February and March Madness

A summary of the last two months of my life: I've been busy. Very busy.

FEBRUARY
February began with a change. I was asked to be my congregation's Activities Committee co-chair, which struck me as a very fun job, so I agreed. I was right--it is fun, but it is also very time consuming. The first fruit of that labor: "LoveFest '08: Wardstock." It was a combination of elementary school carnival with game booths and prizes and a totally awesome 60's-themed live rock concert. The pictures here are priceless.

There was quite a crowd--they sat in circles on rugs and tossed around balloons and wove friendship bracelets.

People dressed up.

Women for Clarity ("If you like us let us know; if you don't, let us go.") held a peaceful sit-in and then marched. The MAN made an appearance to register his disapproval.

We had fabulous music, with appearances by The Mamas and The Papas, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Janis "Jonna" Joplin, and Jimi "Todd" Hendrix.

The reviews came in very positive. The whole activity was a major success AND it was a lot of fun. And, speaking of fun...

The next weekend hosted CompTron's Communist Party. For the full story, see:
http://comptron.blogspot.com/2008/03/history-of-communist-party.html.

I was Natasha Badenov. Boris had an "accident" and was not able to attend.

I was on a mission to "Kill Moose and Squirrel," a.k.a. I was an undercover CIA agent in charge of getting rid of Moose (Comrade Stephens) and Squirrel (Comrade Rains). Unfortunately, the KBG apprehended me and killed me before I had the opportunity to double-cross the CIA, which was the plan. Hasty move KGB, hasty move...

As you can see, I did, however, have the opportunity to plot Pottsylvania's overthrow of Frostbite Falls, MN.

BUT, lest you think that February was ALL fun and games, I pulled together a couple of fellowship applications and survived a car accident. Yep, the MonkeyWagon was unceremoniously hit by a careless driver who thought that her Ford Escape could push my Volvo out of my lane. Nope, didn't work out for her (or me either, actually).

Here you can see the MonkeyWagon next to her predecessor, Alf, who happened to be in the same junkyard. Alf has clearly seen better days...

MARCH

This March brought new meaning to March Madness for me. In addition to having two very difficult Italian final exams, a couple more fellowship applications to do, and a major conference paper and presentation to prepare, I also had to buy a new car. Since my insurance company had a very pessimistic view of what the MonkeyWagon was worth, I got to spend a lot of my own money. However, I ended up with a car that I like. [As a side note, I'm not sure it likes me back, since last night--after putting $62.73 of gas into it--it told me I needed to check its engine. Looks like I'll be visiting Peter about that warranty...]

Tentative names: The JavaJet and The Flying J. Any other suggestions?

My conference went marginally well. Nobody really paid much attention to my paper, and I'm trying to decide if that is better or worse than getting negative attention. Anyway, if you're curious, you can read the paper here: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p266440_index.html.

The good news is that I got to spend a lot of time with my family in Chicago before my conference. That was relaxing, except when I was trying to plan the next church activity: a Passover Seder for 130 people. Have you ever tried to plan an activity from out of town? Even with the world's most excellent co-chair and committee, it is a bit of a headache. It will be a great activity, though. I'll post on it next week--if April doesn't prove to be as mad as February and March.