I’m coming back to cross stitch on campus again by Snively '11

That’s right – the last time I was on campus for CPW was three years ago. Those attending that CPW are now going to be wrapping up their Junior year in May. Crazy.

Most of you reading this, assuming anybody is reading this (blogs and I are old and outdated, but we cling to relevancy), probably don’t know who I am or why I visit CPW every so often. Allow me to present some backstory.

In the year 2020 there was a little thing that happened roundabout the March/April time frame that forced that year’s CPW to go remote. MIT slapped a fancy rebrand onto CPW, creating CP*, and the admissions office staff faced more stress than I can possibly comprehend while creating a month of virtual events for admitted students. Having recently been laid off (along with 15% of the country) I volunteered to provide some digital programming. I’ve been cross stitching since 2011 and volunteered to live stream myself cross stitching while answering admissions questions.

The next year CPW was again remote so I made a repeat performance, but with one AWESOME addition. All admitted students received a cross stitch kit so they could join along in the stream!

CPW returned to campus in 2022 and, just for funsies, I dragged the whole streaming setup to Cambridge from Indiana so I could livestream …. from MIT. I treated it as an opportunity to be kind of like those sidewalk chalk artists at festivals – they work on their masterpiece throughout the entire festival weekend, letting you check in on their work, and at the end you can see the finished piece! That’s what I did in 2022 – I began an MIT-themed cross stitch and stitched nearly non-stop for three days (I slept a few hours, but only a few) and at the end had a lovely piece to gift to the admissions office. I have no idea what they did with it, but meh.

I had so much fun in 2022 I decided to do it again in 2023! I made my triumphant return with a new and improved streaming setup and greeted admits, chatted with old friends who work for admissions, and generally just had a lovely time in Cambridge.

In 2024/2025 I was in the middle of the year-long process of getting a divorce (it’s significantly more difficult to un-marry than it is to marry, let me tell ya) so I had to de-prioritize CPW but …….

I’M BACK, BABY! WOOOOOOOOO! WWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I’ve got a further refined streaming setup (super clean, super mobile, super sit/stand, super auto-focus), 5 days off work, an unhealthy caffeine dependence, and a heating pad for my nearly-40-year-old back. Let’s. Fucking. Go. Check it, I’ve just started getting it all set up and prepped for the trip.

You can tune in to the streaming action any time you’d like, so long as it’s during CPW weekend (April 16 through 19), just navigate to my YouTube channel. I’ll also embed the stream in a blog entry so you can scope it out on the admissions site (I haven’t actually asked permission to do this yet, but I’m optimistic).

Streaming from here: https://bit.ly/MITCPW2026

For those attending CPW, come by and say hi! My knowledge is old and pre-smartphone (actually the first iPhone was released the summer before my freshman year) but I’m friendly and like to chat and tell stories. For those not coming on campus, check the stream and drop by in the chat.

Love y’all, see you in a couple weeks!