And I'm taking my Etch-a-Sketch with me
04/05/12


Two weeks from now I’ll be in Dayton, Ohio,honing my writing skills which hopefully will allow me to get better at entertaining you.

And I’m giddy.

Not that Dayton has ever specifically been on my bucket list, but why I’m going has been.

Several years ago, I heard about a writer’s workshop that’s held every other year at the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Institute, which happens to be in Dayton.

I’ve been reading Erma Bombeck books and columns since I was eight years old.

She is my linguistic hero, and by my estimation the best humor writer ever.

Two years ago, Dave Barry was the keynote speaker at the workshop, and he happens to be my second favorite columnist. But as a single mom with two kids in college at the time, and an addiction to food and electricity, it wasn’t a good time.

This year, I’m fortunate enough to be able to go, and I am excited. Even more so than when my Etch-A-Sketch iPad cover came in the mail this week, and the Leader staff can attest to my over-the-top when that little gem came out of the box.

I squealed like a little girl who just got a new puppy, only my iPad cover doesn’t have to be taken out to do it’s business every 15 minutes, which is even better.

Alan Zweibel, an original Saturday Night Live writer, will be the main keynote speaker at this year’s workshop. And I’m not gonna lie, I kinda nearly hyperventilated when I heard he was the speaker.

This is because around the time I was first cracking open Erma Bombeck books I was also watching the first episodes of Saturday Night Live, and had as much desire to be a writer for Saturday Night Live as a nine-year-old can actually muster.

So in a way, he and Erma Bombeck may be the two reasons I’ve always wanted to be a humor writer.

Wish me luck on the trip, and wish me luck that my iPad’s not stolen by a four-year-old.