Conferences = tired

Gah. Had to spend three days at a conference for writers and writing programs. Since I am neither a writer nor from a writing program I felt a bit out of place, especially since most of the people there were talking about US literature. Got to schmooze around with lots of lit mags I'd never heard of, so at least I got some work done.

Some useful things I learned:
-The cute guys who are into poetry are usually gay.
-Don't bother trying to set up the cute gay guys together; they're already just friends.
-Check to see how tight the security is before buying a con pass.
-Then again, flashing your badge at the booth bunnies can make them stop looking at you like they think you're a desperate writer with a manuscript to foist on them. Also, they give you free stuff.
-I know nothing about poetry. Must learn to fake it.
-I don't actually have a pressing need to attend poetry readings by the bigwigs of literature; I would rather go home and sleep
-It's really, really hard to get Americans and Canadians to look at each others' literature unless you slap it in a textbook with a title like "American Lit for Dummies" or "CanLit Lite."
-It's also really, really hard to become a successful writer, and a lot of it has nothing to do with actual writing. Oh wait, I already knew that. But now I know it more.
-Poets are crazy.

All in all, an educational three days for me.