980 Miles

This was quite the driving weekend. While I know a lot of people in Eastern Star who would be unimpressed with this many miles in three days, to put it in my perspective, I usually drive my car about 6,000 miles a year, so I just did two months of driving in three days. I fear it may be a week before my ankle recovers and I think that my back and shoulders are going to be stiff for days (although that could also be because of the guy who rearranged my car last Thursday night.) Last Friday, I left San Jose (in a gutless wonder rental car that sounded like I was whipping the hamster to run on his wheel faster every time I pushed on the accelerator) around 1:30 pm to drive to Chico for our first Instructional of the year. I got there in time to have a bite to eat at the Togo's and change clothes in the bathroom before going over to the hall. Changing clothes in a fast food bathroom, or in your car even, is a necessary Grand Officer skill, I'm afraid. When I am driving a long distance, I usually wear sweat pants and a polo shirt and tennis shoes with good socks because I am not able to sit for long periods of time well and loose cotton clothing makes it a little easier. If I was going to check into my hotel, I would have done that and changed into my travel suit (sleeveless dress and jacket on Friday, jacket and skirt with white blouse on Saturday, pantyhose and dress shoes) in my hotel room and then driven over to the hall. But I was not staying in Chico that night and had nowhere else to change. Luckily I was not changing into my formal and petticoat, since that can be really challenging in a bathroom stall. Sometimes, if you are early enough, you can change at the hall, but when you are walking in just on time, you don't want to end up late because you aren't dressed for the event. So I got changed at the Togo's and popped over to the hall. The rest of the Grand Family had not arrived yet, but there were some members with whom I could chat. I also hauled in a box of those packets that I had put together for my girls, not knowing who might come, so I had the entire far north in the box ready to go. I have to figure out how to get the whole south down to Yorba Linda next weekend, maybe in an extra suitcase, preferably with wheels! I am ever so grateful right now for the ADA because ramps and elevators make getting little carts of boxes in and out of the halls a lot easier. An Instructional is an opportunity for the Grand Officers to show the local officers how various bits of our ceremonial work are supposed to be performed. The basics of our ceremonies are not difficult, but the devil is in the details, things like which hand you use to pick something up or hold something, which way you turn when you are walking around. Our members are very eager to do their work correctly and well and we are all very eager to help them with that, but boy are there a lot of things you can do wrong. It really takes some careful study to get all the bits done right. I am also told that some members like to see the Grand Officers do their work because it reassures them that the people who were chosen to be Grand Officers are deserving of the honor. I am not sure if that is a common view or not, but it does seem true that your ability to perform the ceremonials of our Order is a first impression deciding factor when people see the new Grand Family and getting to know us as people and valuing us that way on a more personal level sometimes seems to come a little later so it sure does help with making a good first impression on the members if you can do your Ritual work well. So, in addition to providing a learning opportunity, instructionals are a nice opportunity for the local officers to get to really know their Grand Officers. That is particularly important for me at the bottom of the Grand Line because this is where I start meeting the ladies that have done me the honor of agreeing to serve with me for four years, culminating of course in our very special year of 2013. We had four Instructionals this past weekend, in Chico, Sacramento, Merced and Tulare, and with the drive to and from San Jose at the beginning and at the end, guess how many miles that ended up being? Usually the Grand Line Officer chooses a name for the ladies serving with her and I have chosen to call my "girls" the Dragon Riders of 2013. I think that it is fun and exciting to ride a dragon, but you have to be very, very brave and that is what I am hoping for my girls. We had some time this weekend to discuss the issue of "carpet suck," an issue that I believe every organization sees to a greater or lesser extent. Generally speaking, carpet sucking is when you propose a new idea or project for a group, any group to which you belong - something that has never been done before - and a bunch of people gasp and inhale so loudly and so sharply that you think they are trying to suck the carpet off the floor by sheer force of lung power. You worry that they will hyperventilate. Well, every now and then, on occasion, I have seen a bit of this carpet sucking reaction to a new idea and when you are new and enthusiastic and you pop out a new idea and you get a big dose of carpet suck, it can be very discouraging. But I try to tell people that if you never try, you can never succeed. So you have to "screw your courage to the sticking point" and give your idea a chance. Hopefully if everyone gives it a fair chance, you'll know if it is wonderful and you should do it every year or if it was absolutely awful and never to be repeated. But you can't really figure that out unless everyone gives it a good effort because a half hearted attempt does not really test the idea. But it takes a lot of bravery sometimes to run with an idea after a big dose of carpet suck. I try to remind myself that I have to be brave too because I can't ask something of someone else that I am not willing to do. One of my "big accomplishments" for the weekend was that I managed to eat all the amazing meals fixed for the Grand Family by the wonderful members of the local chapters and not gain any weight this weekend. That may not sound like much, but when you are presented with cheesecake with cherry sauce and cookies and taco salad and chicken casserole and chicken salad croissants and brownies, etc., to eat and all of it yummy, breaking even is all you can hope for. When I was Grand Warder, I gained ten pounds in that one year and it took me all this time, a whole 'nother year, just to get back to the weight I was at when I started as a Grand Officer. It is horribly difficult when we have so many members in our order who cook and bake divinely! You want to have lots of everything! My favorite baker in Merced, for example, makes the most delectable cookies you have ever had melt in your mouth. But I cannot afford to gain another ten pounds each year for the next four and I am not supposed to eat the sweets and the sugar anyway for my health, so I fear that I will be missing out a lot in my travels. Next weekend I am flying down to Yorba Linda for the Christmas Party at our Eastern Star Senior Living Community and that should be a lot of fun.