“The Colorado Contingency” volunteered to organize Midwest Pilgrim in 2020. There were five of us, and we had things pretty well sorted when it was cancelled due to CoVid.

The next year we decided to organize a virtual conference to make up for not being able to meet in person. We put together speakers, a trivia night, creative options, and a LOT of guidelines to help everyone figure out the tech.

It went well, but was exhausting. And, since we didn’t have the chance to do the usual meeting to decide who would organize the next year, it defaulted to Colorado again.

And so we put together another conference for 2022. For this weekend, In fact. The weekend before the musical.

And our committee of five has dwindled to just me and Fara. Everyone else has totally justifiable reasons they couldn’t help; I don’t blame them. But it’s been a lot of work to put together a conference in a state we don’t live. Again.

We’re boarding the plane now. Everything is organized and, happily, Fara, me, and our keynote speaker all tested negative for CoVid so we should be good to go.

But boy am I tired. Late night rehearsals all week after an all day Weekend rehearsal as well as teaching my regular job full time… I’m getting to old for this kind of zaniness.

It’ll all be fine. Look! The kids even performed at lunch for their peers. It was their own idea and they contacted the admin to set it up. We have pointed out many times how brave it was to perform for a rough audience and how much they have positively impacted many less-vocal kids. I even had the quietest, shyest student I’ve ever met ask me if we were doing a show again next year that they could audition for.