Fine, Upstanding, Healthy, Normal

So I got cast after all. I know! As "Adult Chorus." As far as I can tell, it means we have half as many songs as the "Teen Chorus." But it's Bye Bye Birdie, so I guess it makes sense for the teens to sing a lot. I'm just all about the gratitude.

When the director called, I was so busy going Squeeeee! over him that I had to stop at one point and go "Wait. You were actually saying something. Sorry." And then I was agog at the crowd at the read-through--45 people in the cast! But last night we started doing the harmonies with our saucy-yet-sweet music director, and I must admit I had a marvelous time. I made friends with the gal playing Rosie (she and I are the only two soprano-alto "hybrids" so we're standing together) and really dug into the challenge of hitting those notes.

I was proud of myself for some of those high ones. And for being brave enough to say "both" when he arranged us. I wouldn't have known to say that except that our music director in Choo Choo, in answer to "So I'm definitely an alto, right?" said "Actually, you're both. You've got about an octave and a half." I was also proud of myself for singing the same line over and over again (eight times!) while the pianist called "Again. And again. And again." while everyone stared at me because he wanted to see if I could go from very high to low (just me) on one closing line. I could do it; I just couldn't quite REMEMBER it after I'd done it. Luckily, I have a recording now so I can practice.

I'm looking forward to more fun learning songs and hopefully some dances, if they let us creaky old adults do a little shimmying when the teens are infinitely more qualified. I'm also looking forward to getting to know this vast group of people--already everyone seems incredibly nice and eager to chat. I guess it doesn't hurt that I already knew seven of them from David and Lisa.

My main take-away from the first night is that I'm totally in over my head and I like it. Half the time I didn't know what they were talking about, and everyone was way ahead of me, and my face was burning with shame and confusion, but in a good way.

That's most of the news from here. Oh, Jarrah got a note sent home saying she "has a lot of friends and likes to chat and visit during transition times," but just between you and me? I could think of worse notes to send home. I mean, I talked to her about it, and she clearly imbibed the message because when I was in there helping out with art and they were brainstorming ideas for "dreams for our classroom" (the lesson was Martin Luther King, Jr.) Jarrah chimed in with "I dream of a classroom in which everyone pays attention and listens to the teacher, because that would be the best environment for everyone to be able to learn." I may have snort-laughed just a bit, because suddenly all the kids were asking "Why is that funny?" and when I said "Oh, it's not. Not funny at all." they said "Then why were you laughing?" Yes, boys and girls: why was I laughing? Hmmm.