SWC: 1

So I am at Sewanee. After staying up late last night, I woke up at 6:30am to drive the 10hrs down to TN and check in with the conference people. The drive went well. I watched some joker get pulled over by a state trooper in VA. That was exciting.

I haven't been back to Sewanee since my senior year of college, since I ran in an XC meet at the golf course. The campus is how I remember it: nice and woody.

Once I got here, I moved all of my shit into my room, met my suitemate Jim Scott, and then worked on that review for Scott. After that, I took a quick walk around campus to see how my Achilles felt (much better, though it is still a little sore), and then a group of us wandered off to dinner. So far I have met cool people, for example Mike Rosovsky and John Rubins and many others, and they have been cool to me, so I am happy. 

After dinner, we went to a reading: Jill McCorkle (sp?). She read a new story. I cannot remember the title. It was long. I fidgeted a little with my hands.

I am having trouble getting cell reception, which makes it hard to call my wife. This makes me a little sad.

After the reading, I met more people face to face, including Cliff, with whom I chatted about the conference, the drive down here, Christine Schutt's book Florida, and other things. It has been nice to meet people with whom I am vaguely familiar online, but have never met in person. I have enjoyed this part of the conference so far.

There is a place called the French House for Scholars and Fellows and their guests and faculty. We went there tonight and had drinks. That was fun. I met more people.

My workshop isn't until the day after tomorrow, so I've got some free time to do things: read, work on the book review, go to craft lectures, workout, etc. We'll see what happens.

This is a slow post. Maybe faster posts in the future?