"Beware the Ides of March...." If my memory serves me correctly, that was a line in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and March 15 was the day on which Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE. If it is your finals week, perhaps this line has new meaning for you.

Maybe some of you, like me, had to perform Julius Caesar in high school. I actually played Caesar during the assassination scene-- I had a particular penchant for playing Shakespearian death scenes in school. In college, my English prof told me he'd never seen anyone leap off the chair to the floor like I did the day I played a poisoned Queen Gertrude in Hamlet. You see, there is just so much humor for modern audiences in a death scene from Shakespeare. The male protagonist always tragically exclaims, "I am slain!!" and then goes on for another ten minutes to talk about his impending death before he finally croaks. Has anyone else noticed this? ...Umm, okay, so I guess that was just me.

What's going on in the office today, you ask? Well, simply put, a whole lot and not much at the same time. I'm still trying to scrounge up visits for the World Tour to the Northwest. If you're reading this and you're from the Pacific Northwest, you need to get on it and ask me to come visit! Otherwise, I'm just going to sit around and watch fastpitch softball in my hometown of Dryden, Washington (pop. 200) for two weeks.

The spring issue of Sisters Together is also on the drawing board right now. I'm still working on layouts, and only then will I do the desperate scramble to fill all the empty spaces that are left over. You should know, though, that some of our best features have come out of my moments of desperation. The wonderful article in the last issue by Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the General Assembly, was written in a day after I happened to encounter him at a staff meeting. Any suggestions for Sisters Together? Right now would be a good time to mention them.

The Racial Ethnic Task Force also met again last night, where they made more great recommendations for how we can make NNPCW more responsive to women of color. The topic of discussion was the brochure and starter kit that we send out to new members. Among their suggestions:

• Add information about Racial Ethnic Ministries in the denomination.
• Include a flyer that tells the personal stories of women of color in the Network.
• Include a simplified primer on womanist and mujerista theology, and also expand to include theologies of Native American and Asian-American women.

I'm thinking that when we hire a new intern for Young Women's Ministries, she can tackle some of this work. Applications have currently closed for that position, and we will be interviewing soon. Moreover, the interview process is complete for the Racial Ethnic Young Women Together Program Assistant, and we hope to be able to announce that position soon. Keep checking here to hear the news first!

So that's the latest from NNPCW. I know midterms and finals are here for many of you-- keep marching forward, and just know that it will all be like a bad dream in a few weeks :). And in all the hectic worries of studying, don't forget what is really important.

"But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.'" --Luke 10:41-42

Kelsey

You can fill the blank spots of Sisters Together with colorful clip art. That's what I do with our school newspaper.