It has been over a year since I have updated this blog.
How do you measure a year? In *'Rent,' the chorus suggests answers to this question: "In daylights, in sunsets/In midnights, in cups of coffee [...]" And I will try to do the same.
September (2010)
Casey and I moved to Cape Cod, into a townhouse on a quiet residential street in South Yarmouth. Casey started work as a counselor at a residential care facility for children with trauma histories, genetic disorders, behavioral issues, and psychiatric diagnoses, and I took a job teaching rock climbing and belaying at a gym on the outer cape. We didn't see each other much for the next two months, due to our conflicting schedules, but when we did see each other it was to begin unpacking boxes and exploring our new home.
October
My mother came up to visit us about halfway through the month, bringing with her Cobie, the miniature Schnauzer/miniature poodle mix she adopted from a shelter two years prior. Over the course of a long weekend, Mom transformed our house into a home. She replaced our plastic tub with a coffee table; put a wooden television stand under our TV (replacing the milk crates); hung pictures; set down plants; and made sure that our kitchen was stocked. When she left, she left alone: Casey and I adopted Cobie. Near the end of the month, I got a second job working at a community college, in a program that assists high school seniors in their transition to college.
November
Cobie and I spend long Sundays hiking the vast trail system within the conservation land at the end of our cul-de-sac. The trails skirt around cranberry bogs and sand and gravel pits, ponds and tidal rivers. Just before Thanksgiving, I submitted my first application for graduate school, pursuing my MFA in Creative Writing. We spent Thanksgiving down in Maryland, with my mom and sister.
December
I haven't been big on Christmas since I was 18 or 19, but I decided last year that I would reevaluate my feelings again, because Casey loves the season so much. It was a successful experiment: Casey and I were able to create our own traditions and our own memories. Above our TV, Casey hung stockings with our pet names embroidered on them: Schmoogle and Pookie. Cobie even had his own stocking. My mom came up again for Christmas and we spent one of the best weeks of last year together, watching Christmas movies and eating well. It was a happy end to the year.
January 2011
I submitted my fifth and final graduate school application and knew that I would have to busy myself so that I didn't spend every waking minute wondering whether I would be accepted into a program. Winters on Cape Cod are long enough. When I wasn't working both jobs, I was usually at home, with Casey, playing Rock Band on the Nintendo Wii we received as a Christmas gift. At the end of the month, I began two classes at the community college: Existentialism and Conversation Spanish. Consequently, I left my job at the gym.
February, March, April
The winter stretched on. I started receiving my rejection notices from grad programs in February, receiving my last one in April: 0-5. I put on some weight.
May
The semester winded down and I did well in both of my classes. The academic year was also winding down, and we wrapped up our sessions in the schools as seniors approached graduation. I also began working at the same place where Casey works, at the residential care program, as a substitute Life-Skills Counselor, working mainly in the children's program. After Memorial Day, Casey went back for another summer at Camp, and we kicked off the Summer of the Cobie and Bryan Show.
In the wake of graduate school denials and the winter blues, I spurred myself into action again, joining a writing group, becoming a member of the Cape Cod Writers Center , and establishing myself with a writing partner.
June
When I wasn't working, I was reading the final three books of the Harry Potter series, in order to have read them all before the debut of the 8th and final movie in July ... but that really wasn't the big news of the month.
The bigger news of June was that I co-founded and co-created The Chuckwagon Revival with two friends of mine. It is a podcast about bad movies, the current state of the world, and whatever else we want to talk about. NOTE: THIS IS NOT A PODCAST FOR CHILDREN OR OVERLY-SENSITIVE PEOPLE--IT CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE AND CONTENT. Even so, tens of people each week download the show. We are on itunes (The Chuckwagon Revival); we have a Facebook page, and an email address ( thechuckwagonrevival@gmail.com ), where you can send us your questions, thoughts, and feedback.
July
I worked a lot in July, but took time in the middle of the month to drive down to Wilmington, NC, to attend the wedding of a good friend of mine from my AmeriCorps *NCCC days. I stopped in Brooklyn along the way to pick up my buddy Stabone, and we drove down for a weekend of drinks, laughter, ocean, and Frisbee golf.
August
There were only about 7 days in the entire month of August that I was home. I spent two weeks volunteering as a counselor at Camp, and a long weekend on the North Fork of Long Island for another wedding weekend. Mom was watching Cobie for the duration of this month, so at the end of the month, when Camp wrapped up the end of the summer, Casey and I drove down to Maryland, beating Hurricane Irene there with a couple of hours to spare. After the storm passed, there was some water in my mom's basement, and a few limbs to pick up in the yard, but that was about it.
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And here we are in September: my New Year, each and every year. I am applying for graduate school again, for starters. Rugby season has started, and we began the season with a "W." I'm also trying to lose that weight I put on in the beginning of the year, which means exercise and diet. I'm cutting everything extraneous and useless out of my diet, including the half-and-half I usually put in my coffee. I'm learning to drink it black.
*words and lyrics by Jonathan Larson
