January 30, 2007
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The Daily News
1 January.2 It's funny because around three weeks ago I wrote about how much I loved January and all.
3 Still do. I love the sky and the sort of normalcy and familiarity that is January.
4 Never tempt the Fates, however.
5 Up on the Chill on the Hill, things fly fast and furious in January.
6 All was well right after Christmas, like all seems well when a rollercoaster first starts clacking slowly to its first drop.
7 Last week climbed up very slowly and then dropped instantly into a treacherous dive followed by thundrous curves and turns and corkscrews so frightening that for a while I thought I'd fall out and fall from a dizzying height.
8 In the midst of the madness last week I talked with a fellow teacher who used to do lights for his high school drama program. I was amazed because I had no idea this guy knew lights. He was a tech guy, through and through.
9 Now here's a little secret coming to you from a former director: you ALWAYS love your tech crew. They always put in thousands of hours and never ask for recognition, and seldom ask for anything in return. Millions of hours are just a part of the day for them. They're all about making it all just happen, no questions asked.
10 Anyway, when I asked why the guy doesn't do lights anymore, he told me about having gone up one of those way tall ladders with ropes to make them go even higher, to reach a light way at the top of a high stage, when his wrench fell.
11 Your wrench is supposed to be tied to your belt, but being a tech guy, he said, "Ah, baloney. I won't drop it!"
12 When it fell, he described it as taking forever before it reached the vanishing point.
13 That was the last time he went up a ladder to do lights, and the last time that he indeed DID lights.
14 A dizzying height.
15 Well, there are parts of a rollercoaster when they just cruise for a small strip before dropping again and whipping around, just before the ride ends.16 That's about where I am right now in January.
17 I have a few more drops and brainbell-jangling turns and twists, a Talent Show on Friday night and then it will all come to a sudden stop. I'll wobble off this ride into Saturday, and hope the world slows itself down before I go to the next big ride next week, which is Camp Everytown, formerly Camp Anytown.
18 It's a great park I'm walking through, and an entire DN of one massive analogy, but I think it is a good one.
19 Ah, the amazing fun life can throw at you!
20 My good friend Jesse, who ran all this stuff at the Chill on the Hill last year, said this of being an Activities Director, another analogy, but just as fun: "Being an Activities Director is like running a wedding every week."21 So I'm not sure which is better. In many ways, running a wedding IS a rollercoaster ride, so somewhere in there lies the reality.
22 Some fun.
23 Hope you enjoyed the ride.
24 Peace.
~H~
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