the company you keep

So, I'm checking out what programs will be at Chautauqua while we are there and I see there is a writing conference. Cool. Who might be there, I wonder? Anyone I've heard of? Having spent much of my life with my substantial nose buried in a book, authors are my rock stars. In high school, the pictures on my wall were Edward Albee, Hemingway and Salinger. (Insert nerd emoticon here). OK, there was a John Lennon, too.

According to the schedule of classes, this is the roster for the writing workshop:

For this week on writing, Roger will be joined by his friends and fellow authors E.L. Doctorow, Joyce Carol Oates, and Amy Tan, and poet Billy Collins and cartoonist Garry Trudeau.

I couldn't breathe for a minute. I've read and loved them all.

I'm a little stressed about the strict set-up rules. They are necessary because of logistics, but I'm not good about being on time and little things like that. We will be allowed through the gate at exactly 7:15 and we will have exactly 1/2 hour to unload and sign in, get the van to the parking lot and get back to our spot, remembering to bring the pass they will give us in order to get back in. At that point we can start to set up, but we can't move our canopy into position until 8:30. Makes me dizzy.

Then I look at where our spot will be and what I will be seeing throughout the weekend



I can handle it.