on the good news train

Wow! So, after having two poems published here, and my photos from the Palm Beach Poetry Foundation published here, I received my first response from an MFA program--an acceptance to Emerson, home of Ploughshares.

I applied to eighteen programs in total, nine of which are low-residency (generally meaning two sessions a year, each about two weeks, one in the summer, and correspondence by mail with your professors and mentors). I hadn't considered low-res until I found out there was a possibility of my remaining at Local High School. I had originally picked fourteen schools, but stopped at nine when I had to switch gears to apply to low-res schools. Ideally? I would teach at the high school and get into one of the top low-res programs. I wouldn't have to leave my husband for any amount of time, I wouldn't get my third degree from the University of Minnesota, and I would keep my place at a decent job with health insurance and a retirement plan. Practicality may always win.

But still, I can't help but be thrilled that my first response is an acceptance, in Boston, a city which I love, and hope that there will be more acceptances to come.

Happy weekend, all. It's snowing and gray here, a new blanket of white. We have guests from out of town, and more coming from an hour north and an hour south of us, a meet-up of old college friends, good food, wine, conversation.