I’m at home taking a break (and downloading the latest ep of You Know What (and if you don’t know What, then that’s OK)) from my busy day. I got up early today (and not just cuz Leo wanted me up) to get to the school by 8am. Tonight is the Alumni Banquet for Newton High School, and I’m on the Alumni Executive Committee. So, how did someone as lazy as me get on the committee? Easy – I’m the only one who knows how the database of addresses works…

Last year was the first year the database moved from the retired teacher (who’d been keeping it up to date)’s computer to the school. The old database was Works, but we don’t have Works at school. So I managed to make a half-decent Access Database with it and was able to print out that list of addresses for the Alumni. The 10-year class last year decided they didn’t want to put the banquet on (it’s tradition at Newton for the 10 year class to run the banquet and the 25, 50 and 75 year classes are honored), so several grads (mostly from the class of ’57) created the Alumni Executive Committee and put the thing on. This year, as they were preparing, they asked if we could create an account on our network for members to access the database for data-entry. No problemo, I said. And I set it up. And the committee asked me to join them in their monthly meetings, so I did. And suddenly I realized that I was on the committee.

Well, actually, I’ve had a lot of fun with the Alumni Executive Committee. The ladies and gentlemen on it are funny, laid back, and really support Newton School. They’ve been working hard – we’ve been working hard – on getting things ready for this evening. So this morning at 8, everyone was at the school, loading in tables from every church & business in the county, bringing in chairs, decorating, etc. I made posters & signs and name-tags yesterday and they were displayed where need be today. (I had a rather severe typo in one sign that I made. For the 50/50 Raffle, the sign said “$1 each. $6 for 5. $15 for 10.” Whoops! Put the dollar signs on the wrong numbers! Still, I figured we’d make more money that way. (It was an easy fix – just printed off new ones with the corrections and voila, that task was done.)

I worked there until 11am, then I had to drive off to New Bremen (judiang & elsaf – that’s the town just north of Minster, where the Pizza Hut is) for our annual B-WISER meeting. Not a lot of teachers were able to make it, but it was a very productive meeting. And thankfully, we’ll be going in on Sunday instead of Saturday this year. And we won’t have to teach on the Friday. Alas, same dorm as always, but, hey, Carolyn and I are used to our room by now.) Denise, the lady who owns the house where we met, provided pizza and drinks (she and her hubby have a FABULOUS antique bar from a hotel in Ft. Loramie – so I got an amaretto sour) and we got to business. Both Denise and Susan (co-administrators for the camp) made goodies for dessert, too. Mmmmm! Brownies & chocolate chip cookies!

We were done there at 2:30, so I headed home. I’ll probably head back to the school in 20 minutes or so. The dinner’s not until 6pm, but we get folks arriving at 4:30, so we need to be ready. I’ll be introducing the MC and speaking on behalf of someone donating books to the school, as well as explaining why the Mr&Mrs didn’t make it onto the invites. So, wish me luck!