Magnificent Powers, Teeny Tiny Living Space

Sunday reminded me of that scene in Aladdin when the genie is trying to explain about how genies have all these wonderful, incredible powers, but only get a teeny, tiny lamp to live it. We had our first Official Visit for the northern part of the state on Sunday. Traditionally, there is an expectation that the first three Official Visits in the North and the first three Official Visits in the South will be very well attended because it is traditional to introduce those who served the year before and other years that are significant to the Worthy Grand Matron and Worthy Grand Patron, so people from those years, especially the previous year's Grand Officers, try to be there. In addition, we had a brush up school for the northern Deputies on Saturday, so lots of Deputies had already come down to Martinez for the Saturday school and many could stay over to Sunday, so nineteen of them were also able to attend the OV. The other reason that these particular six OVs are special is because the districts in which they are held are also set by tradition. The first ones north and south are supposed to be in the Districts of the Past Grand Matron and Patron who appointed you Grand Marshal, the second ones are for the Past Grand Matron and Patron who chose you for Appointive Grand Officer and the third ones are for the Past Grand Matron and Patron who chose you to be a Deputy Grand Matron, assuming that you have held all those offices, which most WGMs have. So I already know that there is an expectation that my first three North OVs will be in Fresno, then Napa, then Tracy and my first three South OVs, which are really two because the first and second are both from the same District, so my three for two are Pasadena and Palmdale. This tradition put the year's first North OV in Concord. Unfortunately, the hall that the particular Chapter in question usually uses has had some roof problems, so the Chapter is meeting in a very accommodating, but teeny, tiny room in the Oddfellows Hall nearby. They put three rows of chairs on either side and three more or so in the back and we still had people that couldn't get in. It was total standing room only and not much of that either. On the one hand, it was wonderful to have so many people attend. On the other hand, when the chairs are tight together and all the Grand Officers are in full formals with petticoats, you have to be very, very friendly and understanding and take turns getting up and sitting down so that everyone can get their dress out from under everyone else's dress. There were some very chivalrous gentlemen who gave up their seats and stood in the back so that the ladies could get seats and that was very nice of them. I am happy to report that chivalry is not dead. It is doing very well in the fraternal world, even if it is on life support in the outside world. For all that sardines are better off than we were for space (sardines do not have to keep getting up and sitting back down in their can over and over, adjusting petticoats as they go), it was a truly lovely afternoon. The remarks were entertaining and we were made very welcome. I got to meet more of my girls and they did a really good job on their parts. We did have to stay in our chairs while they took away the Chapter room set up from the middle of the room and brought in the refreshment tables to occupy the same space, but it was clear that the members in the area knew that they would have to do this and they had it worked out to perfection. They got those tables up and the food out in practically no time at all. And what a spread it was too! Next week I am in El Cajon, Fallbrook and Escondido.

Ramming Speed (aka Food and Sleep - What Are Those?

Do you remember that graphic scene when the giant galley full of oarsmen is rowing along at their regular cruise speed and the galley master picks up the pace to double speed? The pounding of the big drum picks up and everyone starts rowing faster. And then they call for ramming speed and the drum is going so fast you're amazed that the drummer can bang it that fast and that loud and the oarsmen are going as fast as their arms can move and they start to drop off the benches from exhaustion while the mean guy with the whip is telling them to row harder? Then they finally stop the boat and all the oarsmen slump exhausted over the oars and call for water. I wonder why I am thinking of that today. :-) Another eventful weekend is behind me and the pace is beginning to pick up. This weekend, I had five events from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. Of course the hotel was in a different spot (between thirty to sixty minutes away) from each of these five events so that added some time as well. The rest of the Grand Family had it a bit easier since two of the five events were Transitionals so only two of us had to be there and the rest could go do fun things. The logistics problem of this sort of thing is food and sleep. I have tried to learn to do without these, but it appears that I am addicted to getting some of each of these. Unfortunately, those are also the two things that you never seem to have enough time to manage. And for me, when I eat badly, I feel badly, so that can be a real bother. The other problem with eating badly is that you gain weight, lots and lots of weight. My Grand Warder year, I gained ten pounds. I gained another seven during the first half of my Grand Marshal year and then said, hold it, I can't do this for another four and a half years at ten pounds a year. Since Labor Day, I have now lost the seventeen pounds I gained and am back to where I started, which was still with five to ten pounds to lose, but at least my clothes fit again. So here's a sample of the problem. On Friday morning, I have my nice little instant high fiber oatmeal, just like I do most regular mornings, I have my little 250 calorie frozen lunch thing at lunch time and then I go off to the airport to catch a plane to Ontario, thinking, foolish mortal me, that I will have a chance to have a regular dinner at one of the restaurants next to the hotel before the evening event, at which I am supposed to arrive by 6:45 pm or so. Ha! The plane lands around 3:45, only about five minutes late, but at Ontario, all the rental cars are reached by shuttle, so it takes until 4:30 to get bags, do car paperwork, load car and leave airport. Okay, I think, we should still be okay. It's thirty minutes to the hotel and another thirty to the event, and thirty or so to check in and change clothes after dinner and a little squish time because the event doesn't actually start until 7:30 pm so if we arrive at 6:50 instead of 6:45, it is not a total disaster, so that still leaves forty-five minutes for eating, so that seems okay. As expected, we get to the hotel around 5:00 pm and we are loaded into the room around 5:10/5:15 pm and I am thinking woo hoo, dinnertime! Then I find out that some people are worried that we will need an hour to get there because of possible traffic and that perhaps more changing time is needed than I had calculated, maybe twenty or thirty minutes and not ten and the caravan wants to leave at 5:30 pm, so that means change now and get going and no dinner. So I resign myself to eating fast food in the car in a formal, a prospect that requires either a beach towel or copious napkins. Then begins the mad race to get into a petticoat and formal, find the closest fast food on the GPS (Taco Bell, it turns out), get to the drive through, get the food, reprogram the GPS and try not to spill everything all over myself as we head into the famous LA traffic. We got to the event in plenty of time and had no wardrobe failures, so I have to count that as a success, but I am less thrilled with my food for the day being: oatmeal, frozen lunch, Taco Bell taco salad with no sour cream (best I could think of for eating in the car since it comes in a box), and scoop of fruit after OV. Then there's the sleep thing. We get done around 10:15 or so and back to the hotel around 10:45 pm and I know I have to get up no later than 7:00 am the next morning, so I try to be quick about getting out of the formal, changing for bed and doing all those night time things, but darned if I find it completely impossible to fall asleep for a while because you are all wired after one of these things. You've been high energy talking to people and socializing and it takes a while to "discharge all the static electricity" so you can go to sleep. I finally fall asleep around midnight and drat it, I wake up about 6:45 am, which is about when I get up during the week and any more sleep than that just isn't going to happen. So, giving in to the inevitable, I get up and get ready to go from Yorba Linda to Fallbrook, which will take me a bit over an hour. The hotel has a nice free breakfast and knowing that the day's food may be iffy, I take the time to have two hard boiled eggs and a scoop of hash browns before I leave. I drive down, we have a great Transitional and then the local ladies have a baked potato bar for lunch. Hurrah, I think, I am actually going to get lunch. Yippee! I have a nice potato with cheese and onions (no worries, I carry monster breath mints in my purse) and think that I am doing good. I get back to the hotel in Yorba Linda and again think I am doing good on time, but then I found out that everyone else had dinner at 4:00 pm, which would have been too early for me, having just had my lunch at 1:15 pm, and then everyone is in a hurry to get going and the net result is no supper. Now usually I am very good about skipping the sweets and sugary treats that are often served after an Official Visit, but now I am in the dining room and they are serving two inch cake squares and little ice cream cups and I haven't had any dinner and I think to myself, okay, it's fourth and fourteen, time to punt. If I eat the cake and ice cream, it's not the best dinner in the world, but then I won't need to stop at some fast food place again on the way back to the hotel and the fast food is not particularly healthy nor low calorie either, so damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. I have the cake and ice cream for dinner. So Saturday comes out: two hard boiled eggs, one scoop hash browns, one medium baked potato with one butter pat, a scoop of chees and some chopped onions, one square of cake, one ice cream cup and a scoop of mixed nuts. This is probably not the recommended menu on any diet I can think of at the moment. We go back to the hotel and get back about the same 10:45 pm or so as Friday night, but this time I have to leave by 8:00 am and I have to pack and check out of the hotel too, so needless to say, I won't be sleeping in. I manage to fall asleep a little earlier (exhaustion is useful that way), but of course the alarm goes off earlier too. So now it is Sunday morning and I am at the free breakfast with my two hard boiled eggs and scoop of hash browns again, but this time, the end of the morning event and the start of the afternoon event have only one hour scheduled between them and there is load in and out time on either end and travel time in the middle, so there is no spot for lunch. I am thinking to myself that going from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm without eating is a bad idea, but there is literally No Time, so I ask the handy GPS for fast food again and the naughty thing tells me that the best I can do is a KFC about a mile out of my way. Well, something is better than nothing, but how am I going to eat it, I wonder. So I head over there and discover my saving grace of the day, Popcorn Chicken. Did you know that it is relatively easy to eat in the car if you skip the sauce. You can drive with one hand and eat with the other and the carton fits okay in a cup holder too. I arrive for the afternoon event with a whole five minutes to run to the bathroom before the afternoon activities start. Yippee! We get done with the event and we are off to the airport. The event gets over around 4:00 pm and the plane is leaving at 6:40, so we decide to eat at the airport. Well, it turns out that three of the six places to eat at Ontario airport are closed on Sunday afternoon, leaving only, you guessed it, fast food. So, trying desperately to eat something less greasy, I opt for a grilled chicken salad at the Carl's Jr. It was not bad, but it was not much either. So I get home and I realize that I want something, but not a lot to eat before calling it a day. So I have a little soup and salad thing at a restaurant near my house and that rounds out my Sunday food: two hard boiled eggs, one scoop of hash browns, one large Popcorn chicken, half a grilled chicken breast on a bunch of lettuce, a cup of broccoli cheese soup and a small side Caesar salad. By some miracle of fate, perhaps the amount of walking I have to do at the events, my weight did not change at all over the weekend, at least according to the scale this morning, but it was a close thing. There's got to be a better way. Next weekend, I am in Richmond, Martinez and Concord.

And We're Off

This weekend was the first Official Visit of the Worthy Grand Matron and Worthy Grand Patron for 2010. It was a traditional style Official Visit and the theme was Happy New Year. I think that the man who dressed up as the old 2009 got the better end of the deal than the guy who had to put a diaper, bib and baby hat on over his tuxedo with his 2010 sash. So what is an Official Visit? A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, when California had less than 100 Chapters, it was traditional for the WGM to visit each Chapter during her year at a regular Chapter meeting when possible, or at a special meeting called for the purpose of letting the Official Visit happen. Since it was a regular meeting of a Chapter, it was run just like any other meeting. The WGM would come early and inspect the books and records of the Chapter with the Chapter Secretary and Treasurer, then at the time of the meeting, the officers of the Chapter would do their regular opening ceremony, important visitors would be escorted and introduced, some business might or might not be conducted, and the WGM would be invited to address the membership. The Chapter would perform their closing ceremony and then, usually, some form of gift or entertainment, with food of course, would follow. I am told that in many states, the WGM still visits each and every chapter in this fashion. But that is a bit more do-able in a state with less than sixty Chapters than it is in a state with almost 200. So I understand that when the count of Chapters in California got seriously into the three digit numbers, a system was created of grouping the Chapters into districts, with each district having a representative of the WGM, and thus was created the Deputy Grand Matrons in California. Now, each Deputy makes an official visit to each Chapter at a regular Chapter meeting and does all the same inspecting and stuff that the WGM used to do and then writes up a report to the WGM with all the information that the Deputy reviewed. So that "visit every Chapter, inspect books, records, ceremonial work" stuff is now done for each individual Chapter by the Deputy. However, the WGM still has as part of her duties to visit the Chapters officially and "inspect" them. That practice, of "visiting officially" has evolved more into an opportunity for the WGM and the Grand Family to visit with the members in different parts of the state and for the WGM to be able to inspect whatever aspects of the health and well being of the Chapter are most important to her. Some WGMs have emphasized the quality of the Ritual performance while others are more concerned about the general level of fellowship, camraderie and healthy relationships among the members of the Chapter. Whatever the WGM feels is the important aspects to inspect are what she wants to see most often. Since the Chapters are grouped by District, usually the WGM makes an Official Visit to approximately each District. Sometimes one or two districts have been grouped together and had one visit for the two of them together. Once you make the transition from the WGM visiting every Chapter individually to the WGM visiting a group of Chapters together, it doesn't really matter for "official" purposes how many Chapters you put in the group for the visit. Your limitations really become the distance between the various Chapters because you want the maximum number of members to be able to attend, how big a room you can get to seat everyone that comes, and how many people the WGM can actually meet and speak with in the available time, because you don't want so many Chapters that only a very small number of the attendees actually have a chance to meet and speak with their Grand Officers and the WGM. In our Order, there are three possible styles of Official Visit (OV), Traditional, Reception and Social Style. The Deputy(ies) for the OV are in charge of organizing it. The Traditional Style tries to stick as close as you can to the old individual inspection format, with a full opening ceremony, escort and introduction of visitors, remarks, gifts, entertainment and food. It can be a little tricky to do this with a lot of Chapters because the Deputy has to chop up the meeting into bits and give each Chapter a bit to do. The first OV this past weekend was relatively easy for chopping up because there were only three Chapters in the district, so each one got to do a nice chunk of the work. But when you have six or seven Chapters, you can end up with some Chapters having only a very tiny piece to do. From what I have seen, everyone wants to do the Opening ceremony because that is the piece where all of a Chapter's officers get to participate. The other pieces usually have stuff to do for only a few of the officers. A Reception style OV is very similar to a Traditional one, but the Opening part is cut down by about two thirds and you don't set up all the furniture and paraphernalia. Because of the cut down in ceremony and furniture, the official part of a Reception style OV usually runs about half an hour to an hour less in length than a traditional OV. Of course some people have speakers and stuff to fill in that extra time. This style has seemed to be the least used from what I have seen the past two years. The final style is Social Style. Unlike the Traditional and Reception styles, a Social Style is usually held in the dining room rather than in the Chapter room and it is usually in business dress or even casual dress, rather than formal dress for the event. The dress at Social style OVs varies so widely because it can include any form of activity the District wants. A Social Style is often a meal event with a speaker or entertainment. If the Chapters have been working on a specific charitable project, they may have someone from that project come and speak to tell us about the project and the work that the local Chapters have been doing. Sometimes there are speakers on topics of general interest to the membership. Sometimes there are field trips involved, such as the Social Style that was held at a Relay for Life event where the Grand Officers joined the local Chapters in participating in the Relay for Life walk to benefit the American Cancer Society. Sometimes we visit local museums and points of interest. Sometimes there are musical or dance groups that display their skills. And then usually after the speaker or the trip or whatever, we have lunch or dinner with the members. While I enjoy all the OVs that I have attended because I get a chance to meet and speak with our members all over the state (the truly important part to me of traveling with the Grand Family), I admit a preference for the Social style OVs because I love to learn about the local areas and hear about the wonderful charities that our local Chapters are helping and see the incredible talent of local artists and performers. I have learned bunches about so many topics of interest at the Social OVs, everything from recognizing the signs of a heart attack so you know when to seek medical attention, to emergency preparedness in your own home, to the Japanese internment camps that were set up in Eastern California (that there was such a place as Eastern California), to the fact that tons of movies were filmed and still are filmed in Independence, CA, and tons and tons more. I love to learn about new and different things and I love to attend cultural and artistic events, so Social Style is the most fun to me. This next week, the next OV is on Thursday and I won't be able to make that one, but I will be going to the rest of the weekend's events, including Norwalk, San Diego, Bellflower and Riverside.

Happy Anniversary

Let me start by saying that I love our Grand Secretary. She is a fabulous lady with a huge responsibility. She is in charge of all the thousand and one pieces of paper that keep track of all our members, our Chapters and the Grand Chapter office. Her job is full time plus! That said, however, she made a tiny tactical error last week when she happened to mention to me that the Grand Chapter office is traditionally a bit slower during the week between Christmas and New Year's. It seemed the perfect opportunity to find out a few things and I sent her a bunch of e-mail inquiries about various topics. She was kind enough to look up all the answers for me, but I don't think she will be quite so quick to let me know she has a free moment the next time and I wouldn't blame her if, the next ten times I ask how she is doing, she says "absolutely swamped." One of the things that I asked her about was the Chapter anniversaries that will fall during what, G-d willing and the crik don't rise, will be my year, so I could get a feel for how many of them will need to be scheduled. It turns out that the answer is four, three 125th anniversaries and one 100th anniversary. So what is a Chapter Anniversary? Well, I confess to having not a single clue as to how the the tradition got started, but somewhere along the way, it became customary for a Chapter to have a celebration of some kind each twenty-five years of its existence. The first three celebrations, at twenty-five, fifty and seventy-five years, seem to be noted at more of a local level. They are sometimes published in the state wide roster, but Grand Chapter events are often scheduled against them and many of them seem to be attended primarily by local folk. Starting at 100, though, the importance of the event increases dramatically and 100 and 125 anniversaries are traditionally put on the Worthy Grand Matron's travel calendar and attended by as many Grand Officers as can make it. We aren't old enough quite yet for a chapter to hit 150. That is why the dates usually have to be coordinated with the Grand Line Officer in whose year the event falls, to make sure of the ability of the Worthy Grand Matron to attend. I have been to a fair number of these things over the past fifteen years or so and they vary widely from Chapter to Chapter. The essential parts seem to be the same, but how a Chapter presents them can be all over the map. The key elements seem to be a theme relating to the passage of time, some relating of Chapter history, some display of Chapter antiquities and mementos, and of course, refreshments. Some Chapters add music or other entertainment. Some have the members of the Chapter wear matching outfits or clothes based on a theme. And some Chapters discuss not only their own history, but the history of the community or of the times. I know people who dislike going to Chapter anniversaries, but for the most part I have enjoyed the ones that I have attended. They are very different from going to any other regular Grand Chapter event, such as an Official Visit, for example, because a Chapter anniversary is a very special party hosted by just the celebrating Chapter. Chapters often spend years planning these things because Chapters usually want to show off a little for their guests and only get to do this every twenty-five years, so they put a lot of effort into being great hostesses and planning a great day. By comparison, Official Visits happen every year and usually only have a few months to be planned and executed. I have enjoyed a great many courtesies at Chapter anniversaries and the members go all out to make the event memorable. So you might wonder, as I did, why some people do not enjoy them. So far as I have been able to figure out, the biggest problem with some anniversaries for some people has been the Chapter history part of the program. It has been traditional to divide the Chapter's history into twenty-five year chunks and present a bit on each chunk. I must confess that these can either be rivetingly interesting or deadly dull, depending on what is presented. They don't often seem to fall in the middle either, I'm afraid. I have seen some amazing presentations, especially ones that talk about major events going on in the world at the same time and how the Chapter participated in history. For example, I was at one anniversary where they talked about how the Chapter managed to have refreshments during war rationing and another where they read part of the minutes about how the ladies of the Chapter knitted scarves for soldiers and stuff like that. The part about how the Chapter managed to check on all its members after an earthquake and how some members opened their homes to others who had lost theirs really touched me as I thought about the love and concern that our members show for one another in times of trouble and how good it is to belong to a group of truly caring people. On the other hand, I must admit that it can be hard to stay awake when the Chapter's idea of history is to recite the names of all of the Worthy Matrons and Worthy Patrons of the Chapter or when it seems like they couldn't edit down the program, so they just decided to read 100 years of Chapter meeting minutes without any selection process to weed them down. Listening to a long list of nothing but names from seventy-five years ago can be less exciting than watching paint dry. At least your eyes can unfocus a little and you can zone out when you watch the paint dry because the paint doesn't expect you to pay attention. Luckily, I have very seldom had the problem of attending a boring program and the food has always been excellent which is of course a totally redeeming feature. Another awesomely redeeming feature at many of the anniversaries is the display of history items. I don't know how these Chapters store this stuff or if most of it comes from members who volunteer their own private collections for the event, but the programs, the pictures, the regalia and ceremonial items are amazing and beautiful. I love the way that these things show the evolution of the Order particularly. These things give you a huge sense of how much styles and traditions have changed over the decades. For example, there was a time when Distinguished and Honored Members got these enormous corsages at official events. In the pictures you see at the anniversaries, some of the corsages were so big, you don't know why the dress didn't rip right off the lady wearing it. We don't do the monster corsages any more and a lot of Worthy Grand Matrons ask that the money that the Chapter might have otherwise spent on corsages be donated to her special project or a Grand Chapter charity instead, but you can see from the history books that there was a time when no Official Visit would have been complete without pinning a whole flowering shrub onto the WGM's shoulder. The other reason I like attending the Chapter anniversaries is that people are so glad that you made the time to come. Anniversaries are not required events, so some people don't go, but I always make it when I can because there's nothing more sad than throwing a big party and not having people come and these Chapters put such heart and effort into these things that you really miss out if you don't attend. Next weekend we go to the first Official Visits for the 2010 year and I will be in Whittier and San Pedro.