Since I first sat back down at my desk last Saturday, I had this whole blog perfectly planned out. I was going to write about how coming back here felt even better than going back to California had felt, and how it seemed so right to be back here. Then, of course, I got distracted by awesome things like unpacking (unpleasant after sitting my duffel bag down in a pile of slush) and eating old oatmeal. So, I told myself I'd write the blog the next day. Wrong! I had meetings, books to get, schedules to plan, and people to see. So, it never happened. Then I told myself that I'd find time during the week.
SO WRONG! Come Monday morning, the madness was in full swing. Class, class, meeting, get books, turn in this and that, attempt to get keys for Marching Band, prepare ExCo materials, rehearsal...ahh! Tuesday was no different, really. Keep trying to obtain keys, fill out these forms, class, class, class, and still more ExCo preparation. I did find the time to go downtown for a yoga class, which was definitely relaxing. Then, I'd say the rest of the night was spent on, well...homework. Lots of it. Wednesday was a mess. So much so that I really can't even remember anything before the ExCo fair. I started preparing at 4 pm, and Lucy and I didn't finish working until at least midnight.
The fair itself was chaotic, overwhelming, and amazing. A whopping 83 people signed up for our ExCo, Knitting for Noobs. The other booth I was working, Marching Band, also had some awesome folks sign up. (Side note: join Marching Band! We will love you!)
I'm not even sure what else I should write about the ExCo fair. It was completely overwhelming in the best possible way, and definitely a great experience. It left me going to bed happy, albeit sleepy, in the wee hours of Thursday (most of which was dedicated to getting done all of Wednesday's leftover homework). The first Knitting for Noobs meeting was Thursday night, which was great fun. There's something intimidating about being an instructor. It's easy to approach it self-consciously, and to worry that something might go wrong, you might do a lousy job teaching, people might not like your class, etcetera. We might have approached it that way before class started...not going to lie, we were both nervous. But once people showed up and we got started, everything kind of fell into place. It's not easy to teach a large group of people how to knit all at once, as we found out. So, we might have stumbled on our words or paused one too many times, but by the end of it, we were having a damn good time. Our second section meets tonight, and I can't wait!
ExCos are one of my favorite things about Oberlin, no question. It allows you to really see how unique and creative everyone here is. Teaching an ExCo is a lot of work, and now that I know that firsthand, I find it really neat that so many people are passionate enough about what they do- whether it's circus, pottery, or anything else under the sun- that they'll put in hours of work to teach others. It's just really, really cool. The madness of this week has left me without the brainpower to access synonyms.
That was kind of a tangent. I was talking about the events of the week...I guess I ended on Thursday. Well, I did finally manage to obtain those keys, but that's pretty unnecessary to go into detail about. I think I'm going to stop there, because I have to go to Stevenson before class. Also because I feel like I've covered everything relevant. No, I haven't, but it's impossible to. Being back at Oberlin feels so perfect, I can't even put it into words. And running across campus multiple times a day trying to accomplish 1000 different things becomes kind of awesome when you realize that you love doing each and every one of those 1000 things. That may not have made sense, but I'm hungry, and I think I'm going to have pizza tonight.
