Now I am not one to toot my own horn. But you know what? I think that this little victory deserves to be celebrated. So....
Toot.
When I started writing poetry a year ago I told someone that I wanted to make enough money to buy a sandwich. Now that I have taken the $50 third prize I can say that I have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. I can buy not only one but....
I guess it depends on the type of sandwich. On the high end, I could buy 2.5 Hindenburgs from Macado's at $20.00 a piece...on the other end of the spectrum you have the White Castle Crave Crate at $49.99 containing 100 White Castle Sliders and a grand total of 13960 calories. You can live on that for 8 - 10 days easily, if the colon cancer doesn't get you first.
Aside from the sandwich money the best think about winning this award is knowing that my poetry at least isn't terrible, that it's maybe okay even. The people at my open mic night at Saint Alphonso's Lutheran Church and Pancake House always say that my poetry is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but you are never really sure if they are just being polite because they are full of the Holy Spirit and pancakes (though sometimes I think those things are actually synonymous with each other).
But to have people you don't know read your poems and say "Hey, this one's pretty good"? It's a nice feeling. I'd like to thank the Daily Press and....the rest of you people.....for that.
Where do I go from here? Now that I have my sandwich money I have to set my sights a little higher. My new goal is to be a guest panelist on "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," the NPR news-quiz. I'm reviewing my current events and bad puns daily, and working to make my laugh extraordinarily loud and annoying. I'm going to play, and I'm playing to win.
Great job! My whole goal was to be enough to take my family to Chipotle (which is a lofty goal because that place is expensive for 5 people!)
ReplyDeleteDream big, my friend! :)