Upcoming Changes

Hello! I am not sure if you noticed, but I didn’t blog on Tuesday like I usually do. I have had a busy week that has stirred up some developments that I would like to share with you. I work a full time job but since I graduated with my MFA, I have had the desire to teach. I’ve been looking for at least onc class so I can gain some experience. When it comes to high school, if you don’t have a teaching certificate, you can only teach at private schools and those are limited around here so I haven’t had much luck. I am also qualified to teach at community colleges and/or composition classes at a university. Because, in most cases, you have to have experience to get a job, it makes it difficult to find someone to give you a chance. A lot of graduate programs have a teaching practicum that sort of sets you up with the experience you need. Unfortunately, with mine, you were only required to give one lecture. Somehow, I got lucky and I have been given the opportunity to teach EN102 at the University of Alabama this fall. I made the case that even though I didn’t have as much experience as they’d like, they should give me a chance because I will work my behind off and I know my stuff…they went for it…so, now I’m getting the chance I’ve been wanting. I will only have one class to start which is good because I’ll still be working and I don’t want to be overwhelmed. I am going to be working hard on this class, trying to get some guest lecture spots at some high schools and writing more so I had initially decided to stop blogging all together. When I began to think about all the 5’s of readers out there, I decided to keep it. I was trying to put all of my blogs into a word document in case I ever did stop the blog and didn’t want to lose everything I’d written and before I even got done with a few months, I had well over 50 pages. I didn’t want to give that up. So, instead of blogging two days a week, I will only be blogging one, usually on Friday. Wish me luck, I feel like this could open doors and give me a firm idea as to what I want to do with my life.

Now that I’ve rambled on about that for awhile, I weighed this morning and I was NOT down. In fact, I was up a bit. I guess this once again proves that I must give a flawless performance in order to lose weight. My only mess-up this time was consuming way too many calories last Friday at the Miranda Lambert concert. Also, I’ve been focusing a lot more on my stomach and arm fat lately so I’ve been doing more work with weights. I’ve heard both sides of the spectrum as to whether or not lifting weights makes you gain but that may have a bit to do with it. I have no cheating planned the next week so it would be REALLY NICE if I lost next week…before I get FRUSTRATED. That also means that I should keep the blog going at least another year (I am about to renew my domain name for one more year) because I obviously have not come to an end or a maintaining point in my weight loss journey.





I wanted to show you a couple pictures from the food drive we are having at work. They split us up into teams to make it a competition. We had to design a receptacle, bring food, gather donated money and whatever else we could to gain points. We built an awesome receptacle, donated a ton of cans and money and we even visited the West Alabama Food Bank during lunch one day for an extra kick. I think we deserve to win but I’m not sure if we will.





Despite the unreal heat and humidity, Dad and I had a great time at the Miranda Lambert concert. I really like her music a lot and it gave me a chance to go to the new Tuscaloosa Amphitheatre for the first time. It’s so nice and clean. It’s a really positive thing for Tuscaloosa since we’ve been through so much this year as a community. I’m very proud of it.



This is a Chicken Parmigiana Burger. The recipe called for ground chicken and Pomodoro sauce but I used ground turkey and some pizza sauce I had in the refrigerator instead. It’s very simple, just heat the patty on both sides and pile it all on a bun. It was quite tasty…an easy one that I could do anytime.



This is me posing with a literary journal called, The Broad River Review. I am in this book so I was excited. My poem, “Wedding in Cumberland County, Tennessee,” was published in here and it’s my first print journal since college.





These pictures are interesting because both me and my friend Stacey in the picture, have lost weight. Yes, she’s pregnant there. No, I’m not. She went on Weight Watchers after she had her second baby and has been very successful!

I know that was a TON of info…so I’ll stop there.

Have a great weekend! Wish me luck on losing this week! Bye!

“I hope you still feel small
When you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
Dance
I hope you dance.” I Hope You Dance-Lee Ann Womack