Time of Firsts, Pandemic Version

Yesterday was a day of many firsts.  We have filled in our ballots to vote by mail in the August 18 election.  I'm registered as an independent, so I don't get to cast a ballot in the primaries, but I did vote for some judges.  But more importantly, I see this as a test run for November.

I have always registered as independent, but since moving to Florida in 1998, I've always voted for a Democrat in national races.  In South Carolina, I voted for a wider variety of candidates, knowing that the Republican would win regardless.  Down here in Florida, it's been much more clear that my vote would matter, even as I haven't always been positive it would be counted, after the 2000 election debacle.

Another first:  I submitted a proposal for the AWP conference.  I've had ideas in the past, but the odds seemed so steep that I never actually put together a proposal to submit.  This year, only people who have never presented at the AWP can submit a proposal, along with everyone who had a panel accepted last year, but who decided to postpone the panel until the 2021 conference.  This year, the odds seem a bit better.

I'm glad I did.  I needed something to remind me of the kind of writer I want to be, not the kind of writer that I seem to have become.  Yesterday, I wrote the pandemic protocols again.  I have lost track of how often I have written them.  They haven't changed much, so I'm not sure why this need for periodic revision.  Who is going to be reading these protocols?

Yesterday, as I found myself once again trying to convince different types of documents into one single document, I realized fairly quickly how impossible it was, how much time it would take if I decided it needed to be possible.  I decided that we were going to scan the document anyway, so it was easier to take the separate documents and turn them into one PDF to scan.  It won't make revision easier, but maybe we won't need to revise again.  Or maybe I'll just keep stitching documents together in this way.

It's not the stitching I thought I would be doing.  Sadly, this kind of revision of documents is not a first for me, as those of you who have read my chapbook I Stand Here Shredding Documents know.

I'm participating in the Sealey Challenge, where one reads one book of poetry every day in August.  I've never heard of this challenge before, but it's been interesting to realize that I can do this.  If it means that I scroll through social media less, that's a plus.

Here's another plus that I saw on someone's Twitter feed:  "Go, go, go, poetry lovers! We’re thrilled to see all the incredible books you’ve read so far! Be sure to send your list to openpoetrybooks [at] gmail [dot] com by 9PM PT on September 1. Happy reading!"

The Sealey Challenge views chapbooks as a book for the challenge, so it's not just full length collections.  Maybe it's time for me to read my own chapbooks again.  That, too, wouldn't be a first, but it's been a long time.