I recently submitted two pieces to a show and received this email today:
Hello Tammy,
Thank you for your entry in Form, Fabricate, and Forge. I am pleased to inform you that your entry 80 Untitled has been excepted.
Notice anything weird? Look again. Apparently this email, from a graduate student, informs me that my piece has been “excepted” into the show. Obviously she’s not an English major. Hell, I wonder if she even speaks English. Sad, so sad.
Last night’s crit goes down in my history as one of the longest and most frustrating. We began at 6:30 p.m. and I finally left at 11 p.m. even though it wasn’t officially over. The Intermediate group went first and set the tone for the evening. Not a single piece was done. Over a 4 1/2 month period, nobody had finished any of their projects. By the time we reached the last Intermediate student (a girl who showed up for class half the time), my patience was gone. I, nicely but firmly, voiced my frustration with all the unfinished work. I reminded everyone that deadlines are important and changes in designs can be done on the second or third piece. Seriously, these students change their ideas constantly and don’t commit to a project. I was also frustrated with Kevin for not stating this, but didn’t mention it during the crit. Luckily, almost all of the Advanced students had finished work which made critiquing the designs much more productive.
It’s raining here again and temps have dropped which does very little for my mood. I did manage to drag myself out of the house and to the gym, but have little desire to do much else. After skipping last week (and eating too many chips last night) I decided I should weigh in at Weight Watchers. Unbelievably I lost 1.4 pounds, which makes up for the 1.4 pounds I gained three weeks ago. When I told Sarah, who’s supposed to be my WW buddy and support, she exclaimed, “F%&k you!” I had to laugh. She’s frustrated because she’s back to the weight she started at two months ago. It’s still hard to feel sorry for her because she looks great, but I do understand her frustration. Been there, done that.
We have a busy weekend ahead. My sister and her family are visiting, we’re having a retirement party for my mom, and I have a bathroom to clean! Hope you have a great rest of the week and a relaxing weekend.
Pretty Pretty Bang Bang 
Tam, wowsahs. Sounds like the crit from Heck! You were way more patient than I would have been. It reminds me of creative-writing courses in college!! (Once I got in trouble/had a talking-to from the TA for reviewing this kid’s half-plagiarized short story with honesty as opposed to happy bullshit.)
I imagine most of these students will have a big ol’ wake-up call once they get into the real world. But maybe that’s the point.
The e-mail is funny. (So is that “look again.”) And it’s an interesting question. I’ve found that the writer who always attends to spelling/grammar/punctuation/usage and does them perfectly usually turns out to be the good-but-boring writer (i.e., me, oftentimes). I’m trying to quit worrying about all that so much in the hopes that I just express myself in a more interesting way.
But, this girl isn’t writing something expressive. She’s writing a simple business e-mail!! She also forgot her commas and her quotation marks, which wouldn’t be so bad, except for that “excepted.” I’ve had would-be interns, English and journalism majors, who wouldn’t have done much better, sad to say.
Seriously, whatever happened to articulate, college-educated adults? Bet the Chinese and Indians are laughing all the way to the bank.