Busy Day

Since I can't seem to get myself back to sleep (I always have these bouts of fitful sleep the weekend before the start of a new semester), I figured I'd summarize my hectic Saturday, not because it's any more special than any other day, but because there were some unusually memorable moments about it.

First things first: I started out the day observing both the viralizing spread and the subsequent fallout of my post about the sad and nasty business at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church. By referencing my blog post on my Facebook page, and having sympathetic FB friends link to the post on their own FB pages, my blog had its single best day of activity in its 9 year history. I reached up to some 150+ visits just today, which (sadly!) represents a 600% increase in my average daily blog traffic, with the vast majority of these visitors being referred to the Upchuck via Facebook. Given the rather tragic and sad nature of the events discussed in that posting, I'm not sure such a dramatic increase in blog traffic is something to be happy about. But I guess it's always these kinds of moments that draw the most attention. Anyway ...

Then, I helped my B-2/3 set up her booth at the Palmer Park Arts Market, which was a hot, sweaty affair so early in the morning.

After that, I did the regular Saturday morning chauffering duties with my Squirrelly Girlies, transporting them to the NO Academy of Dance for their many Saturday dance lessons.

And from there I rushed directly over to Xavier University, arriving with just a handful of minutes to spare before I needed to be on stage to participate in a Social Media, Social Justice panel for the Rising Tide 6 conference.

I accomplished all this by 10:15am. For once, I felt like I lived up to that military motto: we get more accomplished before 7am than most people do all day.

The RT6 Conference was awesome this year (as it usually is), at least the parts of it I was able to experience. Having the conference at Xavier this year gave it a conference feel that I am more accustomed to. I actually liked the venue extremely much, to be honest. And the folks at Xavier, in collaboration with the planners of the RT6 conference, did a truly outstanding job of putting this conference together. And the content of the conference was as fascinating as always. I thought my particular panel went well enough. [ASIDE: I had a revelatory moment about the theme of my panel, the content of my own presentation, and the whole situation with St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church. Here I was talking about the importance of the use of Social Media in promoting Social Justice for the undocumented immigrant community having just witnessed the power of Social Media to inform, mobilize, and editorialize around the controversy taking place at SCABC, and the immediate and far-reaching impacts that Social Media tools possess.]

Back to the details of my day: I was able to stay around the RT6 conference for the Oil Spill panel, for the delicious pulled pork lunch buffet provided by J'anita's (I believe), and for David Simon's (one of the creators of the HBO series Treme) keynote talk. I also took a few minutes to check out the vendor area. I was happy to see a lot of familiar faces and even to reconnect with an old High School friend, screenwriter, and film producer/director, Charlie Brown.

I was called away from the RT6 Conference by the Squirrelly Girlies right after David Simon's Keynote, and so had to leave to pick them up at the NO Dance Academy after their lessons. Which was just as well, because it was also creeping up on the end of the Palmer Park Arts Market, where I had to be to help my B-2/3 break down her booth. (She's a potter who makes beautiful functional pottery pieces.) Which, again, was another hot, sweaty affair. By the time everything was unloaded at the homefront and stored away in its proper place in my wife's pottery studio, it was getting towards evening time and I was exhausted.

And tomorrow promises to continue the madness (which is why I'm a little concerned about this bout of insomnia). We'll be hosting an alternative prayer/faith gathering tomorrow morning among the SCABC folks who can't (or won't) attend regular services at the actual church. Then, I'll be heading up to Tulane to participate in a bit of Freshman orientation events. And I'll end out the day by taking my Posse group (some incoming Freshman for whom I'll be serving as a mentor over the next couple of years) out to dinner before classes start in earnest on Monday.

So there you have it. Busy, busy, busy. But not unusual and to be expected for this particular weekend of the year.