Back in the Land of Oxygen
Once again, I survived the WSCU MFA Summer Residency, though I admit that in spite of clear, convincing evidence otherwise, I would swear these things get longer every year. I was quite a bit busier this year, between teaching the first year students, panels, meeting with fall students, meeting with new thesis-level students, introducing outgoing thesis student presentations, and even doing a couple of panels at Writing the Rockies.
As anyone who travels in that part of the world can tell you, altitude sickness is a real thing, and I generally avoid it without any problems. This year, I thought I avoided it, but I suspect that the altitude affected me more than usual. First, I don't think I ever managed to catch my breath. A short walk was enough to have me huffing and puffing - and not in a good, wholesome, I love Marlboro's kind of way. Second, with only two drug-induced exceptions, I don't think I slept more than a few hours a night. And third, as an added bonus, the above and the extra work combined to kick my MS into very high gear on a couple of days.
All that said, and while I'm happy to be back in the land of oxygen, and I still had a great time meeting new students, visiting with continuing students and congratulating the outgoing graduates. Plus, it's always nice to get together with the other faculty and residency/conference guests. I think the classes went very well, and I'm hopeful the students felt the same. At Writing the Rockies, Jim Minz and I were able to catch up over a few evenings out, and I got to know literary agent Andy Zack a bit better, too. (My biggest disappointment of the whole month was that I only got to say howdy in passing to W.C. Jameson and totally missed seeing his lovely wife, Laurie.)
Now that I'm almost back to normal, I've got a very long list of things to do before the end of the month, ranging from writing projects to prepping for fall classes to getting the kids ready for the school year. Like most reasonable parents, I'm very much in favor of year round education, so I can't wait for summer to end so they can be gone all day. We are going to sneak down to Six Flags - Chicago for a day, and I may try to sneak in a little fishing before they head back to classes, but otherwise, it's work-work-and more work from now until the Thanksgiving break.
And speaking of work, it's time for me to sign off from this blog and...
Write on,
Russell Davis
As anyone who travels in that part of the world can tell you, altitude sickness is a real thing, and I generally avoid it without any problems. This year, I thought I avoided it, but I suspect that the altitude affected me more than usual. First, I don't think I ever managed to catch my breath. A short walk was enough to have me huffing and puffing - and not in a good, wholesome, I love Marlboro's kind of way. Second, with only two drug-induced exceptions, I don't think I slept more than a few hours a night. And third, as an added bonus, the above and the extra work combined to kick my MS into very high gear on a couple of days.
All that said, and while I'm happy to be back in the land of oxygen, and I still had a great time meeting new students, visiting with continuing students and congratulating the outgoing graduates. Plus, it's always nice to get together with the other faculty and residency/conference guests. I think the classes went very well, and I'm hopeful the students felt the same. At Writing the Rockies, Jim Minz and I were able to catch up over a few evenings out, and I got to know literary agent Andy Zack a bit better, too. (My biggest disappointment of the whole month was that I only got to say howdy in passing to W.C. Jameson and totally missed seeing his lovely wife, Laurie.)
Now that I'm almost back to normal, I've got a very long list of things to do before the end of the month, ranging from writing projects to prepping for fall classes to getting the kids ready for the school year. Like most reasonable parents, I'm very much in favor of year round education, so I can't wait for summer to end so they can be gone all day. We are going to sneak down to Six Flags - Chicago for a day, and I may try to sneak in a little fishing before they head back to classes, but otherwise, it's work-work-and more work from now until the Thanksgiving break.
And speaking of work, it's time for me to sign off from this blog and...
Write on,
Russell Davis
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