a parking lot, a poetry reading, a trip home

last Wednesday was the chicfila opening. I hadn't really wanted to go, to be honest--spending the day (and night!) in a parking lot would probably not be the best thing to do before workshopping and giving a reading the next day. After all reading at my undergrad college has been a *secret*dream* of mine since I was in creativewriting101! I wanted to be at my 100%best. BUT, Bryan was So looking forward to it, I just couldn't say no. So we get there at 5:30AM and there are so many people (including Bryan's friend Matt, randomly) there that they have a raffle--I got picked but Bryan didn't, so we switched tickets and he got to stay to get free chicfila and Bryan got to hang out with Matt all day (I was going to stay even if I didn't get in to keep him company, but since he had a friend there I figured it'd be good "man time") and I got a lovely day all to myself!

Can I just say that a day off, completely to oneself, is so utterly lovely? I felt like I was playing hooky all day, which made it that much better. Of course, checking the mail I ran into all (?!) of my coworkers (but not boss, thankgoodness) wearing my day-off pigtails and jeans and comfy red t-shirt. I tried to walk by very anonymously. I wasn't faking a sick day--I just didn't say what I needed vacation time for--and, I guess it might be like this everywhere, but everyone is so Nosy at the place I work and I hate explaining myself, I just want to do what I do.

Anyways, I think having a day to just read, relax, and write was just what I needed. Its great how God gives us what we need even when we're not expecting it!

Thursday we drove to Nashville to pick up Heather, then straight on to Jackson for the reading! We got there early so had a lot of time to nervously pace around campus--I can't believe how much its changed since we've been there! The workshop went well--it felt strange to be in a workshop again, and especially strange to have all my undergraduate writing professors in there watching how we workshop, but having a friend in there doing it with me made it so much easier. The reading went really well too--I think its the best I've ever done at a reading--no fainting, no nervousness at all really! I think it helped that we were sitting down and it was a cozy little room.

After the reading, the English department took us to dinner (that english department is like Wow--I can't believe everything they did for us!), then I met up with my friend Emily before hitting the road for Jonesboro. I was so tired by the end of the day I could barely keep my eyes open, but it was all worth it and couldn't have gone any better!

Friday Bryan and I hung out with his family in Jonesboro, and had dinner with his grandparents. It was a pretty low-key day, which was nice after all the excitement of Thursday.

Saturday we drove to Memphis to visit my family. My grandparents came by around 3 and we played rummi-Q and talked and had a great time. Later that night Stephanie and Becca came over for pumpkin carving.

I had missed hanging out with my sister Karen especially, I just wish that Lauren had been there too so we could've had all us girls together again!

Sunday we drove home, unpacked, and SLEPT! Our long, long weekend was wonderful--I can't wait to go home again!