AWP--The Overview

Since my last post I've burned through an entire box of Thera-Flu, a box of tissues, and slept just long enough for the meds to wear off, whereupon I take more. Fever is down to 99 which almost feels normal, especially when comparing it to 103, which was decidedly unpleasant. Now that I'm recovering just enough to start scraping my poop back in a pile , as well as to actively procrastinate on other tasks, I thought I'd enclose a few pix of my quite exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable time.



All the first year MFA's (save the one that didn't go at all) got in a Purdue van and drove south. Spirits were high, especially Mehdi's after the three-drinkie lunch he had at Tumbleweeds, a restaurant south of Louisville with the surliest and most reluctant service I've ever experienced. Case in point: After being served a taco salad with no dressing at all, I ask: "May I have some salsa?" The waitress stops, thinks a bit and responds with "Well, I supPOSE...." As if it was unheard of to have salsa on a taco salad. Or that it might cost extra. Or that the walk might cause her arches to fall. Mehdi was enjoying the best margarita of his short life and didn't notice.

Once in Atlanta, we quickly found that the nearby Scottish-style pub was not our speed at all, with it's being too noisy and (now that' we've gotten used to smoking bans in Indiana) waaaay too polluted as far as air quality was concerned. We ended up at a 1980s two-story hall of mirrors on the corner called the Cafe Metro that was wonderful and had wait staff that surely are up for sainthood. Here we are after having stuffed ourselves on the last day, just before we headed over for the Purdue reading at the conference.


Mehdi is working the Sycamore review table by this time, so he wasn't present. Coming back to restaurants in Lafayette after getting used to this lovely place in Atlanta has been a bit of a shock.

Ok...I'd type more, but I still don't do well sitting up for very long, and I've done more sitting up today than I've done since Thursday, so I'll still count that as progress.