Ringing in the New
Jan. 2nd, 2006 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eclectic_boyIt's the annual Hogmanay-Makes-a-Great-Excuse-for-a-Mini-Reunion, and metric scads of people are in town. The dance itself was super, oddly simple (the dance program was packed with 'chestnuts'), and by the end almost enough to cause heat prostration (I sat out the last two dances after I felt my face getting dangerously hot). There was an astonishingly good mini-roundsing at midnight:30 with over 20 people; someone I last saw in high school, when I was a volunteer at The Franklin Institute (and who first taught me juggling) was there, and we even recognized each other; I got to waltz with Jillian and with Kendra; all in all everything that makes Hogmanay special.
But the best thing that happened this weekend was yesterday afternoon. A present had been prominently placed on top of a book/gameshelf in the living room, with JOSH printed on it in big letters. He had managed to not see it all day. Someone suggested we help him find it: During a lull in the conversation I suggested we play Pavlov, taught the rules, and went first. I left the room; the others decided what to make me to, and I came back. Everyone watched me and applauded quietly, loudly, or not at all, until they conditioned me to do the right action -- they got me to go over to a table, pick up a roll of duct tape, and bring it back to Finlay. Then Jerome went, and we got him to take a bow. Then I said, "Josh, why don't you go next?", and when he was out of the room explained to everyone that the previous two rounds had all been a setup, and that the real goal of this entire enterprise was to Pavlov Josh into finding and opening his present.
Which, remember, was pretty prominent. Josh came back, we started applauding as he neared the shelf, and turned to face the present then, stopped when he turned too far, and applauded him back towards it. But he didn't reach for the present; he picked something else up and tried using it. Then later he walked over to another shelf, and later came back and did something else with another object -- by this point I was certain Josh had seen the present right away but was turning the tables on us, doing everything except taking the present to string us along. He continued doing all kinds of silly things, and finally after about 5 minutes saw the present right in front of him, picked it up, and collapsed to the floor in giggles and with a red face -- he had in fact not seen it at all, and was honestly trying to suss out what in the heck we were trying to get him to do. It was beautiful. His stuffed lion was too.
But the best thing that happened this weekend was yesterday afternoon. A present had been prominently placed on top of a book/gameshelf in the living room, with JOSH printed on it in big letters. He had managed to not see it all day. Someone suggested we help him find it: During a lull in the conversation I suggested we play Pavlov, taught the rules, and went first. I left the room; the others decided what to make me to, and I came back. Everyone watched me and applauded quietly, loudly, or not at all, until they conditioned me to do the right action -- they got me to go over to a table, pick up a roll of duct tape, and bring it back to Finlay. Then Jerome went, and we got him to take a bow. Then I said, "Josh, why don't you go next?", and when he was out of the room explained to everyone that the previous two rounds had all been a setup, and that the real goal of this entire enterprise was to Pavlov Josh into finding and opening his present.
Which, remember, was pretty prominent. Josh came back, we started applauding as he neared the shelf, and turned to face the present then, stopped when he turned too far, and applauded him back towards it. But he didn't reach for the present; he picked something else up and tried using it. Then later he walked over to another shelf, and later came back and did something else with another object -- by this point I was certain Josh had seen the present right away but was turning the tables on us, doing everything except taking the present to string us along. He continued doing all kinds of silly things, and finally after about 5 minutes saw the present right in front of him, picked it up, and collapsed to the floor in giggles and with a red face -- he had in fact not seen it at all, and was honestly trying to suss out what in the heck we were trying to get him to do. It was beautiful. His stuffed lion was too.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 03:18 pm (UTC)Especially if you started planning this stringpulling eleven months ago!
Where can you see lions? Only in Greylock! (Forget Norway.)