What I’ve Been Up To

27 Sep 2012 at 7:56 PM (Athletic Life, Student Life, Writing Life)
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If any of you guys have thought that I’ve fallen off the edge of the planet, at least know I’ve felt the same way. I thought I’d have this summer to rock it out on the writing front, but got completely caught up in my internship and now that I’m back at school I’m a little surprised to see that I have more time to dedicate to writing. So know I’m encouraging myself to bang out the last little bit I have left on my manuscript, as well as get back into the swing of blogging.

So what have I been up to?

Well my main distraction over the past few months was my amazing 10-week long internship at UMMC. I talked a little bit about it way back when I first started in June and wrapped up in early August. While I am bummed this internship pulled me so forcefully away from my manuscript, I do not regret it even a little. It was such an amazing experience of being on a clinical floor functioning as a real nurse. I got to see some pretty gruesome stuff and learned so much. I’m even getting bored with my clinicals back at school.

This experience has also fueled some of my ideas for my General Writing Hospital concept, which is still tentatively titled but is getting more structure. I plan on starting soon with this, probably with a post on who all works in a hospital, and I would greatly appreciate suggestions so send ‘em in!

I also got a visit in to the Engineer down in Louisiana before I started school. If anybody was worried, he’s doing really well and impressing most if not all of his supervisors. His job has taken him all the way to Mozambique, too, which is where he is now and will be for the next couple weeks. I would be lying if I said it’s been easy having him so far away, but the two of us aren’t about to let a little distance get in our way.

I’m back at school now, close to completing my pediatrics rotation. (And, yes, the children are precious and adorable but this is definitely not the field for me.) Rowing is in full swing, too, making me sore in places that I don’t think have ever been sore before. We even have our first race this Saturday! I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes, but (spoiler) I’m not expecting much of anything.

Regarding my manuscript, the end of it is coming close, and then I’m anticipating throwing myself into revisions because I can already sense the mess I’ve made of it. I’m also outlining another project that I plan on working on when revisions are bogging me down. I don’t have a timeline for querying yet, especially with my impending graduation in May and required board exam soon after, but I will most definitely keep everyone in the loop with my progress.

I do hope to get back into the swing of blogging regularly, or at least some-what regularly. If not, I cracked and created a Twitter for myself. Follow me at zeegasp! I tweet about some pretty random stuff, and discuss a lot of odd things with my teammates, so proceed with caution. Or I hope that at least you’ll be amused.

You tell me: What kind of stuff have you been up to over the summer?

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Relationships

15 Jun 2012 at 4:14 PM (Random, Writing Life)
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Due to a recent development in my personal life, I figured that today I would try to tackle the discussion of relationships and how darn emotionally investing they can be.

This development isn’t this ground-breaking, life-altering, world-ending thing, but it has definitely shifted how I’ve been going about my day.

To keep it brief, the Engineer has received and accepted a job offer. While this is without a doubt a woo-hoo, confetti-throwing moment, the job is in southern Louisiana. Which is roughly 1,300 miles away.

Or a 21+ hour drive… Yikes

And while this year was going to be difficult anyway (since the Engineer is already graduated while I have one year of school left) the fact that he’s going to be so far away has thrown in a new punch to our situation. Now, the Engineer and I have already pledged that we aren’t going to let some measly long-distance schpeal get in the way of us becoming Mr. and Mrs. Awesome or whatever, it’s going to be something for me to adjust to.

Now, besides having an outlet to get all these jitters out, I think this is something that every person (let alone writer) deals with in some capacity. If it’s not coping with a long distance relationship like me, it’s getting over a breakup or dealing with a big move or something. The nature of how we live our lives sets up for a lot of changing relationships with a dash of uncertainty and, sometimes, a desire to stop. But what do writers have to do? We have to keep writing.

And ever since the slightly brief text message conversation with the Engineer, I’m forcing myself back into my manuscript. And, yes, I had to go through a few tissues and plenty of rounds of sappy love songs on YouTube, as well as a therapeutic session of applying nail polish, but I’m coming back. In fact, I’m finding what I originally fell in love with writing all over again: it’s an escape.

So what’s the point here?

Relationships are definitely important in a writer’s life. We have writer friends who push us through a manuscript and the ensuing revisions, and loved ones that we share our secrets to and celebrate our victories with. But we also have a relationship with our writing, a relationship that is entirely within our control and can be whatever we want it to be.

And, yes, I can feel the cheesiness in that as I type it out, but given the situation of uncertainty that I’ve been thrust into, it’s rather comforting to know I will always have a pile of writing projects to keep me busy when I’m fussing around by myself.

You tell me: Do you have any relationship insights that you’d like to share?

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Time for Some Inspiration…

8 Jun 2012 at 12:00 PM (Inspiration, Writing Life)
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Since I’ve been flailing about thanks to getting used to my internship, I thought it’d be a cool time to have a post on inspiration, especially since I feel like every writer could always use some inspiration.

I pull from a lot of sources when it comes to inspiration, but I mostly like photographs and music. As far as pictures are concerned, I’m a huge fan of Pinterest since I collect pictures I love onto one convenient board that I can easily revisit later. Right now, besides a board dedicated to my WIP, I also have a board on my Pinterest for various inspirational photos I find. Some of my favs:

From a whole collection of double exposure photography

I love the colors in this one, and how the photographer titled it “The Storyteller”

I feel pictures of sunrises wake up my muse and help me relax

Feel free to browse the rest of my board over on Pinterest, linked above. I have a lot of forest and woods-related images up on my inspiration board right now, since I want my current MS to include some of the feelings evoked by the woods. You can also check out my inspiration board for my MS, titled Something Wicked. I really like how it’s turned out so far.

I’ve also been finding music to be incredibly stimulating towards my writing too. I have a Chieftains radio station on my Pandora I occasionally use to elicit some of the Irish undertones I’m churning into my MS, and I’m also discovering the awesome-ness of finding soundtracks on YouTube. While I’m adding to the list of soundtracks I’m frequenting, I have been using the Leap Year soundtrack for some calm, slightly Irish tones. Plus, the movie is one of my guilty pleasure chick flicks.

Very relaxing, right?

I’ve also recently discovered the Piano Guys, a YouTube hit group consisting of Jon Schmidt, a pianist, and Stephen Sharp Nelson, a cellist, who rock out. Their mission is to turn classical music into something that can be rejoiced and celebrated, and I think they’re doing an awesome job. So awesome in fact that it was rather difficult for me to choose one video to share. Their videos combine musical brilliance and visuals that absolutely draw you in.

I’m sharing Nelson’s humorous take on Pachelbel’s Canon in D, since it’s the first video of theirs I saw that captivated me and forced me into watching all of their videos in rapid succession. I also highly recommend their cover of David Guetta’s Without You, Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years, and Coldplay’s Paradise with a cool African twist. And then you should go and watch the rest of their videos, because they’re all amazing.

My last bit on inspiration is that I have a white board I’m choosing to write a quote on every, I don’t know, week or so. It’s been fun looking for quotes, especially since WordPress gives me some every time I post. So as a closer, I’m sharing with you the quote on my board now, taken in fact from the opening of one of Piano Guy’s videos:

You tell me: What do you use for inspiration?

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Learning to Be a Nurse

1 Jun 2012 at 2:05 PM (Student Life)
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Wednesday was my first day on the unit where I’ll be working for the next 9 1/2 weeks, so I guess now would be as good a time as any to talk a little bit more in depth about my nursing career. Well, at least what I’m learning about what will soon be my nursing career. Yikes.

This summer I’m working at the Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), specifically on a critical care floor (think ICU-status) dealing with patients who have multiple traumatic injuries. I’m thinking that was probably a lot of jargon to be throwing at you, but the important thing to know is how awesome this is, one, because I’ve been considering shock trauma for a field post-graduation, and, two, UMMC’s Shock Trauma Center is pretty much nationally recognized as the gold standard for trauma treatment. Sweet, right?

The specific program I’m taking part in is a student nurse residency program operated through UM’s School of Nursing. So, basically, I have four days of required education days, and then the rest is spent working three 12-hour shifts a week with my preceptor on my assigned unit. In other words, I’m working as a full-time nurse for 10 weeks this summer and I couldn’t be more excited!

Why? Well a lot of nursing is learned on-the-job, which is why we always have clinical days during the semester. But even with clinicals, there’s a big difference between being a student nurse and being a registered nurse, or RN, and I’m already beginning to learn that now. Even with just one day on the unit, I can tell I’m not going to be treated like a student and have my RN preceptor hold my hand through these 10 weeks. I’m already being expected to take on half of her patient load and just run with it, despite the fact that some of these critical care patients can be a little daunting when you skim through their charts.

It’s a lot of responsibility, but I couldn’t be more excited. The patient profile on this unit, yes, is very sick, but they’re exactly who I want to be working with. I will certainly keep you posted throughout the summer about my endeavors (remaining as general as possible to avoid a HIPAA fiasco), but it’s going to be an incredible journey.

And I know this is mostly diverting from my usual focus on my writing, but since this is going to be such a huge part of me I thought I should share. Plus, I may draw from some of these experiences to teach some writers what the healthcare field is really like, as I mentioned in a previous post.

You tell me: Have any questions for me about what it’s like being a nurse or a nursing student?

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Scarlet: Book Recommendation

29 May 2012 at 5:38 PM (Recommendations)
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5 out of 5 stars

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.

It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.

I had been hearing nothing but good things about this Robin Hood adaptation, and since I’ve been tossing around the possibility of my own version of RH, I figured I couldn’t put off reading A.C. Gaughen’s Scarlet. And I must say I am not even a little bit disappointed.

I was struck immediately by the voice of the manuscript- a kind of Cockney flair that instantly set the tone for the book. And being a born and bred American, I have no idea if that’s the proper way to describe it, but nonetheless I am so jealous of how Scarlet’s voice can so readily transport you right into her world. Totally beautiful.

Speaking of Scarlet, I really loved her character. She seemed so real to me, and her back-story is rich and only makes her more believable. I feel like it could have been tricky turning a traditionally male character into a girl (since I think it could come across as one of those contrived girl-in-a-boy’s-world stories) but it makes sense as to why she’s there.

And I won’t go into too much detail about the love triangle of the book (so ya’ll can enjoy it for yourself) but it is probably one of the best love triangles I’ve read in quite a while. Both gentlemen were offering something different, but were able to let Scarlet make the final decision for herself. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I thoroughly enjoy her final decision ;)

There was a lot of moodiness involved in the story, which I find to be expected since you’re dealing with such high stakes (townspeople starving to death versus you getting arrested or hanged- a.k.a. not good). I also had some difficulty trying to keep track of the multitude of tertiary characters and various locations, not knowing whether a certain character or setting would be important to know later on. But, generally, these were only minor bumps in an otherwise awesome story.

Overall, I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a great historical adaption of the beloved legend of Robin Hood, complete with fresh characters and enthralling plot. I’d also recommend this to anyone looking for something different to set on their bookshelves. It’s simply amazing!

You tell me: Have you read Scarlet?

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Funday Sunday: GIF Edition

27 May 2012 at 5:58 PM (Funday Sunday)
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I know I’ve been off hiding for awhile. But that’s thanks to orientation for my summer internship which I have officially completed!

And as such, I’m choosing to have a GIF edition of Funday Sunday. Partially because I’ve still been feeling like this whenever I’ve been deciding to do something productive writing-related:

And also because I’m a huge fan of the multitude of GIF-related Tumblrs that are cropping up. I think I may have touched upon those in a previous Funday Sunday, but some of my favs include What Should We Call Me, How Do I Put this Gently?, and the awesomely hilarious rowing-themed What Should Rowers Call Me.

Anyway, for one reason or another, I feel like I’m stalling. So internally I’m pulling one of these:

There’s food at least there to comfort me, even if I’m starting diet to trim down a little over the summer.

I’m getting back into the swing of working out again, which is always tricky after a rough season. But I’m being a good kid! Rocking out at the gym like a well-behaved student athlete. And hopefully not looking this bad…

Although then all I want is an Engineer back massage, which is unattainable given the fact he’s working at school while I’m at home for the summer. So I wish my cat could be this loving to me.

And when all else fails, I can just look at these moving little images to try to cheer myself up.

Hopefully this wasn’t too much of an overload, and you enjoyed as much as I do :)

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day!

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Living Easy

16 May 2012 at 2:54 PM (Athletic Life, Student Life, Writing Life)
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It’s always a really, really nice feeling being able to be done with everything. With finals completed, my grades posted, Dad Vail weekend done, and being 95% settled in back home, it’s summertime and I’m so excited.

I appreciate summer vacation significantly more as a college student than I ever did when I was younger, probably due to the whole being able to come home thing. But there’s more to it than just being home. Like:

Pets

I have two very special animals with a very special relationship with one another. The dog is a basset hound named Lucy who’s about 11 years old. She’s my little precious. The cat is Circe, a rescue of my brother’s who we have since taken in. The fact she’s standing next to her “Special Kitty” brand food speaks highly to her personality. But she also thinks she’s a diva.

I may have mentioned that one of the more tricky things about being at college is not having a pet to greet me at the door when I come home. So, not only are my pets usually one of my number one reasons for coming home, when I come home to a wildly freaking out dog and a mildly enthused cat, I know I’m home.

Food

I think this is the athlete in me, but I am a huge fan of food, so coming back to a home-cooked meal is amazing. And I love cooking just as much as I love eating, so having the chance to goof around in the kitchen is fantastic. Hell. I even was getting excited over having the ice maker in the freezer back. No more ice cube trays for the next three months! Woo!

Though, it does come with the trade-off of food not being immediately available whenever I need it, but if I had to choose between the grub I get here and the grub at school… Well I feel like that answer should be obvious :)

Space

I’m referring to physical space and mental space. The physical space is lovely, since my room at home is just as big as at school except now I get it all to myself! The mental space is much needed, since being on a team tends to rob me of most (if not all) of my personal Zen time. This can get rather draining in a short period of time. Now, even though I’m starting an awesome internship next week (which I’ll be sure to tell you about later), getting just a few days this week to stare at my computer monitor doing whatever I want is exhilarating. Which brings me too…

Writing

With a relatively open summer schedule, I’m going to have time to knock out this MS of mine that’s been collecting dust over the past couple weeks or so. Summer is always my huge productivity time when it comes to writing, so I’m rather excited to what happens.

This summer is also marking my last student summer (eek!) which I’m doing my best to not explicitly address, choosing for now to let that dwell in my subconscious somewhere until early August. The main thing, though, is that this summer couldn’t have come quicker and I am so glad it’s here.

You tell me: What exciting things are lined up with you for the summer?

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Rest in Peace Maurice Sendak

8 May 2012 at 8:20 PM (Inspiration, Writing Life)
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The Engineer was the one who told me this morning that Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of books the caliber of Where the Wild Things Are, passed away due to complications of a recent stroke. While his passing hasn’t rocked global media like the deaths of other celebrities, it has still sparked a reflection on his influential career and has inspired an awesome compilation of drawings and quotes from Gawker, where I got the above graphic from.

I hadn’t known much about Sendak before this morning; I even had to Google his name to make sure I was thinking of the right person and that my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me. But after reading through this collection of nick-knacks, I feel a sentimental connection to him. My favorite little quote involves him saying one of his highest compliments was being told by a mother that her son physically ate a card he got in response from Sendak. How precious is that?

But I think one of the things that stuck with me the most (besides his brutal honesty on a few other artists) was what he had to say about children and the nature of their imaginations:

I knew a little girl who told her parents — because her school was close by the twin towers when it happened — and she told her father that she saw the butterflies coming out of the windows. And only later said: “They weren’t butterflies. They were people.” But she lied, at first, to make him more comfortable. And that’s what kids do — they are immensely courageous. And they sacrifice a lot. And they try to play mute and dumb because — well, it’s kind of the expectation of their parents.

That’s what all the fairy tales are all mostly about — about the vulnerability of children and how they figure out tricks and ways of living in the world and making up parents. Make-believe parents. And I think that’s probably one of the hardest jobs in the world. Being a parent, and not succumbing to failure. I think people should be given a test much like driver’s tests as to whether their capable of being parents! It’s an art form. I talk a lot. And I think a lot. And I draw a lot. But never in a million years would I have been a parent. That’s just work that’s too hard.

So I think it’s safe to say that Maurice Sendak will be terribly missed from the writing and illustrating community, especially among those involved in children’s literature. Rest in peace, Mr. Sendak.

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Finals Week… Grr

7 May 2012 at 7:11 PM (Student Life)
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Guys. It’s that fine of year again… Finals week. And I look a little like this:

One exam separates me from the frightening glory of senior year (ack!) and, of course, Dad Vails weekend. Dad Vails is the biggest collegiate regatta in the US, so it’s pretty exciting. And it’s also cool (note the sarcasm here please) that it’s immediately followed by the Big East championship on Sunday.

So, recap: this is gonna be a busy week followed by a busily killer weekend. So pardon me while I go rock out with Jason Segel here…

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Funday Sunday: April 29

29 Apr 2012 at 8:28 PM (Funday Sunday)
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It’s been kind of a crazy week on my end. I hope yours went a little more smoothly. At least now I have an order of General Tso’s on the way to reward just surviving.

And as an anthem to surviving, since I’ve just beat Portal 2 for the second time, there’s the theme song from the conclusion of the original Portal. It’s sung by GLaDOS, the AI super villain of the video game series. She’s an interesting character, as sampled by the song titled “Still Alive”

I don’t play video games very often, so I can’t say with certainty that the Portal series has the best storyline of every game ever, but I can get pretty caught up in it when I play. And as much as I can give props to the original, I absolutely love the story involved in the sequel. You can follow the links to their respective Wikipedia articles for the plot summaries (spoilers included!), or maybe you even want to get the game for yourself. Steam- an online game platform- sells both games for less than $30. Nice deal if you ask me ;)

On another completely unrelated note, AMC is showing Shawshank Redemption, possibly one of my favorite movies of all time. If you haven’t seen it, here’s a trailer. And if that doesn’t capture you, this is my favorite scene. Unfortunately I can’t embed it for you all to see, but it’s definitely worth it.

Have a lovely week!

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