Gina

howtohaveabody:

queershoulder:

SF State Comrades (and any friends & fans who might wanna trek out to SFSU to see me):

I will be reading from “How To Have A Body” (aka my Thesis) at the SFSU MFA/MA Thesis Reading on Thursday.

 

Party time! Come out & see me do my last hurrah at State!

This is today at 5pm!

Today! Come out! I would really really really value having friends in the audience for this!

I flie my Thesis on Friday. The next few days are gonna be interesting. And this is perhaps cheezy, but if y’all have any support/sweetness/prayer to spare: I think I could use it. I will hella be okay, but I am pretty stressed out right now.

I somehow managed to write another 2500 words today? Holy hell.

I am wrung out now, though. It is ice cream & bad tv o’clock. Then, it is bed o’clock.

1. Two cross-country gigs in one day is no fucking joke, peoples. Especially when you have a chronic illness. I slept 12 hours last night/today, and I am STILL the Tiredest Gina in the History of All Ginas. Ever.

2. Still. I am glad & grateful we brought Girl Talk out to Smith and especially, especially to Hampshire. More about both of those gigs soon. But in very short: I’m proud of us. We did good work. The audiences were small, which was sad, and which also illustrates why this work is so fucking important. That said: The people who were there in the room were engaged and gracious and enthusiastic and seemed really touched by the work. That matters.

Also, for the Hampshire gig, 3/4 of us were 5 College Consortium alums, and Jos & I are both Hampshire alums. It was beyond cool to sit on a stage with 3 of my closest friends in the world, first off. Secondly, it was beyond cool to bring this work that means so much to all of us to a community that means so much to me, Jos, and Melissa. Thirdly, it was awesome to show Rose the Pioneer Valley, as it is a place that was so formative for me as a young’un.

3. My Thesis (which is the first full draft of How To Have A Body) is due to my advisor for review in 17 days. Then re-writes. Then Thesis filing. Then graduating in mid-May (!).

4. In short: This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no foolin’ around. I will probably be pretty quiet here for the next bit of awhile, while I’m hunkering down with The Book.

You know, considering how deeply erotophobic a lot of my undergraduate profs were when it came to my writing, hearing “… and the sex scenes were GREAT!” from a professor pretty much never gets old. :)

1. turned 50 pages of How To Have A Body (aka my Thesis) in to my advisor.
2. decided to adopt Tilda the Tuxedo Cat for good.
3. found out that Girl Talk got a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission (amount to be determined, but still — !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Please excuse me while I groove on life. :)

Just had a fantastic meeting with my advisor about my Thesis and How To Have A Body. I wanna say more but I’m also fussy & superstitious & private about things till they are set in stone.

But suffice it to say: My pupils are like exclamation points right now. I feel like today’s beautiful & unexpectedly balmy February sun is shining Just For Me.

Excuse me while I blast terrible 90s hip-hop and settle in to write some more. (Srsly, I am having to restrain myself from posting video clips from MTV Jams.)

My Craziest, Hardest, Roughest Semester of Grad Skool to date is OHHH-VER.

I am sending a couple important Girl Talk emails that have been on the back-burner. And then, I am taking myself to the $20 outdoor hottub in Noe Valley. And also possibly out to dinner after that. BECAUSE I CAN.

I’m still home very sick, so I couldn’t go to campus and TA/”mentor” today. This makes me sad, but such is life when you are very sick.

I emailed my students for their assignments so I can at least stay on top of my TA responsibilities once I’m well enough to do more than sleep & watch the occasional movie… And I got several emails back from students about how much they miss me and hope I make a speedy recovery. So. I am sitting here sniffly & headachey & not able to speak above a whisper, but also blushy & verklempt.

My students are the sweetest.

Aaand my shoulder starts to feel better* just in time for me to get thoroughly buried under End of the Semester Mountain.

At least December 17th is only a few weeks away?

(Don’t get me wrong, I’m really, seriously, incredibly grateful to be feeling better. I just wish I’d had a more break-y Fall Break.)

*I saw the wackiest hippiest gayest feyest most old-school San Francisco chiropractor ever on Friday. In addition to being a total hoot & kinda kooky, he really helped!