The thing about tracking is that you don't just need a surface that accepts tracks--you also need time in which things could have moved across that surface. If you go out fifteen minutes after it stops snowing, you won't find any tracks. So we couldn't schedule the first workshop meeting until after it had stopped snowing. On the other hand, we couldn't risk putting off the start too long, because the temperature is relatively warm--it's been getting above freezing during the day, so they'll be some melting.
The other problem with scheduling was that Charlie still hadn't been able to do his tracking seminar. He likes to do it three days after a fresh snowfall, but there hasn't been three days in a row without either new snow, rain, or a big thaw in almost three weeks. Now we're running out of time--it's March now, and there's no guarantee we'll get another good snowfall, or that if we do get one that it won't melt immediately. So, there were two tracking events that have to go as soon as possible, and we couldn't schedule them in competition with each other.
The snow stopped a little after midnight and Rick, Charlie, and I spoke. We didn't need a lot of tracks for our workshop, but we did have to go out on two separate days. Charlie only had to go out once, but he needed more tracks. In the end, Rick and I decided to go that morning, less than twelve hours after the snow stopped. That let us do our second meeting in the afternoon, clearing the way for Charlie to do his seminar the next day. The day after that, which was today, Rick and I did the second half of our workshop.
It went pretty well. We had seven participants, a respectable showing, considering that Rick and I aren't even in the mastery program and that we only announced the workshop at breakfast. And Charlie spoke up for us with Sharon so that our workshop actually carried academic credit. Student-run classes don't always do that.
It's funny to think about, but seven people just got a credit because of what Rick and I taught them, even though we didn't get credit for learning it in the first place--not directly, anyway. When Charlie gives his vote for Rick and I to graduate, we'll get a certain amount of credit reflecting whatever work led him to vote for us, so I suppose our learning how to track will be part of that.
Speaking of academic credit, I just signed up for Spring Semester classes today.
I don't really need that many more classes, especially because neither Charlie nor Joy are asking me to take specific classes as part of my work with them. I also really need some additional money, since what I got from selling my car is all gone, as is the money I got from my parents last year. So I've gotten a part-time off-campus job with a friend of Charlie's (it will start as soon as the ground is clear) and I'm only taking two classes.
I'm taking "Intro to Wiccan Ritual and Myth," with Kit, which is worth two credits, one of them in anthropology, the other undedicated. I'm also taking "Literature of the Land" with Charlie, also worth two credits, one of them in ecology, the other undedicated.
It will be interesting to take these two classes together. I've noticed before that my various classes tend to reflect and comment on each other, to form a kind of conversation in my mind. But I've also noticed Kit and Charlie are allergic to each other. As I said the experience should be interesting.
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