You said there'd be a conference, and there was, but now it's over, so I'm leaving.

This year's AWP lacked a panel on blogging and gender (because they turned us down!), but otherwise I had a great, refreshing time of it in Atlanta. There were torrential rains on Thursday (Dr. Write and I completely soaked our shoes on the way home from our Indian food supper which was completely delicious), but the weather was lovely on Friday and Saturday. One of our companions who hails from Chicago said, "I feel like I'm living in the future!" because for him, as for us, warm weather is still a few weeks away.

I learned some more about graphic texts, online literary journals, the use of the vernacular in poetry, strategies for beginning poems. I found out about some amazing presses (see this one, as an example). I heard stellar readings by Bruce Beasley, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Mark Doty, Linda Gregerson, David Kirby; had tapas with the Utah contingent; ran into former colleagues and met new people; and in general reminded myself that I'm a writer. This is all to the good. I'll post a fuller report on my website soon.

Came home to find that Bruiser missed me, and so did the historian. Well, I missed them, too. Today has been a perfect day, easing back into things. I lamented having missed the Anne Carson reading two years ago, because I left a day early, but last year, I was so worn out from the conference that I wished I hadn't stayed the extra day. So this year, I came home the day early, and it felt just right. I feel like I can gear up for the week, and I'm not still exhausted.

In other news, college daughter has started her own blog. From her first few posts, I see that she's sick of college, is an avid fan of her college basketball team, and loves the movies. Me, too.