Well it’s that season: the picnic, the meet-and-greet, the officially sanctioned mingle: three events in three days and yours truly is pretty much small talked out. And I forgot to take pictures, so a brief report will have to do.
Friday was the department’s annual picnic though, sadly, the picnic-y fixins’ didn’t last long. Graduate students, did you gobble everything up? Are you really so underpaid that you can’t afford to buy ramen noodles and thus save a few sub sandwiches for your faculty? I mean, really. Other than that, it was a swell time with children and dogs and bocce and, yes, a few crumbs to pick at and some rather pleasant chit-chat. The perfect start to the semester.
Saturday was the MFA meet-and-greet-and-read… though as soon as Director Mark Brazaitis left, the students breathed a collective sigh of relief and no one would admit to bringing anything to read. As they explained it to me, wasn’t the whole point of the proposed read-around to get people talking and weren’t they already talking and why did we have to bother with, you know, actual creative writing? Hmmm, I said, I guess I see your point.
Sunday was the very fancy dean’s reception for endowed professors and chairs. No flying WV cookies for us, no sir! Sargasso! Midget bananas and giant apricots and chicken on a stick and very tasty, very tiny BLT’s. Yum. Your English department was well represented with Professors Brady, Conner, Ernest, Hall, and Sweet, along with this-here poet, doing the mingling on behalf of us all. We heard several uplifting speeches and felt generally congratulated and ready to go on to further greatness.
Whew! Yes, what a weekend, huh? I for one am all set to put down my plate and start some serious educating. What do you think? It could be fun. And yes, there will be flying WV cookies at some point. Don't you worry.
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