Prompt Writing....

What a memorable weekend!

Saturday was spent at the beautiful Derryfield School Campus in Manchester, NH, attending Writers' Day sponsored by the NH Writers' Project.  While I caught up with friends and colleagues, laughed a ton, and even managed to write a few pages to compelling writing prompts, I also emerged victorious in the second annual NH Literary Idol Competition with my micro-fiction piece, "Make-Up."

I learned a ton from writers Joni Cole, James Patrick Kelly, and fellow Hennikerian Joseph Hurka.  And I was reminded that I should blog daily, which given my new state of affairs may be complicated, but seems a laudable goal.

On Sunday my husband and I took our daughter to the Lovering Family Foundation's Safe Teen Driver Program/Skid School run by Stevens Advanced Driver Training out of Bedford, NH.  In five hours she was able to climb behind the wheel several times as she accelerated to over 60 mph, slammed on the brakes before she crashed into the "wall of fire" (actually several traffic cones lined up to simulate the flames), slalomed through five traffic cones at 35 mph, learned to change lanes quickly and safely to avoid a deer--or a horrific driver, and participated in the tailgating crash exercise that taught us all a ton about our driving habits.  It was remarkable!  This week I'll return with my son, if I can drag him there....

I even managed to get a spot of spring gardening in: expanding one garden, weeding all but two of our other ones, and on Friday I dug up the sod for an all new garden that we'll plant once the threat of frost is past.  (We actually awoke to it today--oy!)

Before I return to a day of class preps, grading papers, getting medical records forwarded for our son (my new full-time job - but more on that in future blogs!), contacting our latest local celebrity who volunteered to help with the Oct. 17th reading of "Speak Truth to Power" for Jayme's Fund (more on that too once we're ready to reveal our incredibly talented all-star cast!), and other items on my to-do list, I want to give a shout-out to Brendan Callahan who is running in today's Boston Marathon for Team Fox and for his mom.  Apparently you can actually follow Brendan's progress on-line; his bib number is 25995 (out of 26000 runners).  He'll be taking off when the front of the pack has passed the one-third mark!  Good luck to him, his team, and his family - and to ALL the incredible marathoners today!

Run the good race, All.  I'll try to be here again tomorrow.  Cheers!