I have been terribly remiss when it comes to updating my blog. For this, denizens of cyberspace, especially the great numbers of you who are apparently finding your way here by Googling the terms “seafood poems” and “how to stuff envelopes,” I apologize greatly. There are reasons, and they are multiple, and include two rounds of antibiotics so strong that my pharmacist called twice to make sure I was okay, eighty five papers that had to be graded in seven days, a cat with a stomach virus, and the return of Bravo TV’s Project Runway. I have been running around at a pace so hectic and intense that I’m a little surprised that I have not yet vaporized into some sort of quantum cloud, all of my particles having been transformed into a state of pure energy.

There have been wonderful things: the reading at Troy State University in Montgomery, for instance, was fantastic. Thanks to everyone who came out to see me read! This reading marked my first post-reading question and answer period. It wasn’t quite as terrifying as I thought it would be, mostly because of the wonderful, well-thought-out questions.

And then there was another trip to New York, from which I just returned yesterday, which was, really and truly, too wonderful for words. Though this was my last reading for this chapbook, and somewhat bittersweet, I was able to spend a bit more time in the city that I love so dearly, and with the people who I love so dearly — I got to see two of the people I love most in the world, and narrowly missed a third (soon! I promise! Soon!), spent an incredible evening with my teacher and mentor and inspiration and guru from college, and got to share much of it with my lovely Alabama friend Whitney. There are so many things I miss so much about New York — the sounds, the sights, the scarves, the people, the paper stores, the holistic healing shops, the ability to wear jeans tucked into riding boots and not be mocked — it’s great to go back, if only for a bit. Though it is also nice to be home, especially as “home” means “highs of seventy five in late November.”

And now? Fellow Internetters, The Emma is taking a brief break. A breather. A rest. A respite. I have pretty much completely worked myself into the ground, and need to take a little time to let my creative batteries recharge. I have resolved to do a lot of reading — I’m finishing Anne Carson’s Plainwater (oh my goodnesses how good is this) right now, and also finishing Robert A. Johnson’s The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden, recommended by aforementioned teacher and mentor and inspiration and guru, which will hopefully help me to understand why so many of the women in my poems get their hands chopped off. Any additional recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Also: I realized the other day, with a terrible jolt, that I am no longer cool. Not only, as my students informed me, do people no longer say “diss,” I no longer listen to cool music. I’ve had the same set of cds in my car stereo for six months. And I’m still listening to cds on my car stereo system. So music recommendations will also be greatly appreciated. Let’s all help in this new project: Mission to Make Emma Cool.

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