It's Decorative Gourd Season, Otters!
I missed y'all. (And just FYI, "Ottertober" didn't really roll off the tongue.)
This is Ottavia Paluch and you’re reading Things You Otter Know.
I very much dislike that I’m almost two years deep into this project, a project that was meant to get me writing more regularly, and I still have not managed to post consistently over a larger stretch of time than, like, two consecutive months.
HOWEVER! My excuse this time is that school started and I needed some time to adjust. So there you go. Suck it, haters.
It’s still crazy to me that I’m a whole entire sophomore in university now. When I was a kid I thought that word was the coolest word ever.
It turns out, though, that being a sophomore is in fact incredibly uncool.
This has been the most boring semester ever. Granted, I’m only a month into it, AND I’ve only suffered through two full regular semesters, so the above paragraph contains the most baseless claim of all time, but whatever. Consider it an…alternative fact.
I am currently taking a reduced course load (four courses when most kids here take five) and I still feel overwhelmed and frustrated.
I have the same prof for British Literature Part 1 and Early Modern Women Writers. Even though she is wonderful and hilarious and swears often (major plus IMO) she cannot singlehandedly make these classes interesting when the stuff we read is usually very boring and almost always incomprehensible to my Gen Z ear.
The course I am enjoying the most right now is on literary theory, although “enjoying” is maybe not the right word to use here because I am struggling mightily to understand 1) what we read, and 2) what is being discussed in lecture. But it sure does make me feel smart!!!
My friend Cooper (who I am naming in full because I am pretty sure he reads this Substack) is taking the course with me and he loves it. I find the contrast between the two of us in this regard to be funny as hell.
Cooper and I are also enrolled in a full-year writing workshop meant for 4th years but we’re so badass that we got in anyways even though we’re sophomores. My peers are lovely and kind nerds…my prof is a very slow talker. Our first assignment was to write a sonnet in iambic pentameter. Y’all know I love writing sonnets but writing in meter is impossible. So I eventually resorted to writing about how much I hated writing sonnets in iambic pentameter. A+ material, surely.
What else happened??? I mean, I went downtown a few times, which still hasn't stopped being very fun and also very scary. I’m getting better at navigating the subway and I continue to love the train. (Spadina is a labyrinth and I am never switching lines there again.)
I had the most delicious Cubano sandwich ever from this tiny little hole in the wall near Osgoode. Also this chocolate bomb from a bakery and it was so amazing I literally can’t even.
I went to this trivia night at the St. George campus and won a $15 Amazon gift card with these senior girls I had never met, and they were so smart and also hilarious and found me hilarious which warmed my heart. They also helped me get home safely while I dealt with a panic attack (or something of that sort, no idea how to properly describe it). We will probably never see each other again…LMAO…but they reminded me that not everyone finds me “quirky” to the point of no return, that good people do in fact exist.
One weekend I met up with this girl I had never met before and we went to this book sale at Victoria College together. She found me easy to talk to but I could not say the same for her, which sucks because I need more friends.
I went to a Varsity Blues football game with a few friends just the other day, actually. We destroyed McMaster. ‘Twas fun.
Media-wise? I watched the VMAs—MTV continues to produce the only relevant award show in the game—and Taylor Swift had the time of her LIFE. She’s dating Travis Kelce now, don’t know if you heard about that.
Think I’ll expand on this sometime soon, but I won a ticket to see Mitski do an acoustic set at a tiny church last weekend and my parents wouldn’t let me go. Definitely one of those once-in-a-lifetime things I can’t believe I was lucky enough to get the chance to attend. I put my ticket up for sale on Ticketmaster and it was sold within 30 seconds, I’m not exaggerating.
This new album of hers is unreal, by the way. I think I’ve listened to “I’m Your Man” a million times over the last month. I could’ve witnessed her play it with my own one eye! Goddamnit.
Other bummers: the Springsteen show I was gonna go to with my dad next month got postponed to next year. (Get well soon, Boss!) Also had tickets to see a hardcore band I love called Fiddlehead, but was too fatigued to go after the football game the day before. I am not too mad at myself for this (at the moment; I’m sure I will be later.)
Was planning on going to Just For Laughs Fest but that didn’t happen. Same for the Toronto Festival of Authors.
Yeah. A lot of no’s were said this month. I bring this up because I did a million job interviews and got a million rejections. More on that soon. Happy to tell you it ended well. Ish.
And then something very sick and non-poetry or Substack-related but still writing-adjacent also happened (or will be soon!) and I cannot wait to tell you about it when I can. It is a fulfillment of a pipe dream I’ve had since the sixth grade.
Think that’s everything that matters so I’ll end it there. Would be a shame if I forgot something important, like a birthday…
🦦 —O— 🦦