Choir Geek Humor

I totally missed musical Monday which is particularly strange given the fact that it was cold and snowy all day.

Here it is a day late, but it will get everyone in the Christmas mood and make you giggle a little bit.



Hooray for fellow choir geeks!

The Meeting

At the end of this month, Todd and I will have been married for TEN YEARS.

Frankly, I find this unbelievable, but then I look at the fact that we have an 8 and a half year old.

The other day I mentioned something about Todd to a friend and he said, "Where did you find this guy?"

My response: "Girl's Camp"

Naturally.

People usually stare for a minute while they try to process the next thing to say to a response like that.

For those of you who don't know, Girl's Camp is a five day camping experience for all the young women, ages 12-18, from our church. Several congregations (called "wards") from a geographic area (called "stake") gather together to do such a camp. The summer of 1980, my mother and Todd's mother had both been asked to be leaders for the camp. Several of the leaders brought their families to the camp the weekend before all the girls arrived, so they had extra man-power to help set everything up and get it ready for the invasion of giggling teenage girls that would follow.

Camp was at a small island in the Delaware River called "Treasure Island", if you can believe such a thing. Todd and I both have memories of travelling from the NJ side of the river to the island with all our stuff in green boats driven by boy scouts.

I was four. Todd was five. Todd's older sister, Melanie, was there also. (I wonder if his younger brother was there, too... I don't remember him being there, but he was a toddler at the time. Hm.) Melanie had beautiful long blond hair. I wanted pretty long hair more than anything else, but my mean mother wouldn't let me have it because I refused to let her brush it. (Ha!! I showed you, MOM! I've had long hair for years, and I DON'T BRUSH IT. So There.) Anyway, I spent the weekend following Melanie and her pretty long hair around. Melanie's favorite game seemed to be, "Let's make Todd cry." It looked like fun to me, so I joined right in.

So my earliest memories of my husband are of him being a cry baby. ;) (I suppose by right, his earliest memories of me should be me being mean, but fortunately he has a spotty memory.)

One morning he and his Dad went down to the showers. The walls didn't go all the way down to the cement floor, which meant that Melanie and I could grab at Todd's ankles from the outside while he tried to take a shower. I remember running away through the woods with Todd's Dad yelling at us to "Cut it out!" and Todd crying. Melanie and I giggled the whole way.

The Sunday that we were up there, we had an outdoor church service where Todd, Melanie, and I sang "I Am A Child of God" for all the adults. I'm sure that we were adorable. I do remember thinking that it was very pleasant to sing with a boy who wasn't afraid to sing out AND sing in tune. (Even then, I was snobby about that sort of thing.)

And that was it. My Dad and I went home and Todd Smith didn't come back on my radar again until I was seven and he was eight.

But that will be a story for tomorrow.

Tag from Jen

8 TV shows I love to watch:

 (most of them online or on DVD because we get three stations with our rabbit ears.)
1. Doctor Who
2. Bones
3. House
4. Lost (though, I took a haitus for a year and am just now finally catching up.)
5. Numb3rs
6. Pushing Daisies (I know.  I don't want to talk about it.  I'm so sad at it's cancellation.  Cruel cruel cruel.)
7. Torchwood (I haven't actually started this one yet, but it's in my queue, and I have no doubt addiction will follow.  Hello, Capt. Jack.)
8.  How I Met Your Mother (I'm always a season behind, because I watch it on DVD)

8 Favorite restaurants

In Ohio?
1. Northstar

In NJ?
2. Dynasty, especially when Tim is there to tell me what to get
3. That Thai place in Somerville on Davenport St.
4. Jose Tejas

In NYC?
5. Plataforma
6. Roy's
7. Any pizza place (as long as it's not Kosher)

In CA?
8.  That Indian place we stopped at on the way down to Yosemite. mmmmm... 

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. I went to my 6:15 AM spinning class.
2. I sliced up six apples for a Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast.
3. I forgot about the no nuts rule at preschool, and packed a granola bar for Caleb's snack that he wasn't allowed to eat.  (In my defense, there aren't any kids in the class with nut allergies.)
4. I folded laundry and watched Numb3rs with Todd.
5. I cleaned out my almost-son's room.
6. We set up a bed in said room.
7. I finally emailed a few friends I've been meaning to email for ages.
8. We had Familiy Home Evening.

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Having a teenager on a permanant basis.
2. Christmas.
3. The next Diana Gabaldon book.
4. Being done with adoption paper work.  (Not until this summer.  Ugh.)
5. Seeing results from all my spinning classes.
6. The next Catan night, whenever it may be.
7. My van being all paid off!!!
8. Getting together with a friend to discuss our writings.

8 Things on my wish list
1. A smooth transition of going from a family of five to a family of six.
2. Less work stress for my honey.
3. A trip to NJ.  (Happening in April!!)
4. Unlimited funds for travel! 

5. That my year's supply were actually complete already.
6. That it were easier to see  far away family and friends whenever I want to.
7. A maid.  
8. A maid.

8 People I'm tagging:

With the understanding that you clearly have better things to do-

1. Heather
2. Joan
3. Amy
4. Beth
5. Trish
6. Carrie
7. Val
8. Marcia   

Musical Monday

The snow has been replaced this particular Monday by rain.  At least it's warmed up a bit.

Today's musical selections are in honor of our almost son.  We went to see him perform as Cinderella's Prince in Sondheim's "Into the Woods".  He was WONDERFUL!!  He has a lovely voice and a tremendous stage presence.  He is clearly at home on the stage.  It was such a joy to watch him and the rest of the cast!  These clips are obviously not of a high school show, but our Princes were very like these professionals.

The prince has three main numbers and then little scenes here and there.  In the first scene, he and his brother bemoan the troubles of getting their princesses; Cinderella and Rapunzel.

In the second song, the princes have caught and married their princesses...and are missing the thrill of the chase.  They return to the woods and find Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.  Best line ever- "Dwarves are very upsetting!"

In the third, there is a Giantess killing in the land and everyone in running through the woods.  Cinderella's prince finds the baker's wife...

I will confess it was a little odd to watch our almost son seducing someone, albeit in character on stage.  Still.  I didn't even know for sure he had ever kissed anyone.  And there he was on stage kissing the baker's wife quite thoroughly.  He looked to be doing a good job of it, too.    

Is it creepy to notice that my teenage son seems to be a good kisser?  I mean, I wouldn't want any of my sons to be bad kissers.  But it seems like a strange thing for a mother to be aware of.  Hm.  

The Broads do Twilight

http://bookgroupbroads.blogspot.com/

Fun and silliness.

Love Poem

"My love for you is like hot cheese, warm and stringy

Your love makes my heart mushy and squishy

Like the lime in the bottom of the tap water jar,

My heart sinks and I turn green when you are afar.

My heart chills like the slaughtered pigs in the meat locker ,

I would rather kiss you than be pelted with rocks playing World Cup Soccer.

Your beautiful body is more curvaceous than a jug handle U-Turn,

I will stop so I will not sustain a burn.  (from you)"

It is finding delightful and forgotten things like this poem that make combing through and organizing old papers and letters completely worth it.  This was written by a former boyfriend (with help from his roommate) on the back of a paper menu while they dined at the diner I was waitressing at during the summer of 1996.

How can I keep from smiling today, remembering that there are such poets in the world?  

Movie Buff in Training

I've always enjoyed going to movies.  I considered it something of a luxury, though, and didn't do it too terribly often even as a teenager.  Part of the problem was that NJ movie ticket prices are cost-prohibitive.  So when I went to see a movie I was happy to sit back, relax and enjoy the experience.  

Todd on the other hand is a walking encyclopedia about movies.  IMDB is a verb in our house.  We'd never seen a movie together before we were married, so I was unprepared for life with my own personal movie critic.  He's critical, but he's usually dead on.  (I eventually made a rule that he wasn't allowed to critique the movie until AFTER it was over.)  He can also tell you every actor or actress and what else they've been in and who they're related to and all sorts of other details that it never occurred to me to know.  

It's partially living with him, but mostly because we live by a dollar theater here in Ohio (50 cents on Mondays!!), that my kids see way more movies than I ever did.  I hadn't considered how this would affect their perspectives on life until last week.

I had charge of my three boys and two of their friends one cold and gray afternoon, so we decided to go see "Journey to the Center of the Earth".  The boys were very excited for some action and adventure, but one boy became a little worried when one of the characters in the movie got knocked out.

"Is he dead?!" the worried Alex whispered.

Before I could answer, Nathaniel whispered back, "Nah.  He's a main character.  Main characters don't die."