This is how much I’ve begun to obsess about Clarion

I’ve been wolfing down blog posts from previous Clarion grads, I’ve read Kate Wilhelm’s Storyteller, and I just got through Catherynne M. Valente’s latest story collection (review up soon). Been scouting around for more of the short fiction of my instructors-to-be. Waiting on my inbox for days with a new email from the workshop coordinator.

Of course, I also Facebook- and Twitter-stalked those of my classmates who have declared their acceptance publicly. We’re getting along nicely, making Twitter lists and posting on our Facebook group.

But the really obsessive behavior cannot begin until after the scholarship decisions are posted, after I get my US Visa (student, of course), after a month or two.

So for now, I am making a list for my lists. (Yes. No judgment.)

• Usual travel checklist
• Instant food to bring
• Filipino food to learn to cook
• Books to bring
• A list of All The Things My Friends Want Me To Buy For Them
• Questions to ask different instructors
• Stories/experiments to try out
• Informal things to take care of before I leave (buy a swimsuit, lose some weight, etc.)
• Formal things to take care of before I leave (visa requirements, work leave, etc.)

You know, just in case I forget to make those lists.