Guns and Swears and Vermont

So I applied to Bread Loaf for the first time. I didn't think my credentials were up to snuff for the straight-up scholarship, so I applied for one of the waiterships. I can't afford to go without some sort of moneys and don't mind slangin' some plates. Plus, friend and former professor Aaron Baker told me there would be bonfires. The prospect of a week-and-a-half in a Vermont valley filled with writer-types gathered around a fire sure has me smiling. But I'm counting chickens that haven't yet hatched. For now, I wait and patiently hope.

Any other folks out there in the blogosphere thinking about a conference this Summer? (I would love to go back to Sewanee, but can't afford that one either and I've already been a scholar there once...).

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Speaking of writerly to-dos: I finally found out I got time off from teaching to attend AWP in Denver. I'm excited to attend (this will be my first one...), half to see what it's all about, half to see some great old friends in the city. I'll be staying with them: will I be missing anything by not staying in the conference hotel? Anything I should make sure to bring? (flashlight? latex gloves? white noise machine? life-size cut-out of a picture of myself giving a thumbs up?)


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Killer first line of the moment:

"I am worn out with dreams;"

from W.B. Yeats' "Men Improve with the Years"
(The Wild Swans at Coole, 1917)


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I wrote this poem the other day. It's about an experience I had a few weeks ago shooting a .357 with our art-teacher. I probably just ruined the poem for you. Posting it underneath a Yeats' line probably didn't help either. Not sure how I feel about the poem, though I'm happy that it seems to be a departure (also, it's my first poem with a swear). Why I'm posting it here? No idea. Anyway--to disappear shortly:

*plish*


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Congrats (again!) Lisa Fay!


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Oh yeah. We got 13 inches of snow here. Boone likes it. (Excuse the fuzziness, the picture was taken through the screen door).