Saturday, June 20, 2009

Finally Friday

I had every intention of posting this on Friday and completely forgot once I got to work! So, although it may appear that it's Saturday, just close your eyes and imagine it's Friday again.

Well, you can't close your eyes if you're going to read this. And you might not want to revisit your Friday if it wasn't the best day of the week. Hmmm...well, just think in the back of your mind that this post isn't late but that it has been mulled over and thought about for more than one day.

My week was pretty eventful. We had VBS this week: Sunday through Thursday. I was a helper in the craft room. It was a pretty good time. It was nice to take a break from being the "music guy" for a bit. My wife did the music with the kids, so that worked well.

I led two of the crafts: one was decorating a "rucksack" which is a simple canvas backpack. That one went pretty well. The kids used fabric markers to color all over their sacks. The 4th graders got to use puff paint, which wasn't so wonderful. We had to keep their sacks overnight to dry. I only mention that since we hadn't given them a craft to take home yet. All of them had been multi-process projects.

The second craft I led was the God's Eyes. That takes me back to sitting in an outdoor picnic shelter winding yarn around sticks. I don't know when the last time I made God's Eyes was, but that is how I remember it.

The craft, to me, was pretty simple. But telling the kids who had never done this before how to do it was quite difficult. It was hard to figure out how to communicate the steps without going too fast for them. It was a lesson for me, since that is usually what I have trouble with.

I didn't go to rehearsals for Hello Dolly this week and let me just say that it was liberating! I hadn't realized how stressed and angry those rehearsals made me. I knew they were bad and I knew that I wasn't sleeping because of them, but I have had many sleepfilled nights since I haven't been going!

I think I have to return next week, though.

Friday was a pretty eventful day and Saturday is shaping up to be the same. Friday I went to work and practiced with a kid for the Johnston Green Days celebration. There is a Bill Riley Talent Competition at the festival and I'm playing for a few kids I know from show choir.

Friday afternoon I sat at home, did some laundry, and worked on editing the Christmas program for this year. There were thunderstorms in the afternoon, which looked like they were going to put a damper on going to a charity Garden Party for the Interfaith Hospitality Network.

The rain stopped, though, just in time to decide not to go to the Garden Party after all. This put me in a very bad mood. I wanted to go to the party, but my wife didn't seem to want to. Then after pressuring me to make the decision not to go, she was mad that we didn't. At least that is how I perceived the events.

So, instead we ate dinner at home and went to a movie. We saw "Year One." I would highly recommend this movie. It's a little slow at first, and you think, "This will only make me chuckle," but before long you are laughing hysterically at Jack Black and Michael Cera, both of whom are playing themselves. Jack Black talks too much and Michael Cera is the bumbling, nice (but effiminate) boy. It was a great picture.

Now I'm sitting at church, doing sound for a conference about old people. I had asked my sound people if they would be willing to work this day, but understandably, nobody wanted to work for free all day on a Saturday, which is turning out to be the nicest day this week (and by nice, I mean not dreadfully hot and rain-filled).

I also have the Green Days festival that I mentioned before to play for this afternoon and after that I'm heading to Redfield to play for another talent show. It will definitely be a busy day. I wish I had more time to spend doing nothing, but as the weekends have been going, that won't happen.

I forgot, we bought half price tickets for the opera this weekend. We are seeing "Tosca" on Sunday. I'm very excited. "Tosca" is one of my favorites, especially because of the Act I Finale. The chorus is singing a classic Te Deum while the action on the stage is dramatic and depressing. It's a beautiful moment in music and opera.

We actually got the tickets because we follow DMMO on Facebook. They advertised to their followers that they had the tickets and we snatched them up. We even get to sit the very good middle section. Any of the other sections are all to the side, so these are prime seats! I'm very excited.

It will be refreshing to have culture back in my life. Culture that I don't have to create and be a part of. I feel drained because of creating so much culture at the church. This will be a great opportunity to recharge my musical batteries.

I think it proper to mention that we were going to try and stick one more thing into this busy week and that is the home show up in Johnston. They were going to have fully decorated multi-million dollar homes open for the public to view, but unfortunately, I don't think we are going to be able to swing it.

I hope you have a nice weekend!!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Thoughtful Thursday

Okay, gang. Here's the thought of the day:


My cousin has twins that turned 1 today. That's so exciting and it reminds me that my own birthday is coming up. I'll be 27 on June 23. Unfortunately, it's not my golden birthday. This week at bible school, three of the adult organizers had their birthdays all on the same day! It was quite remarkable. There were pounds and mounds of birthday sheet cake everywhere!!

My thought is that as you age you become wiser. You become more comfortable with yourself. You probably become a completely different person than when you were younger. Which, in my mind is probably a good thing since as a child you probably threw tantrums. You probably had to wear diapers. And you probably couldn't reach anything on top of the counter without the assistance of an adult, older sibling or the crafty use of a chair.

Groucho Marx once quipped, "Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough." And with that in mind I'll stop talking about aging. But, I will say that birthdays are a reminder that we can look back and either live with what we've done or look forward and think of what we can and have yet to do. I guess it's a personal choice, but I would like to choose the latter.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Reunion Time


I just nearly had a meltdown right here at work. I'm on Facebook and I get invited to join a group called "Lawson High School Class of 2000 - Reunion." I'm tearful just typing it. And don't be fooled...these are not tears of joy.


Yes, this next May will be 10 years since I graduated from high school. My class, being full of slacker-like people didn't do a 5-year reunion. I probably wouldn't have gone anyway, but then again, that was way before Facebook. A magical thing happened once Facebook came around: you can see who has 43 kids, who has gotten fatter than you, and who is still hanging around the town you're glad you're not in.


A little background: I HATED high school. I'm talented now...I was talented then. I didn't fit in. I'm a pretty serious person with serious ideas and that didn't fit in. I wasn't popular. I wasn't a partier. And, you guessed it: I wasn't a jock. I "played piano...not basketball." Yeah, having your mom say that really gets you on the fast track to popularity.
I had my very small group of friends and I feel confident that I could call either of those people (yes, that means there were two) and still hold a conversation.


I don't want to go back and see these people. Not the two friends I had...but all the rest of the people. I know...there's always the laughing at people who didn't do anything with their lives and there's - again -seeing who didn't escape the clutches of the tight Lawson society. But all-in-all...won't the whole experience just plain suck?


I dont' know.


I joined the Facebook group. People have already written on the wall that this "is soooo exciting!" There's always the option of not going to the reunion just as there was the option to not join the Facebook group...but then you end up being "that guy." You know the one..."I'm too good for you all and I don't want to have anything to do with you."


Well, I may think those things anyway.


I'm sure that this meltdown in a passing thing. Perhaps closer to the reunion time next year I feel such collegial pride that I can't help but to return to the ole stompin' grounds. Plus, ten years is a long time. Popular and unpopular don't matter much now and people, I'm sure, are different than they were then.


So, here's the class of 2000. You can cue that stupid Vitamin C song now. And, yes, just in case you were wondering, that was played by our valedictorian during her speech at commencement. Oh, what a grand time.


Question: What is your favorite memory of your most recent reunion?