Rainy Day in Steel City

Well Corey has been gone again for almost a week. Luckily, I deposited him at the train station on one of my two 9-9 days and haven't had the chance to miss him too much. Yesterday I got nostalgic and hungry and made beef stew in the crock pot despite almost 90 degree temperatures. I should have waited until today because it's rainy and gross outside.

I have finally gotten my tutoring schedule straightened out. As you can imagine, I was starting to get very antsy not knowing when I needed to work until the day before, hence several 12 hour days per week with meetings and class, etc. I now have to be on campus for a few hours every day, but have a much more even schedule. I don't know why I thought it was a better idea to cram 15 things into 2 days per week rather than space it out. I'll still have a large portion of each day at home to write.

I've been meeting with several professors to discuss my writing project. I have decided to write profiles of awesome women rugby players I've met--Pam Gouwes who started women's rugby in South Africa, Dinanne Schnapp who is the best firefighter in San Francisco, Lois Bukowski and Grace Gavin who ref men's games and are both highly ranked international referees...the list goes on for days.

I have discovered that the key to getting money from the University is to sit in Professor's offices and chat with them regularly. They pretty much need you to just ask for the dough and they will remember to mention you at budget meetings, or so they say. The director of the MFA program was pretty impressed that I had been proactive in seeking out funding with the old people journal. Apparently the rest of the people who were not funded this year just sit around and bitch about it.

I have about an hour before I have to leave to tutor the football players. The tutoring is so intensely difficult that I have to steel myself way in advance for what I know will be three hours of massive concentration. Imagine how hard it is on their end! Thankfully, I can unwind at a department barbeque later tonight and then I have a match tomorrow! Yay rugby!