Twenty years ago, I sat home and watched the Republican convention on TV every day. I was annoyed that there was nothing else on the boob tube to entertain me as I worked on a Strawberry Shortcake latch hook rug. (This is not to say that I did not find the programming interesting. In fact, it hooked - hardee har har, no pun intended - me onto politics.) Today, I'm disturbed by how little of the political conventions are televised on non-cable channels. I hope people really do get their information from other reliable sources. (Or maybe everyone has cable and is glued to news programming.)
Twenty years ago, I thought that I would be a lawyer who would defend abused children when I grew up. Last night, I went to the orientation for the writing program I will attend for the next two years. It was a semi-familiar late-August event for me, as it is my third graduate program in 11 years. (I attended Fordham University Law School for two days in 1997 before acting on the realization that my childhood ambition for my adulthood was not my young adulthood ambition; I went on to receive a Masters in Public Administration with a concentration in social welfare policy from Columbia University in 2000.) My friend Kim is also attending the MFA program at New School, so I felt a little less pressure. Still, it is scary meeting new people and trying new things. After 11 years working in public service, this writing thing is very new territory.
The good news is that everyone I spoke with was friendly and interesting. While I expected people to ask me who my literary idols are (to which I would be forced to admit are Carl Hiaason, Stephen King, and Lemony Snicket) and then snub me for my low brow tastes, no such incident occurred. I even was one of the last people to leave the post-orientation social event. This is not to say that there aren't people who immediately annoyed the crap out of me (I wouldn't be me otherwise!), but really, people were awesome. I far less nervous now, and so excited to start on Tuesday.
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Nope, no cable here. Or the place I'm planning on moving to. I don't want my two year old (or myself!) staring at the tv all day. I grew up without one and learned to love reading and crafts instead, so maybe it will work for her too... However, I do regret it when I think about elections. Do you have any suggestions for a reliable news source online?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm so glad your orientation went well. I hope the class is fabulous!
Generally, I read the big newspapers online, like the NY Times or the Washington Post. Sometimes I read Salon.com. BlogHer is embedding a lot of video coverage these days. personally, I don't like watching videos on my computer, so I stay away from CNN or those places, but they do offer video coverage like you might get on TV.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your well wishes!