supercheesegirl

I'm back from Florida. I may or may not make a longer post about the trip later. Here are some highlights:

Awesome times with Heather and Kim

Making new friends (Dustin, Eric, Adam, Ahmad, Rachel, Junot of course, and lots more)

AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL WEATHER HOLY FUCKING CRAP

"Sylvia Plath, with her head in the oven, baby!"

Having a really terrific workshop group and a good group dynamic

Riding a bike for the first significant time since I was maybe 13

Hearing, from more than one serious writer, that my work is good

Hanging out with Junot Diaz for a big chunk of the weekend. Shit, yo. F, we totally have to invite him to our wedding.

Discovering a lot of new writers whose books I want to run out and get order from the library (I'm going to AWP next week, I need to be careful!)


Conversation with Heather:
R: Are you sure your legs won't be cold in that skirt?
H: No, I'm not.
R: OK, then, if you don't think you'll be cold--
H: No, I meant I'm not sure.
R: Maybe we should bring some pants for you. (singing) Just-in-case pants!
H: (singing) Fuck that!
R: (can't talk, laughing)
H: (singing) Motherfucking just-in-case pants can kiss my ass!
R: (singing) That's what they wanna do 'cause they're pants!
(pause)
H: You have a point.

I absolutely love that Heather will randomly sing conversations with me. Not everyone will do that.

Heather: "I don't think that just because you're gay means you should wear a bad hat." An indisputable statement.

Overheard at Mallory Square Sunset Celebration:
"Mom, can I play the bagpipes--" "NO."

I got some excellent pictures of three different sunsets, many headstones in the cemetery, many Hemingway cats, and many drunk writers. I ate a lot of really good food. I did not buy too many books. I only bought two.

I wore flip-flops all week except for one day, when I wore sneakers. The one day in sneakers gave me horrible blisters on two toes. Flip-flops are better. (Also, I may need new sneakers. I've been wearing these ratty-ass green ones since at least 2005.)

Awesome moment: I am waiting in line to have Junot Diaz sign my copy of Oscar Wao. He is doing the book-signing author thing, chatting politely with people, you know. Then he looks up and sees me next, grins all big, and says "Hey sweetie!" My little heart = all warm.

I laid in a hammock and read a book. I went in the hot tub every day. I made new friends. I wrote some, and had a piece of my work critiqued. I read at an open mike night and everyone laughed at the funny parts (theoretically, I may have a webcast of the reading to post--will let you know). I went to the beach. I took long walks and ate good food and had a goddamn awesome time.

so the conference in baltimore was really, really awesome. here's a brief overview of the trip.

wednesday: drove north with david bowen and carl. roads were shitty and snowy and gross. it took like 8 hours. while on the road, i heard (among other things) songs by both david bowie AND david lee roth. finally arrived in baltimore--checked into our hotel. discovered it was ritzy.

thursday: woke up early--had to wake the lazy asses of both david and carl. we ate a hearty continental breakfast, then checked in at the conference, which was only like a block from our hotel. attended a few discussion panels. found stina; met her friend jill; went out for lunch with them and amy knauff (who spent the past year living in italy and doing crazy things) to the cheesecake factory. in the evening, found adam t. cole at the e.l. doctorow keynote address and afterwards went to some bars. carl stumbled back to the hotel after i had gone to bed; david slept elsewhere.

friday: woke early; went to the continental breakfast but discovered that, wait a sec here, the continental breakfast costs MONEY??? took a bagel back to the room and joked with carl about how ridiculous our hotel is ("uh oh, i flushed the toilet, what's the charge for that?" "is there an extra charge for sleeping in the beds?" "it's a shame, i guess we'll all have to shower together..."). attended a super discussion panel on prose poems; shopped at the bookfair. in the afternoon, went to the aquarium, where i stayed for like three hours and had a great time, all by myself--totally worth the price of admission. the seahorses were super. shopped at the gift shop; stopped by the mall to get postcards; went back to hotel. lounged tiredly, wrote out postcards. attended the panel discussion on undergraduate lit magazines, led by several SU undergrads. hugged gary. went out for dinner with adam t. cole and stina and the SU undergrads; had a great time. quote of the evening, in reference to tom bailey, comedian extraordinaire: "He's like Paul Bunyan. All the time! And that dog is Babe the Blue Ox!" --Jay Varner. carl stumbled back to the hotel room even drunker than he was the night before (and drunkenly tried to be quiet, thus making lots of noise). david, again, slept elsewhere.

saturday: somehow my alarm clock reset itself three hours fast, so it went off at 4:30, thinking it was 7:30. i got up, looked out the window, thought, gosh it's dark out, checked my watch, reset clock, went back to bed. skipped breakfast and didn't wake carl (who was obviously going to have a super hangover); attended a great panel session on the intersections of creative nonfiction and poetry. shopped the bookfair again. went out to lunch with gary! he put our pizzeria uno lunch on the SU tab. went to poetry readings by tony hoagland, lynn emmanuel, dave smith, c.k. williams. was incredibly tired due to the aforementioned alarm clock incident and dozed during several of the readings. felt bad. ran into danielle sunrize from the BU june 2001 seminar!! was excited!! hugged!! went out to dinner with david, carl, david's friend karen, and david lloyd. took way too long getting to dinner, and it was too expensive and not even that good. got grumpy; recovered. went to a few bars; went back to the conference hotel and ran into allison from wisconsin! was excited! chatted and stuff. eventually stopped by the dance and ran into danielle sunrize again; hugged goodbye. david and carl actually made it back to the hotel room before i did. they made fun of me for this.

sunday: woke at 9am. showered, packed, was ready to go by 10. set alarm for 10:05 to wake boys; they snoozed till 10:30. i turned on the tv and watched teenage mutant ninja turtles 3 at a high volume. eventually they awoke. we drove. it was a beautiful day, and, except for some traffic outside of chapel hill, a good drive. now i'm home.

books i bought:
Smoke, by Dorianne Laux: $5
Before the Blue Hour, by Dierdre O'Connor: $8.40
Letters to Wendy's, by Joe Wenderoth: $12 (and even a signed copy)
Domestic Work, by Natasha Trethewey: $5
My Favorite Apocolypse, by Catie Rosmurgy: $5
and i subscribed to West Branch, the literary journal put out by Bucknell, and got a free tote bag, for $10

it was a great trip. i spent way too fucking much money, but i feel like it was worth it. woot.