299: a few anecdotes

There's an accumulation of little bits I wanted to get down here, before I forget them completely, some disorganized things I want to share and want to keep:

- I just discovered one of my classmates, Matt Burgess, made a $150,000 deal for his novel Dogfight, which was also his thesis. Matt was in poetry workshop with us, and graduated this year. I'm so thrilled for him and floored by that number. I was always impressed with Matt's voice--very edgey, very him--and I know during thesis defense week, there are always whispered conversations between the first and second years, and it was fairly universally decided that Matt's book would be unsurprisingly the first to get taken. Apparently it only took a week for the agent to sell it (to Doubleday).

- While nephew-sitting, there were several amusing moments with Jimmy, who misperceives things in only the way a three-year-old can: Jimmy was being particularly chaotic, and Sean, whose sense of humor can be described as "unique," pretended he was going to take his belt off. (No knee jerk reactions--he would never hit his son, but he just might destroy him with his sarcasm.) Jimmy started wagging his head and shouted, "I don't want you to pee on me!" Ah, the blessings of potty-training.

- Yesterday I went up to the Twin Cities to pick up my friend Colleen to take her to the Anderson Center for her residency. I was able to tour the house (mansion), and it's amazing. I realized how much I would love the opportunity for an artists' residency--I could imagine myself writing all over this house, with the huge back porch, the quaint bedrooms, the sitting rooms, the gorgeous grounds. What an inspiring place. Perhaps this should be a goal for next summer.

- I only have a handful of this postcard set left! I finally organized the postcard jumble and discovered I had fewer than I thought. Anyone who orders any of the postcard sets will receive a few extra (as each card didn't seem to be exactly 100--not sure if this was my fault, or the printers?--so I have a few extra of some of the prints).

- Cleaning has begun, and I've organized some of the strangest things, which makes me realize I'm procrastinating from the bigger things. For instance, our Important Documents drawer is now fairly organized, but I (still) have a stack of New Yorkers sitting on our dining room table that need reading and recycling. I did organize those pesky postcards, but there's a half-crated letterpress that needs to be taken upstairs. The most obvious is still collecting dust while the more subtle is getting made-over. Indeed, I do want the house to have a full-on cleansing, but my methods are off. I think I ought to pick a room and focus. Today: the second bedroom (disaster).