Hogmanay

26. Happy Hogmanay (Jan '08)

Hello Friends,

It's the new year! 2008! Year of the Rat! I have been remiss in submitting my missives, so with your permission I will now reminiscence about those experiences you may have missed. Ahem.

One highlight at the end of 2007 was the Wonderful World of Words Weekend (me? fall for a festival based on gratuitous alliteration? never!). It took place in a gorgeous old hotel in upstate New York, in the Shawangunk mountains (Indian for "smoky air"). The air was not particularly smoky, but it was briefly full of whirling particulate matter, being the first (and so far only) snowfall of the season. Just enough to make the place ridiculously picturesque, and then melt away in time for me to drive home safely (rather than skid off the side of the mountain and become a splatted puddle of shawan gunk at the base).

The theme of the weekend was, of course, puzzles. And word games, cartoons, stories...anything that celebrates words as juicy, evocative elements of communication and recreation. To this end there were puzzles and games galore, plus several presentations: one by the guy who edits the cartoons for the New Yorker magazine (with a chance to submit clever captions for some uncaptioned cartoons.....of which none of mine were chosen. Drat); one by a woman who studies non-verbal communication (The Glorious Globe of Gesticulations?); and an inspiring talk about why stories are so vital to the human pysche, given by Ira Glass, the host of This American Life (a wonderful radio show which, if you haven't listened to it, go download some episodes at This American Life).

But the highlight of all highlights, the piece de resistance, the really neato keen bit was a five-part, puzzle-based treasure hunt which involved running around this huge hotel collecting clues, solving riddles, unscrambling enigmas, and racing the 80 or so other participants to be the first team to come up with the secret answer phrase. As some of you know, I love to create treasure hunts to torment and torture those I love. But it is very rare that I get to be the tormented party. So it was a special pleasure to be subjected to this monster of a puzzle, made even more enjoyable by my serendipitous adoption by a team of cut-throat-and-yet-cuddly competitors who were lacking one person to make the full complement of four. We were ruthless. We were devious. We knocked down old ladies and stole candy from babies, and it was all worth it, because we WON!!!!! Ah, it was sweet.

Since then, things have been pretty low key. If you were to graph the exciting events of my life, where time is the horizontal axis and excitement is the vertical one, it would look like a boa constrictor that had swallowed a pig. Or maybe a traffic cone. That is: a straight line, low to the ground (not much exciting going on) with a brief spike of big excitement (the traffic cone or pointy pig) and then not much exciting again.

Well, there are perhaps a few other slightly-exciting lumps (hamsters, maybe): I play my harp on Sunday afternoons at the Naked Chocolate Cafe (I was willing to be bold and put myself out there, but apparently it's only the chocolate that has to be naked. Phew). It's really upped my playing level, because not only do I perform once a week in front of a live audience (some of whom are even listening to what I'm playing), I've been practicing a lot in between to keep my material up to snuff, and to learn (and even arrange!) new stuff. And not only do I get paid, I get to choose whatever chocolate I want, for free! It's like being a kid in a candy store! (Almost exactly like being a kid in a candy store, in fact). Also, I've been dancing a lot. Blues, Salsa, and I'm beginning Tango. And there are other little things, but none remarkable enough to mar the serpentine silhouette.

So I will simply wish you a Happy 2008, and send you lots of love!

Andrea

Andrea Blumberg