So much singing!

I hope you had a chance to read the previous blog. It was a doozy. Evey's comment definitely got a few email comments back to me as well as the one published on the blog. She was a big hit! Thanks again, Evey, for loving me enough to send me that email, for having the guts to tell me the truth, and for being my daughter, which of course you had no choice about! LOL!

Yesterday I had another good day. I came in around 1600 calories, not as low as I should have done because I ate too large a piece of cheese at lunch, but not terrible. I didn't have any unplanned snacking, which for me is a huge thing. We went to shul in the morning and I took a little walk outside in the afternoon. I walked only 24 minutes, but it was enough. I felt my back cramping up about 10 minutes into the walk so when I passed the house after 24 minutes, I just went in. It was also after 4 p.m. already and I had to leave at 5:15 for the second performance of the Guys and Dolls show.

My solo went just fine Friday night. The audience was quite large, not a sell-out but darn close. I didn't feel too nervous after all, and everyone seemed to love the show. Since my solo was Friday night, I insisted Mark come to that particular show to see me. Normally, he would never go out on a Friday night. We just don't usually ever do that. We like to have our Shabbat dinner at home with candle-lighting and kiddush and then just relax and start the Sabbath. I bought him his ticket in advance, so he wasn't spending any money and he agreed to come. I just want to publicly thank him for suspending his rule about not going out on Fridays to come see the show. Thanks, Mark! He even enjoyed it, he said.

We had a few glitches as a group in a few of the songs, which I will not enumerate here because anyone reading the blog who went Friday night probably would not have noticed them anyway and the rest of you weren't there! I know I listen with a slightly more critical ear than most since choir direction was my profession for so long. Our director is amazing, and last night when we showed up for the second performance, she had zeroed in on exactly the things I noticed and made us use them as the warm ups. I can't believe how hard she and her husband work to do these performances, but I'm very grateful that they DO IT and LOVE IT so that the rest of us can have fun singing.

Last night, the second show was a sell-out crowd. A different lady did my solo, so I didn't even have to get nervous. I just went relaxed and ready to have a good time. I still sang in a women's jazz ensemble of about 16. We did "Route 66" and it was really a lot of fun to do that. I also was the only alto on a five-person descant in "Song for Unsung Heroes," a very moving piece about 9/11 with a fantastic slide presentation going on behind us. There were supposed to be six women (2 altos, 2 seconds, 2 sopranos) on the descant at the end, but the other alto had a family emergency and was in Indiana. They say I held my own. Plus my row was picked to go out in the audience to lead "The 12 Days of Christmas." My partner and I were the Four Calling Birds! It was fun!!!!!

After I'm out in the audience for "The 12 Days of Christmas," we go back up on stage for the final four songs. During those last four songs, something unusual happened last night. I am in row four, which puts me on the stage. There are three levels in front of the stage: the floor with chairs for those who need them, then an 8 inch riser, and a 16 inch riser. Behind me on the stage are also 8 and 16 inch risers, so we have a total of six rows. Well, during the big Irving Berlin Christmas medley that is the fourth to last song, the lady on the 16 inch riser on the level below me suddenly sat down on the stage at my feet! I leaned down briefly to see if she was OK, and she said yes, she just needed to sit down. It was pretty hot under the lights. When that song ended, I leaned down and told her she could lean against my legs if her back started to hurt. She looked grateful and sagged against me. Someone somehow smuggled a bottle of water up to her and she took some drinks. I sang the last three songs supporting her. I don't know where I got the strength myself, but I felt so happy for her that she was in front of me. I felt strong enough to do it by just leaning forward more to counter-balance her. This was a time when it was good to have some extra weight! LOL! If she had been in front of some of the smaller, older, frailer women, she would not have been able to lean on them. Anyway, when the show ended, one of the medical people from our group came and helped her up and took her pulse and got her home, so I guess I'll find out tonight how she is. She was cold and clammy to the touch by the time our last song ended. Wow! Live performance! You never know what is going to happen.

Today is a VERY busy day. At 11 a.m. Mark and I are involved in a complete run-through of the synagogue talent show. He is singing "Should've Been a Cowboy" with his gun-spinning routine. I'm singing' "My Baby Loves Me Just the Way that I Am". Then we are both part of the skit "Mun," sung to the tune of "One" from Chorus Line. There's some funny dialogue to set it up, with our new, young rabbi playing Moses. It's hysterical. Then Mark and I sing the first verse alone followed by about a dozen others coming out to repeat the first verse while they do a Bob Fossi style dance. We all sing the second verse together as well. It's a pretty good number, but it's in a high key, so I have to sing soprano the whole time. Also there are no mikes for us, so I have to be a bit loud. It's fun but vocally tiring.

So at 11 we do the run-through and at 1 p.m. is the actual show! That leaves about a 30 minute break between the two. It's scheduled to end at 2:30. Mark is then taking himself off for Epcot, but I have to go back home and get ready to do the Guys and Dolls concert for the third and final time tonight. Yowza! How do I get myself into these things? Oh, wait....I volunteered. LOL! Well, that's what living here is supposed to be all about, being active and doing things you love.