It's been one week...

since i've retired from college. it's a change of pace. at school i'd wake up around 10 or 11, now i wake up at 5 and eat lunch at 11. at school i barely worked, now i work more than 8 hours a day ... tomorrow will be my 10th day in a row. at school i was a poor bastard, now i'm making money. at school i had a house full of friends, now i have none. at school i had the V-dub, now i have this.
at school i had a crum bum of a computer, now i have this
i might have been poor in college, but now i'm in debt. i took out a loan for my truck (it'll be paid off in 5 years) i love the truck. it only had 24,000 miles on it. it's got tinted windows and a sweet radio in it with an ipod hook up. the previous owner put a lot into it and barely drove it. the only downside to it is, obviously, the gas. i'm getting about 20 mpg, which isn't THAT bad, but now that i got my own truck i'm parinoid about the gas. when i'm driving i don't watch how fast i'm going ... i'm watching to see if the gas needle has moved at all. but i knew i wasn't going to get very good gas with a truck, but so far i'm pretty satisfied with the milage i'm getting. big oil can't keep this up for long. (i know i just jinxed it ... damnit sorry.) i'm taking out a loan for grad school (if all goes well it'll be paid off with one true sentence) and the imac was a gift. a beautiful beautiful gift. i can't get over how extraordinary this machine is. i would try to explain the cool stuff it has on here, but you probably already know, and probably more than me, and i wouldn't be able to explain how this stuff works in a million years because when it comes to computers i'm mildly retarted. one feature i must mention however, is the ichat. you just talk at the web cam. no typing, just talking. and it's real time too. i mean no choppy crappy video of the other person. if they move it doesn't take 5 minutes to show the movement. everybody should get ichat. it's phenominal.

now, i used to be a windows user. a faithful one at that. then i started using imac's our school had in the computer lab. i loved them. i mean, i really loved them. borderline obsessed with them. i'm a born again apple user. i say born again because i used apple in 3rd grade. Oregon Trail sure as shit wasn't on windows. neither was that paper air plane game. yeah, you know which one i'm talking about. the one where you had to hit the vents to keep the paper airplane airborne.

i have to mention this as well. (this is pretty out of the blue) every year around this time my brother and i have a beard growing contest. this year was the 3rd annual beard growing contest. the last two years have been pretty close. this year i was humiliated. my brother started growing his beard in the middle of march while we were boarding in UP Michigan. here is the winning beard. I know it's not a ZZ Top caliber beard, but it was pretty thick. i was impressed and took the loss gracefully. to tell you the truth, i knew i lost long before he came up for my graduation. (that was supposed to be the end of the contest,) but about half way through it he sent me a picture message of it and sent it to me on my cell phone. later that night i trimmed my beard. i know i'm a quitter. it was just too damn good.

Since I've Graduated...

I haven't had much time to sit down and write on this. I graduated last friday, packed up and moved in with my folks on sunday and started working on monday. I got hooked up with a job at a golf course for a couple weeks before i head out east to Vermont. the course is in Somerset, WI (about 30 min. away) i have to be there at six, so that means i wake up at 5. i usually get off work at around 2 or so. today i didn't get a lunch break. i ate a crappy salami sandwich on my mower today. i worked 9 hours straight.

it's been really hard getting used to waking up so early. i don't mind it once i'm up, but when the alarm goes off at 5 i want to shoot myself. but on the plus side i've seen the sun come up every day this week. that's more times than i have in the last 5 years. i like sun rises better. they're more elusive. every one is awake when the sun goes down. i mean, anybody can see a sun set. but (especially in the summer) you have to be up pretty damn early to catch a sun rise. i guess what saying is, mornings are cool, but waking up for them blows.

lets see, what else. there's a good chance i'm getting a new truck this weekend, which rocks. i sold the Vdub when i was up in Bemidji. it sold for $1200. not bad, considering its condition. i'm already sun burned. i've forgotten how bad sun burns suck. well anyway, i'm tired and i can't really think of anything of importance to write. a lame entry, but i figured i had to write something. i'll write something cooler soon...

in the meantime, listen to AC/DC.

that teacher...

everyone has their favorite teacher. the "cool" one. you know the teacher in high school that swore every once in a while, or was an easy A because everyone knew they didn't really give a shit. then there is the college professor that is cool because they're actually down to earth, and they're actually passionate about something, and they bring it to class every day. well, i've never had that teacher, until recently.

i started writing just for kicks and for myself when i came to college just about five years ago now. never did i ever think it was something i wanted to do. i decided to take a few creative writing classes and i liked it so i took some more. when i took all the poetry classes BSU offered i decided to try my luck with some fiction. I took a class with Maureen Gibbon

i just want to explain how fantastic this teacher is. from day one she was the most approachable teacher i had ever had. i wrote some stories i thought to be just so-so at best. one day she told to stay after class and talk to her for a minute. i had no idea what she wanted to talk to me about. i'm a pretty quiet guy in class so i knew i didn't do anything wrong.

MAUREEN: how long have you been writing fiction?
ME: since the beginning of your class.
MAUREEN: you're a writer.

i've had a lot of people call me a lot of things, and i've called myself some things here and there, but never have i been told i was a writer. ever since then she's kind of taken me under her wing. in my whole life i've never had anyone believe in me like she has. of course there are your parents who think everything you do is phenominal. (quick side story on that topic. my folks came to visit a couple weeks back, and i'm taking this painting class. a beginning painting class. i've never painted anything before this so i decided to show my 'rents a few i've done. i swear to god they thought they were the best paintings they had ever seen. there were other students in the art room while i was showing them, and my mom says, "these are the best paintings i've ever seen!! you're so talented Peter!" yes, i was embareassed. they took a picture with me standing by one of my paintings. yes, i was terribly embareassed. i got them out of there before they could do any more damage.)

Anyway, it's cool to have someone believe in you like that. so since she had so much confidence in me, i started to believe her. i started listening to what she was saying about me. i started writing with some confidence. i'll tell you what, confidence in yourself can take you a long way. if it wasn't for maureen gibbon there is no way on god's green earth i'd be headed to vermont for grad school in a month.