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November
21, 2000
We've looked at a few places for the son to move to ...
and i'm constantly amazed at the prices one has to pay to
live in this city. One place, set in a dormitory
style of "sharing everything with about twenty
others" and offering a bedroom no more than about 6'
x 10' in size, is priced at $442.00. There is also a
deposit requirement for use of the vacuum cleaner and the
microwave, and a $100.00 deposit request for
housecleaning. If you decide you don't want that
service, you get the $100.00 back when you leave.
Huh?
The next place we looked at
had less restrictions, a slightly better bedroom, but
didn't have a common area and was pretty dirty.
Basically this means 'going home' is spending your time
isolated in your own room and lord knows what germ warfare
goes on in the bathroom you are expected to use. We
tried another place.
Now this one turned out
to be quite nice! It is very clean, well maintained,
has an even larger bedroom and it appeared that the other
roommates are closer to my son's age group. It has a
laundromat across the street, and is a five to ten minutes
walk from the subway station. Bonus! It's also
not far from me, so the occasional dinner at a moment's
notice is viable. The only hitch is that said son
had to fill out an application, and while doing so the
landlord was showing the room to some other people.
Given that my son is new to the city, filling out the form
was a bit discouraging. Length of time at present
job - two weeks - doesn't give the landlord much to work
with unfortunately. Still, we are crossing our
fingers, and should know by tomorrow.
i found the address to a site called Amoret,
A
Journal of Erotic and Sensual Flash Fiction, and liked
its style. The general concept is based on people
contributing short stories of no more than one hundred
words. On a whim, i decided to try writing one and
discovered really quickly that it's not as easy as it
looks. i kept having to remove words to stay within
the count. But when i did, the story would lose some
of its 'sense', and i'd have to rethink how to present it
again.
Finally i
completed something that seemed mostly coherent, then
warred with myself about sending it to the publishers or
not. All the rejections i've been getting for
webpage designing lately, has chewed away at my
confidence. But i got brave; i sent it. And
the very next morning got a reply back from them.
They liked it! And are publishing it in their December
issue.
Heh! i was
more than just a bit surprised. And REALLY
pleased. And it's the kick start i've been needing
to get me back writing again. i get so discouraged
with it sometimes ... trying to write something good and
professional and feeling frustrated when i can't express
with words the way i wish to. The stories are in
there - getting them out seems to be a major problem for
me. i also get caught up in the right/wrong way of
story telling. Example - most will tell you that
publishers hate stories in first person - yet that's the
way i write most of the time.
So i suppose i
should ask myself, "who, or what, am i writing
for?" Do i do this for personal satisfaction
(like in this journal) or do i do it for possible monetary
gain? In a perfect world it would be for both.
For now, i think i'm going to have to be content with
writing merely for pleasure. After all, i'm not
perfect - why would i expect the world to be?
PS: At Master's
suggestion, here's a picture
of the type of fridge i was talking about in the last
entry :)
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