One thing that gets me through this awful thing called my life is reading the (dis)likes feature that Aaron and Elizabeth do at the Hobart website. I find myself anxious for the month to pass just so I can see what new things are making their way onto the lists. I feel like I ‘know’ Aaron and Elizabeth that much more, I feel a little involved in their lives (maybe in a creepy way), and I too saw Four Christmases and hated it.

So, with a little nod their way, I’d like to list what I’m (not) looking forward to about this year’s AWP Conference in Chicago. AWP is in a month, so we have plenty of time to think about it.

What I’m Looking Forward To: seeing my sister; seeing people I know in real life whom I have not seen for a while; seeing people I know in internet life whom I have not yet met in real life; seeing snow again; seeing lots of ‘writers’ in one place doing ‘writer’ things; seeing lots and lots of books; putting whiskey in my coffee and walking around the bookfair slammed; putting whiskey in Aaron Burch’s coffee; going up to random journals and asking the editors, ‘so what’s your aesthetic?’ and ‘what kind of stuff are you looking for?’; canceling my own classes for a week; attending off-site events, such as the Quickies Reading on Thursday; attending cool panels, like the William Gass tribute panel; hearing people read; Blake Butler kicking me in the head; and so on.

What I’m Not Looking Forward To: the plane to and from Chicago and all that flying entails; interacting awkwardly with people whom I don’t know very well; clumsily knocking over the Barrelhouse table again (my apologies in advance); being hungover for five days; spending lots of $ on books/alcohol; checking an extra suitcase to get all my new books home; trying to get to off-site events and getting lost in Chicago in winter at a time in my life when I do not have adequate warm clothing; attending panels that the responsible part of me thinks I absolutely have to go to, like career-related panels; Blake Butler kicking me in the head; and so on.

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