Sorry for the delay

Man, since AWP I've been busy. I took a bunch of my work with me, but I didn't do any of it--we were having too much fun. I have to say that Denver is amazing, and AWP was great (I met some great people, and saw some old friends, and made some new friends)! The best was hanging with my old Western Pals: Ian, Kenny, and Chas. If you're reading this guys, I miss you! Oh, and best moment of the conference was when Michael Chabon said, "Favorite character from the Wire? Omar, duh!" Best word/idea taken from trip: Facepain. Best moment of hanging out: Everything... Best food: Potato Salad. best incident: Ian's fall. Best use of time: Getting free shit.

I won't be there next year, but the following year is Chicago, so come to Chicago and let's get down with it!
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I might blog a little more about that but i think that Ian's post basically said what i would say, only i didn't get elevation sickness (Las Cruces is pretty high), and I didn't get dry skin. But I will say that the 10+ hour drive was a lot better than I though it was, and while I didn't get a lot of reading done, I did have a good time. It's fun driving and watching the landscape change. I love road trips for this one fact.
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So, the cat is out of the bag. I'm moving to Chicago to attend Columbia College Chicago. The reason I'm leaving I won't go into now (I just don't feel like writing about it), but we'll just say I'm not happy where I am, and feel like CCC is the best place for me. The cat was let out by someone from Columbia (though, many people there know people here...so I should've known). I felt really bad about it, and met with some of my profs to talk about the situation. They all seemed to be excited for me, yet sad to see me go. I think people understand. I have different feelings about the program now than I did, but I know I'm making the right choice. I learned a helluva lot, and feel like my poetry has gotten a lot better. I've also started four more projects since coming here: Absolutely No God Talk (a book-length lyric essay about faith, family, and bellingham (NW)), In the Shadow of a City (a novel where the main character is the city, and it follows the desruction of it, through shifting POVs that never stay with one person--there's a slime that's spreading all over the city), and This is the Way to Rule (a post-apocolyptic collection of poems, structured as a "behind the scenes documentary), and a collection of poems about the NW, SW, and MW...i'll be working on this for the next few years). Good stuff. Though, now, I want to focus on these, really closely, and I want to focus on poetry only (writing fiction in my free time...yeah, like I'll have any of that, good thing I'm done with the Story Thief).
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The most important part of this blog is that I'M GOING TO BE A FATHER! I don't know how to do that, but I have to learn, 'cause the baby's coming in October. Wow. It's crazy. i have so much to say, but I don't know how to say it. I think it's a boy, Em thinks it's a girl. We'll say. If you start a pool, I get half of the winnings! You know, for baby food and diapers!
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Listening: Jenny Lewis Solo and Broken Social Scene
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Watching: The Wire, Pysch, Fringe (new episodes!)
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Reading: Abraham Smith - Whim Man Mammon
Kelly Link - "Lull" a short story (so good)
DH Lawrence - Selected
Lisa Fishman - Dear, Read
Howl - Allen Ginsberg (never read this, DAMN, so good!)
Ian's stories with comments to come (don't worry Ian, just now I'm catching up...expect notes by the end of the week! i'm excited. I looked at them once, but I'm going back again...they're cool...i liked the revisions...end transmission)
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I have more posts to talk about, but I'll get to that later. Sorry for the wait. It won't happen again.
Love
joshua