Memphis Democrat
February 23, 2006

Jenn here, up for round two of correspondence for Dancing Rabbit.

This week's been a cold one! With temperatures dropping down to as low as negative five degrees some nights, many Rabbits are bundled up in as many layers as they can possibly don without limiting their mobility. I've taken to the habit of hanging out in the boiler room of the community building, in the nook between the wall and the fire, just to suck up the heat before going outside again. Sara described it as "recharging".

The cold doesn't seem to be limiting the amount of social time we've been spending in the village, though--in fact, it seems to encourage it. Since most people are highly preferring to be indoors right now, board games have been a pretty frequent source of entertainment. Carcasonne, Illuminati, and Settlers of Catan seem to be the top local favorites, with Heroquest (which Juan has improved with a few rule-changes), Chinese Checkers, and Dungeons and Dragons popping up occasionally.

On Sunday, a group of Rabbits, including Jennifer, Tony, and Suzanne, headed over to our neighboring community, Sandhill, for a fun day ice-skating and hockey and had a great time there. With former DR members Stefanie and Arjen are visiting there, many Rabbits have been jumping at the opportunities to hang out at Sandhill. There's been such a deep freeze that all bodies of water in the area are pretty much frozen solid, but, coming from the South, I grew up hearing that it's a bad idea to walk out on water that you think is frozen. Maybe I'll overcome my fear before winter's over.

We're looking forward to a lot of exciting activities in the next few weeks. Currently, Rabbits are in the process of signing cards for Validation Day, a DR-unique holiday in which every person receives a hand-made card (a lot like a Valentine) signed and personalized by other members of the community. This provides a nice opportunity to let our friends know how much we care about them and appreciate the ways that they each contribute to Dancing Rabbit's vision.

Juan is in the process of organizing what he calls Ninja Week, which will start the day after tomorrow. The people participating in Ninja Week are going to try to jump out and surprise the other participants when they're least expecting it. Each Ninja gets a list of the people they've surprised, and at the end of the week, we'll see who's startled the most people.

With retreat over and a long stretch of sunny days providing us surplus electricity, it looks like this cold spell may provide a time for recreation and relaxation before the weather heats and it's time for outdoor work.

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