I Know Why We Clean in Spring

That little lump of snow just won't melt.

Things are still on the cold side; 30º and 40º highs (one or two days hit 50º), below freezing most nights. And while the furnace has been working less often lately, and while going outside does not require "suiting up" to battle the cold, still I want the warmth to get here.

I want constantly open windows (as does the cat so she can sit in the sill). I want fresh air blowing through the house. I want green on the trees and a resurrection of the grass in the yard. I want to sit outside in my shorts and enjoy the sun. And even rain: I want precipitation that doesn't make the world icy and slick.

The evergreens keep this sheet of ice intact.
Lower left is the remnants of the huge snow pile mentioned.

The snow is gone. Only a few spots existing in constant shade are still frozen (like the back yard). And that big pile of plowed snow, waist high and as long as a car, is almost gone from the driveway. Finally, there's no need to put a coat on to take the trash out. But still, we may get some snow on Saturday, although it will melt in a day.

The real arbiters of coming warmth are the trees, especially the old ones. They seem to know that things aren't over just yet. When they begin to bud, we'll know that winter is gone. Still, I remember driving into town when I moved here (an April 21st), and snow was falling, skittering across the highway. It didn't stick, but it was a prophetic welcome. After all, one of the reasons I moved here was to have seasons.

The warmer temps (such as they are) seem to have stirred me, like a bear from hibernation, and I've got things going on in my life. The first one is volunteering at the Center. We had our big fundraising event last Thursday, a 12-hour Facebook live stream, where we raised more than $11,000.

From left: Eddie, Stacey (aka Dawson) and Deb play Gay Jeopardy!

The night before the event, I was staffing the desk at the Center while all the preparations were taking place. Someone mentioned having questions for a gay version of Jeopardy!, and since I'm a fan of the show (and a designer), I offered to take the clues and make up Jeopardy!-type cards for the game.

So I sat down with my laptop and read through the questions that had been written.

Eddie and I discuss the origin drag queens.

Questions? They're supposed to be answers; this is Jeopardy!, after all. Looking them over, I realized some of them were way too long to get on a card. Also, we needed six categories (one for each color in the rainbow flag) and there were only five, and the fifth category was a clue short. After some casual conferencing, it was decided the sixth category would be the Pride flags, since I could download those easily from the Internet without having to write more questions.

Galaxy kids (our youth group) join those who made the fundraiser work.

To make a long story short, I left the Center after six and a half hours of rewriting clues, setting up all the cards (in the proper Jeopardy! typeface), and taping everything to the board, since the Facebook stream would start at 8 a.m. the next morning. I was scheduled to "interview" with Eddie, the host of the stream (and our board's president) about the history of drag, as well as sharing my coming out story. Here's a link (Start at 2:32:00 for my bit). If you want to spend the time to watch the Gay Jeopardy! game, here's a link for that.

Texas Roadhouse server joins our group photo celebrating the day.

The wrap-up of the fundraiser was a group dinner at Texas Roadhouse, which had agreed to kick back 10% of any order when the Center was mentioned. I invited Deb to be my guest, since I know her budget is tight right now, and we all headed out to the restaurant after the streaming wrapped at 8 p.m. It was a kind of high, and a great way to end the event, everyone feeling very connected and rewarded for the 12 hours' work. I took half my steak home and forgot it in the car. I retrieved it the next morning, and it was colder than if I had put it in the fridge the night before (one of the upsides of below-freezing nights).

The other iron I have in the fire is directing "The White Crow" for a group here in La Crosse called The Alternative Truth Project. It was formed by a triad of women who had attended the Women's March on Washington the day after the inauguration last year. It grew out of their desire to continue the resistance in a relative, local way.

This is the graphic I put together for "The White Crow" posters.

So they facilitate theater readings, usually about one a month, that relate to what we're going through right now. Since "The White Crow" is about the pretrial interrogation of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem, it is relevant to the rising taste for authoritarianism in our country just now.

The format they use is casting any old way you want, two rehearsals of the piece and then one performance, for which the group pays the license. The director locates the performance space, acquires the license and arranges rehearsals. And, of course, the group is always there to assist you if you're a neophyte in the La Crosse theater community, as I am.

You are also asked to arrange for someone with knowledge of the subject matter of your play to be available for an after-show discussion. This put me in contact with Rabbi Prombaum of the Sons of Abraham synagogue here in town. He, in turn, has put me in contact with a couple people who might lead the post-play discussion. It all comes together.

I'm including this recent fortune cookie fortune just because.

The first rehearsal is scheduled for this Sunday afternoon at my house, since there are only two main characters in the script, and the performance will be done sitting at a table. Makes sense. I have a dining room with a lovely table.

I'm also going to put my name in at the local community theater group, which I had previously written off as horribly cliquish. The artistic director who squelched me so completely when I tried to get involved has now left, and there is a new person heading up the group, who I am told is much more amenable to new people.

When I found out that half of the people directing this season had never directed before, I thought I would offer my services. They have a very nice facility downtown, right on the Mississippi with a stunning view. I'm hoping something will develop for next season.

So that's about it. Things continue on and I'm feeling good about the coming year. If not chock full o' fun, at least it won't be boring.