Finally, I am going to try to do this.

So I have my web site, and I tried blogging there, but it's a pain in the butt to have to republish the web site every time I want to write a new entry. So I'll see how this goes.

I'm sure I have enough grading to do to keep me busy for all of Saturday, but my friend Jolynn and I are going to the Carnegie Art Museum tomorrow, then to a late lunch, then she's accompanying me to a tattoo appointment.

Jasin, my artist, is trying to get my sleeve done before the Pittsburgh convention, so that it can be entered for an award. It'll be my first tattoo convention, and I'm a little apprehensive, but it will certainly be fun--and great fodder for newer poems. I think.

I sent out my thesis manuscript/my first full-length book manuscript to a few contests this week--the Gerald Cable Award at Silverfish Review Press, Perugia Press, and BOA Editions' A Poulin, Jr. First Book Prize. I can't imagine what it would be like to win, but having my first book at any one of these presses would be fantastic.

Lots of rejection letters on individual poems this month . . . I need to get more stuff out there to make up for what's come back. And, I have a good bit of new stuff, just handing out, needing a good home. I sent to Barrow Street yesterday, to Wicked Alice today. If I could just send out two or three submission packets a week, I'd be so pleased with myself, but there never seems to be enough time.

Speaking of which, I'm exhausted.