Desert Island Discs

Today was our third of (presumably) four days we've had off of work in 2014 due to dangerously cold temperatures. Not going into work has been especially good news for me, since my aging Subaru is completely, 100% frozen, and I don't want to risk my delicate Irish skin on the El in this weather. So I've been hunkering down and catching up on the reading, writing, and podcast-listening that has gotten away from me in the past months.

One of my favorite podcasts to drop in on is the long-running Desert Island Discs, a staple of British culture. Its premise is that each castaway has to choose eight pieces of music, a book, and a luxury that they would take with them upon being exiled to a desert island. This morning, I listened to Hugh Laurie's selection, and thought that it was high time I made mine.

Music
1. Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Ralph Vaughan Williams
2. The Bagman's Gambit, The Decemberists
3. Non, je ne regrette rien, Edith Piaf
4. Night and Day, Fred Astaire
5. Heart in a Cage, The Strokes
6. Feeling Good, Michael Bublé
7. El Tango De Roxanne, Ewan Mcgregor, Jose Feliciano, and Jacek Koman
8. Help I'm Alive, Metric

Book
Oftentimes, castaways will ask for "the complete works of Dickens." This seemingly counts because each castaway is automatically presented with The Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare. So, along those lines, I am going to ask for The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. This is a series that would bear up under the extreme scrutiny resulting from an English major being marooned on a desert island.

Luxury
I would ask for a computer with a magically long-lasting battery, for writing the masterpiece that will eventually arise from listening to so many inspiring songs on repeat.

Thank you for tuning in.

Know Thyself

I did it.

Just under a year ago, I had a conversation with Dad at the Duke of Perth. I decided that the summer of 2014 would be my last summer before grad school. And it will be.

It was a decision with a lot of steps, and I followed them all. This was unusual, because I've been tumbling from one decision to the next since midway through senior year. First: What did I want to do? Second: Where did I want to go? Third: What would I have to do to get there?

In the end, though, there was no real decision to be made at all. There's only  one thing I've really wanted to do since I was in fifth grade.

What I couldn't explain to my mother, and scarcely to myself, is that I have come to see that I know more than I think I know and that, however sparse and seemingly unserviceable my memories, this doesn't matter because you don't put yourself into what you write, you find yourself there. And for a writer the life you don't have is as ample a territory as the life that you do. -- Alan Bennett, "Cocktail Sticks"

I applied to MFA programs in creative nonfiction, and on Sunday I was accepted to my first one. And there was much rejoicing!