I’m at the Springfield public library again. Since I last posted on this blog - I’m posting far too little - I have become homeless. Currently, I live in a homeless shelter, sleeping on the floor while I wait to be assigned a bed. I had to give up all my furniture, a whole bunch of clothes, all my kitchen wares, a bunch of food, a few books, some DVDs…basically a whole bunch of shit. Since I lost my car last year I had no way to transport stuff, so in the end I just abandoned everything as it was - a complete fucking mess, in fact.

So now I come to the library every day in order to use the internet and do some reading. When I am not here I hang out in the day room of the shelter, reading and spacing out. I’ve met a few people I can talk to, including a guy who was in Peace Corps in Lesotho the exact same years I was a PCV in Botswana. Go figure. But really, I like to come to the library every day, although it is closed on Fridays.

The only drag about walking from the shelter to the library, though, is that I need to carry all of my stuff. When I am finally assigned a bed I will have a lockable drawer in which to keep some stuff, but until then I have to haul around two heavy bags everywhere I go. I keep telling myself that this is going to help me get into shape - or better shape at least.

I need to spend more time writing while I have so much free time on my hands. Really, writing is the key to my success as an academic, so I need to get off my ass and do it. I made sure to keep my dissertation with me, even though it’s a heavy fucking thing. At the very least I need to re-read it and write up some sort of book proposal for Indiana University Press.

Fuck the 500 word minimum today. I don’t feel like writing any more. Ah, fuck it, let me just continue blasting on for a while and reach the word goal. It shouldn’t take that much more effort if I stick to my freewriting strategy. Just keep pumping the words out.

I’m just over 400 words now.

I wonder if this library has any of Peter Elbow’s books on writing. No. I checked quickly and there is just a DVD of Elbow on writing. I need to find books on writing and make that part of my current study. Lately I have read a couple of books on Atlantic history and the Haitian Revolution, but reading up on writing may be more productive. I just checked quickly and found a good sized section of books on writing in the stacks. I should be able to find something worthwhile.

I reached the 500 word minimum. Let me up load this post and move on with my day.