The Table

I'm home now.  All the laundry is done, and I've bought some groceries.  I'm still tired from the drive; my schedule is still off.  I'll catch up.  The animals are happy to see me.  Yoda is shadowing me.  She slept in the curve of my arm last night, something she only does when she's very cold.  I think she's glad I'm back.

There are several things I need to blog, but I may or may not get through all of them tonight.  I'm going to start here and see how many I get through.  As I said, I'm tired.

My table this year at the reading was great.  Everybody got along so well.  Last year, everyone was nice, but by and large everyone kept to themselves.  This year, I felt like I was a part of a group, not an isolated individual.  It was nice.  We were a good balance of gentlemen and ladies, of college and high school, of new and veteran, of various regions of the US. The last day, as we were finishing up and were all a little giddy with weariness, we played word games with book titles.

I liked hearing the opinions of people from other places.  I liked hearing their experiences, seeing the pictures of the guy next to me's little girl, who was just learning to walk.  I liked the discussions about books that sprang up whenever a title any one of us was unfamiliar with came up.  I liked seeing how we were having the same experiences in the classrooms.   I liked learning what it was like where we were not.

I may never see any of those people again.  It would be nice to hear from them again or see them if I get to go  back next year, but even if that doesn't happen, I am glad I had them as a part of this year's experience.  It made it rich and good.