Reptiles, Volunteers, and more

Where to start... First, an apology. I've been MIA from many important parts of life for the past couple weeks. Essentially, my life consists of: work, school, Chicago Friends School, Brad, family, friends, the great city of Chicago, various intellectual pursuits, and activism (in no particular order). All but the first two have been cut from my mental energy budget recently.

At work, the annual volunteer appreciation dinner was Thursday. This is a yearly event, and it is a rather lavish affair, with a cocktail hour, a catered dinner, and a formal awards ceremony. Being the new gal in charge of it, I didn't feel comfortable scaling down the event to the more modest style I prefer. So I kept tradition and planned a fancy evening for our volunteers. I invited various staff members to present awards - my boss, the CEO, several heads of departments - and I emceed the ceremony, making opening and closing remarks. Even though this was not expressly stated, I felt it was the first test of my capabilities as the new volunteer manager. It is the first time the higher-ups have really seen me in action as opposed to hearing my updates in staff meetings.

Somehow, everything went perfectly. Chicago bestowed on us the best weather of the year - 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Attendance was higher than last year. The food and booze held out for the whole evening. And I even managed to conceal my nervousness at the podium and by the end of the ceremony actually began to enjoy being up there (without a drop of alcohol to help, by the way). My bosses seemed happy, and more importantly, the volunteers seemed happy. Thus, I am happy - mostly that this thing is behind me and I can focus again on building personal relationships, which is the real essence of my work.

Going back to last weekend, Reptile Fest was... Well, it was many things... A great people-watching experience, for one. I know what you're thinking - lots of greasy-haired, pale, socially inept guys with snake fetishes. But they made up only, like, 10% of the total attendance. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of females present. Also, tons of families brought their kids, many of whom had amazing knowledge of the creatures on display. I don't remember being that into anything when I was younger. I mean, I read a lot of books. But was I really into one particular subject to the point that I knew more about it than the average person? I don't think so. I feel like I missed out on that.

Remember the alligator story from last year's Reptile Fest? (The one that got out and made its way to the university swimming pool to wait for the swim team to arrive for practice the next morning?) Nothing quite that dramatic happened this year. But not ten minutes after setting up on the first day, they made an announcement over the loudspeaker that if anyone happened to run across a 2-foot black and white lizard to please return it to table 143. I looked down at my sandal-clad feet, imagining what it would feel like if this lizard crawled across them, and made a mighty effort to put the issue out of my mind. I never heard an announcement saying they'd found the thing, so it's probably made its way into someone's dorm room by this time.

Right in the middle of the Reptile Fest weekend and the big volunteer shindig was the due date for an enormous portion of my final project for school. I still am not sure how I got that done. But it was submitted, almost as if by an unknown hand, on Tuesday last week. I have all my interviews scheduled that will give me the major data for my research. They are all happening in the next two weeks. After that, I'll code and analyze the data, write it up in my report, and by June 8 submit my final project and have a degree. I absolutely cannot wait for that glorious day to come. I feel like I'll be a different person then.

I hope everyone I've been neglecting recently is doing great. Glad I got to talk to Dave for over an hour tonight! We should do that more often, eh?