It was not all work on the Diakonos trip – every night most of us had some free time (while the lunch crew made lunch for the next day), followed by a more or less organized entertaining activity.

The Habitat headquarters where we were staying had an older (1980ish?) pinball game (called “Truckin'” or “Haulin'” or some such) that was a surprising hit among the Sega/Nintendo/X-Box generation. For extra fun, the pinball machine was missing the left-hand ball rail, so if the ball went down either ball-lane on the left-hand side, you lost the ball. It is fair for everyone playing, but I could never remember that the railing was missing – I’d make a mini-ramp out of the left flipper so that I could “trap” the ball against the railing and control it. It never ceased to surprise me as I watched the ball roll down my flipper and into the void. Habitat also had foosball, but that was a slightly rickety game, and so was not played much.

Free time was spent by most people just hanging out in one form or another. You could write notes of encouragement or of thanks to people, and every evening some people took advantage of the pre-made paper cards to do just that. Other people just talked, or they played games. You had to be careful not to get so involved in a game that you would miss your shower slot.

Here is the day-to-day breakdown of entertainment:

Sunday: As we were waiting for supper, the students got a group together and played a large game of Catch Phrase. I chatted with a couple of the chaperons. After supper, I was introduced to my first experience with pogs. Pogs, for those over 30, are small discs with pictures on them, about the size of a milk cap. You pile some pogs in a stack (with other people’s pogs), and you take turns throwing a heavy disk on the pile. All the pogs that land face up you keep. All the others go back in the pile for the next player. To add interest, each of us received a bag of about 20 pogs, one of which had our picture on it (taken off of the internet – mine was the Dr.-Who-wearing picture from my blog entry on “White and Nerdy”). It is not a game of great intellectual demands, but it was fun to try it.

Monday: I used free time to introduce Ami and Craig to the wonderful world of Fluxx. Fluxx is a card game where the rules and goals change based on the cards that are played. This game created quite a bit of curiosity, and it turned out to be immensely popular among the students. After the first game or two, most Fluxx games were played with six people, with more wanting to play. Oh, on Monday, Craig won.

After supper, the kids played a HUGE game of Mafia. I think the townspeople won by a sight margin.  I used that time to talk to Mer on the phone.

Tuesday:
When we got back to Habitat HQ, I walked the .75 miles down the street to take pictures of the outside of Cereal City, a shameless self-promotion for Kellogg’s cereal. Still, since Mer is a big cereal fan, and it was a nice day, it was worth the walk to take a few photos.

The official entertaiment of the evening was to be game night. We had Fluxx, but I decided I needed to go out and get another game that Sonotmu introduced me to, Blokus. I told Craig I was headed to Target to look for it, and he requested the game Pit as well. Target was only about 15 minutes away, and it took me almost that long just to get the lock off of the Habitat gate (Ami had 3000 keys on her key ring, and they all looked the same in the semi-dark). I was sad when I got to Target that they did not have Blokus or Pit, but I picked up SkipBo in honor of Mer’s grandparents; I figured I could introduce some people to team SkipBo if all else failed. There was a mall across the street from Target, so I took a chance that Barnes and Noble might have Blokus, which they did. So, after a mere 45 minutes or so, I returned with Blokus and SkipBo. SkipBo never did get played, but I introduced Craig and two students to the game. We played a couple of times, and I did not win. Blokus became another popular game for the rest of the week. I know there were other games going on, but I am not sure which ones they were, because I was not playing them. I know Catch Phrase was being played because of the shouted clues.

Wednesday: I tried vainly for about 20 minutes to get Craig’s laptop to hook up to the local wireless base station. The laptop could see the signal, but could not connect. I’m assuming we did not have the correct encryption and/or the correct password, because I could not get it to work.

I spent some time looking at the pictures a student was taking of the trip (about 1000 at that point), which was fun. Seeing the pictures other people took of the trip is a good thing.

The exciting entertainment of the evening for most people was going to a local department store called Meiers or something like that. I say most went, because Craig, nine students, and I stayed behind to practice our murder mystery, Murder at Dunmore Lodge. We were going to “perform” it on Thursday, so we had to practice. I was coordinating the onstage action (as well as getting to be the guy who figures things out), and Craig was going to coordinate the crowd. Anyway, we had to run through it, especially where one or two had not even had a chance to read the script. The run-through was much fun, and went okay. We were not going to win any awards for production value (especially where we needed to have our scripts on stage with us), but it looked like it would work for entertainment.

The rest of the group got back from the store, with Nate and a student sporting new hats. They also brought us a dart gun as a prop for the mystery, but they had not been able to find handcuffs that we had wanted. Craig said we might find them on the job site.

Thursday: Craig was right – we actually DID find a pair of toy handcuffs on the job site on Thursday during the day. That was bizarre. Back at Habitat HQ, I played a (losing) game of Fluxx, and then a (winning) game of Blokus. After supper and lunch crew, we had the big murder mystery. I don’t have any pictures since I was actually in the play. It was fun. The audience seemed into it. Craig divided the room into groups of four or five, and we took time between each scene to let the teams discuss what they thought was going on. The teams were pretty sharp. They picked up on things I thought they would never catch. No one completely guessed what was going on, but everyone picked up on some of the things, and one or two teams were very very close. The students I was with on stage did a great job. We had a few actors in the group, but mostly we were just game souls. I was particularly impressed with the chambermaid yelling at me about “he had a KNIFE IN HIS CHEST!” and the supermodel screaming off stage (that made several people in the audience jump).

Friday: Friday was the seventh-annual Diakonos talent contest. We had something like eleven acts in it this year. These included:

The five-minute Music Man performed by the cast of the Music Man.

A short round sung about not putting garbage in my back yard.

A demonstration of Judo, with the help of a very game volunteer.

A new twist on fusion dance, where one student was the upper half of the dancer, and one student was the lower half. This resulted in the occational kicking of the upper dancer in the face.

   
A joke told about a lawn mower, with a willing volunteer.

A student and I danced part of a ceili (Irish socal) dance. Sorry, no pictures – I was dancing.

A funny folk song about “Railroad Bill” and the power a songwriter has over a subject.

A student-led small teaching session on belly dancing. Many kudos to the four students who were learning it as they went!

The dance group “Two Daisies in an Autumn Mist” performed their interpretive dance to MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This.”

We had two students do a duet rap of “Fresh Prince of Bel Aire.”

We finished the night with Nate doing his second annual reading of a carefully edited romance novel. Nate would read the novel, and two students would act out the drama. Another student was on stage to play all the props. My favorite prop moment was when Nate read something like “She woke up and the basket was gone”; the prop ran out of the room because he was, well, gone. Brilliant. Nice way to end the evening. I have not laughed that hard in a long time.

Every evening on the trip, we sang several hymns or songs, and then Craig gave a short message from the Bible. Craig is very good at this – I like what he has to say. Here is how the (explicit) spiritual life of the trip went:

Sunday night: Even on the first night, Craig was ready. Way to go, fearless leader! We sang a few songs, but I was fighting one of my classic I-did-not-drink-enough-today headaches, so I don’t remember what they were. I’m not even sure if I sang (I think I did). The songs were simple arrangements all week – either solo guitar (except for Friday night when we had one duet) or a capella. It was nice.

Craig taught out of Isaiah chapter 1. This is a chapter where God rebukes the people for bringing sacrifices to him without knowing him or heeding him. God points out that even animals know their masters, but Israel does no know God. From these verses, Craig pointed out that you can be doing religious things that are right and good, but if your heart is not right with God, then God rejects them. Religious activity with a wrong heart is worthless.

Monday night: We sang three songs. I was feeling much better this night! Craig started his talk by explaining the concept of mythos – (related to myth) – mythos is the collection of stories that we see the world through. We all have a mythos. In America, it can be the mythos of rugged individualism, or consumerism, etc. Craig shifted gears and locations to Narnia for a minute. He explained that in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children have to flee London because of the war. The war is a large part of their mythos. When the children go through the wardrobe into Narnia, Narnia becomes their mythos. The war fades almost entirely away, but Narnia is very real. When the children get back to their world, the Narnia mythos does not fade – most of the children remember and are influenced by Narnia their whole lives. The Narnia mythos is more real than the London/war mythos – it spans worlds.

Craig then brought it back to us here in America. He asked if the American mythos is portable. It is to a certain extent – I can eat at a Burger King in Singapore if I want to. I do not have to engage the local mythos at all. The next question to ask: is the American mythos global? It is, in that we have influence around the world, but it tends to be self-centered.

Scripture is portable (it crosses culture), and it is global in a real sense. It shifts “me” to “we” or “you,” and it shifts the mythos from “me” to God. The entire worldwide church is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. When one member of the church suffers, it should affect all of us. Our mythos needs to be rooted in the real mythos of God’s perspective.

Jonathan Edwards said something to the effect of “Until you see something of the holiness of God, you cannot love God.” This tied back to Sunday’s teaching – you can not be devoted to God until you see something of his holiness. If God is one of many things you are devoted to (like one flavor of ice cream out of several you like), then you will not be devoted to God.

In Isaiah 6, Isaiah receives his call. He sees a vision of God, and he realizes “…I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King…” God then does something extraordinary – he cleanses Isaiah with a coal from the altar. This is not how things normally work in Isaiah’s time – there is normally no cleansing of sin without sacrifice. It is a moment where God shows his authority and sovereignty over sin.

From a mythos point of view, Isaiah realizes he is a part of his people – he is not isolated (the “people of unclean lips”). The mythos of God is more real, though – God cleanses Isaiah, and commissions him to speak to the people. Isaiah’s life is far from easy from that point, but his mythos is real. The tumultuous political situation of Isaiah’s day was less real than the mythos of God – the only successful king of Isaiah is Hezekiah, who trusts in God and all of Judah is saved as a result. The other kings who trusted in Egypt or other political alliances were put to shame.

When we can worship God or worship ourselves, we should worship God. We are not good at playing God, and nothing takes the place of seeing God.

Tuesday evening: Craig gave the group an opportunity to share what was going on. Some things that came up:
– college decisions were becoming clearer
– students felt accepted by the larger group on this trip, even if they were not close friends at school
– we were encouraged to continue to be kind to Dave, a volunteer on the job site, and to pray for him and share the good news if possible
– it is a tough thing to give over your future to God
– one student expressed interest in a life of service
– it was noted that some people were coming out of their shells
– the trip was hard, but with the group it was easier to get through
– we were applauded for being positive and encouraging

Craig talked about how Isaiah talks a lot about God’s messenger. Many of those verses are understood to talk about Jesus, but Craig says that does not let us off the hook. Since we are to imitate Jesus, we need to be messengers too. The basic message is that God has come and is coming again.

We looked at Isaiah 34 and 35. Chapter 34 shows the world under God’s judgment – wherever God is not is desert. Chapter 35 looks ahead to God’s way – the way that rises above the desert, and is smooth and straight.

Our message is about what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do. We should live in hope (for the smooth way of God). Are we being transformed by the life God gives? By our hope?

Wednesday night: We sang a few songs and then took a few requests for hymns. Craig read this:
Psa 127:1 Unless Jehovah builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless Jehovah keeps the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.

It was late, and Craig said it would ironic to read about God giving rest and then keep us up with a long message, so he let us go to sleep.

Thursday evening: We sang four songs, and then had a share time again.
– encouraged to show love to Dave
– devotions can be hard, but the student could not sleep the previous night and spent the time praying, and it was good
– one student said that her close freinds were not on the trip, but that things had gone well – we can all get along as fellow Christians
– it is good to get to know people on the trip
– one of the chaperons shared how proud she was of the kids; it was echoed by two other chaperons
– we were commended for being easy to work with and for being encouraging
– a student described herself as critical, but this trip was helping with that
– when you come to the end of youself (as early as day one), you turn to God
– it is easy to “go back into yourself” – old habits
– we are called to greater things – must rely on God
– trips break up routine and schedules – makes faith come alive again
– the chaperons were applauded for being good examples of servants
– the adults can be talked to and really care
– encouraged to share the good news with Dave if an opportunity came up
– we choose to get along and to serve God (it is a choice)
– we are probably fulfilling what the CVCA founders had hoped for – living in community and looking to serve
– why wait until the end of senior year to build community?
– this week looks like the early church – all things held in common and helping each other
– looking ahead to “real life” can shortchange high school relationships

Craig reminded us about mythos and devotion. The trip was not about CVCA or Battle Creek; it was not about demolition; it is about the heart. Life is where the Lord is; otherwise, there is desert. We share and walk together. God has come and is coming.

We looked at Isaiah 61. We were reminded to imitate Jesus, and to give beauty for ashes, and to change mourning to joy. The ashes point was well taken in that we were dealing with ashes and dust all week in demolition.

Friday evening: We sang five songs and shared again.
– I shared how I was impressed at how hard the kids worked
– a student that struggles with negative thoughts had been positive and peaceful all week
– one student shared how her grandfather had died the night before the trip began, and the trip was helping her to deal with that
– this trip was a chance to implement spiritual change; God is God, and we are not
– it was shared that Dave was saved three months ago
– it was shared that some out of our team got to meat Juan and his two daughters; they were putting in “sweat equity” in working toward a Habitat home

Craig shared that in Isaiah 54 and 55, we see the world as it really is (God’s mythos). We have hope – God is married to us. We would not cheat on our spouse, so why do we cheat on God? Why are we not more devoted?

God cares for his people. We have a heritage (as messengers). God owns us and values us. We are unconditionally loved. Isaiah gives us a vision of the desert blooming – of briars giving way to juniper.

In addition to these evening times, we had brief messages from the students at breakfast. I did not have my notebook at breakfast, so I cannot relate the details.

Many thanks to all who gave time and talent to helping the group worship, and many thanks to those who shared.

We ended up spending most of our time in three houses within a block of each other (and 2 houses were side by side). There was a little work outside of these three houses, none of which I was involved in (I did all of my work in the three main houses). The outside work included:
– a little drywall work in a house that was mostly finished
– picking up shingles off of the ground at a house that was being re-shingled
– moving a very heavy “play house” that was something like 12′ x 12′
– loading up several storage sheds on to trailers to be moved to sites

As far as work that I was involved in:

Monday: The work site was about 3 miles from the Habitat headquarters, so a very short drive right through downtown Battle Creek. The group was split into three groups: one made up of guys went to move the “playhouse,” one went to a house on Jericho Street, and I went with Mrs. Dubbs’ group to a house about a block from Jericho. It turned out that I was the only guy on the group. The primary focus of the work in this house was to finish interior demolition – some had been done already. We had to clear all plaster and laths that were still on the walls and ceilings, we had to remove all baseboards, we had to shovel and clear out the powder insulation that was all through the house, and we had to pull out every nail on the walls and ceilings. For those who have never dealt with laths, there are many many nails for every board, and so there is an endless-seeming supply of nails on a wall where laths have been torn down. I got to work pulling down the remains of a ceiling, and I pulled nails out of the ceiling boards. This was to take most of the day, and was largely overhead work (it was tough on my shoulder by the end of the day).

The rest of the team attacked the chimney, tearing it down from the roof line to the basement in about 5 hours or so – they cranked on it. The bricks were thrown out the window, and then were picked up by a team on the ground, and then thrown in the almost-full dumpster. By the end of the day, the dumpster was full, and we had to start piling trash on the lawn. Other students went to work on the baseboard, which did not come up easily. This led to shouts of “Oh, yeah!” and such when a board let loose. There were also multiple people who were trying to keep the job site clear of junk, with only some success – we were making messes faster than they could be cleared, especially on the second floor where we were mostly concerned with teardown instead of cleaning up.

We did join the rest of the group for lunch over on Jericho Street. That group had walked into a house that had not been touched, and were just doing demolition on it. To make things more fun, they had no dumpster, so they were trying to work around piles of debris.

Tuesday: I went back to the same house as on Monday, but with a slightly different group of students. The students are encouraged to switch around sites to get to work with different students and to work on different houses.

I puttered around a bit, and then talked with a Habitat guy (Dirk) who wanted me to take a student with me next door and tear down a ceiling. The house next door was mostly stripped inside, but there was one room that still had a drywall ceiling on it. Habitat had hoped to keep it since it was in good shape, but the heating crews needed it removed. So, I got a student, and we went at the ceiling with a hammer and a crowbar. It made a huge mess, but we managed to plow through all of the sheet rock in about two hours. Unfortunately, tearing down the drywall left all of the drywall screws in the ceiling, which (you guessed it) had to come out. But that would have to wait – I had to make a trip to Lowe’s to get more dust masks; we were going through 20 or so a day (it was messy work), and I had only brought 40. I got back from Lowe’s just in time for lunch, which was over at Jericho again. Right at the end of lunch, a dumpster was delivered to the Jericho site. It is an odd thing to be so glad to see a giant trash can, but now the Jericho house could be cleared out of all the piles of debris that were lying around everywhere.

After lunch, four students and I used two drills to take out the drywall screws. It was all overhead work, and the drills got heavy fast, so we took turn spelling each other. Sometime during the afternoon, a truck delivered our replacement dumpster (the full one had been taken away right after lunch). I helped clean up our drywall mess, and the crew in the other house cleared their trash up. I wrapped the day up by going back to the original house and I pulled nails for another half hour.

Wednesday: We (the group) started the day by loading some siding on to a trailer. The siding was in cardboard that had sat out for some time, and the cardboard was quite slimy. I did not load – I just watched and took pictures.

I then went back to the house where we had taken down the drywall ceiling (I called it the “new” house – in the sense it was new to me on Tuesday as opposed to the original house from Monday). I worked with one of the chaperons who is very handy (he does construction). We set to work doing framing. The chaperon (Nate) and a Habitat worker (Mike) did the actual framing. We had two students cut the boards using a circular saw. They were a little nervous at first, but they did a nice job. I kept an eye on things while I pulled nails out of framing studs that we had taken down so that we could reuse them. We spent the entire day (except lunch over at Jericho) doing framing. It was a pretty easy day for me, and I felt a little under-utilized. It was probably okay so that I could recover from all of the overhead work of the last two days, but I still felt as if I did not do too much.

Thursday: We started the day loading siding again. Again, I just took pictures. I then headed over to the original house, where I finally got my hand slimy by unloading the siding with the help of four other students. That took probably about 30-45 minutes. I saw that I was not really needed at the new house, so I headed over to Jericho to see if I could be useful.

I started by going into the kitchen to help remove a ceiling in there. It actually turned out to be three ceilings – the original plaster-and-lath ceiling, and two more ceilings installed over it (I think one was plaster and one was drywall). The ceiling came down in cascades of plaster – so much so that I actually found chunks of plaster in my underwear later in the day.

I did that for awhile, and then I left it (in a volunteer’s (Dave’s) good hands) for a water break. I saw part of the group cleaning out the garage around the side of the house. I was tired of plaster and dust, so I leant a hand at hauling the junk. On one trip to the dumpster, I found a DVD of the movie Mean Girls, which I gave to Craig since it was a point of pride that he had never seen a Lindsay Lohan film.

I then went back inside and pulled out the old electrical wire (it was not up to code), and then pulled more nails. Now that I was over at Jericho, lunch was served over at the new house. I spent the rest of the day on pulling wire and nails. One interesting thing about Jericho – it had gas pipes in the ceiling for gas lighting! Pretty cool – that must have been from around 1890 or so.

Friday: Friday was the last day we had on the job sites. I went back to Jericho, where I had the satisfying job of getting to go in the basement and tear out the furnace and all the ductwork. I got to do this with my boss, who was a chaperon on the trip. We were saving the duct work for scrap, but we could still hammer on the stuff in order to get it down. With some help, we got the furnace and hot water heater removed. We also had some students attack the cast iron sewage pipes with sledge hammers. We yanked out all of the small iron and copper piping that was used for water (to faucets).
 
At lunch (at the new house), Habitat brought us brownies, ice cream, and hot fudge as a thank you. That was very nice of them (and quite good to eat after a week of low chocolate availability!).

After lunch, I went back to Jericho to finish cleaning up the basement. The group as a whole finished up the house about 3:00. Not too bad – a whole interior demolished in five days. We all went back to the new house, where the group spent time cleaning up while the group that was already there continued to do framing. I helped Craig and a couple of students yank one-inch staples out of the old kitchen floor, which is harder than it sounds. We wrapped up around 4:00 or so, and called it a week.

I am very proud of the students – they worked very hard, and I never heard any complaining. As a matter of fact, one day the crew on dumpster duty spent most of the day singing songs ranging from  The Lion King to Sunday School songs. I get to be involved with some very quality students – one the best benefits of working at CVCA.

Post script – I do not know how long the link will be active, but here is a short video the local paper made:
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/VIDEO/70330012

This was my second year to go on the Diakonos Spring Break trip. Every year, CVCA sends some students and adults to go help Habitat for Humanity in a city within a few hours of NE Ohio. This year we went to Battle Creek, Michigan, with 25 students and 8 adults.

We could not have asked for a nicer day to travel on. We met at the school last  Sunday around 12:30, and we got on the road around 1:15 or so. We loaded into 4 vans, 1 pickup truck, and my car (a Ford Focus hatchback). Last year, we used my car to haul stuff, but this year it was not needed for that. My car was going along mostly as a around-town vehicle to run errands in, which it is very handy for.

The weather was fine, and we took route 80 West into Indiana, where we headed north on route 69. A short trip west on I-94 took us to Battle Creek. We had two short stops along the way – once in western Ohio, at the only non-renovated why-did-we-stop-at-THIS-rest-stop stop along the highway. Folks used the bathroom and bought some food if they wanted to, and we got back on the road fairly efficiently (about 15 minutes). We then stopped about an hour later in Michigan to gas up some of the vans. All in all, I think the trip took about 4.5 hours.

Once we got to the Habitat for Humanity building we would be staying in, we unloaded the vans, and we got set up in our rooms where we would be staying for the week. The facility was fairly nice; the girls had two smaller rooms to keep their stuff in and sleep in, and the guys had one small room to stash our stuff in; we slept in the big common room. Habitat provided small mattresses for everyone – they were thin (about 3″ thick), narrow and long, and most people just threw their sleeping bags on the mattresses. I have back problems, so I brought an air mattress to sleep on – I was spoiled, but it kept my back in fairly good working order for the trip.

The facility had 4 bathrooms – 2 guys’ bathrooms and 2 girls’ bathrooms. During the week, after we got back from the job sites, the girls got to “convert” one of the bathrooms into a girls’ bathroom so they could have 3 showers (there were 19 girls to 14 guys on the trip). The kitchen was fully equipped and could seat all 33 of us, albeit a little cosily.

So, the trip got off to a very good start. I’ll try to blog more over the next few days. I’ll break down the trip into categories: the working day, the spiritual life, and entertainment.

God is pulling no punches this week. Our group is going on a trip to help the poor. Yesterday we get the visit from the census folks doing research that leads to stats on the poor. Then, Ken gave a very angry sermon based on Amos about how badly we treat the poor (you “buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals” from Amos chapters 3 and 8, mainly). Wonder what God is trying to say to me?

Our address was selected at random to be part of the Census Bureau’s surveys. It involves being visited once/month for four months, then being “out of the survey” for eight months, then being back in the survey for four months again. They ask questions about how many people live here, do we both work, are we working full time, how many hours is that, etc. Each month also has a supplemental survey. One month it was about going out to eat, one month it was about smoking. This month it was about poverty and about health insurance. As part of that, we got a brochure from the Census Bureau on the latest stats on poverty and health insurance. Some lowlights:
– Earnings went up 1.1% last year, but real median income (they do not explain what this is, but it is different from earnings) has gone down 1.8% for men and 1.3% for women from 2004 to 2005. This has gone down for two years for men and three years for women.
– The number of uninsured went up 1.9 million people from 2004 to 2005, to 46.6 million people (15.9% of the population).
– 12.6% of Americans live in poverty (37 million people).

It is a little ironic (or good timing) that this survey happened the day before our group leaves for Habitat. I don’t have great answers to help the poor across the country, but at least some teenagers can help three families out.

I’m off to Battle Creek, MI, for this year’s Diakonos trip. Diakonos is the CVCA service group that helps with Habitat for Humanity. This year there is a group of about 25 students going, and we’ll be gone about 6 days (over spring break). I’ll try to keep notes like I did last year (check out postings here if you want an idea of what goes on).

We had a solid Fools show this last Thursday. It was a rainy evening, and it was the Thursday before spring break (a day that can be project/test/paper intensive), and there was an Ohio State basketball game on TV, and we still a decent-sized crowd of about 30 people. The audience was a little quiet, which is weird when you are on stage, but Meredith (who was in the audience) says she heard lots of murmured comments such as “that was funny” or “that was great.”

I was pleased with how the show went – we had a few slow spots, and as the director I noticed a few spots where I would have liked things to have been heightened or for relationships to have been stronger, but on the whole I think the Fools did well. The show went about an hour and ten minutes total. I also was encouraged in that a junior who was quite funny in Audience Participation Freeze wants to join the Fools; I asked him to try it this year for the five weeks remaining before our last show. I know it is not much time, but it will help him get used to improv, and it will help me get the Fools up to six people for the last show (my ideal case is 7-8 people). The last show should be on Tuesday, May 1st, so mark your calendars.

Mer and I did the whirl-wind tour to South Bend and back this last weekend. We went out to see Sis-der, Prof. Dad, and of course, the World’s Cutest Niece (WCN).
The trip out was uneventful. It takes about 4.5 hours to get to Sis-der’s house when we leave from CVCA (including one supper stop). For good measure, we threw in a bonus Dairy Queen stop just over the Indiana line, and then we managed to miss our exit, which resulted in a 20-minute delay. So, we got to Sis-der’s house about 10:00 or so, and after quiet greetings (the WCN was in bed), we all rambled off to go to sleep.

Saturday was a nice, sunny day. Mer and I slept in until about 8:30, and as good fortune would have it, so did the WCN. Prof. Dad had to put in some office time, and had an appointment as well, so he left shortly after I got up and had showered. While Mer got ready for the day, I took the opportunity to throw some Maura O’Connell on the stereo and danced WCN around the room. WCN then headed off to take a nap (taking after Uncle Mu!).

Since our friends who live in South Bend, Gen and Dan, were coming over to visit, and since it was St. Patrick’s day, Sis-der made soda bread while I watched her and listened to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me on the radio (a favorite Saturday pastime of mine). Mer joined us about 1/3 of the way into Wait, Wait.

Sis-der offered to take us to a museum, so we decided to go to the Healthwork’s Children’s Museum once Sammy was up. We got Sammy bundled to go, and we took the short drive to downtown South Bend. We parked in a parking garage and walked to the museum, where we were greeted by a large human heart. I was taking a liking to this place….

The museum is dedicated to teaching kids about how the body works, and they don’t shy away from some of the more disturbing things. I beat Mer in a quiz (by one question) on “grossology” that included questions about snot and sweat and such. There was a climbing wall made to look like skin, including a very large skin mite bug thing. There was a computer program that asked you about you (height, fingerprint style, eye color, etc.). The WCN was looking rather worried by an entire wall of intestines.

My clear favorite was this picture of just the eyes and the brain. How much more 50s monster movie can you get? It reminded me of the optometrist sign in The Great Gatsby.

After about 45 minutes in the museum, it was time for the WCN to eat. So, Sis-der FORCED us to go to the downtown South Bend Chocolate Cafe. What a wonderful store. Not only was it a very nice and comfortable cafe, but it had lots and lots and lots of chocolate. I did have a real sandwich first, but then I had a very good turtle cheesecake, washed down by a dark hot chocolate. I was feeling pretty queasy then. Next time I go, I will have to try the Chocolate Explosion cake – it is the biggest piece of cake I have ever seen – it was between 10 and 12 inches high, and they were not shy about cutting it rather large (which is good, since it costs $10 per slice).

Since lunch was so exhausting, we went back home, where WCN and I decided to take naps. Once I got up from my nap, I watched WCN and Prof. Dad play in the “Playpen of Wonder” (it’s all in the marketing) until it got close to WCN’s bedtime. About that time, Gen and Dan came over for supper. Sis-der and Prof. Dad had made a very good meal of chicken and soda bread and a potato/cauliflower dish. Dessert was a light cake, made heavy by a good portion of chocolate ice cream. It was great to see Dan and Gen – they are funny and interesting people. It always makes me think when I am at a table with two doctors, two lawyers, an English teacher with a Masters degree, and me. At least for now, I have more education than the WCN!

After I was done eating, I excused myself to the much more comfortable couch. I have some back issues, and I do not like sitting in wooden chairs for longer than I need to. I finished the evening by reading most of Shaw’s Pygmalion, while listening to the conversation in the dining room (the adjoining room).

Sadly, Mer and I had to leave on Sunday morning, but the weather was good, and we made it home in almost 5 hours on the dot. We still hope to get back to see WCN and company about once a month.

After several months of obsessing about it, I finally got a Dobro (or resonator guitar) today. I really love the sound of Dobros. I hope to spend several happy months learning the basics. Click here or here to hear this model (a Gold Tone PBS) of resonator guitar being played by someone much better than I am.