



After all the splendiferous entertainment, dj Ben Sargent got everyone who felt they could sacrifice the dignity up and dancing. Unless it is swing, my dancing makes me look like an epileptic ostrich. I hope you were all amused.

The party finally began to wind down around 1am. Thank you to everyone who bought issues and subscriptions and chapbooks and the CD. You're supporting some great artists and wonderful people who deserve the cash and the recognition. Special thanks to everyone who drank heavily -- there was remarkably little alcohol to pack up at the end of the night. My feeble lats and delts, and Jordan's chassis, thank you.
Thank you everyone for coming and making this launch worth months of planning and oodles of hard work by the collective, the board, and all the incredible volunteers. Sometimes your sheer awesomeness overwhelms me.
***
The afternoon before the launch, the infinitely generous Jeremy drove me to pick up Donato at the airport. Donato and I then spent a couple of hours wandering around the city, visiting galleries, poking around interesting little stores and studios. While I was working very hard to exude a force-field of Zen energy, my stomach felt like a brillo pad of pure stress. I wanted, so bad, for everything to turn out well (and it did).
Despite being in this very tense and scratchy place, when the subject of community came up, I couldn't help becoming animated. I couldb't help telling hom what a supportive, brilliant, vibrant community this was, and how lucky I felt to be a part of it.
The next day, just before he got back on the plane, Donato thanked me for the invitation -- and said I had been absolutely right. We have something very special here.
Thank you, literary/art community of Calgary. You're all, together and individually, a treasure. There is nowhere I would rather be than here.

