Surprise SONW
Frankly, despite my horror of the press, I'd love to rise from the grave every ten years or so and go buy a few newspapers.
-- Luis Buñuel
Saturday, December 30, 2000
One year ago: Saying Thanks
Two years ago: Swing Out IV
Two years ago: Snarky
I woke up and studied my schedule. The first class period was electives and I didn't have one scheduled! So I had the morning free to do journal entries, and even get a quick start on the day's newsletter.
Dapper Dan dropped by my room to tell me that his micro-drive (a cool little hard drive that would fit in his digital camera -- neat idea) had apparently gone to his home address despite his request to ship to Port Townsend, so he didn't need to ride with me to Mailboxes Etc. He'd been talking about this all week, so it was very frustrating for him.
I drove down to Mailboxes Etc. Good thing the girl working there had peeked in the envelope I'd left there the night before, and figured out it was a print job! I think I'd been introduced to several people over there the other day, but she was out in the shed or something. Issue 5 looked good on Ivory paper.
* * * * * * * *
At lunch, I sat next to Mattias and Âsa. I showed them the bit of Swedish translation ("Has your dorm room any heat?") but said I didn't know who had written it. When Lennart came to join them, he said that Karen Holt had done it, but hadn't gotten quite correct since she speaks Norwegian. "Ah," I exclaimed, "she looks Norwegian, too." Steve Holt told me later that it had turned into a multi-language pun; the word for room, "rum", and the word for rum, "rom", had been confused by me or by Karen. So what I'd had the Swedish phrase for was "Do you have any hot rum?"
Then Catrine, who'd been given a pink poodle purse by Lennart in the Cabaret show last night, came by chasing someone who was wearing the poodle on his head.
People were howling over the "blues-charleston" article. I told Greg to let me know if anyone thought it was a real class, and asked him where it was going to happen. One girl, a non-native English speaker, did ask me about it, but I was able to let her know it was intended humourously with no hurt feelings on her part, I think.
My first class after lunch was Steven Mitchell, but this time it was a jazz dance class rather than lindy hop. I was able to get most of the steps of the first half, but when my feet started to hurt, I sat on the sidelines and just watched. He was using a great version of "It Don't Mean a Thing" for the music, by a growling, nasty (in a good way) solo trombone with rhythm section. I do tend to get messed up on the steps where you cross behind then whip-turn around. That needs practice!
The next class was in the same building, different room. Balboa, yay! I do like how Rob and Diane are teaching this. Most people are making good progress. It's certainly a dance that needs to be danced close, in some ways closer than the blues slow grind stuff.
* * * * * * * *
I made so much progress on tomorrow's issue of the newsletter, and people had promised me even more material late, that I decided to print tomorrow's issue late tonight, deliver it at breakfast, and do a special "EXTRA" edition for tomorrow at dinner. The idea of doing an Extra just made me giggle!
So I changed the "About this Zine" section where I'd said that it was the last issue and thanked people; I'll put that in the "Extra."
This evening was the T-shirt dance. I had two Freddie Baer shirts to choose from, so I showed them both off to Jen Hodge and Livia Gilstrap whose rooms were across the hall. I decided the pale green one was slightly more appropriate, somehow.
I picked up three passengers, one in front of the cafeteria (that's where they should be waiting if they want a ride) and two guys who were already walking down the road. The hall at the fairground was decorated with t-shirts (random ones that folks donated for the decor). It was fun looking at all the wild shirts people had put on -- old ones, weird ones, joke ones. One woman of size had one painted with a curvy girl-body in a bikini, and I couldn't resist giving her a pat on the ass! But she didn't take it the wrong way.
We all started dancing, and I noticed, dancing near the stage, that it was already set for George Gee, the band that's playing tomorrow night, including their music stands and all. "Hmmmm" I thought, "I wonder if they are already in town?" I knew they had a gig the previous night in Portland Oregon, so they might have arrived here early.
There was an announcement -- could Chris Chapman come to the DJ booth, since there was some technical problem? A few moments of silence, then we started hearing music. The George Gee band was hiding behind the curtain! They slowly walked out, playing the while, and got into their seats. Everyone was roaring, clapping, cheering!
This had been a secret that was well kept! Some of the staff knew, but not everyone. They sounded great, and I was really into the dancing. I told Steve Holt that this two-night thing was taking a risk, though. George Gee is a known quantity, but what if you did this with a band you hadn't heard before, and didn't like them? D'oh! You'd still be stuck with them for the second evening. Like that joke about first prize being a week's vacation in Philadelphia, and second prize being two weeks!
For an extra treat, we had pizza delivered. To let folks know, we paraded a few boxes around the room to lead people into the side room with the food set up.
* * * * * * * *
I left when the dance was done, and printed out my final copy for the newsletter. Instead of going to the convenience store I'd planned on using (not open at that hour), I wanted to try the copy machine at the Safeway. I saw George Gee and his band there, getting a late night snack, so I asked George for a quote for the newsletter. "Tell them we are looking forward to the swingin'-est New Years Eve ever!"
The copy machine was very frustrating for me. It didn't want to take my money! You could only put up to five bucks in at a time. If the paper misloaded, it would return all the money in a cruel jackpot of quarters that I didn't want. I got about 50 of one side copied, then the darn thing ran out of paper.
I decided to go up the hill and see if the QFC was open. It was, and the copy machine was working. At least they were smart enough to let you reload the paper if needed! So I got all of one side done, then finished off back at the Safeway, since I could use the paper I'd already copied one side on, feeding it through the manual feed slot.
This number 6 issue contained the announcement that we'll do SONW next year, and info about the CD-rom of digital photos that Mike Wendt is doing. I was expecially pleased with an ad about Catrine's poodle purse going missing, and a "ransom note" I tucked in the bottom of the second page, from someone who claimed to have dog-napped the poodle.
I went to the late night dancing for a hour or so, so I didn't get to bed until late.
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