Flights of Fancy

Thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts, Virginia Center for Creative Arts is offering two special residency opportunities right now. One is for those of "Limited Economic Means," and one of those is for those of "Minority Ethnic Heritage." All the usual amenities, but absolutely no pressure for a daily contribution--in fact, a $200 stipend. There are four slots for each category, and the deadline is September 15. Apply, apply, apply! VCCA will change your life.

On the schedule for today: working on edits to the memoir (due back to Crown this week, ooof), showing a friend around town--the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery--and then meeting with another friend at Teaism to get his report from Bread Loaf.

Then...Big Boi at the 9:30 Club. I was browsing through the new album on iTunes, really liked "Night Night' and "Daddy Fat Sax," the tickets were cheap and still available and...well, why the hell not?

This kicks me back to college days, when I was part of a literary and debating society at the University of Virginia. One semester I was charged with coaching a class of probationaries into regular membership (yes, really: I was their pledgemaster). That meant encouraging them to confirm to all kinds of arbitrary rules of protocol, all of which they knew I abhorred, all of which were rules they were forever breaking. At parties when Outkast's "Ms. Jackson" came on, they would surround me and sing "I'm sorry Miss Beasley--"

You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can't predict the weather.