Northeast, here I come!

Very early Monday morning, like, I have to be at the airport by 5 AM kind of early (which means I have to wake up at 3:45, leave by 4....), my plane for Vermont takes off! Actually it's a plane to New York, and then I'll get on a plane to Vermont, but you know. This will be my second residency at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and I can't believe it's already time for it. Wasn't I just preparing for my first residency in the winter? I'm much less nervous this time around, which I'm glad for. I know what to expect, and I've actually made friends who I'm very excited to see again. And now that I'm actually thinking about it, and writing about it, I'm getting more and more excited with each word that I type. And always the only thing that keeps me from being 100% blown-out ecstatic, is the fact that Evelyn and I will be apart for 9 1/2 days. Sad face, I know. But by now I'm used to having to leave her for school (my entire senior year of college I was in Winona for 3 days a week, without Evelyn), and she'll have lots of fun with her dad and grandparents, etc.

AND, one of the most exciting parts of this residency is that one of my two workshop leaders is my newest favorite poet, Matthew Dickman. Each workshop consists of about 12-13 students and one or two faculty leaders. Each student receives an hour-long discussion of his/her work, and when your work is being discussed, you're not allowed to talk until the end of the discussion. I'm a little nervous because the work I submitted for workshop is what I consider to be some of my worst work from the semester (that's why I submitted it), and now I kind of wish I would have submitted at least one that's a little less sucky, because now the first poems of mine that Matthew Dickman will ever read are not my best, at all. Ugh. That is the point of workshop though, so I have to get over this self-conscious thing. Like he cares. He's just so amazing!

Blah blah blah, finally it's sunny out today, which brightens my mood and lifts my energy immensely. And so finally 2-year-old E and I will get to play outside. And so I better go mow the lawn and clean up dog shit before she wakes up. Joy.

Happy Friday! Tonight by best friend from high school and her husband are coming over for dinner and drinks and cards (I know, I've been so social lately). I'm planning on going the easy route and making spaghetti - I just don't have the mental space to think of something more creative. Hell, I haven't even written a line, a word, of an attempt of a poem in over two weeks. That's how obsessed (and dedicated to?) I've been to this photography business. Which is hours away from being listed on Google, by the way. If Facebook doesn't make things official, Google sure does, right?