Wednesday, March 08, 2006

fending off the common cold

Please pass the Kleenex.

No, actually, I’m feeling fine, although I spent most of this weekend in bed trying to get better… or at least trying to breathe. Ugh. Nothing kills my weekend optimism like a cold. That gorgous to-do list? All but forgotten somewhere in my desk. I had to stick with the bare minimum. Isn’t that sad?

But Thursday, before The Cold, I got my first-ever chance to go to President Byker‘s house. Definitely something that should be done before graduation: setting foot inside the Manor. The English Department was hosting a “Calvin Writers Read” night there, and it was a chance for English majors/minors to bring pieces that they had written (that’s the Calvin Writers part), and, well, they read them. (Hence the name.) A handful of faculty members came to read as well, and a bunch of students and faculty came to listen… and eat afterwards.

I signed up to read (augh!) and got to go second, which meant I could relax and listen for the rest of the evening. Reading your own stuff out loud to a huge room of other writers and writing faculty really isn’t that scary. Honest. Besides my sudden terror that I would tip the little podium over and would land in a heap on the front row of listeners… or would scatter my pages of poetry with an ill-timed arm movement… or would get something in my contacts and have to leave… or would read in a half-whisper so no one could hear… or would read so quickly that the sign language interpreter couldn’t keep up… there really was nothing that could go wrong. And it was a friendly audience, so even if all the above did happen, I’m sure they still would have let me have coffee and dessert when it was over.

Okay, yes, it really did go well. And I heard later that everyone is (almost) as nervous and paranoid as I am when reading to a crowd. But it was fun to hear some laughter when laughter was called for, and a few sighs with the last lines. It was really neat to hear what other Calvin students and faculty are coming up with, too. And… okay, the food afterwards was fabulous. Sitting by the fireplace and chatting about writing and reading… also fabulous. Long conversations with favorite professors… fabulous. My friends and I were thinking: we really need to do this again before graduation! It will be so hard to leave an atmosphere where we can just attend something like this.

So that was my wonderful Thursday night. Friday was good, too—I had dinner at Jen’s house (yum!) and we watched a movie together. (Happy Birthday, Jen!) Then, Saturday… da da DUM! Woke up absolutely sick with a cold. You know the rest.—jl

Posted by Jenn Langefeld on 03/08 at 04:56 PM
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