Mallory Whitten, Jordan Castro, Sam Pink, Andrew Weatherhead, Lily Dawn, Noah Cicero, Brittany Wallace, Ben Brooks are liveblogging AWP 2012 in this post. The format is “[liveblog] ([person who liveblogged], [time of liveblog])” chronologically.

• THURSDAY (PRE-PARTY IN KENT, OHIO)

have been hunting to gather xanax for lily dawn’s AWP supply, just acquired her 6 bars (Mallory Whitten, 6:04PM) 

art i made with lily’s xanax (Mallory Whitten, 7:07PM)

have had cold since Sunday, trouble breathing through nose, drooling a lot in my sleep (Andrew Weatherhead, 7:23PM)

just remembered some things from last night’s reading: 1. at one point feeling an intense urge to just look up at the ceiling and scream “no” with my hands in shaking fists 2. introducing myself as “chuck klosterman” to the audience 3. momentarily worrying that my head would simply fall off my shoulders and be lightly kicked by someone try to get to the bar, and 4. wanting to use my five minutes of reading time to stare out at the audience and keep saying, “need some quiet here, need everyone to be quiet here.” (Sam Pink, 7:29PM)

getting ready to go to another reading tonight. pretty determined to—right after i’m announced—turn to whoever is next to me and pat his/her thigh saying “let’s make some pie baby” before i walk up, then just using my reading time to say, “need some pie here” with increasing levels of desperation. (Sam Pink, 7:35PM)

been awake for the past ~32 hours and am feeling relaxed for the first time since the ~4th hour of being awake. (jordan castro, 9:30PM)

just ingested ~20mg of Vyvanse. (jordan castro, 9:32PM)

just ingested ~10mg of Vyvanse. (Mallory Whitten, 9:33PM)

mal ~20 minutes after ingesting vyvanse (jordan castro, 9:53PM)

bought neutrogena oil-free moisturizer from walgreens (Andrew Weatherhead, 8:47PM)

In convenience store below Jordan’s dorm, rubbed my palm on a 5lb, 2’x1’ rice crispies treat bar while Noah said, “Who buys those? Fat chicks?” (Lily Dawn, ~11PM)

in kent, at some kid’s house who is fucking upstairs. large amount of girls in the room, don’t know who they are, drinking beer, someone in the room is going to germany, just ate a gluten free Amy’s frozen dinner. (Noah Cicero, 11:57PM)

• FRIDAY

watching ‘boy meets world.’ (Jordan Castro, 12:17AM)

Modeling Noah (Lily Dawn, 12:22AM)

guy who managed place i just read at called me “john travolta” after i read then said i did a good job then said “but no eye contact” and i think i said, “fuck that” and then asked for a glass of water then noticed the smell i thought was coming from the kitchen was actually my body odor then thought about the body odor and thought “it’s the kind like you get when you’re sick” then idly picked up a sales flyer off someone’s table and looked through it thinking it would cover up the smell of my body odor somehow then sold a few books to an elderly married couple who told me i looked like someone from saturday night live (Sam Pink, 11:30PM)

‘sean, if our friend who’s gonna let us live likes poetry, then we like poetry.’ (Cory Matthews, 12:36AM)

my cat just cleaned himself on my stomach for the last time, it seems like. (Brittany Wallace, 12:59AM)

Jordan castro just yelled, “fuck, sorry.” Now he is dangling a mac cord above my head. Drinking hard cider. Thinking hard about my brand. (Noah Cicero, 1:57AM)

Sitting alone, jordan left, in some strange bedroom, an unknown cat came in the room, girlfriend on plane in the morning to south korea, weird, just keep thinking, “that is weird.” (Noah Cicero, 3:13AM)

my adopted flight-anxiety process is ‘pretend you are angelina jolie.’ (Brittany Wallace, 5:33AM)

Woke up to shampoo being spilled all over my book bag. Felt fine looking at the mess, went to bathroom, cleaned book bag. Put book bag in a dryer. Felt like this would the first of many blunders on the trip. realized I forgot my toothbrush, brushed teeth with finger, gotta remember to stop at a walgreens in chicago or just steal mallory whitten’s tooth brush when she is not looking. (Noah Cicero, 9:41AM)

ingested ~10mg of Vyvanse with Noah Cicero, now sitting in a room listening to Noah play guitar while Jordan rolls a blunt (Mallory Whitten, 11:37AM)

ingesting Vicodin and strawberry ice cream sandwich (Mallory Whitten, 2:34PM)

peeing man in rest stop bathroom said ‘jesus god…oh…god…oh…’and i immediately thought must’ve been holdin’ that in there forever then, huh?’ (Jordan Castro, 3:29PM)

a driver picked me up from the airport, he was holding a sign with my name on it, he drives a van, he watches korean animal planet, texts, sings along to k-ballads, and speeds at the same time, very talented. (Brittany Wallace, 5:36AM)

Woke up and walked downstairs of Andrew Weatherhead’s house. It is a nice house. Looked for glasses to drink water, found tea and cups. Made myself a cup of tea using the microwave. Drank the tea and burned my tongue. Thought, ‘Can’t have a burned tongue at AWP.’ Got on Andrew Weatherhead’s pc, his mom came in and introduced herself, we talked about Showboat, I started singing Old Man River Old Man River in my head. (Noah Cicero, 9:10AM)

my mom is “furnishing” Noah and Mallory with gloves and hats, Noah = gloves, Mallory = hat (Andrew Weatherhead, 12:39PM)

last night i got lost from the ohio people and woke up next to a fully clothed crispin best on a bright pink daybed. (Lily Dawn, 12:39PM)

Blake Butler (Andrew Weatherhead, 1:11PM)

think i’m going to try and eat a “big mac” while reading tonight. only eaten three big macs in my life and got strep throat the next day, each time. probably will try to get jordan castro to eat a big mac while he reads too, and/or hold my big mac for me to eat while i’m reading—so i won’t get shit on my book (Sam Pink 1:40PM)

at some vegan restaurant with 7 other alternative litsers and there was a long silence while everone ate and the cassandra nyugen started talking about butt sex and i am on vicodin and nobody will ever know (Lily Dawn, 2:15PM)

Justin Taylor just scampered into the family bathroom at the Hilton (Mallory Whitten, 3:17PM)

just saw a baby at AWP (Andrew Weatherhead, 3:20PM)

person at ‘birds llc’ table asked “what was up” with ohio, via having met “like, a million” people from ohio at AWP (jordan castro, 3:23PM)

when i read mallory’s thing about justin taylor i imagined justin taylor sitting at a foldout table slowly eating a bag of twizzlers and periodically adjusting his glasses (Sam Pink, 3:35PM)

Went into the bathroom and while passing mirror laughed because I am clearly on Xanax. Am now waiting for Jordan Castro to finish pooping. Have walked past a lot of tables and looked at a lot of book covers. Really enjoy being around Jimmy Chen. was given a temporary tattoo from a table, feel scared to look at any table for too long now. Noah Cicero is a social butterfly. (Mallory Whitten, 3:39PM)

while pooping, i overheard a small child ask his dad how to flush the toilet, to which his dad said “you just back away and let the toilet flush it for you.” the small child said “no, i want to flush it” and began crying loudly (jordan castro, 3:41PM)

fell down stairs at the literature party last night and no one was there to see it (Lily Dawn, 3:48PM)

Mallory Whitten (Andrew Weatherhead, 4:20PM)

Andrew Weatherhead (Mallory Whitten, 4:21PM)

saw one baby in a bear onsie, another baby inside a coat, another baby in a stroller, baby AWP (Mallory Whitten, 4:22PM)

Got pulled over in Sam’s girlfriend’s car for “imaginary left turn,” no license, Mallory on Noah’s lap, drugs in Jordan’s pocket… (Andrew Weatherhead, 5:37PM)

Sam’s girlfriend is a school teacher… (Andrew Weatherhead, 5:43PM)

Have vague, dream-like memory of Noah describing UC-Davis pepper spray incident to Ben Brooks, included pepper spray sound effects (Andrew Weatherhead, 5:44PM)

Got let off with a warning (Andrew Weatherhead, 5:46PM)

Sam said he’s gotten strep throat from big macs three times (Andrew Weatherhead, 6:24PM)

Lazy Fascist Whiskey (Andrew Weatherhead, 6:53PM)

Sam Pink and his friend Megan picked Noah, Andrew, Jordan, and I up from the blue line in a car. Within 1 minute we were pulled over for making up a turning lane, cop can’t see that I am also not in a seat and therefore are too many people in this car. Megan also doesn’t have her license. There was molly in the car. (Mallory Whitten, 7:02PM)

10 year old little sister tried to FaceTime me several times and I missed them, emailed her saying “sorry no Internet connection here. Haven’t gone to the American girl doll store” and she replied “what are you doing in Chicago if youre not going to the American girl doll store????????” (Mallory Whitten, 7:54PM)

Sam Pink on Big Macs: “are you going to feel bad an hour or two after eating one? Yeah. Is it going to taste good while you’re eating it? Fuck yeah.” (Andrew Weatherhead, 8:48PM)

fucked up buying bananas at an e-mart. computer about to die. no power. feels bad. what do people do without computers. got franzen’s number last night at AWP tent #43. he was visibly drunk. (Brittany Wallace, 9:44PM)

thought i was buying a black package of cigarettes called “marlboro tough,” turns out they actually said “marlboro touch.” (Brittany Wallace, 9:56PM)

A cluster of images, feel, as the night passed, the Brands faded, and there they were, the real versions of these internet people. I feel the sentence, “You had to be there.” Feel the sentence, “It was an experience.” In general i feel really thankful for all the people who put this together, and all the kindness that was shown to me. Feel like everyone alienated a couple of people and made new friends at the same time. (Noah Cicero, unknown time, ride home in a taxi.)

• SUNDAY

turnt up doe (jordan castro, 1:13AM)

Have kissed Cassandra Troyan at least 3x tonight (Mallory Whitten, 3:34AM)

watched people snort molly then fall asleep. confided in tao for my first tattoo, wished he could have drawn the cute autistic whale on my arm to be transferred accurately. got the phrase “i am going to die” tattooed instead by cassandra nguyen while talking to her and michael inscoe and hearing people snore.  (Mallory Whitten, 5:24AM)

Woke up and went outside to smoke a cigarette, the sun had finally come out, shining, standing next to a garbage can. Walt and Emily walk down the street, I look at them, they look at me, eye contact, Walt says,

Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!
Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,
But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than
before known,
Arouse! for you must justify me.

I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,
I but advance a moment only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.

I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a
casual look upon you and then averts his face,
Leaving it to you to prove and define it,
Expecting the main things from you.

Then Walt and Emily nod in approval and smile, then walk away talking politely with each other. I cry a little and go back into the house. (Noah Cicero, 10:33AM)

it’d be funny to wake up and realize you’re missing a finger or hand (Andrew Weatherhead 11:48AM)

I remember walking into a liquor store last night and thinking “this is the AWP of whiskey” and then hating myself (Andrew Weatherhead, 11:58PM)

it feels like I’m floating but I know I’m not (Andrew Weatherhead, 12:00PM)

I’d be interested in sleeping for an entire year if that were possible (Andrew Weatherhead, 12:14PM)

I remember kicking a plastic bag that was floating towards me and it flew up into the air further than my leg or the wind should have carried it (Andrew Weatherhead, 12:28PM)

I didn’t have any dreams (Andrew Weatherhead, 12:57PM)

what if you just walked around masturbating? (Andrew Weatherhead, 1:02PM)

woke up and ate a bagel from cassandra nyugen’s kitchen. smoked a cigarette and am now drinking a beer with ben brooks. remembered really enjoying talking to gene morgan, adam robinson and timothy willis sanders last night at stephen tully dierks’ party. remembered being in the bathroom with people doing molly off of sam pink’s butt while he leaned over in the shower. remembered trading clothes with cassandra then doing yoga and stretches in the middle of the party. remembered making human pyramids on stephen tully dierks’ bed. remembered hearing loud sex last night and wished i was having sex. laughing hard at things, unsure if i still feel the effects of molly or not. (Mallory Whitten, 1:22PM)

while smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant we were eating at, someone asked mal and i if we wanted to smoke a joint, showing it to us in his hand. i said yes then walked down the sidewalk with them (one male, one female, both strangers) smoking a joint. went back inside the restaurant and ate pizza and buffalo chicken wings while tweeting [1, 2] and watching the knicks vs. celtics game on tv. (jordan castro, 3:40PM)

went to gi [ed. The rest of Ben Brooks’ liveblog entry was accidentally deleted…if you know how to retrieve it, or the other liveblog entries that were accidentally deleted, your knowledge would be appreciated in the comments section. Thank you for your help.]