Vonnegut Reception Reading a Partial Washout?

A Gallery Walk in a raging rainstorm, not a combination for getting large crowds. But it would mean more snacks for those who did show, or, you win some, you lose some.

And one thing to the good already. Yesterday, Thursday, was the Goth Cat Triana’s Annual Visit To The Vet Day and, for various reasons, this involves a 30 to 40 minute walk with a heavy cat carrier, this year on a day with possible thunderstorms in the forecast. But the rains held off, the cat got a good bill of health; except this morning, Friday, the storms finally arrived, with possible flood warnings and all.

So I could stay indoors at least most of the day, and the Weather Channel did speak of a letup around 4 to 7 p.m., coincidentally the time I would have to be out for the Cook Arts Center “Vonnegut @ 100 Reception,” including my reading (cf. July 5, et al.). Another win maybe? As it happened, yes. By about 4:30, almost time to leave, the sky had turned sunny and dry and warm! The weather lovely. And so it was for the walk to the reception, and at destination meeting coordinator Natalia Almanza, a few others, Jenna Bowman with a table for Morgenstern Books . . . the Center director, though, scheduled to start the “Story Share” proper at 5:30 p.m. unable to make it.

But sunny or not, Bloomington is a college town in summer session, and with rain still falling while people were making their plans for the evening. So plenty of snacks (there was one family with children who came but soon disappeared into the exhibit itself) a very nice cheese dip with crackers, more cheese and salami, blackberries, miniature cupcakes. The cupcakes were good (I had about three).

Then 5:30 came and while, for those of us present, there was a collegial and pleasant vibe already established, it was time to begin. Thus being introduced by Natalia, I started it off with “Dead Girls, Dying Girls,” my own Vonnegutesque story of dancing bears and the perils of science fairs gone wild (c.f., again, July 5, et al.) with a reading time of about ten minutes, followed by Natalia, Jenna, Charles and one or two more gentlemen (one mainly there to take pictures, I think) reading selected passages from several novels, etc. Interesting and apt. But no new listeners coming in from the world outside. . . .

It wound down thus at about 6:30, half-way to its 8 p.m. scheduled ending, a nice enough time for the few of us there but with most drifted away by 6:45. At which point, when I was about halfway home, the rains did come — not raging thunderstorms, quite, but enough to get wet.

So it goes.