In May, I directed my newest play, On the edge of/a cure, and have finally updated my publications list, which now includes an award-winning chapbook of my short-story White shoe lady, which you can find on the sidebar. I also have become a certified yoga instructor in the Kripalu lineage. What a year!
And FINALLY, I have created a website, which I hope you will visit, The Unadapted Ones. I will keep this blog site up, since it is a record of over 8 years of my life, but will eventually be blogging more at the website, so if you want to know what I am up to with my writing, teaching, retreats and so on, the site is the place to check (and to subscribe for updates). After eight years I realized, no, I'm never turning into One Thing. So The Unadapted Ones embraces the multiplicity that comprises whomever I am, which seems to always be shifting. That may in fact be reality for everyone, but will speak for myself here. So, do visit there and thanks for coming here, too. Glad to meet you on the journey...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment