month-long update

I realized when I logged in today that it's been about a month since I last updated the blog. Here are the highlights of the last month:

1. I auditioned for the CenturyMen and got in. I'll be singing in the upper tenor II section. Since they divide into eight parts (TTTTBBBB), there are upper and lower parts for each.
2. I played a successful run of Nunsense with the Camelot Theater Company in Griffin. It was quite an experience. I enjoyed it, but I'm glad I don't have to do that for a living.
3. I played my cello recital for the Griffin Music Club. I played about a 35-minute program, including music from Saint-Saens, Bach and Sallinen (a 20th-century composer from Finland). I think it was very successful. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
4. We had our Sanctuary Choir retreat. It was an amazingly fun day. We rehearsal for a total of about four hours and had lunch together and played with Boomwhackers. It was a great day.
   
5. I cooked corndogs for the Spalding County Fair as a fundraiser for the Griffin Kiwanis Club. I'm still getting the vegetable oil smell off!!!
6. My sister got engaged to her boyfriend this week. There's a lot of excitement from that!
7. I'm going to Birmingham tomorrow to see my sister (newly engaged) and my brother play in the marching band at the Samford football game.
8. Next week, I'm going to be participating in the first of four sessions of Convergence, a young ministers' leadership training event. I had to do a couple of personality/leadership inventories for that.

That's about all that's been going on in the last month. Maybe I'll be a little more regular about updating this thing. I know all of my fans will be appreciative.

This week

It's been quite a busy week. Handbells and Saints Alive rehearsals resumed this week. Also, the computer network at church has been on the fritz, so being productive has been more time-consuming than usual.

As you know, I preached at the early service at church. It think it went really well. As I was talking with the pastor the next day, he said that it didn't even appear as if I hadn't ever done that before. That was quite a compliment.

I'm still working on music for the Nunsense show that's happening next weekend. Some of it's pretty difficult. My next rehearsal is Saturday. In the meantime, I'm also getting ready for my CenturyMen audition on Tuesday and my "recital" for the Griffin Music Club the first week of October.

Well...I guess I should get to work on marking stuff off the to-do list.

It's been a few days

I know...it's been a few days since I've posted. There has just been a lot going on.

Here's a short summary:

• I've been preparing my sermon for Sunday's 8:45 service. It's coming along nicely. There are still a few changes to be made and I'm going to go through it a couple of times on Saturday in the Auditorium. I'm going to be mentioning in a passing way 9-11 and Katrina in the sermon. The sermon is about community and there is evidence of a national community during times of great triumph or tragedy. (I like that alliteration.) Earlier in the service, there's going to be a time of remembrance and prayer.
  
• The network server at church has been down all week which has really hampered me getting my work done. I also couldn't get on the internet or do any emailing yesterday. I think that may have been an unrelated problem, but it was still frustrating.
• Wednesday, I sang at the funeral of our Children's Minister's stepmother. The service was nice. It was in Douglasville, Georgia, which is about an hour and a half away which really killed the whole day.
• I'm going to Dunwoody today to celebrate Robbie's birthday. He's 21 today. Happy Birthday!
• I've been trying to select repertoire for my Griffin Music Club concert coming up the first Monday of October. It's sneaking up very fast and I'm not really ready.
• (I think) I'm starting rehearsals for Nunsense tomorrow afternoon. We'll see how that goes.

I guess that's about all that going on. Well...I'm off to put some finishing touches on the sermon.

Sunday, Sunday

Well...church today was quite good. The atmosphere (I'm sure it had something to do with our shared experiences watching the Katrina catastrophe) was somehow different in a good way. The sermon was excellent.

We had two groups of people at church who had evacuated Louisiana. In the early service, one of our church members had her two nieces with her who were from New Orleans. In the second service, we had a whole family from Slidell, Louisiana. The mother of this family was an in-home care nurse. They had brought with them the mentally challenged individual who was the nurse's charge. Seeing those folks in church today was quite moving. Knowing that there were real people, and not some Hollywood characters, involved in this tragedy made all the difference.

The Griffin Housing Authority has opened up some vacant apartments to house evacuees. Also, the Flint River Baptist Association, of which FBC is a part, is housing about 200-300 people at the campground that the Association operates. The child evacuees are going to be going to Beaver Brook Elementary in Griffin, where one of our church members is the principal. The principal and others are going to meet the approximately 100 kids tomorrow and do some initial paperwork, etc. and give them their school bags.

I gathered some clothes to donate. (It was more clothes than one person should keep and never wear.) Our local Red Cross chapter, headquartered here in Griffin, has opened up an old Ace Hardware store in town to collect clothes and other necessities to distribute to the people who are now living in Griffin. They're also collecting items for Alexandria, Louisiana, which Griffin has "adopted" during the recovery/rebuilding efforts. I'm sure that relationship with Alexandria will be a long-standing one if the estimates for recovery time are even half accurate.

On a lighter note, I took this fun linguistics test online.

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

30% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

0% Yankee

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Busyness

There's been a lot going on. It's budget time at the church and I've been working on the sermon that I'll deliver on Sunday, September 11. If it turns out alright, I'll have to post it here. (It's not that long!)

I have also been glued to the TV every time I'm at home watching the coverage of the Katrina aftermath. What an incredible mess. There have been many new hymn texts that have been written in response to the hurricane catastrophe. This is my favorite:

In the Wake of New Disaster

none

Church was quite good today. Both the contemporary and traditional services went well. The band at the contemporary service really congealed well. The choir sang superbly at the traditional service. It may have been the best I've heard them sing. A number of people commented to me after the service about how well they sang.

I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix today. I think between today and yesterday, I spent about 7 hours reading. The book was good, though. I don't know that I could have read for that long without a good book.

I joined Facebook.com today. It's an online community for people who are going or did go to the same school. I've been able to connect with some folks I hadn't talked to in a while through it. See my profile here.

I committed today to be the pianist for Nunsense. I've never really done something quite like that before. I mean, I've played cello in a pit orchestra countless times, but playing the piano in a group of three for a community theater show will definitely be different. I'm looking forward to it, though. The shows are September 23-25. That will really push me hard with that and my CenturyMen audition on September 20 and the Griffin Music Club recital I'm giving October 3. I guess there's nothing like being busy!

Bowling

I went bowling this evening with a couple of folks. I hadn't been bowling in at least 2 or 3 years, but since the new no smoking law in Georgia took effect, I was glad to go and come home NOT smelling like smoke.

While, I'm not the greatest bowler, I was glad to get above 110 each of the three games.

Speaking of being above 110, my BG numbers the last couple of meals have been well above 110, like 292 just a few minutes ago. I'm wondering if there's a problem with my infusion set since I've been calculating exact carb amounts. Hmm.

Lazy days

Not much is happening around here. Yesterday, I ran some errands including the bank and Costco. I got gas at Costco for $2.479. I felt pretty good about that. My gas light was on in the car, so I was definitely due.

I also read a good bit yesterday. I'm through with about 2/3 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's a good book, but this one is very depressing. It's full of a lot of teenage angst and the successes of the Dark Lord.

Today, it's 11:30am and I haven't even gotten out of my pajamas yet. I'm debating about staying in them all day!

Church tomorrow should be pretty good. In the traditional service, the choir is doing an anthem by Mark Hayes called "To Love Our God." Here is a recording of it done by some random choir I found on the internet. (It's not the best recording and don't do the same interpretation, but you get the idea.) We've really taken to this piece. I think it's quite moving.