My dad is having surgery tomorrow for two hernias; last year he had another hernia repaired. While I am certainly sympathetic to pain and suffering, let me also say I'm glad I don't live with my parents. My father is a patently awful patient. I also will miss out on him showing me the incision site with its wiry black stitches at least half a dozen times. Thanks, Dad. Just what I wanted with my breakfast.
Still, these two repairs are promised by the doctors to be considerably more painful than last year's surgery. So I can't knock him too much.
***
I now have five job applications out there: Akron; New York City; Savannah; Edmond, Oklahoma; and one other that's slipping my mind right now. With any luck, no, with record floods of luck, I'll, you know, have a job this fall.
Look at that list of places: will write poems for food.
Talking to Eliot this week, he suggested a few career alternatives, one of which was being turned into dog food. I've added it to the list. Right after doorstop.
***
The Oscars are tonight. I'm all for Million Dollar Baby. I'd hoped to see The Aviator before tonight. Not that I care much, or will even be watching, necessarilly. Maybe.
About Me
- Paul
- Paul Guest is the author of four volumes of poetry and a memoir. His debut, The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World, was awarded the 2002 New Issues Poetry Prize. His second collection, Notes for My Body Double, was awarded the 2006 Prairie Schooner Book Prize. His third collection, My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge, was published by Ecco Press/HarperCollins in 2008. His fourth collection, Because Everything Is Terrible, was published by Diode Editions. His poems have appeared in Harper's, The Paris Review, Poetry, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. His memoir, One More Theory About Happiness, was published by Ecco in May 2010 and selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program. The recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2007 Whiting Writers' Award, Guest lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
4 comments:
Paul, good luck to your dad with his surgery and to you with your job hunt. I'm not sure which I'd choose, surgery or job hunting, if I had to. Hopefully both will have spectacularly happy outcomes.
Incidentally, do you still have any copies of your book around? I picked it up via interlibrary loan, but had to return it and want to read it again, so methinks it's time to buy a copy. Backchannel me if so (ahaines at gmail dot com). Thanks!
-Anne
landmammal.blogspot.com
I have heard that the Oscars are really gonna Rock tonight. Unfortunately, I have some very important things to do -- like chewing my fingernails and surfing the web -- so I don't think I'll have the energy to pick up the remote and click at the TV. Maybe next year. Maybe, but I doubt it.
I hope your father's surgery goes well.
Thanks, guys. I think I'd choose surgery over a job search. No, really.
Paul,
When I hit the job market, I sent out close to 60 applications. It was very painful. Never would have said: yes! Galesburg, IL is where I want to be. I wanted to go back home to the Southwest. But I know I'm very fortunate. I do know. Somebody hired me.
Someone will hire you.
Gina
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