deadlines. dead, are those lines. yes, they be cold.

the hopwoods are over. at least, the work part of them is--i turned in two stories and an assortment of poems that i had lying around. now all i have to due is wait for the verdict, which won't come till april or so.

other deadlines: application for summer chinese lang. study funding. applying for this was as bad as applying for grad school. transcripts, test scores, rec letters, the whole bit. my personal statement was a nice piece of fiction, if i do say so myself, and i do.

and also: i volunteered to go early in workshop, and laid a story on them last night for them to look at next week. it is rather messy, but i needed to get it out of the way so that i could work on some other things. i am bursting at the seams right now with ideas, but don't have the time to get them all out. oh, just to put them on paper. (ironic, that i am simultaneously wasting time and bemoaning the lack thereof.)

so in all, the deadlines have passed, i got everything in, and now i can really dig in and get to work. let the magic happen. come on muse. come on inspiration. um, really, any time now. come on.

*note: my reading was a smashing success. a hit beyond what i could have imagined. i felt that people actually liked my story. it gave me a much-needed lift. wish that it were always like this.