Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Almost, Maybe, Not Quite Famous

This morning I gave a presentation to around 35 high school students attending a student journalism conference at UW-Oshkosh. My session was called "Writing a book: from Idea to Print," and my name tag read: Jess Riley. Book Author.

I love that.

Afterwards, an adorable student in Harry Potter glasses asked if I'd initial the description of my talk in the program. Aww, was she asking me to ... autograph it for her? Shucks, is that sweet or what? I considered signing a postcard for her, personalizing it in her name, or maybe --

"It's so my teacher knows I came to this."

Ah. Yes. Of course.

It's been a literary whirlwind week, starting with an Earth Day poetry reading I attended with my parents on Monday night, also at UW-O. My Dad was the only faculty member selected to read; the other readers were students, and bless their hearts, some of the later prose was just too much after a long day of work.

I can say this because halfway through one of their pieces I heard a loud, "MUUUHH!" from my left. I jumped and turned to face this noise, which had apparently come from my mother. She'd fallen asleep, and I quickly jabbed her in the side. "Mom, wake up!" I whispered.

"Yes?" she sleepily blinked, leaning over as if I had a secret to share.

She really works too hard.

Happy Earth Day, everyone. To celebrate, I'm making tofu for dinner. Isn't J a lucky man?

11 comments:

  1. The real question is: Did you roam all around town, including the grocery store, with your tag on after the conference because you forgot to take it off?

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  2. When does your next book come out?

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  3. Yeah for poetry night!

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  4. I got a great garlic, black bean, chili tofu stir fry recipe thing. Basically- that's the recipe right there.

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  5. Anonymous8:30 AM

    hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....

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  6. Anonymous9:00 AM

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  7. Technically, I don't think you can "make" tofu. More like "covert" it into something less disgusting.

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  8. Hmmm, that was a typo, but I think I'll stay with "covert" since it's actually funnier that way.

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  9. Anonymous11:00 PM

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  10. Anonymous1:30 PM

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  11. Awe that was cute... and lol at you and your mom..sound like me and mine.

    I came in via Suzy sent me here she said you were a nature lover like I am so I am going to look over your post if you don't mind.

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