Bread Loaf

I'm off in the morning for writers' conference #2. I've said the following to a few people in emails and MySpace messages, but I'll repeat it here, for those of you who haven't been privy to it: These conferences are exhausting. When I got back from Sewanee, I talked to my mother-in-law, a retired high school English teacher, on the phone one day, and she expressed how jealous she was that I was going to Bread Loaf. My immediate reaction was to ask her if she wanted to take my place.

That may sound like a joke, but I was utterly sincere. I'd only been back from Sewanee for a day or two, and I couldn't imagine experiencing all that I'd experienced in the previous two weeks--the good and the great and the not-so-great--all over again.

Despite the exhausting bits, Sewanee was a great time, though, and all it took for me to get amped for Bread Loaf was a few good nights' sleep.

The only "problem" I foresee is this: The first few days at a conference like this involve a kind of feeling-out period, lots of getting-to-know-you conversations. Those are good and all, if a bit stressful, but by the end of my time at Sewanee, I'd met so many very cool people, and was so comfortable talking to them, that I'd forgotten about the less comfortable times. And it's just now hitting me that when I get to Bread Loaf I'm going to have to start at the beginning all over again.

The good news, though: I actually know a few people who are going to be at Bread Loaf. Plus, I'll have a job to do--waiting tables. And I suppose, too, I'm more easily able to anticipate the better days that lay just ahead of the more difficult ones, which ought to make things a little easier.

While I'm gone, again, I most likely won't be updating here. I may check out my newly founded MySpace page, where I've been blogging a bit as well. I still haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to manage the two spaces, but my first impressions of MySpace are this: Creating a post is a pretty speedy activity, even if I haven't quite figured out how to link and everything yet. Also, I like being able to post "friends-only" entries. Not that I want to deprive y'all of anything, but I had some good news that I didn't quite want to make public, and those "friends-only" entries are a nice little option in such cases.

At any rate, I'll be back in a couple weeks, and I'll probably keep posting entries at both places once things are back to normal. Or, you know, when things are as normal as they ever are.