Best. Conference. Ever. (also, Tea)

I am back from Ohio, where I hung out with humor writers for three days. It was absolutely fantastic. I was so glad to see that aside from you folks, I have a whole other clan of my people out there in the world. While my roommate was another cynical young guy, three-fourths of the attendees were moms in their 40s, but they managed to talk about humor instead of their kids, so all was well. Now I'm convinced that my contemporaries don't have to become lifeless and dull until at least 50.

I felt empowered at the conference, perhaps because I finally felt like I was in my element. Some people had written more books, made much more from them, or have columns with wider circulation, but my writing accomplishments were still on par with most people there, guest speakers notwithstanding. And perhaps most empowering was my snazzy new business card, courtesy of the_star_fish. She put together a great card that features this caricature icon tsiarxof made for me long ago, and my card looked better than anyone else's there. In the words of Dave Barry, "Neener, neener, neener."

The stand-up comedy went pretty well. I caused the whole roomful of people to groan, which probably comes as little surprise to most of you. Erma Bombeck's son told me after the show that he thought I was funny. And one of the comediennes who has done stand-up before suggested that I try doing something at a club at some point... and perhaps I shall.

Meanwhile, now that I'm back, Thursday Tea shall resume. So if you're free anytime from 8:30pm-11pm on Thursday, do drop in and join us.