Voice Competition

She grabbed the mike from the volunteer's wrinkled hand and marched up the seven steps to the platform. She strode to the middle of the stage, turned to face the audience, and positioned herself at the very edge of the stage. The child stood so near the edge that the tips of her black patten dress shoes hung over into space. With a movement surprisingly fast for one so small she shifted the mike into one hand and smoothed the front of her bluebell-sprinkled dress with the other. Then she held the mike in both hands again and lifted it to her mouth. She flashed a huge grin past the judge into the silent audience and then closed her dancing green eyes, let out a small barely audible breath, and sang. The judge, who had given the four-year-old an encouraging smile just seconds before, dropped the red pen in her hand. It clattered against the oak table but the child didn't open her eyes, break her rhythm, or lose her concentration. Her clear sweet voice echoed through the auditorium and the audience sat enraptured. She stood perfectly still on the edge of the stage, moving only her head as she sang. Brown ringlet-curls framed the small tanned face and swayed with the movements of her head. The notes floated up into the rafters as the minute singer ended her song. For one second after the last sound faded the child kept her eyes closed, standing as still as if she were a statue in a store window. Then her eyes popped open and she raised the mike back to her lips. "I have to go to the bathroom," she announced emphatically. The crowd, judge included, burst into a swell of laughter and the girl returned a soft giggle, the only shyness she had shown since her name had been called. She rocked back and forth on her shoes until the volunteer walked across the stage to grab her hand and lead her to a back stage bathroom.

Pew-sitting

I feel like I sat in pews all day. I went to the Village Chapel church with Jonathan. He was in a men's quartet that was singing at a 4 p.m. benefit concert for Haiti so we decided to just go there for church and stay for potluck and whatever practicing he needed to do before the concert. The church service is always interesting at Village Chapel. The random spontaneity sometimes reminds me of my home church although it seems like all three times I've been to the VC the same sort of spontaneous things happen. This time Joel left his seat at the front of the church a little bit into the service and told Jonathan and John that the quartet had been asked to sing for the second of two special musics. Apparently the VC choir was supposed to sing but that had fallen through for some reason. So they left to practice, returning just before going up front to sing "Steal Away." It was awesome to hear the King Herald's-esque song. At home we sometimes play those CD's on Sabbath mornings.

After church and a humourous but still heartfelt sermon about marriage and how the church is like a marriage, we went to the fellowship hall for potluck, which was pretty good in my opinion. Then Jonathan and I worked on getting caught up in our Bible reading. The last half of Exodus and the first bit of Leviticus is really bogging us down, but we got a lot read while also soaking up the early-spring sunshine. Then the various music groups practiced and I listened and then sat back in the church pews for the concert, which I think went pretty well. The quartet sang "Good News Charriot's A Coming," which was nice to hear again too.

After that Jonathan and I went back to my apartment so I could change and grab something to tide me over for a few hours until we could have another meal. Then we went to Collegedale Church to hear Bryn play for her first Evensong. I thought she did great for playing in her first one ever and for only playing the organ for a year and a half or so. I went and congratulated her as soon as Evensong was done and then Jonathan and I rushed off to meet Tim and get a ride to the church plant in East Ridge where evangelistic meetings have been taking place. The quartet sang both songs, one at the start and one at the end of the meeting so we had to sit through the whole thing. The meeting itself was fine, but I was rather tired, by that time, of sitting on pews.

About halfway through the meeting I got a text from the Accent editor asking me if anyone was writing the story about BCU night. I freaked out. I had no idea BCU Night was today and felt terrible that I hadn't found someone to write the story. And I was stuck in East Ridge right about the time the event was starting. I furiously texted a bunch of people on the Accent staff asking them if they were on campus and could write the story but everyone was either off campus or already had plans. I moved on to people who I knew had taken News Reporting without any luck and finally I tried to get people that are currently in News Reporting. Finally, when the meeting was out I was able to talk to Josh on the phone and he agreed to cover the story for us.

Right about that time Tim had driven away to make it back for a banquet for the police and firefighters of Collegedale that his sister was in. In his haste to get back in time, he had left Jonathan and I in East Ridge. We tried pleading for a ride from a few people before Joel and John took pity on us and let us squish into the tiny back seat of Joel's truck. We were so happy to get a ride back to Collegedale that we didn't mind too much. They dropped us off at Jonathan's van and we went back to my place and hung out with Ty and Kim who were at mine and Bryn's apartment before leaving them to talk while we played some World of Goo to end the evening. Wow, now that I've written everything out it seems like a super packed day but it was fun and very different than recent Sabbaths.

Cardboard Boat Races

I went to second service by myself this morning. I haven't gone to anything by myself for a long time and it was interesting to do that again. Although the sermon was good, I have to admit, I did a fair amount of people-watching. After the service Jonathan, who was singing in I Cantori, came and found me and then Stephen, who was sitting a few rows behind me but didn't see me until the end of the service, came up to talk to us too. Danielle, also sitting behind me, moved up to talk, too. I moved farther back in the sanctuary and saved places for Bryn, Ty and some of their friends and then stayed for the first half of third service to participate in song service. Then I went home to start getting lunch ready. I noticed a lot of lint on my jacket when I took it off so I got distracted with de-linting my coat with a lint brush for awhile. I also got distracted by a list of notable Adventists on wikipedia. It was really intriguing. Here is is in case you're interested. Then I stopped being distracted and got to work on making burritos. Danielle came over and brought twice baked potatoes. I'd never had those before but they were pretty good. I ate like a pig and was absolutely stuffed. Then we met up with some people at Wright Hall and carpooled to The Lantern where we sang hymns to the residents. A few people brought instruments and John's cello was passed around from cellist to cellist during the time we were there. I was so full I kept feeling like I was going to burst (and feeling like I was singing off tune), but I somehow managed to stay all in one piece. Christen was in our group and I talked to her for a little bit and then we ended up standing next to each other and sharing a hymnal. It was nice to see here again. I told her we missed her in ACW. After singing we went to Jonathan and Tim's apartment for worship and then went off to hear Stephensong (Danielle's word for Evensong when Stephen plays), which was good. From there we went to the gym to watch the beginning of the Cardboard Boat construction. I was convinced to leave after a few minutes. We picked up Nathan and then Bryn, Ty, Nathan, Danielle and I went back to our place and finished off the burritos and a bunch of other food, too.

Nathan and I had a discussion about Advanced News Reporting, which he's in right now and I took last winter semester. Then we started counting up the writing classes we've been in (not only W classes, but ones where the main emphasis of the class is writing, too). Here's my list in chronological order.
At WWC: Honors Writing I, Honors Writing II, Magazine Article Writing
At SAU: College Composition 2 (since I didn't take Research Writing at WWC), Writing for the Media, News Reporting, Expository Writing, Advanced Reporting, World Religions, Creative Writing, Mass Communication & Society, Literary Journalism, Advanced Creative Writing. Other classes in which I've had to write a research paper: Intro to Communication, Media & the Presidential Election, Communication Research
I think that's a pretty hefty list and I'm not even completely sure I've thought of everything.

Anyway, after eating we rushed back to campus and headed into the gym to watch the parade of completed cardboard boats and then followed the parade to the pool where we watched the teams compete. I knew quite a few people on various teams so it was fun to cheer for them and take pictures. Jonathan and Christen were on the same team and Tim had a team of people I knew, too. Finally, when there were only a few teams left and they looked like they would be going for quite awhile still, I left and came back to my apartment to watch a movie. I heard later on that Tim's team eventually won so that's cool. It was a pretty packed day, but very diverse, which is always fun.

Subconscious singing

My family has an affliction. I call it The Singing Disease. We sing all the time. This is mostly evident when my younger siblings and I are at home for breaks. When the three of us and our parents are all in the house together there is probably at least one of us singing at pretty much any point in time (and many times more than one). Some of my family members sing normal songs. This would include my sister Bryn and my brother Tyler. They go around the house singing or humming typical songs that most everyone can understand. I call them the Normal Singers. Then there's my dad. He combines singing with a strange type of humming. I call him the Hum-Singer. I've never heard anyone else in the world try to Hum-Sing. I'd really like to explain the sound to you all, but I fear there are no words to express it. Here is my humble attempt. The Hum-Sing isn't really singing or humming. It's more like half humming and half doing that thing where you use dum-dee-dee-dums to "sing" a song instead of actual words. Most of the time Dad Hum-Sings with his dum-dee-dee-dums to hymn-like tunes. I'm not sure if any of that explanation got the idea across, but maybe I'll just have to get a recording of it during Christmas break. Then there's the Subconscious Singers of the family, my mum and me. We have the ability to sing without even know we're singing. Now if you are the one subconsciously singing there is no problem. You can be going about your business and joyously singing to your heart's content with no problems. But if you are listening to an unconscious singer, you will probably go crazy. This is because the Subconscious Singer does not usually sing typical songs. I know, from years of my mum driving us to a town 40 minutes north for music lessons two or three times a week, that being subjected to unconscious singing for a long enough period of time with no way to escape will drive you batty. Despite this knowledge I still have trouble stopping myself from engaging in subconscious singing, especially when I'm around family members or people I'm completely comfortable with. I think my siblings can attest that this is true. One time I submitted them to a five minute rendition of my thoughts on hot dogs. It was only when they told me what I'd been singing that I realized I'd joined my mother in the status as Subconscious Singer. And now you know just a little bit more about the weird and wacky family I come from.