Flight F-I-N-A-L

I’ve absolutely loved hearing about your favorite hymns for the ‘Sweet Exchange’ giveaway.  (Enter until Thursday!)  I have to give y’all some props for teaching me a word I’d never heard before:  hymnody.  Seriously?  That’s a word?  The first time one of you mentioned it I was impressed because I just love to make up words that sound like they should be a word even if they are not a word.  But the second time it popped up I googled it and found out it meant, “..the singing or composition of hymns.”  I’ll do you one better.  Did you know that one who studies hymns is called a hymnologist?  Who am I kidding..of course you did!  Y’all are so smart!  (My spell check isn’t as smart as you, though.  It wants me to change those words to humanoid and hematologist respectively.)

I also asked you in that post to remind me to tell you about my brief stint as a singer/actress/hymnodian.  No one did but that isn’t going to prevent me from telling you about it anyway because when a woman is fast approaching 40 and it settles on her she’s half-way to dead she feels the need to relive her glories. 

The college Luke attended had a fabulous music professor and he organized a community production called Flight F-I-N-A-L.  The setting was  in an airport terminal and the only ones allowed to board the flight were those who were born again.  It’s funny to recall now but I remember one of the girls (Penny!) who didn’t make it through security at the Pearly Gates carried an Abercrombie and Fitch shopping bag to symbolize her worldliness.  I remember thinking, “What store is that?”  But that was during my Alfred Dunner elastic waist pants wearing days so I missed the A&F bandwagon altogether.   Thank goodness.  That bandwagon led straight to H-E-Double Hockey Sticks.  In fact, considering A&F’s nekked advertisements, I think it still does.

The play was primarily a musical with few speaking parts but Dr. C asked me if I would be willing to be an angel/flight attendant that would greet the passengers on the plane.  Of course I said yes but was a little concerned about one thing:  I was 6 months pregnant.  That’s some messed up theology right there.  Thankfully I had a navy, wool dress (that was so ugly as were all my clothes) that camoflauged the tummy as much as a 6 month pregnant tummy could be disguised.  So, the show would go on.  Sort of.

At the end of the play I was supposed to fade into stage left (or right? Depends on which way  you are looking at it..) for a stirring rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus.  It just so happened my final position left me standing smack in the middle of the sopranos.  If you read yesterday’s post, you may remember I am not a soprano, I am a bass.  No, not an alto.  A bass.  So, my intention was to lip sync so I wouldn’t appear to be an angel who couldn’t get her praise on.

The play went beautifully.  Everyone remembered their parts and I remembered my lines and at the end I was overcome.  Just overcome.  So much so that I decided I wasn’t going to just lip sync but that I would find my inner soprano and sing along with the rest of the people.  Did I mention I was overcome? 

My elation quickly faded as I belted out HHHHAAALEEELUUUUJAAHHHHHH in a voice that sounded like a 12-year-old boy going through puberty with strep throat and I glanced over to my left and right to see the women beside me sticking their fingers in their ears.  That is choir speak for, ”WHAT IS THAT NOISE BUSTING UP ALL MY HARMONY?”.  I quickly came to my senses, saw the door to the “plane” immediately behind me and decided I could make a creative exit.  Yes, I escaped stage left (right?).  Because I was a different sort of overcome.  And if I didn’t get out of there right when I did I’m confident someone would have dragged me out with one of those cartoon-ish shepherd hooks a la Bugs Bunny used to forcibly remove inept performers.

It turns out this performance was my acting F-I-N-A-L-E.  Unfortunately for my stage career there isn’t much call for pregnant angels who fake-or-badly-sing soprano.   No worries.  

There’s always my epic bass line in ”Where the Soul of Man Never Dies.”   

And if that is a fail, mouthing “Watermelon” will always save the day.

September 28, 2010 | Filed Under Church Life | 17 Comments 

A Sweet Giveaway

For any of you who know much of my back story, you’ll remember I didn’t become a Christian until I was 21-ish.  When I began attending church regularly I was familiar with some of the hymns that were sung but knew none of the ‘choir specials’.  The whole realm of Christian music was wide open for discovery.  Luke and I went to Bible College and to be honest, I was a little uptight where this new-fangled ‘contemporary’ Christian music was concerned.  I mean really.. a drum beat?  Melodies that sounded like they belonged on secular radio?  “Surely sinful”, said I.  I had repented of Prince and Janet Jackson so in my estimation any sound that even hinted of  ‘Purple Rain’  had to go.

I finally got over my prudeness after a friend introduced me to the radical stylings of Steve Green and I realized I really liked the departure from the uber-traditional.  I still appreciate the great theology in the classic hymns but I’m no longer a zealot in what is permissible as long as it is Christ-honoring. (Hence my affinity for TobyMac and Kirk Franklin.  They fill the Prince-sized void in my soul.)   Once I came to that realization, one of the first groups whose cd I actually purchased was Point of Grace (Free to Fly!). I heard them at a Women of Faith conference and just fell in love with the harmony and the flat out way I was encouraged when I listened to their songs. 

So when I received an email that Heather Payne of the group had released a solo cd and also asked if I would be interested in telling you about it, I was all, “Ummm, yes, sign me up please.”   So here I am telling you that if you are in love with those POG girls and also love classic hymns, then Heather’s ”Sweet Exchange” is for you.  The title track is great but she had me at ‘Be Thou My Vision’.  One of the greatest songs, EVER.  There is a listening party HERE for you to check out the album in its entirety.   

And I know it is totally irrelevant, but as I’m looking at the cd cover it is worth a mention that Heather’s outfits are adorable.  I need to know where she got that ruffled shirt on the back and the open cardigan on the front.  And something else I didn’t know about her?  She’s a minister’s wife and mom of four.  So of course she is awesome.

The best part of all this jabber is that Heather’s people have offered 2 copies of her cd for me to give to you.  To enter, simply tell us the name of your favorite hymn!  And as a side note,  does your church sing them in a key you can hit?  Ours is high and since I can’t go there, I have to dig deep and come out with some bass.  “Where the Soul of Man Never Dies” is my favorite.  I sing Johnny Cash’s part and it’s really something to hear.   Just ask anyone to my right or left or front or rear. 

Wait, they’ve moved. 

(Y’all remind me to tell you about the time I accidentally ended up in the soprano section of our Bible college musical in which I played the part of a pregnant angel.)

 I will collect entries until Thursday and announce the winner on Friday.  Be certain to leave a current email in the entry so I’ll have a way to contact the winner! 

September 26, 2010 | Filed Under GiveAway | 67 Comments 

The Birth Month

I’m not altogether certain when a birth day morphed in to a birth month but my girl started celebrating three weeks ago and we still aren’t completely done with the festivities until this Friday. What I can promise you is this: if my birthday may be used as an example, at some point this phenomena reverses itself so one barely gets a birth hour instead of a birth day. But I’m not bitter. There’s nothing appealing to me at all about someone kissing me awake, baking cupcakes for me and 14 of my closest friends, taking me on a weekend retreat/shopping trip, and closing it down with a good ‘ole fashioned sleep over. The older I get, the more content I am with receiving random glitter text messages with a heartfelt song from a furry animal and a dinner of fine Mexican cuisine.

The joy of celebrations at this season of life is watching your kids being totally invested in all the things that define The Day. I offered to buy some adorable cupcakes from Walmart for the class party but Miss Thang insisted we should bake and decorate them ourselves. It really wasn’t that hard. Amazing how something so simple can make a little one feel so special.

(Side note:  The bandage on her eye is from her brother accidentally whacking her with a piece of pipe he found behind the church.  Want to know how we are certain it was an accident?  Because he left a mark.  If it were intentional he would have operated with much more stealth.)

In the birthday chair while the class sang to her. She doesn’t like all eyes on her at one time. She gets that from her daddy.

So happy the singing and glaring attention are over:

I taught a retreat this weekend in Pigeon Forge for my MIL and SIL’s churches as well as some other friends who came along for the fun. I took my little daughter with me because I wanted to have some girl time with her and I knew she would get petted to death. We went shopping in our down time and just look at this obnoxious journal she bought with her cash. My heart was undone:  First that she loves journals so much and second that there wasn’t one with an ‘L’ on front.

(Want to know the first thing she wrote in it? A “To Do” List which consisted of 1. Go to dumb school. 2. Eat dumb lunch 3. Get killed in dumb dodge ball in dumb P.E. I think she wrote this before she’d had her coffee.)

And now a moment of silence for my hair in this random photo taken by my camera stealing daughter.  IT IS ON FIRE. Where did this color come from because I know that wasn’t what it looked like on the box?  We’ll be working on that this week.

A small representation of the group from this weekend. I can’t even tell you how much I love retreat studies and having time to really connect with women you’d only get to see in passing otherwise. I got to spend time with some friends from high school and laugh my head off during a game of ‘Get to Know You’. Only confident women should participate or else our insecurities will rage when people guess your name from a clue such as “can’t water ski”. “What, you think I look like I wouldn’t be able to water ski? What makes you think that? Is it because you think I’m fat?” Y’all get the drill and you know how we are. But thankfully, only secure women played in our cabin. Right, girls?

Okay, so I really need to jump off the computer. This house won’t clean itself before the Sleepover Extravaganza of 2010 this Friday night. (On a totally different note, why do we bother cleaning house for 8 year olds? Is it because we are afraid they will tell their mothers we are slobs?  Should this be a Get to Know You fact?) Y’all wish me luck that we’ll make it until September 30th.

Because Boy Three’s 11th birthday is in October and we get to do it all over again.

September 22, 2010 | Filed Under Family | 12 Comments 

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