The last loose ends

"Poems are like erections--you can probably call one into being through sheer will. But the best ones happen when you're thinking about something you weren't supposed to be thinking about."
--D.A. Powell at Here Comes Everybody

I can't say I know much about erections, but I love that quote.

Taking tomorrow off work -- the plan is to sleep super late (at least noon), then finish cleaning house, pack, charge the cellphone and the ipod and whatever other little stupid things need to be done, and stay awake until I have to leave my house at (lord help me) 3:15 AM Saturday morning. I've picked out five drafty poems I could potentially throw in for workshopping, made 11 copies of each of those, and will make my final selection of three after I get to P-town, I guess. I actually drafted a new poem tonight -- it's very drafty; I don't know whether it's any good or not, but it's in that stage where I change a word or two every time I look at it, so it might be a good one to work on.

I'll be arriving in the midst of the Portuguese Festival. I hope I can keep my eyes open long enough to catch some of the music going on Saturday night, though after staying up all Friday night I may end up just crashing by 8 or 9 pm. I might make it to the Blessing of the Fleet on Sunday, depending on the weather and what I feel like doing when I get up that morning.

I fully expect to blog at least once or twice from P-town although, much as I love y'all, if it comes down to a choice between blogging or going to the beach, just call me beach bum. I tried to set up Audioblogger but I think it got confused because I had previously set it up to post to my livejournal. So I may be making some phone posts to my livejournal while en route; feel free to check there if you're interested. I'll probably still do a bit of blog-reading in the evenings, but sporadically; I'll catch up when I get back.

Other than that, unless something exciting happens tomorrow, y'all probably won't hear much from me until I get there. Between workplace drama, writing frustration, and just plain craving something new and different in my life, I can't think of a time when I've needed this more -- both the vacation part and the workshop part. Man, just getting out of Indiana for a week is going to feel good -- at this point the workshop is practically gravy. I am so glad I am giving this to myself.

Y'all do something nice for yourselves too this week, okay? You deserve it too. Yes, even you.