as a classmate called her hometown, Pittsburgh, in a poem she shared. Speaking of poems, I wrote one to express the depth of my emotion during one of my sessions at the English teacher convention:
Eyes too wide, smiles too set
Speech a little too slow and careful,
Your effervescence is too resilient to be believed.
Snap off your hope in the concrete of reality
Before I walk out.
But really, it was the only bad part of the weekend. I learned a heck of a lot, got a bunch of books for cheap, was reassured of my calling as a teacher, drank in a microbrew in an old church, kicked myself for not writing more, almost got shot near a bar but didn't even know it, earned a permanent red handprint on my forehead from slapping it so often at stuff that made so much sense (my favorite was "the telling board"), coolly eyed the booth babes on the exhibition floor, almost puked on the plane ride home. Happy Thanksgiving!
