The Spring 2014 Semester: Now Featuring Snow, and More Snow!

Yup -- still around. This semester's not quite the kick in the pants that last semester was . . . er, YET . . . but it's been keeping me busy. The elements have been conspiring to keep me from seeing my creative writing class. Since this semester began, I've seen them TWICE. And because I'll be away in Virginia this weekend for a reading Sunday night, traveling back on Monday, I'm not holding class until Wednesday. The last I saw them was LAST Wednesday. So when I DO finally meet with them, it will have been two weeks since our previous meeting. Crazy, huh?

Of course, the college will cram a whole bunch of make up dates into the last week of school, which will make grading finals absolutely maddening unless I start moving things around on my assignment schedule drastically.

Our phones and internet and intranet have been all sorts of compromised by the snow and ice, too, so I haven't had access to my computer files all week. I get to the office and I feel a little like that scene in Zoolander when they break into Maury Ballstein's office.

I'd find you a gif or a clip, but I haven't the time!

There have been some bright moments in the inclement-weather filled weeks, however. For one, I managed to apply for the grant that I was thinking about. Also, I received a letter last night from Utah State University Press that said the full-length Fabulous Beast ms placed as a finalist for the May Swenson Poetry Award. It's nice to have the little bit of recognition for the ms -- for the past year and a half I've sent the ms out to contests and received nothing but form letter rejections. So to have it recognized, even in a small way, is a bit of affirmation that, frankly, I needed right about now.

And now, of course, dogs and babies are stirring, so I have to go. 

Oh! But wait: if you happen to be in the area on Sunday -- and if it doesn't snow like crazy and cancel the event:

Sunday, February 9, 2014
IOTA Poetry Series
featuring Sarah Kain Gutowski and Adam Penna
the Iota Bar and Restaurant
2832 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, Virginia
(two blocks from the Clarendon Metro)
6 p.m.

It'll be nice to get off the island for a while. 

And do something poetry-related.