Coming Back into Country
I am back in Appalachia from a wonderful, whirlwind trip back to Pittsburgh. Got in very late Friday afternoon - SO much traffic in the city - and ended up missing dinner out with SSG and the two featured residency faculty. Well, I tried. Drove aimlessly around a part of town I'm not that familiar with anymore (Shadyside), looking for the restaurant, before finally being so late that I gave up, since it was getting late and I needed to just eat something (I drove to Panera in Squirrel Hill - both places that made sense in what had become a very chaotic world to me). That experience, of driving into the city and trying to find them, was really quite shocking. I had expected traffic, people, confusion, but I did not expect that it would have such a powerful and negative effect on me. Honestly, it completely freaked me out and overwhelmed me (which was only made worse by the fact that I really do not remember my way around even once-very-familiar places like I had thought I would). Overwhelmed me to the point where I truly felt like I was in another, foreign world, one that I certainly didn't belong to. I really didn't think that in only two years I would have become so used to the opposite of that type of world. So comfortable in it. Quite an interesting, if uncomfortable, revelation. I did have to drive a lot on Saturday, but I was much calmed down and not nearly as freaked out :-)
Friday night was the opening reception and keynote address by Janisse Ray, who I had met at a nature conference at Chatham in 2001. It was so nice to meet many of my spring semester students in person, and I think having *known* them already helped me not feel so pathologically introverted in a situation when I normally would have.
I had Saturday morning and afternoon off, so I ran some errands all over town - Jake had requested a new Steelers cap, among other things. In the morning though, the first thing I did was hike into Frick Park, to the off-leash dog area. It had been Troy the Collie's favorite place in the world, where we spent countless hours. I had decided that if we were ever back in Pittsburgh, it was the exact, right place for his ashes to be scattered. I knew that would be an emotional experience, but it was harder than I imagined, nice, but harder. I ended up crying in front of a couple guys and their dogs too.
Saturday evening I finally got to spend some time with SSG over dinner and then my reading went amazingly well. I was the final reader, and everyone really responded to my essay. Another unexpected thing happened though with the reading. Maybe it was that I was already saturated with emotion, but I found my voice shaky and trembly during the entire reading of the piece (which is a very emotional one already), and I almost broke into tears during the final paragraphs - a fact that several students commented on afterward ;-) But overall, it was a hugely affirming night. SSG gave me the most glowing, complimentary introduction and she said similar things about my work (she reread my thesis in preparation for the intro) and my teaching. And being around other, kindred spirits was definitely inspiring. I have more to say about writing, but this is incredibly long, so I will save it for the next post.
Oh, and there was one other, unexpected and cool thing: after the reading, a student came up to me and said that he knew someone who had worked in Sequoia. But since he met her in 1998 and didn't know when she'd worked there, he figured it was a "longshot" that we'd have crossed paths. The minute he said her name, I knew and remembered her exactly, remembered that she'd worked in the personnel office (had probably hired me even), and I'd even been friends with her brother. I think my first season was her last. What a lovely, serendipitous way to end the night!
Friday night was the opening reception and keynote address by Janisse Ray, who I had met at a nature conference at Chatham in 2001. It was so nice to meet many of my spring semester students in person, and I think having *known* them already helped me not feel so pathologically introverted in a situation when I normally would have.
I had Saturday morning and afternoon off, so I ran some errands all over town - Jake had requested a new Steelers cap, among other things. In the morning though, the first thing I did was hike into Frick Park, to the off-leash dog area. It had been Troy the Collie's favorite place in the world, where we spent countless hours. I had decided that if we were ever back in Pittsburgh, it was the exact, right place for his ashes to be scattered. I knew that would be an emotional experience, but it was harder than I imagined, nice, but harder. I ended up crying in front of a couple guys and their dogs too.
Saturday evening I finally got to spend some time with SSG over dinner and then my reading went amazingly well. I was the final reader, and everyone really responded to my essay. Another unexpected thing happened though with the reading. Maybe it was that I was already saturated with emotion, but I found my voice shaky and trembly during the entire reading of the piece (which is a very emotional one already), and I almost broke into tears during the final paragraphs - a fact that several students commented on afterward ;-) But overall, it was a hugely affirming night. SSG gave me the most glowing, complimentary introduction and she said similar things about my work (she reread my thesis in preparation for the intro) and my teaching. And being around other, kindred spirits was definitely inspiring. I have more to say about writing, but this is incredibly long, so I will save it for the next post.
Oh, and there was one other, unexpected and cool thing: after the reading, a student came up to me and said that he knew someone who had worked in Sequoia. But since he met her in 1998 and didn't know when she'd worked there, he figured it was a "longshot" that we'd have crossed paths. The minute he said her name, I knew and remembered her exactly, remembered that she'd worked in the personnel office (had probably hired me even), and I'd even been friends with her brother. I think my first season was her last. What a lovely, serendipitous way to end the night!