Thursday, August 23, 2007

"Getting Writer's Block From Calling You Is All I Wanna Do"



On August 23, 2002, I went to a reception for new graduate students enrolled in the University of Missouri's English program. To be honest, I wasn't having a very good time there-- the people were so serious about their Projects. I didn't have a Project, and compared to some of these people, I was only semi-literate. I was about ready to give up, swing by a liquor store, and go home to plot how I would explain to my parents why I dropped out of graduate school when two women approached me.

The first one was nice enough. "I'm Lisa Marie," she said, "and I'm the social chair of the English Graduate Student Association. It's my job to make sure everyone's having a good time." Like I said, friendly, but not terribly impressive. But the other one...

"I'm Emily," she said, "and I'm just drunk."

And we've been drinking together ever since.

The title for this post, by the way, comes from John Cale's song "Perfect," because it captures that feeling in those early months of our relationship. Who wants to worry about writing when you could be falling in love, after all?

2 comments:

Emily said...

and compared to some of these people, I was only semi-literate

Ah...and now compared to some of those people not only are you literature, but you also have a job. (he he)

Emily said...

Dammit. I cannot spell -- typing too soon after my nap.

I meant that you're literate, though you're working on the literature thing too.