AWP so far

Is pretty overwhelming. An hour-long registration line yesterday (that is for everyone who had already pregistered; we were just picking up our badges and bags), a really long walk to the first event where there were no seats and the audience was spilling out the door. Loved seeing our friend Sharon and meeting a couple of twitter flash writers, but I ended up not going to the SmokeLong reading last night and regretted it today. I am not a very sociable person at heart. I did get to meet two bipolar writers whose essays I admire tremendously and had the opportunity to tell them so. One posted it as a high point on her facebook page, so maybe being here has been worth it for that. I was feeling fine about my writing before we arrived; now I'm aware of the party atmosphere at the magazines that have rejected me (of course) and even though their writer/editors often admire my writing online, I feel like an outsider. Steve and I are in two back to back readings later today and I'm actually looking forward to that.