VCCA: Residency Begins

I arrived at VCCA on Monday after several days at home oftrying to catch up on various other responsibilities. Since I hadn't beenwriting for that period, I struggled Monday afternoon to get back into theflow. But I did get some work done, and that felt good.
One of the great things—and one of the distractions—about beinghere, is that a few times a week we have presentations in the evenings by someof the residents. A fellow can skip them, which I do from time to time if I'mfeeling pressed, but on my first night, Monday, I wanted to attend.
Two artists presented. The first was Jenny Krasner whoshowed images she has created and also read from a long manuscript she'swritten about a trip to India she took recently. It's got a lot of humor and agreat voice, and it was fun to see the slide show of images at the same time asshe read the chapter from the book.
The second was Olive Ayhens, a painter who works inwatercolor and oil, and she showed slides of her work over a long period oftime, showing many influences  andstyles, as well as the many locations in which she has worked—San Francisco,New York, Spain, Brittany, various National Parks, and elsewhere.
Tuesday was my first full day, and I felt like I got a lotdone, but in the evening I decided to keep going. I always feel bad aboutmissing a presentation, so I didn't hear Jerry Weinstein read, unfortunately.
Today, Wednesday, I got even more done, so this time Istayed in the residence for presentations by composer Andrea  Clearfield, who played a work in progressbased on some extensive work she's been doing in the Tibetan region of NorthernNepal, and writer Katey Schultz who read some flash fiction and story from acollection she's working on about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It's all good, and we've got a special Thanksgiving presentationon tap for tomorrow, with a lot of people reading very short pieces.