A Writer's Notebook, Day Five-Hundred-And-Fourteen

Tomorrow is the start of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival and I am very excited to be taking part in it once more this year.  It should be a wonderful time, as it always is.  I am very excited for the gala reading by Joy Harjo, the current Poet Laureate, as well as for the workshop I'll be attending.  It is an amazing event, and I know it will be incredible this year, as it always is.  Even more than the events, the people are incredible.  Freesia McKee, whom I have mentioned numerous times, is one of the friends I made through the PBPF, to offer one example.

Today, though, events conspired such that Melissa is going to have to leave town tomorrow.  Honestly, I am pretty upset about it for a lot of reasons.  It is not her fault, and I am not angry at her in the least.  I know she would rather stay, and that she has enjoyed many of the events from the festival in the past.  But, there is an emergency she has to deal with, and it requires her to be there in person. While I do accept all of that, I cannot help but feel hurt by the timing.  Lately, we have had emergencies come along almost exclusively at the worst possible moment, and I had hoped that was a trend that would not continue into the new year...

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