reporting from awp

I slept for six and a half hours straight last night! Heavenly. I wish I could have slept even more, but I had to get up and pump. I’ve been pumping and pumping and pumping, which, I’ll admit, has surprised me. I knew still Zoë nursed a lot at night, but I didn’t realize how much she was nursing during the day. I can go only four hours without serious pain. And yesterday I accidentally washed one of the pieces of my pump—one of those critical white flaps—down the sink in my hotel room, and now I can only pump one side at a time. I realize this is TMI for some of you, but being strapped to this thing for hours a day complicates the conference a little. (I’m late for everything and missing some things altogether.)

On the home front things seem to be going well. Zoë turned her nose up at formula and has taken only sips of the whole milk D has tried to feed her, but she’s eating her usual fare: burritos and fruit and peas and pretty much anything else. And she gets one bottle of pumped milk at night. Those meager bags were all I had. It seems silly that I’m dumping bottle after bottle down the sink a few hundred miles away. Ah, well. I miss my girls, but still, it’s good to be here.

I went to the Loft Mentor Series 30th Anniversary reading yesterday afternoon, and it was so good: Charles Baxter, Barrie Jean Borich, C.J. Hribal, Scott Russell Sanders, Sun Yung Shin, and Wang Ping. The Mentor Series program pairs established, nationally-known writers with emerging writers, and it was so cool to see that the once-emerging writers featured yesterday (Barrie Borich, C.J. Hribal, and Sun Yung Shin) are all now successful writers in their own right. And I have to say that it was also a thrill to hear Scott Russell Sanders read about a miscarriage and then about the birth of his first child. He was actually supposed to be on our Parents as Writers panel, but he had to back out because he had agreed to participate in too many sessions, and there is a limit of three (I think) per person. But it felt like his reading was a nod in our direction, and I appreciated that. Oh, and I also adore him.

The mix of voices and subject matter at this reading was perfect, and I think this is a testament to the work of the Loft. Go Loft!

I’ll post more about the Parents as Writers panel in a few days, after I have had a chance to sit down and reflect on it. But I will say what an honor it was to present alongside such talented women!