Virtual Paper

Life is Good.

It's official! I've received my acceptance letter to Western Connecticut State University for their Masters of Professional Writing program! I'm so pumped. And you know what? I'm quite proud of myself as well. I gotta say, it makes me feel pretty good to know that I can write well enough to enter graduate school for writing after being a music major in college. There were 23 spots open, and I, a former music major amongst writing applicants, landed one. I'm really pleased, and although it may sound like I'm being arrogant, I really don't care. I deserve it.

And I have another "it's official." It's official: I've (finally) completed my last requirement at Mercyhurst, and completed it with an A to boot. I guess that means I've sorta cut the last tie. It makes me sad, but as I was up there this weekend, I decided that I'd try to make at least one pilgrimage to Mercyhurst every year until whenever. Probably until I die. I feel like Mercyhurst was a large version of my house. The Laker was my kitchen, D'Angelo was my study, Duval was my bedroom, and my living room was Garvey Park. Hahaha... my bathroom was the practice rooms. I don't even know what I mean by that, but it was amusing imagery. So anyway, I'm not sure, and it may be a stretch, but I think maybe this new A on my GPA will push me over the edge into "with honors" status. That would rule. Even if it doesn't, I'm still really glad it's all finally done, and that I did well.

I had a bittersweet moment last night at Trance (the gay club in Erie. Despite being heterosexual, I find it one of the finest hangouts) Mike Foglio (Big man in MSG) asked me if I'd be willing to write an article for the last issue of the Merciad this year. He said it'd be cool to have the first Madam Malarky come back and give some advice to the graduating seniors. It felt really good to be remembered, and I think I'm definitely going to do it. Now I just have to figure out what to say.

Along the Malarky vein, I picked up a copy of the Merciad on campus. The current Madam Malarky wrote a very nice article that I enjoyed reading. That's always bittersweet too. I miss being Madam Malarky. But I did notice something that made me feel so good. They had an ad running requesting men to apply to the Merciad staff to be a "Mister Malarky" for next year so they can have the male and female points of view in the paper. The fact that they're considering doing that makes me feel so good. I'm so glad Madam Malarky is enjoying continued success. I feel like I left a mark on Mercyhurst by creating Madam Malarky. Although she's a different person now, and writes slightly differently, it's good to know that people still enjoy the concept and that is shows no signs of declining in popularity.

I've been pretty bored these past few days since my mom's been in the hospital. I've gone to see her several times, and it's good to see how quickly she's progressing and getting better. On Friday when I went to see her, she had so many tubes and IV's and strange machines, and she was soooo out of it... she couldn't really form complete sentences and she looked so frail and she was in a lot of pain. I've seen my mom in the hospital several times since this cancer thing started, and it never really bothered me til Friday night. For some reason when I went to see her and saw her hooked up to so much stuff, it really freaked me out, and I got queasy and lightheaded... and I felt so bad 'cause I had to sit down and pretend like I wasn't bothered by it 'cause I didn't want to worry my mom... and I was so scared that I'd get that way every time I saw her, but fortunately on Saturday and today it was fine. For one thing, they had her off the feeding tube and the stomach pump so she wasn't nearly as "hooked up" to stuff. Secondly, she was on less pain medication so she was awake and talking normally and moving around and stuff, so that made it a lot better too. The doctor has said that everything looks really good so far, and she may not have to do any more chemotherapy after this, which is a big plus. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. All my friends have been so great throughout all of this. I've had to cancel band practices, and I've had to "bring down" the party a couple times because I felt the need to talk about it, and I always feel bad when I do that. It's enough stress on my mom, it doesn't have to leak out and stress out any more people than it already does. I don't know. It felt really good to skip back off to Erie this weekend... back to the escape I had whenever anything else shitty was going on at home. I guess going to Erie will always be my escape from crap. Bummer, huh? Especially since most people left Erie to escape crap. Haha... the ironing is delicious.