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Rent (1996 Original Broadway Cast)
By Jonathan Larson, Jeff Potter, Anthony Jackson, Daniel A. Weiss, Ira Siegel, Kenny Brescia, Steve Skinner, Adam Pascal, Aiko Nakasone, Anthony Rapp, Byron Utley, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Fredi Walker, Gilles Chiasson, Gwen Stewart, Idina Menzel, Jesse L. Martin, Kristen Lee Kelly, Rodney Hicks, Stevie Wonder, Taye Diggs, Timothy Britten Parker, Wilson Jermaine Heredia
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So, forthcoming is the Sue Cromer
Christmas letter. It should be fun this
year. It is in Dr. Seuss rhyme, so it should
be fun this time!
Here’s a preview – you get one stanza of the masterpiece of
poetry…
In October to the Province V chaplains’
conference we went.
The way home, the NU chaplain (Heather),
a pig to intercept.
Yes, a pig, I wondered too…
Was it alive riding in the back seat
with Sue?
It was in fact, frozen in boxes, so
quiet,
But I think that the story is a riot!
Now, if I can just actually get it in the mail, we will be
good. I have to brave the lines and go
and buy stamps today.
Oh, our big news, we FINALLY found a place to hold the
Ministry Fair this spring (March 11). We
will be at Nazareth Academy
in LaGrange. (this is big news as we got
bumped from our original site and spent a very long time looking for another
location)
It’s good to catch up with those of you in college who are
home. I’m in town this year if folks
want to catch up. It was fun to see
many people at Greg’s Ordination.
Greg’s ordination was great.
There was a huge crowd of Syler fans.
It was a very nice service (2 hours and 5 minutes for those of you who
missed it)
Greg did a great job his first day celebrating the Eucharist
at Church of Our Saviour. Greg’s siblings were even there. It was good to see them.
Its great to have young clergy (as I am always saying) Greg has interacted with some young adults
and some folks who are not necessarily church people, like my brother’s
friends. Its been really cool, my brother’s friends, in particular, are
curious about this young “priest” and
what that means, and what is this church all about. I have to say that having people like Greg
(and Rich Towers)
out among these folks is really cool.
So, last week was a week of way too many late night
meetings. Our Youth Minister’s network
meeting was held in St. Charles, a
long trip from the city. It was a good
meeting, but I got home late. There
were things every night following. The
week ended with our staff Christmas party, then the ordination.
If you all know how much I love Dr. Seuss, and well, the
Grinch in particular, you will know why I have to leave you all with this today…
You're a monster, Mr. Grinch
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch
I wouldn't touch you with a 39 1/2 foot pole.
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| So, I'm a bit grumpy today and this is a late posting. The day started out with both trying to get to church in the city this morning and then out of the city - on the day of the Chicago Marathon - quite a challenge.
The day ended with the "joys" (said with as much sarcasm as I can muster) of apartment living. So, Sunday is my laundry night. Its always been my laundry night, probably for almost the entirety of the time I have lived here (except for 3 weeks during the year during camp when its Friday night) Do ya think I could get an empty washing machine to use? Oh no. I usually can get one by 9 pm, its usually pretty empty by then. 9 pm, no such luck. Every time I went down there, not only were all the machines in use, but there was a line. I didn't get my hands on a (freaking) washing machine until 11 pm. Not cool. (this means laundry is finished at about 12:30 pm.)
I was about to lose my mind. I won't repeat on the blog what I was repeating over and over again. Let's just say its the equivalent of going "postal" So, what's that in a laundry situation? Going "sudsy", "Getting agitated" (agitated is putting it lightly) "Steamed"?, "flipping my lid"? I must be calmer about it now as that is almost funny.
I did get to see friends on two separate occasions, a party Friday and another one Saturday, so that was cool.
Other than that, I love Coldplay. Love X & Y, great music. They make me happy. | | |
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So, on to New Beginnings, our junior high event, held this past weekend. It was really a good
one.
As you may know by now, the fire alarm
went off at St. David's, Glenview
- for NO reason! We were on
free time and it just went off. No one was cooking (or burning)
anything
in the kitchen. No candles were lit, it wasn't during
Reconciliation, no
child pulled the fire alarm, no incense was burning, no fireworks, no
hot water that created steam.... The fire department
arrived, and as always, the ENTIRE Glenview Fire Department
arrived (we have seen them before in previous fire alarm situations,
most recently November of 2003. They walked through the
building and found nothing.
They don't even know which alarm in what zone went off.
We haven't had a fire alarm go off in a year and a half. I think our last
one was in Park
Ridge,
when it went off in last January on a subzero temperature day. We
had junior
high youth outside without shoes on. So, I guess we were due for
another one. We used to set them off at almost every event (see
list of probable causes above)
I
figure it went off because in my usual Friday night "Safe space"
speech, I neglected to go over Fire and emergency procedures. (we
haven't had a fire alarm since I started going over the procedures,
well, except at camp, but I have no control over the camp
kitchen) So, I
think its cosmic joke on me. Just a subtle reminder
that the
emergency procedures are very important!
It was a good weekend. Highlights
included a very sugared up 8th grade boy, who with the help of his
friend, and a larger than life jaw breaker (we're talking extreme
amounts of sugar) literally ran in circles.
Nate, Megan & Jessie covered in ice cream (no, not Sundae, Sundae,
Sundae, but close) Warm fuzzie "droppings" all over the
church, as always. Eating cookie dough out of a container.
(I found the jr staff all with spoons and the cookie dough)
Pancakes larger than your face! (made for the co-rectors)
You should have seen Alec, Megan, and Nate trying to flip those
things! and of course, the Co-Rectors, Molly & Christine were
great!
The pictures are not yet up, but I will get them up online soon.
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| So, yes, I know I haven't posted to this in
ages. Most of you who are subscribed to this
receive my Sue Cromer updates, so you have the latest news.
Here is a brief synopsis (then I will post again regarding our New Beginnings weekend)
Camp - Camp -
Camp
Well, what
can I say about camp…
…our numbers were up this year, which was our goal.
and there
are too many funny stories, I will attempt to summarize...
It was wonderful to be back at
Camp Algonquin, working with many of the same Algonquin staff. As you may have
all been following the story. Metropolitan Family Services sold the property
last year (after 97 years) it was a bit scary with the question of what would
happen to the property and where we would hold camp. Well, it was purchased by
the McHenry County Conservation District, and is being managed by the YMCA,
Some of our friends from Camp Algonquin have stayed on with the new management,
which made our lives much easier this summer.
Radio calls?
One of the funniest things I heard
this summer was when we were in an Admin staff meeting, and over the radio we
hear “Lemuel to Uncle Richard, Lemuel to Uncle Richard” Keep in mind that
Lemuel is about 8 years old. Richard, our Assistant Camp Director, was shocked
to be getting a radio call from one of his nephews. (the look on his face was
priceless). Lemuel wanted goggles at the pool.
3 broken chalices…
I blame Greg Syler, our Spiritual
Director. First of all, he made the mistake (as did I) that these acylic
chalices from Crate and Barrel are indestructible. He came in to prove to
someone that they are indestructible and was immediately proven wrong. The
2nd one, I watched happen, as we were finishing up Eucharist one day, it just
slid off the picnic table and landed, and the base broke off. The 3rd one
apparently broke in the box it is stored in.
Then we ordered new ones (after
Crate and Barrel – practically located across the street from my office - was
totally out of them), and two of those arrived broken. Apparently being
acrylic (plastic) does not make them less breakable. We think Superglue might
be the solution.
Sundae-Sundae-Sundae
Of course we had our over
chocolated Sundae fest this year. (you know our relay of building an ice cream
sundae in your face. (see pictures) There is one particular picture
- I believe Nate is posing with me, I have the chocolate sauce overturned
over his head. After the picture was snapped, he was like, "it feels like there
is still chocolate dripping on me" (well, there was!)
Pirates
Pirates seem to be a
recurring theme this summer. Well, Evan used it quite a bit at the
Waterfront - Pirate Wars in canoes. (one group of girls were the Pink Pearls
and pinked most of the staff with pink make up) One of our evening programs had
a pirate theme as well (you must see pictures) Everyone went all out. (Graham's
coconut bra put an appearance in again) The costumes were quite the sight.
Brooke served as our make up artist. (see Session III pictures)
The
staff seems to like to dress up. One of our Wild & Wacky Olympics themes
was "Staff Rejects" I think they hit up thrift stores and the backs of their
closets. Again, the staff were an interesting sight! (again, Session III
pictures) Aaron was, well, blue.
Aqua Euchie – What would camp be
without a Eucharist (Communion) in the pool? This always seems to be a big
hit. (see pictures under Session III below)
Dining Hall etiquette
Oh,
and as to you campers who think you might steal a napkin from someone's lap...I
win. (we have this silly song "Evan, Evan, don't be a sap, put your napkin in
your lap) If your napkin is not in your lap, and you are caught, you have to
sing a song, do a dance, recite a poem or skip around the room (the consequence
is decided by those who catch you) As always, some of the campers resorted to
stealing napkins from our laps. Session III - I duct taped my napkin to my
lap. (duct tape does fix everything) as well as keeping an ample supply of
extra napkins. (some of our veteran campers think that they will get me some
summer) Evan used that same idea a different session, so I can't claim it as my
idea. But, it worked, and at least Evan and I both thought it was
funny.
You wonder if we had any code “yellow yellows”? Why, of course
we did. For those of you who haven’t followed this in the past. We have a code
system on the radio. Red – Fire, Blue – Medical, Yellow –weather alert etc,
well, a code “yellow, yellow” is a bed wetter) That’s all I need to say about
it, but of course we had some at camp.
There were some weird things that
happened at camp too. I think I should just leave it at that. (see below for
some of it)
Oh, and I must include my
The 12 Memories of Camp (to the
tune of the 12 Days of Christmas
12 - LIT I's
11 - Canoes a
paddling
10 - LIT I's
9 - Radios
8- Bottles of chocolate sauce (Sue's
extra stash of chocolate for Sundae, Sundae, Sundae)
7- Sick camp staff
(pretty much all at once) colds? strep?
6 - Bergen Elves (Bergen is the staff
building) (the elves cleaned our rather messy staff lounge)
5 - Empty toilet
paper rolls (does anyone change them?)
4 - Code yellow yellows (see
above)
3 - Broken chalices (see above)
2 - Empty water coolers (there was
always an empty water cooler that needed to be filled)
...and a golf cart in
a wreck
Be
sure to stay tuned for next summer to see...
If we again offer our course of
"Plunger 101" (thank you Aaron)
What new games will be invented (Greg had one
called "Toilet bowl")
Will Jamie really get into Bible Fun?
If Fun bat is
played
What other new "codes" we can come up with. (we have some new
ones)
Will the marshmallow guns return?
What will we rename the
singing/praising/praying tree.
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| Ok, so I have not had time to post to this recently. I have been
so swamped. Let me just say that the thing I hate most
about my job is writing reference letters. I know its a
necessary evil, and that it helps people, so I do them, hoping it will
be helpful. A word to you all. If you need me to write a
reference for you GIVE ME ENOUGH NOTICE!! If you need it in two
days, just don't even ask, I won't have time. This week I
have SIX to do. SIX. I hate them.
Also, be clear with me what they are looking for and where to send it.
I have written them for seminary applications, college applications,
jobs of all sorts, camps, scholarships, church jobs, you name
it.
Ok, I am swamped, but I thought I would vent to you all. Tooo busy.
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