Once again, thanks to everyone who came and/or read as part of Fray Day Central Florida. Here are the highlights and a quasi-recap of Thursday evening:

+ In the lobby on the way in or out, those people who wanted to read wrote their names and places of origin on an index card. And we asked everyone to write their life stories onto Post-It notes and then stick them to a disembodied door that we brought in. More than 60 people did so, and the results included stories such as these:

"Anonymous but gifted." "Just imagine free falling for 6,665 days. That's my life." "Mashed potatoes." "One time I got my nipples licked." "was born. lived. loved. died (almost)" "Born. Obsessed. Compulsed. Wrote about it. Still writing."

+ A close-up of part of the door:

+ After a brief intro, we just started the stories. Once on stage, each storyteller selected from a stool, a swiveling office chair, a hard-back chair, and a podium; some opted to perch themselves on the edge of the stage or just stand. Nearly all of our 24 readers selected a different way to use the stage. It looked like this:

+ Strangers introduced one another, as we replaced the role of emcee with the index cards; after reading, each storyteller introduced the person following them using the information on the index card. Here's storyteller and co-organizer Nancy Barber reading in the only other picture I remembered to take:

+ The diversity of stories was intense, and the
Daytona Beach News-Journal's story about the evening gives brief summaries of a few of them. (We take issue with the head count and the characterization of the participation of some students, but we appreciate the coverage and photo of Orlando resident Mary Beth Ellis.)

+ Many people came from the community -- and from far away -- to participate. One woman drove all the way from Lakeland after learning about the event via a web search that very morning.

+ Our final storyteller was inspired by early storytellers and wrote the story he told while at Fray Day. Way cool.