Ireland -10 Days

Let's see if I can make a quick post and get out of this habit of marathon updates.

Yesterday, I was finally feeling "normal" after being sick for a week. I'm not sure what I got done at work, but the other library employees were being productive!

After work, I headed to the county fair where BRTC danced as part of the opening ceremonies for the fair. It wasn't an ideal performance and definitely had its memorable moments. I performed "I'll Fly Away"--I believe for the first time. For some reason, the treble line of the song didn't play. To say the least, it changes the sound of the song. And for one or two measures of the song leaves one with nothing but bass drum for "music." At least we could keep the beat! Later, during Rocky Top, we had so many dancers on the floor that the CD skipped to the end of the song about 8 measures into the dance. Everyone just kept dancing and we danced through it without music. Impressive to those in the group that know what it means to have the music quit unexpectedly and to continue the dance any way. But I get the sense that it wasn't as interesting for people in the audience that just saw a bunch of people banging and clapping around on the stage without any music.

After the performance, we had a small group meet at the clogging barn to put together the "Journey to Ireland" books that I had worked on over the weekend. The book includes all* of the reports about different aspects of Ireland written by people going on the trip. The book also includes a picture of the dancers going to Ireland and a list of all the travelers in the group. I did some re-formatting of the reports and added Irish blessings through-out. We also copied some Ireland-oriented activity pages for the kids.

This evenig, the 30+ pages for the book were laid out over 2 tables and three of us collated the pages. While the fourth person started punching and GBC binding the books. In about 2-2.5 hours, all 30 books were bound, placed in 3-ring binders with a 70-page notebook and pencil pouch, and dropped in a BRTC bag with an individual's name on the bag.

*There is at least one report that is missing from the book because a copy wasn't submitted to me in time to be included. That report may get copied and dropped in the bags at a later date.