Saturday evening

gad i'm tired. they actually allotted 2 hours and 15 minutes for my talk. i did not fill the time. jesus. who would listen to me for that long?

i had wanted a discussion, but the room and the AV requirements don't really allow it. i sit in front, on a little stage, and have to speak into a microphone so that i can be recorded.

if people have questions (and thank god they did) they have to go line up at another mike and speak into the microphone politely, and then i answer their question.

the question and answer part is the liveliest, but even then there's no way for give and take (other than between me and the one person who is asking a question). if someone else wants to say something or be part of the discussion, they have to get up and walk to the mike, where there is already a long line of people waiting to ask questions.

so it's very formal, and it gets kind of tiring and i kind of hit the wall after an hour and 45 minutes and sent them all on their way.

i think it was fine, though later i thought of many many things i could have told them about narrative that i forgot to tell them.

still, how much will they really remember anyway? i cannot possibly tell them everything. one guy told me that mine was the best session he'd been to all weekend, and that was truly all i needed to hear. i immediately handed him $500 and my firstborn son.

after it was over i went back to my room and got my coat (it's very chilly here) and walked for an hour, up boylston street and down mass ave to the river and back again. and that's where i took these incredibly artistic photos, for you, my dear blogettes.

now i am ready for bed (the noisy people in the next room woke me up extremely early this morning, but that is another story) but it is only 6 p.m. and i am supposed to be attending another HUGE GROUP DINNER. but i am not hungry, and i am sick of talking. and i think instead i will sit here and think about nothing and say nothing, nothing at all.