Um, okay. Somehow I completely miscounted and missed Boston Day 6! Oops! So I’m fixing the dates/times of this post so it appears in order. Silly me!

I woke up early and got a couple more entries for the staff scavenger hunt out of the way, as my team kind of fell apart in doing it and this week was absolutely horrible so I don’t blame any of us for putting it at the ends of our lists. I did manage to find the largest cup of coffee in Boston, though.

I bought all my onsite staff a giant box of donuts because they all did amazing during the worst possible circumstances and I was so proud of them and too tired to think of anything else to show my appreciation at 6:30 in the morning. Unfortunately, a dinosaur was found onsite and came after some of the donuts!

After onsite closed, we started packing up. As soon as I could, I left in order to attend a panel I really wanted to go to. There was still a tiny bit of packing to do, but my equipment was all done and my wonderful co-supervisor, Roberto, said he and the others could wait for the guys to get there to put it all on pallets and move it out. So I escaped! I got to the panel just a minute or two before it started and had to sit on the floor in the back it was so crowded. The panel was on writing graphic novels, video games, and fanfiction. And it ROCKED. It was fascinating to hear about this from an academic standpoint. And I left feeling inspired and happy.

I hit the gift shop in the mall and a store and then spent an hour trying to get ahold of coworkers to go out to dinner with them. My crappy phone doesn’t text well and kept deleting texts as I was trying to send them. Finally, it ended up just being me, Brenna, Dan, and Sara. We went to this Japanese place that was so tiny there were only, like, 4 tables. So we had to split up and Brenna and Sara ate first because Brenna had to get back to work an evening event. I couldn’t decide what to order so I ordered a veggie dish and some fried rice. IT WAS THE BEST FRIED RICE I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. I WOULD GO BACK TO BOSTON JUST FOR THIS FRIED RICE, I KID YOU NOT!!!!!

I had an evening event I wanted to attend as well: a reading and conversation with Cheryl Strayed and Augusten Burroughs. I hadn’t read anything by Cheryl at that time, but I sat next to my coworker, Kathy, who had and recommended her. I have since read Wild and loved it. The event was one of the best I’ve attended at AWP. I really enjoyed it.

I was exhausted but had to go to the staff party because that’s where we were turning in our scavenger hunt items and getting judged. So after 6 years working for AWP, I finally went to a staff party. And I wished I hadn’t. I was so incredibly tired and miserable and I hate parties. The scavenger hunt thing didn’t happen for HOURS so I was stuck there not drinking and trying to stay awake and drink the one bottle of juice left, making it last as long as possible. And then my team didn’t even win. *sigh* I wish I’d just done my normal introverted TV/book in hotel room routine. Oh well. This is how I learn. The rest of the night before that point was fantastic, though.