I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes

I started my Russian class tonight! It's just a 6-week mini-course, but should be enough to wrap my brain around some stuff. Tonight was all about learning to decode the alphabet. That will provide plenty of fodder for practice (the instructor suggested half an hour every day if we want to make good progress). I left with that delightful "my brain is full" feeling.

This coming weekend is my Brandeis reunion. I am going in with medium-low expectations, which I think should mean that it's a good and low-key time. (Worst case, I can hang out by myself and read/write/explore/chill, all of which are fine things, and maybe call some folks in for auxiliary socializing as needed.) I also signed up to read Torah for egalitarian Shabbat morning services, which it finally occurred to me to find amusing (because when I was there, literally half my lifetime ago, I couldn't even begin to imagine being able to read). I'm actually a little out of practice, with how little leyning I've done in the last year and a half; I'll be cramming on the bus.

Since I'm not going with justom to Santa Fe the following weekend, I am going after all to Newport with the Blue Hill Troupe. It's their "Out-of-Town Show" (one reprise performance only of this spring's Mikado production), but it sounds like it is basically a Troupe retreat, complete with beach party (oh yeah, and set build and strike), which I think is going to be smashing fun. I'm riding up with my friend Michael, who is driving, and then returning Sunday afternoon in time for the matinee of My Name is Asher Lev.

There's a G&S "Sing-Out" marathon in Rockville, MD, over Labor Day weekend. My buddy Sam is encouraging me to sign up. It sounds fun -- especially remembering what an awesome time I had at the marathon at Brown that Adorable David took me to a few years back -- but I have this nagging feeling like I might need or want to be somewhere else over Labor Day. (I need to sign up in the next 2 weeks if I want to apply for any principal roles.) Anyone have alternative suggestions? Or should I go for it?

Dude. Brandeis is giving Paul Simon an honorary degree this year.

Think he'll come?

Also, what would it take for them to give one to Billy Joel? ;-)

For the uninitiated: Falling August was this band at Brandeis in the late '80s and early '90s. I maintain their only known fan page. This year, after some nudging from me, they also finally put up their own page at www.fallingaugust.com with -- joy of joys! -- free MP3s of every recorded song off their three albums. The site went down for several weeks shortly after it went up, then it was back (and right now it seems to be gone again, ugh!). But anyway, my page is still the top Google hit, and every so often (in fact, rather more often than you might believe), random people email me regarding the band.

While we were away last month, I got no fewer than 3 such emails. Two from fans -- and one from their audio engineer, Rob Lehmann (incidentally, also chair of Audio Media & Technology at the New England Institute of Art). Hey, he said, I found your page, Steve just had me remaster all the old albums to CD, I'd be happy to send you one since you're such a big fan, would you like a copy? Would I like a copy???

The CD came end of last week. I was so excited when I brought the mail in, J was like, "What *is* that?" :-) We were heading out on some errands shortly thereafter, so as soon as we got into the car, I popped the disc in and cranked it up.

It was -- like finding part of my heart that I had forgotten was missing. It sounds great.

( P.S. It's Jewish music! Okay, it's stealth Jewish music. )

I've already made one copy for tapuz, who was just as "bounce! bounce!" as I was. Anyone else? (Ping me with your mailing address at chanaleh@lj if there's no obvious time to hand it off in the next month or so. Worst case, I suspect I'll bring a few to Arisia, where I am likely to see many of you. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

*experiences more Brandeis/LJ worldshrink* *waves to danceboy*

Now, on with the memage.

I seriously doubt I can come up with 10 things I have done that none of you have, unless I throw in all sorts of unfair geographical qualifiers ("Cruised Wabash St. in Terre Haute, Indiana... on foot", "Saw The Merchant of Venice with navrins last night" [I liked it, btw]).

However, I can easily come up with 10 things I have now done that would have amazed the pants off my younger self -- say, 20 years ago. This is the sort of thing I was thinking about when the Rabbit Hole Day entries were going around: I could write an entry about my actual life now that would once have sounded like a rabbit-hole entry of my wildest dreams.

I have:
1. Moved to Boston (woo-hoo!)
2. Established a career in book publishing -- including going on 6+ years at a prominent university press
3. Attended the Hugo Awards
4. Learned to shoot a rifle
5. Walked 30+ blocks in Manhattan by myself of a beautiful spring afternoon
6. Been recruited for lead roles in two different non-musical community theater productions within 6 months
7. Sung with an a cappella group at Harvard for a year (Mizmor Shir, to be precise)
8. Dated men from Yale, [Dartmouth,] MIT, and, later, Princeton (trading up, of course ;-)
9. Made Phi Beta Kappa
10. Converted to Judaism
10'. Learned to read Torah and lead services (practically) every week
10''. Served as synagogue vice-president
10'''. Become the principal organizer of young adult Jewish programming in the city of Cambridge. (Seriously, this is the one that amazes me the most sometimes. Me, in the role of social outreach leader?)

Okay, a couple of things that probably *are* unique to me:
1. Sent a stalkery series of anonymous love notes to one of my college professors, including a sonnet with his name as the acrostic. (Mercifully, he seems to have forgiven me by now.)
2. Dated the president of the bscf for two consecutive years -- that is to say, two different consecutive presidents.
3. Got into a bar in Edinburgh at the age of 14.
4. Memorized Shelley's "Mont Blanc" in its entirety, for credit. (Geez, it's only 144 lines? It seemed so insurmountable at the time.)
5. Sung the sheva brachot for a friend's wedding ceremony.

Sexual exploits will be listed under separate cover. (Um, just kidding, Mom.)

Frances's pix from our BBQ! (Um, link deleted 'cause webshots.com tried to give navrins a virus-infected file. Phooey.)

Another Brandeisian gets on: Welcome, eesti. I knew we'd get you before much longer. ;-)

It has occurred to me in the past few days exactly how much I have committed to in the next 2 months!

Ordered the color laser proof for msmidge's ketubah, will have it tomorrow! (When I pick it up, they'll show me all the other available paper options, supposedly they have lots.) Two new ketubah (handwork) commissions for the summer, both referred by Rabbi Rim. One is to do Right Now -- for, shall we say, a double-bride wedding, yay! They only want me to do a single paragraph of the Hebrew, and the wedding is June 6, and they're FedExing me the document today so I'll probably do this Sunday morning (in-between singing engagements). The other is for the end of August, for my friend from shul.

Tonight: finish signage for concert, stop by shul to photocopy programs for concert, take a walk to the grocery store for (among other things) refreshments for the concert... make the very last corrections on the shul newsletter and deliver a final PDF for that... maybe vacuum... make some more headway on the Torah reading. And catch a breather with some pleasure reading, if I am lucky (or, perhaps, wise). But I doubt I will be.

Somewhere in here, I am supposed to be designing the event programs for Noreascon 4 (four documents for the four big events of Thursday through Sunday: the First Night festivity schedule, and playbills for the Retro Hugos, the actual Hugos, and the Masquerade). I should really start drafting something, but it will help to have content to play with. There's a general meeting Saturday afternoon so maybe I'll get something in place from that. I keep thinking I'd like to bring some kind of preliminary design draft to a meeting like this, but I have given up on that ambition for this week.

And I should start learning my lines, eh? I'll be taking my Lion in Winter script to Atlanta, that's for sure.

Okay, I'm leaving the office now. Really.