Thinking ahead to Atlanta,

where I'll be traveling this spring for the AWP Conference, and wondering how many of y'all are planning to go? I've been to AWP three times and have never attended one of the many parties--not even with my grad school buddies from Vermont--though this time, this time, I really want to. There are just too many people I miss. So who's going?

Last night's reading in Bucknell Hall was super, and the after party at the cottage (I actually went, and stayed till eleven) delightful. This morning the poets disperse, but we shall have photos soon (I hope) and I know that we'll be hearing more from our gang of twelve.

Paula asked me to read a poem with the staff, which was really sweet of her. I dashed up the hall to log into the West Branch computer, plugged in my flash drive, played "this one? or that one?" for about twenty seconds and then printed out a new poem. It was great fun to read it out loud.

Walked Deirdre back to her car, feeling punchy and energized and sad all at once. Did you know that she and Bill are moving into their new house? It's only half a block down the street--the same street--in Mifflinburg.

The catalpa trees have lost their frothy blooms. It's funny how I never notice the beany pods until they're fully formed. I always associate catalpa flowers with the June Seminar. Right now the oak leaf hydrangeas are blooming all over campus. I'm grading papers in my office (in the geology/psychology building, of all places) and thinking about putting a big honking rainbow sticker on my office window: every day I hear campus tour guides leading knots of prospective students past the building--it would be good to show a visible sign of diversity, even though I'm not a rainbow sort of queer.

Okay. Back to work.