I'm on the proverbial cloud nine. You'll have to forgive me, but after my poor original stint at the university level back in 1984, I'm quite happy to have another chance to redeem myself. So it is with great pleasure that I note two As and a Pass for my first semester. Yes, I'm blowing my own horn, and with grade inflation, it likely isn't something one should be that proud of, but, hell, life's pleasures are so far between. I'm especially proud of my one-act play because for a few weeks there I was a little dicey on the subject, not sure whether or not the thing was going to come together.

I've actually been reading quite a lot this past semester, but not much of it is making its way into these pages. A majority of it is reading for school, which I sincerely doubt many of you would be interested in, as it consists in large part on pedagogy articles on teaching. For pleasure during the semester, I've been reading short stories. In the past, I've kept reading entries on these, but I'll admit to getting a little lazy and dropping this. I regret it now, so you may see some of these smaller comments in the next few installments.

This next semester I will be teaching a freshman composition class for eight weeks. The idea of teaching writing has certainly influenced my own writing, especially in how I view these monthly installments. Everyone needs a bit of naval-gazing every now and then to take stock in their achievements and goals. I'm proud to report that, upon reflection, I can't see much negative effect on my writing from doing this, even though I sometimes think that writing First Impressions precludes the time I could spend writing fiction. That's just fooling myself; if I wanted to write more fiction, I simply would.