MLA Madness, the Calm Before the Storm

Kevin and I are staying at the lovely Mayflower Park Hotel in downtown Seattle (according to the internet, known for its "old world charm"), relaxing but with an edge due to Kevin's presenting his paper tomorrow on Robert Duncan's HD Book.  I've not read a word of Kevin's paper, "Gay Shame and The HD Book," so am especially thrilled to be in the audience (if I get in, for of course I didn't register for the MLA for no good reason).  I'm in the final phases of some sort of stomach bug.  I spent Monday and Tuesday either purging or unconscious or reading Charlotte Bronte's Villette, a book I never intended to read but am loving it, her brilliance of detail and psychological depth, etc.  The reading took place on the couch, cuddled beneath my Pendleton blanket, which the cats took as an open invitation to party.  Here are Quincey and Ted joining/crowding me, taken from my propped up with a pillow eyeview.

This evening, after we settled in at the hotel, Kevin and I had a sweet dinner with local poet, Jeremy Halinen.  As an undergraduate, Jeremy studied Ezra Pound's Cantos in a castle in Italy with Pound's daughter, Mary de Rachewiltz.  Wow, right?  We were sitting in the window and poet Chris Nealon walked by, saw us, and came into the restaurant and we all hugged and cooed, and I was reminded that the bumping into old friends—the best part of any conference—was only beginning.