Congratulations, Sue!

[da]

bunchberry successfully defended her PhD (from all comers) and she and her spouse, morgan_starfire threw a wonderful party to celebrate. So we went to Michigan to party!

I had some neat conversations with bunchberry's friends; who included math geeks, Quakers, musicians, dancers, and preschoolers. There was an impromptu contra dance, a very cute dog, and lots of good food.

A few slices:

I spent quite a while talking with Max, who has spent many decades as a Conscientious Objector organizer. I asked him how he handles life-balance, not becoming too depressed about the state of the world. He said he's been an adult for over 60 years, and at a number of times, the world has seemed at the brink of disaster, but it's survived the last 60 years, so that helps his sense of perspective, even as dire as things look today.

He says he was on FBI watch lists in the 60s, and he learned recently that they've re-activated his record for the Department of Homeland Security. He knows his phone's tapped, and occasionally some of the more "lurid" conversations make him amused about what the listeners think of him. I asked him if he'd seen the film "The Lives of Others" about the Stasi surveillance men, and he hadn't. He had a funny story about locking his keys in the car when he was in Eastern Germany sometime in the 90s, and the attractive auto-shop worker guy who tried to get into the car for him...

And he had a story about when he was in primary school, in the 1930s. His teacher described the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire, then the transition "taking just as long as the lifetime between your age now and when you're old." And, he said, "naively, at the time I thought I would have some say in the matter."

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The band included: a hammered dulcimer, two fiddles, many drums, and a keyboard. The deserts included a rhubarb pie, a key lime pie, brownies, petit fours, cherries, and watermelon.

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I came up with a description of becoming a member of a Quaker Meeting, talking with one person about how she went from being Jewish to being Jewish-Quaker. I said, "yeah, did they say something like, 'congratulations, and may we present you with your ceremonial hyphen?" I'm picturing something simple, not chrome or anything fancy like that.

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The drive to Michigan and back was fine; 5 hours there, 4.5 back. Except Eastern Michigan seems to be entirely under construction.

We got back mid-afternoon Sunday, and I spent a few hours mowing and squirting out dandelions.