Welcome!

Finally, I did it. It's done.  I've had a lot to do this weekend, but, of course, creating this 202 class a kick-ass blog was one of my top priorities.  I apologize for not getting this out sooner.  I confess: I spent way too much time looking around in search of a better template design (or "blogskin").  I tried to find one that wasn't too plain or busy or girly.  And humor!  It had to make us all smile every time we opened it up.

I decided to create our blog in Blogger (obviously). I'm not sure what made me inclined to title it "Speed Limit 202" - I think it was because I spontaneously evoked a theme of road signs (the one below is also on Blackboard) for no apparent reason.

You do not need a Gmail account to sign up to post to Blogger. However, if you have a Gmail account and you'd rather I send your invite to contribute to this blog to that e-mail account instead of the one listed on Campus Connect, let me know right away.

YOU are the exclusive authors here. This is your space. You can post whatever you'd like here (of course, use good judgement). You can post your own writing. You can start conversations. You can post links or even embed movies. If you post the work of others, be sure to give them appropriate credit.  Remember that this blog has been added to Blogger's lists and may show up in internet searches.  This means that we may, on occasion gain an extra follower or have a stranger make a comment.  However, in all likelihood, this will not be frequent.

I'd also like to invite you to add to a list titled "Writerly Sites" contained within the right-hand column - I think you, as an author, can add to it by clicking on "Layout" and then "Page Elements" and then clicking "Edit" in the Writerly Sites box. If you have a website or interesting blog that you follow, include the link here for everyone to see.  NOTE: NEVER go to "Edit HTML" under the "Layout" tab to make changes or make any other changes regarding the "Layout" or "Template."

Spread a link back to this blog if you'd like others to see this! I do believe I'll invite my husband to follow this as well. He's taking a creative writing course at Ball State this semester, but he's not getting an awesome blog like this. If you have any problems with the tech-side of things and creating a post, let me know and we can review the steps after or before class one day. If too many people are having problems with the process (but I doubt we will), I can create a hand-out or carve out some class time in a computer lab.

Meanwhile . . . have a poem.  :)

Day Job and Night Job

BY ANDREW HUDGINS

After my night job, I sat in class

and ate, every thirteen minutes,

an orange peanut-butter cracker.

Bright grease adorned my notes.

At noon I rushed to my day job

and pushed a broom enough

to keep the boss calm if not happy.

In a hiding place, walled off

by bolts of calico and serge,

I read my masters and copied

Donne, Marlowe, Dickinson, and Frost,

scrawling the words I envied,

so my hand could move as theirs had moved

and learn outside of logic

how the masters wrote. But why? Words

would never heal the sick,

feed the hungry, clothe the naked,

blah, blah, blah.

Why couldn’t I be practical,

Dad asked, and study law—

or take a single business class?

I stewed on what and why

till driving into work one day,

a burger on my thigh

and a sweating Coke between my knees,

I yelled, “Because I want to!”—

pained—thrilled!—as I looked down

from somewhere in the blue

and saw beneath my chastened gaze

another slack romantic

chasing his heart like an unleashed dog

chasing a pickup truck.

And then I spilled my Coke. In sugar

I sat and fought a smirk.

I could see my new life clear before me.

It looked the same. Like work.

Andrew Hudgins, “Day Job and Night Job” from Ecstatic in the Poison. Copyright © 2003 by Andrew Hudgins. Reprinted with the permission of The Overlook Press.

Source: Ecstatic in the Poison (2003)