Go Cubbies!

I am at work WAAAAAY too late today. Why? Duh! I have to blog about my week!! I know you couldn't live your weekend to its fullest without knowing what I did alllll week long.

Well, I'll go backwards, just because I can remember better that way. Yesterday was a long day. I got to get up earlier than normal because I was helping out at an I-Cubs game for our senior high youth work trip.

As one of the big fund raisers, the senior high youth do concessions at the ball park. This was a completely new experience for me, but I have to say, although my legs and feet were KILLING me, I had a great time.

There weren't actually any youth there for this one because school is still going on, but I got to meet some of the youth's parents...people who I've never seen at church. I thought it was great that they were willing to take the day off and come and help out.

I worked at one of the registers. I had heard this was a slightly difficult job because you have to deal with people, but I'd also heard of burning disasters making hot dogs. So, not wanting to be forever tatooed with the shape of a hot dog on my arm, I chose to do the register. It was actually very enjoyable.

There were a lot of kids there...end of the year field trips, so the beer wasn't quite flying out of the tap, but the candy was! It's funny to see all the different kinds of people. I know...what a sheltered thing to say, but like I said, I hadn't worked at a baseball game before. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can count the number of baseball games I can remember going to on one hand.

So, we had to be at the ball park at 10 in the morning and the game started at noon and after clean up was done we didn't leave until 3:15. It was a long day on my feet. I was tired and just wanted to take a nap. Then my wife got home and the cat was hyper and the nap didn't happen. Instead we talked about our days...which I'm sure was much more interesting that sleeping.

After dinner I had a rehearsal with the big jazz band at church. We are doing a song called "Church on Fire." It's a real "hands to Jesus" sort of song. Of course, that won't be happening in the Methodist church, but I hope the congregation at least gets the song. The text is nice...about sharing love and showing your burning love for God. Plus, Sunday is Pentecost. What better day to talk about fire?

The rehearsal was a little rough. I'm nervous for Sunday. I pretty much lost my voice screaming over the playing to try and keep a tempo going. I'm sure it will work out and be fine. But, who knows!

As I blogged before, Wednesday night I had my first youth choir rehearsal. I had mixed feelings about the outcome. I had two girls, both sang alto. I was excited because two is more than zero, but I was disappointed because it was just two.

Hmmm...

I know of two boys that will be joining this next week that just couldn't be there last week, so that will give us four. I'm hoping to send out a note with a little bribery for coming to the next rehearsal. Hopefully they will see that it is pretty darn fun and stay for the next rehearsals.

As for "Imagine"... I was appaled to find out that the two girls that were there had never heard the song. I had built the whole repertoire around this song!! I couldn't belive it. But, they did like "What A Wonderful World" and even knew that it was from "Good Morning, Vietnam." I've never actually seen that movie. Some of the things these kids don't know confuses me...but that's an issue I don't have the brain power to figure out.

Monday and Tuesday I had the days off. They were very restful and Monday, as I've blogged before, was a nice day to spend with my wife. I did go into work on Tuesday because I had to send about 50 emails. Maybe that's an exageration, but not by many!

This weekend looks like it's going to be the nicest weather we've had all year. I'm excited to spend a lot of time outside and inside. I have many hours of "Hello Dolly" rehearsals coming up. I'm looking forward to being about to coach singers and direct chorus that isn't at church.

Speaking of, I forgot to mention that last Sunday was my first Summer Choir. This church has never had a choir during the summer, but I thought as a recruiting tool, I would start one. I had some regulars, and some poeple who used to be in choir, but couldn't do it this year, and some people who weren't in choir at all. Total, I think I had 18-20 people singing. We did a super easy arrangement of "He Is Exalted" and it was quite successful.

Things are happening and a lot of those things happened this week. I hope this is a forecast for how the summer will be. I'm excited to learn more and do more. I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy the nice weather!

Question: What is something that you've done recently that was new to you?