Longer --- So Thursday evening, upon escaping my last day of work for the week, I met up with Robbie. We went on a delicious escapade to a sports store to buy us some ping pong paddles! We frolicked and were quite joyous - and then we actually played ping pong! Later that night, we discovered the best sound for working out triceps (it's something like buoydeh buoydeh real fast, but it's difficult to transcribe...) We proceeded ot play a scrumptuous game of go, which went on for several hours.



Then... hahaha! Then! Then, we set off for our greatest adventure of the year (so far): Orion, Robbie and I left for Baltimore, where we picked up three more brilliant, warm souls, who accompanied us on our voyage to Stamford, CT, for the sixth yearly NEBY Fest!!! Oh, man, what a road trip! To our party were added the beautiful Adarsh (recently-declared Baha'i from India), Nina, and Ruth - all three Micah students. The latter we immediately named the Santa Maria, and Nikki, with whom we met up later, we named the Pinta! We had such a joyous time, the 6 of us. Santa Maria demanded my life-story, which I improvised for the riders, and then, each person in turn told her or his life-story, which provided splendid entertainment for most of the trip! (It was interrupted during the time we spent slaloming between steel train-track columns, terrifyingly gung ho vehicle, and positively oblivious pedestrians, within a small part of NYC.)



The two main reasons I had for attending NEBY Fest were (a) to see and meet Counsellor Stephen Birkland (there are two branches to the Baha'i administration: one is the democratically elected, which provides directives for communities, the other is composed of the "learned", including "counsellors", who are greatly deepened in the Baha'i Faith and are entrusted with the task of advising Baha'i institutions, communities and individuals - both branches sheltered under the wings of the Universal House of Justice), and (b) to expand my network of contacts - particularly performers and other artists. Both of these goals were exceeded: I had a dozen questions answered by Counsellor birkland's talk, I spoke with him personally and was infused with his regenerating energy, I met tons of people (artists and otherwise) and obtained contact information for several of them.



Many more wonderful things happened at this conference, making it altogether another addition to my collection of life-changing events. Highlights include live performances by Omnisoul and Vienna Teng, a talent show where Orion, Robbie and I each performed a poem, meeting up again with such wonderful souls as Omid, Sarah, Martin (who gave stupendous performances),Haley, Caity, Shin and Will, great dinners and lunches with different groups of friends, and even a bonus solitary time!

Of note also was my meeting with Nikki, an amazing friend I had met briefly in Baltimore, but who this time blew me away: her spontaneous, uninhibited, extravagant expressions of living exceed even mine. Never before had this central aspect of my personality been so fully reciprocated by a single individual. Hence, the two of us spent wonderful time dancing, singing, babbling, galavanting, etc. She ended up declaring her faith in Baha'u'llah on the second day of the conference, after investigating the Baha'i Faith for maybe nine months.



Over all, though, the majority of the experiences will never be told or relayed, as they continuously piled up in my mind, heart and soul, affecting the course of my life, and my perspective on existence. Perhaps many of these things... in fact, most likely many of these things will eventually be conveyed in the future performance projects I will undertake. - Speaking of which, NYU has been scratched from my list of possibilities, as my application was declined (it was a gamble from the start, as they only accept 40 students each year...)