Thursday, December 06, 2007

Light at the End of the Grading Tunnel

Today was my last day of classes for the semester...sort of bittersweet. I always fall in love with my students a little on the last day. Now, I just have to power through all of their final drafts, finish an editing job, and finish up a workshop at The Writer's Center, and then I am on vacation!

Last night I participated on a panel of contributors to an anthology of DC women writers. It's the first time I've ever had anything anthologized. It was such a strange experience (not the anthologizing but the reading). The story, "Instruments of Torture" is the first and only funny thing I've written since a horrific novel I wrote in college ("Tygers and Berries: A Modern Inferno"...and no, I'm not kidding...a wild romp about two women on a road trip from New Hampshire to New Orleans, full of Dante and Zen...yikes.) Anyway, I am typically accustomed to people in the audience looking at me intently, eyebrows furrowed. But last night I felt like Ellen or Roseanne. Seriously...people were laughing! A love stories about medieval torture instruments...who'da thunk?

We also had our first snowstorm...it feels all festive and holidayee here. We did have a mishap with the Christmas tree...it fell on me while we were watching "Dexter" the other night. TIMBER!!

Sorry for the scatterbrainy post. I promise coherent contemplations in about a week.