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Callie Feyen

Around Here

in Uncategorized on 25/04/13

  A new stack of books for my second to last packet before I enter my second year of graduate school. I heard Shannon Huffman Polson read from her writing last year in Santa Fe. Listening to others read from their work is probably my favorite thing about the residencies.

A couple of pictures from the Creativity Journals my friend and I made for the class we are teaching.  The first class was this week and it was wonderful.  I was pretty nervous about teaching again but as soon as I started it was like putting on my favorite pair of jeans.

Hadley brought home a flower pot with daisy seeds in it from Girl Scouts last week.  I put it on our table with pencils, scissors, glue sticks and washi tape.  They sit on a bowl that a group of sixth graders made for me years ago when I was their teacher.  They took a line from an essay of mine and painted it on the bowl, then signed their names on the bottom. The line is: “Maybe someday when they’re sitting in my classroom, my students will open a gift that God has given them. That’s why I am a teacher.”

The dogwood trees have bloomed and Harper calls them, “ballerina trees.” On our walks she collects the pink pedals that have fallen to the ground and carries them around with her until their edges are brown.

My best friend from high school is getting married in May.  That’s us at our Senior PROM. I wrote an essay about she and I growing up and it submitted it in my graduate school application.  Here’s a part from it that describes a road in our neighborhood.* She and I used to drive it because its path took the same route as the Des Plaines River, making it curvy and fun to drive fast on.

“A part of the road branches off and becomes a dirt road that’s bumpy and swerves more than the main part. I think it’s a driveway or alley that is no longer used. I never drive this part. I don’t have it memorized like I do the main road. To drive this road you have to be the kind of driver who is OK with seeing only a few feet ahead of you. You have to be OK with sharp turns and wheels that might slip in the gravel. This is the part Celena drives. She drives it fast and at night when it is even harder to see what’s going on. I love riding along with her; it is both thrilling and terrifying, and I trade off laughing and screaming as we barrel down this tattered old road.

The day Celena falls during practice, I drive down my part of the road. The oak trees on either side are thick with large green leaves, their branches stretching out so that I drive under a green ceiling; bits of sun peeking in sprinkling glittery flecks on my windshield. Celena would have noticed this, I think. I make a note to tell her about it sometime.”

*Some of you who read this will recognize that I combined two roads. One of them is Thatcher and the other is the one we used to call “the Booya road.” Or maybe that was me who just called it that. At any rate, I combined them for the sake of the story.

3 Comments

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Comments

  1. Annie Wald says

    April 28, 2013 at 5:49 am

    I loved hearing Brian Doyle read from his work at FFW. In fact, he was one of my favorites. I think his session is available on audio, in case you didn’t hear it. He’s one of those writers who not only can write a story but also tell a story.

    Reply
    • calliefeyen says

      April 28, 2013 at 5:29 pm

      I heard him at the FFW! His was my favorite presentation, which is why I bought his books. I agree, he can both write and tell a fabulous story.

      Reply
  2. alison says

    May 2, 2013 at 11:40 am

    i love that you are teaching again. congrats to celena!

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Callie. I’m a writer and teacher living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I write Creative Nonfiction, and in my oldest daughter Hadley’s words, I “use my imagination to add a bit of sparkle to the story.” I’m a contributor for Coffee+Crumbs, Off the Page, Makes You Mom, and Relief Journal. My writing has also been featured on Art House America, Tweetspeak Poetry, Good Letters, and Altarwork, and in 2014 I was one of the cast members of the Listen To Your Mother DC show.

I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University, and I am working on my first book that will be published through TS Poetry Press.

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When I was in fourth grade, I got my front tooth k When I was in fourth grade, I got my front tooth knock out during a baseball game. I was in the dugout, trying to make a butterfly in the dirt with my shoe. The batter, who’d hit not just a home run, but a grand slam, came running in and everyone cheered and so did I because I’d gotten really good at reading cues for when a good thing happens in sports. I even attempted a high five, and somehow I knocked my face into her batting helmet, thus spending the good part of that weekend summer day in the dentist’s office getting a root canal.

No teeth were lost in this latest incident, but I was lost in a bit of imagining on Sunday when I tripped and fell on Packard while running. I look like I’ve been in a bar fight and my shoulder looks similar to how Wesley’s looked after being attacked by an ROUS. 

But I’m going into work today, and when I told my boss I’m nervous about how I look she said, “It’s OK because you have a story,” and if that isn’t the best thing you could ever say to me, I’m not sure what is. 

So, here I am with a story. Thanks to all my friends and family who’ve been so kind and keeping me laughing.
A little Mother’s Day dancing is so good for the A little Mother’s Day dancing is so good for the soul. Thank you, @woodsbreeana 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻
Last dances and first swims of the season and socc Last dances and first swims of the season and soccer and cherry almond scones and a new project with a friend and a lament for a fallen writer who paved a path for so many of us.
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