I’m happy to report that I have managed to get to profession level (a score of greater than 1000 – in my case, 1044) in Wii tennis. I’m now pro in golf and tennis, and I keep flirting with pro in baseball, with a score generally in the 900s.

I’m usually not much into New Year’s resolutions; I try to take care of things that are important to me as I need to. However, since the start of December, I have put on about eight pounds – those pounds need to come off in the next four weeks or so! I need to make sure that the treadmill and I are on good terms.

Last Wednesday, Mer and I were happy to get together and visit with our good friend Julie. Julie went to CVCA with Meredith (back in the day), and later worked there. Julie is a ton of fun to hang around (she is funny and energetic and bright), so Mer and I hung out with Julie a lot. Until Julie was rude enough to take a job in California! She is in her third school year there now, and we miss her. So, it is always much fun to get back together. Julie was in for the Christmas break, and she was able to squeeze us in her schedule for an evening.

We did not do anything too spectacular – we went to Friday’s (where I ate too much) and then came back to the house and hung out and talked until sometime around midnight. We talked largely about school (especially English classes, since Mer and Julie are both English teachers). It should be sad that we were all talking about work, but we still laughed much of the time, and we talked about literature (especially Huck Finn, one of my favorite books) at length, so it was not so dry as it might seem.

Julie is doing well, and she looks happy and healthy. We’d love for her to come back, but that does not seem to be in the cards, which is okay since Julie is happy.

I generally don’t notice getting older – the few aches I have I write off to exercising too hard. The one place I really notice the passage of time is in leaving friends. Mer and I have moved away from friends and family or had friends move away from us, and that is hard. It is difficult to stay in close contact with friends when you (or they) move away. There are people we miss very much in Maine and in Chicago, and there are CVCA and other Ohio friends who have moved away, and we miss them. That is (for me) one of the hardest things about getting older – life moves you on and away from people.

That can be hard on a twenty-year-old!

At any rate, I’m delighted that Julie made the effort to catch up with us again.

Last Tuesday was Christmas, and this was the first year in ten years that we decided to stay home (not travel) for Christmas. We thought we would have a mellow Christmas, and while our Christmas break has been much fun, it has not been mellow!

Shannon playfully coined a term in response to a blog post – “spiritual static electricity.” The idea tries to describe the spiritual benefit of hanging around people who are living spiritually mature and beneficial lives, and picking up some of their habits. I got to experience some spiritual static electricity on Christmas day.

A couple in our church has a restaurant in Alliance called Burger Hut. This was the fourth year that they decided to serve a turkey dinner to the needy on Christmas day. Meredith insisted on signing us up to help out – I was hesitant because I selfishly wanted a mellow Christmas day (plus I was not sure what our local relatives and friends would want to do on Christmas day). So, on Christmas morning, we took the trip to Alliance to serve up food for hungry folks. Meredith was being spiritually electrical (if I may put it that way), and the couple that owns the restaurant were being electrical as well. It was very very good for me to be around them all on Christmas morning. I did not do anything too important that morning – I did dishes to keep dishes available for food to be warmed and served. We were there for about two-and-a-half hours, and it was good for me to be reminded that Christmas is not just about gifts and trees and pretty music. Jesus was very concerned with the poor, and it was a great way to celebrate Christmas helping the poor in a very small way.

We served about 400 dinners, and we heard a church down the road served about 450 dinners and ran out of food. That is almost 1000 dinners for one small city – Alliance has about 23,000 people. That is serving food to over four percent of the population! That was eye-opening; the need was great enough that two small churches served food to four percent of the population. I knew Alliance had some poor areas, but how many poor people are there in just that one town? According to the census (via Wikipedia), almost 13% of the families and 18% of the population live below the poverty line (with a staggering 26% of the under-18 population living under the poverty line). I don’t have any answer for the poverty of the town, but it was good to be around people who were trying to help in a small way.

We then went to our old neighborhood (I guess it’s still our neighborhood since we still own the house there) to visit with the George clan. The George clan are close family friends, and almost everyone was there – the Georges, three of their four children (and spouses), and nine of their twelve grandchildren. Add me and Mer and our Aunt Mary, and it was quite a full house! We had a good time visiting and eating. I got to flip through a 1930s yearbook that was the graduation yearbook for Grandpa George (who passed away a few years ago). It was fun to see how yearbooks have stayed the same (class photos and clubs and sports) and how they have changed (the informal language has changed – we’re still informal in yearbooks, but the language has changed).

We played a few games (I stayed away from Dutch Blitz, a game I dislike but Mer enjoys), and we got to see a short video that was made from digital pictures from one of the George grandchildren (who is about 8). It was fun to see the constant activity of kids running around and playing together (with occational drama of tears or arguments) – seven of the nine grandchildren that were in the house are ten years old or younger.

We left the George house in the evening, having eaten too much, and we came home and opened gifts from friends and relatives. The home, food, gifts, family and freinds are all wonderful, and need to not be taken for granted. That is one of the many benefits to static electricity!

Last Saturday (Christmas week has been too busy for blogging!), Mer and I got to go to Actors’ Summit to see their production of Dylan Thomas‘ A Child’s Christmas in Wales. A Child’s Christmas in Wales is a dramatized version of a short story that Thomas wrote. The play uses much of the language of the story as an adult Thomas narrating the play, and then intersperses the narration with Thomas becoming a child in the action of the play. It is very effective. The actor playing Thomas was able to pull off both the adult Thomas and the child Thomas, largely by body language. It did not seem odd to see a full-grown man running around with his best friends and getting excited over gifts from relatives, because the actor was the child Thomas. Very well done.

The play is not deep, but it excels at creating the atmosphere of a simple yet warm Christmas in Wales. Seeing the perspective of Christmas from the child Thomas’ perspective is a perfect way to get into the mood of the Christmas season – childlike wonder, family stories, snow, relatives, food, family traditions, and more. Mixing the adult Thomas’ prose into the play adds lyrical beauty to the play. Every year, Actors’ Summit puts on a Christmas play, so I have seen four or five different Christmas plays, and this was by far my favorite. It was sentimental without being schmaltzy, and warm without being cheesy.

Last Saturday (wow! A week ago now!), Mer and I got to go see our friends Zach and Londa get married. Mer and I love weddings anyway, but this was a great wedding. It was full of CVCA people (Zach works at CVCA), so we knew a ton of people. The ceremony was very nice (including a CVCA student playing concert harp as prelude music), and there were two receptions – one for CVCA people with finger foods, and then the formal dinner reception (there were too many CVCA folk to invite them all to a formal reception). But the best part was seeing Zach and Londa get married. They are wonderful people. Zach may be the most earnest person I have ever met – when he says “God bless you” he really really means it. Zach has a million stories, usually with himself as the butt of the jokes. Londa is always smiling, and she is gracious. I’ve helped Zach move a couple of times, and Londa always made sure everyone felt appreciated (and well fed!).

A great moment at the wedding itself was the first kiss. Zach and Londa both work with youth, and they wanted to model purity in a relationship, so they made the decision to not even kiss until they were married. No pressure! Their first kiss was in front of about 500 people. The minister was funny – just before telling Zach he could kiss Londa, she said the usual thing when asking people to raise their hands to accept Jesus – “with every head bowed and every eye closed….” That got a good laugh, and not one bowed head.

Mer and I are also excited because Zach just moved to an apartment about a half mile away from where we live. It will be great having a young and fun couple so close to hang out with. For me personally, I want to hang out with Zach because he is so sincere. I’d love to have some of his faith rub off on me!

Welcome to the neighborhood, Mr. and Mrs. Churchill!

Thursday night I threw a Founding Fools reunion/party. All of the original Fools showed up, except one who was working at school two hours away. Some of the Founding Fools I had not seen in over two years, so it was great to see them. I made pizza and calzones, including the brilliant move of forgetting to put cheese in two of the four calzones that I made. I claimed that it was out of consideration of lactose-intolerant people, but really I was just an absent-minded dork. The Fools themselves brought chips, dessert, and lots and lots of sodas. We certainly had plenty to eat. Mer always accuses me of assuming that everyone eats like we do, and she is right – there was only the equivalent of three pieces of pizza per person, but there were still leftovers for us! Yum!

We had general chatting and eating until everyone showed up, and then I put in the movie o’ the evening – The Gods Must Be Crazy. Mer had introduced me to the film years ago, and it seemed like a good film to show the Fools. I did give the same disclaimer that Mer gave me – you have to give Gods a chance, since it starts kind of slowly. The Fools seemed to enjoy it very much. Not too bad for a movie made before any of them were born!

I ran over to school quickly to get my list o’ games, and we provided to have a good hour of improv. One of the fun things about these parties is that doing improv is for our amusement. We have no audience – it is doing improv just to have fun, and fun we had! The Founding Fools still have it – there were some fantastic moments of heightening and a fantastic “yes, and” where a Fool agreed that he very much wanted an elephant trainer. Some highlights of a very funny evening:
– Ranting and raving about college food
– A wife giving her husband an elephant and an elephant trainer as a present
– The superhero Perfect-Teeth Girl getting the “special floss” from Floss Girl
– A location-vocation-means of death that had Mer on the moon filling in craters while being attacked by plants
– Various advice on how to tell your kids about Santa
– Listening in on answering machine messages about being snowed in (including many messages from Aunt Tillie!)
– A paperback scene where one of the Fools ended up with tetanus
– A blind line scene where a Fool was being sold cheap hair care products

We wound the evening up with a little Wii action. I got smoked by a Fool who is also a tennis player. I guess I have more work to do.

It was a fun evening, and I even managed to stay up until midnight! Great fun!

Last week, CVCA finished up its second annual fitness challenge. The goal this year was to walk 50,000 steps/week for eight weeks (or you would still win if you accumulated 400,000 steps). Roughly speaking, 10,000 steps is about 5-6 miles (of walking). CVCA gave everyone that participated a pedometer and let the steps come fast and furious. If you reached the goal, you could choose to get $100 toward your HSA (Health Savings Account), or you could get a $75 gift certificate to your choice of several area stores or malls.

I participated again this year. It does not require me to change my habits to reach the goal. My job has me walking 4,000-10,000 steps/day, and then I run another 3.7 miles/day (about 7400 steps by an allowed 2000 steps/mile conversion for running). So, I managed to avoid injury and sickness during the eight weeks and managed to rack up about 580,000 steps.

Last year when I made goal, I was responsible and choose the $100 toward my HSA. Not this year! Since Mer and I are limited to going out only when we have gift certificates, I’m choosing the $75 gift certificate to Chapel Hill Mall, where there is a Ruby Tuesday and a food court that includes a Dairy Queen. There is a certain wonderful irony in walking the equivalent of 300 miles in order to get the means to eat out. Date nights will be coming soon!

Mer’s Honors English classes, which are made up of juniors, just got done reading Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. After many of the works they read, Mer assigns a project to reinforce the major ideas of the story. For this work, she assigned The Rap of the Modern Mariner – where the students had to tell the original poem’s story in rap form.

Mer’s fourth period class threw down the gauntlet. They told her they would do the assignment with no complaining if she came up with a rap herself. She agreed. Since the students could collaborate if they wished, Mer brought me in on the project to help. Mer came up with the concept – she wanted to take Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy” and make it become “White White Birdy.” She also explained the major events of Rime. With this information, I wrote out Rap of the Modern Mariner. Mer then tweaked the language for rhythm. We divvied up the song – Mer would do the chorus (including the opening and ending), and I would rap the verses. We performed the rap to much amusement to two of her classes. It was much fun. Turns out rapping is quite hard – it is hard to keep the fast pace up, and breathing becomes a problem. Still, it was a good assignment. Here, for your musing, is the text to our opus:

I see you goin’ to the wedding
I just gotta tell ya all
about the birdy

Gotta tell you about the birdy
Gotta tell you about the birdy
Stop and hear about the birdy
Look – I killed the birdy

You wanna get to the party
But you can see in my eye all
about the birdy

Gotta tell you about the birdy
Gotta tell you about the birdy
Hear all about the birdy
Look – I killed the birdy

On board ship I can perform
On deck or pilot’s platform
I’m the best – that’s the norm
Oh snap! Here comes a storm
That big storm sure weren’t nice
The ship we couldn’t entice
Southward the prow did slice
‘Till we were surrounded by ice

On the sea we did toss
We thought all was to be loss
No soul did we come across
Until we saw an albatross
Just then the ice gave way
North we went into the gray
The bird perched there all of nine day
I killed the bird, I must say

My shipmates felt I did betray
But the fog went without delay
Twas right such birds to slay
But what a price we had to pay
There was nothing on board to drink
The sea itself, it began to stink
No one could speak or even think
Gave me evil looks without a blink

They put the bird on a big chain
Yeah, all around my neck they put the white, white birdy

Gotta tell you about the birdy
Gotta tell you about the birdy
Really big and heavy birdy
I’m stuck wearin’ the birdy

I’d like back in with my shipmates
But they all hatin’ me because I shot the birdy

Gotta tell you about the birdy
Gotta tell you about the birdy
It’s a big white birdy
I’m stuck wearin’ the birdy

‘Gainst the wind here comes a ship
Makes no sense, gotta get a grip
On my arm I took a sip
So that I could use my lip
Life-in-Death, she does roll
Playin’ with Death for ev’ry soul
She wins me, the others go
With a cursed look, they all blow

Now, my friend, you look scared
But you gotta find out how I fared
Lookin’ at the slimy sea I dared
To think it was beauty impaired
But I was hasty in how I spake
‘Cause later on I saw a snake
It left beauty in its wake
Now my curse is on the make

The birdy fell from my neck
And it rained on the deck
And I felt the water, not hotter
But cool as all heck
Then some angels came and they took the guys
And they made them all up to rise
And the wind filled the sail
I got home without no fail

And now the curse, it was lifted
And down from my neck
There fell the white white birdy
From my neck there fell the birdy
Gotta tell you about the birdy
Gotta tell you about the birdy
Went away, the white white birdy

I gotta tell folk ’bout God’s love
So they know not to go killin’ white white birdies

Don’t go shootin’ white white birdies
Don’t go shootin’ white white birdies
No weddin’ today
Mullin’ ’bout white birdies

Bird!

Last night we had the first Fools show of the year. What a FANTASTIC show. It went about an hour and 10 minutes, and the energy was really high. This was helped by having a big group of Fools (10 this year!), and our biggest crowd ever. We set up the library to use every seat in it – we can seat about 70. It was standing-room-only last night. I estimate that we had at least 80 people at the show, and we may have had as many as 90. They were a great audience – fun suggestions, quick to laugh, and lots of energy. It is much fun to play to an audience like that.

For 7 of the 10 Fools, this was their first show. I was proud of them – any nerves they had translated into energy instead of fumbling for words. Things were not perfect – there were a few “no, buts,” energy waned a little (briefly) in a couple of spots, and I waited too long to call “scene” in two games, but the show was a HUGE success.

One thing that amazed me, especially for a group with so many new members, was the “call-backs.” A call-back is when you mention something in a game that hearkens back to something from an earlier game. Call-backs are almost always funny, and show the audience that you are listening and paying attention, even when you are not on stage. There were numerous call-backs, especially toward the end of the show, and they went over big.

It really is fun to do improv, and it is REALLY fun to do improv when you have a night like last night. Good job, Fools!