Cruisin's not a crime

I met with two doctors last nite. At school. Luckily, I was able to successfully add both the classes that I already was enrolled in and then subsequently dropped from. Looks like my late-nite writing class will be intensive, but that should be nice considering I enjoy writing lately. My teacher, Dr. Thomas Caramagno (the -gn- is like the -gn- in 'lasagna'), has three Master's degrees and a Ph. D. He is a learned man. I do like that, as he's still somewhat funny, with a passion for Monty Python, Douglas Adams, and literature. There will be a lot of essay work, and knowing that my paranoia for essays has diminished of late, the workload doesn't seems so intimidating.

Our first assignment: we were to write an in-class essay based on two provided quotations. I chose the combination of Shakespeare's plus another's whose name I can't properly pronounce and whom I've never heard of in the first place. I felt mildly confident because the words literally flew from my penciltip, I didn't get the usual writer's cramp even with two pages of hand-written material, and I felt passionate about what I was writing. I took Shakespeare's quote of "In time we come to hate that which we fear" and applied it to my personal views of acceptance, compromise and empathy. I told of the stereotypes and black and white world we live in, categorizing and labeling us all, which is oh-so-convenient for an easy fear, hate, or disregard of a group or a way of thinking. Pending a decent grade, I may post the essay here in its entirety, with some freedom for modifications.

The worst part about a class that ends at 9:50 at nite is that my kids are in bed when I get home. I very much look forward to seeing them and playing with them after work, so I can't help my disappointment in knowing they are asleep, fan on and dreams running. But I did blow them kisses and bid them good sleep, as silently as I could manage. Then Amy and I watched Almost Famous. Cameron Crowe creates some excellent films, I am a huge fan of Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky, and Say Anything was great also. And I am looking forward to Elizabethtown. Watching Almost Famous made me want to be a writer badly, just like reading Ask the Dust did. There is so much out there, so much that I believe in and could share, and writing fulfills me somehow, in an indescribable way. William was so young and full of life, he knew what he wanted and approached it with vigor and determination. I'm the old man filled with timidity and indeterminate goals, swaying this way and that with each new week or compulsion. Ah well... I will just continue exploring myself and searching for those things that define me. There are many. But that's my goal, to be part of many things that I hold dear, to spread myself among my interests instead of pigeonholing myself to one solid 'career' that I play out until my hair grays and my skin thins. Stay tuned for more information.

Audio: Say Hello to Sunshine|Finch
Video: Almost Famous [2000|Cameron Crowe]
Text: The Road to Los Angeles|John Fante