Favorite and/or Most Memorable Moments at Portland's Wordstock Book Festival 2010
1) Seeing Olivia the Pig, but not being able to catch up to get my photo taken with her. Here she is running past me with a parade of children.
2) Arriving at the Ace Hotel in Portland and realizing I am not hip, young, and single. I am old, married, and wear sensible shoes.
3) Doing a reading with Susan Rich and walking up to the podium to find that room had gone from three people to a lovely filled room. (So nice!)
4) Having a nice woman in the room as a question and said she was a reader of my blog (Hello out there). I didn't get a chance to talk with her afterwards, but I appreciate hearing she was a regular reader. Thanks for coming, Portland Reader!
5) Meeting Deb Scott, Kelly Lenox, Judy Montgomery, Cindy Stewart-Rinier, and many other incredible writers.
6) Drawing straws at the hotel to see who-has-to-share-a-double-bed and getting my own bed both nights.
7) Wondering why our hotel would include *earplugs* in with the cottonballs, q-tips, and shower caps. Oh, because we're directly above a party bar that closes late into the night and plays music until about 3 am...
8) Waking up at 2 am as the happy drinkers spilled out into the streets and hearing the voice of a young woman yell, "Don't forget to call, A$*hole," and then the sound of a motorcycle driving away.
9) Eating at a funky French restaurant- French onion soup, arugula salad, and a three-hot-cookie plate with dipping sauces for dessert.
10) Finding free trail mix in the "VIP" room (and realizing I did not feel comfortable in the VIP room).
11) Annette coming back to the Crab Creek Review table with Vintage Journals for Susan and me.
12) Talking to people about Crab Creek Review and hearing one woman describe her adventures going to dead writer's homes and telling me what their writing rooms looked like.
13) Getting completely lost in Portland and making a 7 minute trip take 90 minutes. Portland, I love you, but you have too many bridges.
14) Selling more copies of Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room than I had expected to as well as quite a few issues of Crab Creek Review.
15) Watching folks take postcards from Susan and me and wondering where they would end up.
16). Realizing that two of my favorite poetry books, Karen Finneyfrock's Ceremony for the Choking Ghost
and Everything Is Everything
by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz were both by Write Bloody Publishing.17) Having our book right next to one of my all-time FAVORITE poetry presses- Copper Canyon Press.
18) Stopping on the way home at a Shell gas station to buy my dinner of pretzels, beef jerky, and a Hershey chocolate bar.
19) Just taking a road trip with two good friends and realizing we can exist together for 3 days almost 24/7 with good conversation, good food, and good times.
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ReplyDeleteI also had issues of the "older and unhip" variety while at LitCrawl, particularly at the After Party! I think I was also ten years older than every single person I read with. They had so much confidence and energy. I wanted to protect them from anything bad happening to them, you know?
ReplyDeleteNo, no, Portland does NOT have too many bridges! You just need a Fast-Map! Never too many bridges.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have been there to share the pretzels but maybe not the beef jerky.
Glad to know you sold books and your reading was well-attended.
Next time you'll need to run faster! To get your pic with Olivia, I mean.
#4: That would be me, Shannon from Tacoma. You're scheduled next year (!) for the Poetry Connection that I'm part of and now I can brag that I've actually MET you and that people will love your poetry.
ReplyDeleteYou and Susan made a great team. I'm glad you had fun.
Very fun time ~ I especially liked the fun friends can have on a road trip. Thank you for recounting all the wonderful moments of the weekend. I'll add: our reading together and the late night discussions that continued the very next morning...
ReplyDeleteThree-hot-cookie plate?!! I've got to get to Portland.
ReplyDelete-Ali S.
J9-- They were so young and hip, I thought they could protect me!
ReplyDeleteMarty--I will definitely get with Olivia the Pig and I still believe- too many bridges! ;-)
Susan-- Yes, lovely trip! Thanks for riding! (By the way, did I tell you the van is dying...still shaking, it wasn't bc we were going 75 mph!) ;-)
Ali-- it was amazing! And served in a French restaurant, what a yummy surprise.