no, eliz, you’re just a follower
i haven’t been in the dc public library in years. i would prefer to put the number at around 10; in fact it’s probably closer to 3 since i came here to borrow the LOTR books instead of buy them. since i ended up never bringing them back, the guilt kept me at arm’s length til desperation beckoned me in.
actually the reason for the gulf between the time i came 10 years ago and the time i came 3 years ago is also attributable to my library kleptomania. it’s terrible, absolutely terrible. the only stealing i’ve ever done! i don’t deserve to be a swattie, or at least to be thought of in the same breath as true, socially-minded leftists who never steal, or only from corporate congloms which deserve it.
since reading nickel and dimed i’ve become vehemently anti-walmart. fyi.
i find it funny that they even allow me onto the computer without checking my record here. if there’s a black list, i’m on it. if there’s a ten most wanted list, i might be on that too. oh dear. i wouldn’t be here, listening to the inexplicable minnesota accent of the librarian helping a woman in a housedress behind me, if a storm hadn’t racked our area, depriving many of power and my house of internet.
at home mostly i’ve been filling out applications. out of convenience/laziness, i’ve narrowed down my choices to: stanford, nyu, columbia (film), ucla (film), bu, emerson, and iowa. in the course of this, i’ve become as dissatisfied with my poetry as i’ve ever been. it’s too late now to burn the lot and start over. maybe when/if i get into some grad skool program. i’ll view that as a new chance.
if not, i’ll do as ben discreetly suggested. see myself as a recreational poet who writes things for people when they need them.
(at the time, less than pleased with that prospect, i said, “they could just buy a hallmark card!” to which he replied, “there are no hallmark cards for … pain …”) talk about a niche market.