You know that thing where your heart grows a size? That just happened to me--my students read tonight and were amazing. I am still beaming with pride and happiness. The basement reading room (decorated like a rec room by the owner, Clyde, complete with faux paneling and a giant mural of evergreens) at Lolita was packed--about 40 people in the audience--and it was a warm, fabulous crowd. Everyone read with such presence and conjured all kinds of power. Gorgeousness. I was transfixed.
I am so grateful for my job--I love teaching these classes so much. I'm gushing. I'll admit it. I get the best students.
Right after the reading I left town for my patriotic holiday destination and I drank so much diet coke, chewed so much gum, and listened to so much Led Zeppelin (don't ask--I think if you're driving to Jersey in the summer you just sort of have to) to stay awake that my teeth still kind of hurt.
But now there will be ocean and I hope sun soon and I get to sink into the big pile of books, including the new ones from Jennifer Egan and Curtis Sittenfeld, so exciting.
xxooElizabeth