Monday Miscellany

I’ve been away, so haven’t done much reading or writing the last few days. Time for a few general observations.

Elections. Virginia has an election every November. When I moved here I became politically active as a way to meet people, but I’m finding it completely exhausting, and that’s even though we (the Democrats) in this conservative part of the state aren’t even able to find candidates to run in all races. Tomorrow in my county we will vote for State Senate and House of Delegates, County Board of Supervisors and School Board, plus all “constitutional” offices like Treasurer, Clerk of Court, Commonwealth Attorney, and Sheriff. I can’t wait for it to be over (especially because I also volunteer for the Board of Elections and will spend all day tomorrow processing absentee ballots). But as soon as it’s over, we gear up for the Presidential Primary (February 12), a State Primary in June, and then next November we’ll have the most exhausting race of them all. I may have to retire from politics after that one.

Workshops. I’m also tired of workshops because I’ve been to too many, I think. This weekend, though, I went to a different kind of workshop. My MFA Program (Low-Residency MFA Program of Queens University of Charlotte), from which I graduated a few years ago, has established an Alumni Program. Instead of doing the same-old workshop with writer/teachers, this program groups our alumni writers with agents and editors, and I’m talking about agents from major literary agencies and editors from major magazines and presses. So I got some feedback from someone who really counts and an opportunity, maybe, to have work seen in the future. And then the real reason I went was to socialize with my friends from the Program. We also had a few lectures and panel discussions and all that was good, too.

Organization. My office has piles of books and stacks of stuff. I don’t have a specific writing plan for today and, since tomorrow is shot with the election, I’m going to clean up around here, move the piles and stacks, see what’s under them, and generally prepare to get back to work on Wednesday. That’s being productive, no?