I can't/[believe]/I'm reading/[this]

Me: Isaac, come to the table. It's dinner time.Isaac: I can't. I'm reading. Rowan: You don't know how to read. Me: He's looking at pictures. Rowan: That's not reading. Me: Well, it's an important pre-reading activity. Rowan: Yeah. It helps you make inferences about the text.

I’m reading. Isaac is, at least, pre-reading. Rowan, apparently, has been attending teachers’ college in his spare time. We are making inferences about texts around here and it and all seems kind of appropriate and slightly surreal as I gear up for this coming Sunday, April 22. On that date, at 7 PM, I will be headlining at Overflow: An Evening of Readings about the Vulnerable, at the Northern Woman’s Bookstore.

So: vulnerable. Which may or may not mean, for me, literally and/or figuratively stripping things down to some tender/raw places. Which is a roundabout way of saying that I bought a whole bunch of new bras recently and I have written an essay about them. Which I will read, along with an essay about what happens when the people who bullied you in junior high school decide to friend you on Facebook.

You know, nice light stuff. But hey: there will be cake! And if cake's not enough, also on board are fantastic local writers Rachel Mishenene and Meghan Eddy.

Oh! And the event is also serving as THE Thunder Bay launch of the anthology Here Come the Brides: Reflections on Lesbian Love and Marriage, edited by Audrey Bilger and Michele Kort. I’m thrilled they’ve chosen to include my essay, “Four (same-sex) weddings and a funeral.”

So, come! Listen. Make inferences, or not. But I hope you enjoy yourselves, and I look forward to seeing you.