Musical Monday

I loved this song before I knew the story of the show behind it. I love it even more now. "A Little Night Music" is my favorite musical by Sondheim. The entire show is either in 3/4 or 6/8 which makes you walk with a little lilt in your step or feel like you need to waltz while listening. The lyrics are clever, clever, clever, and the interpersonal relationships exhausting in their involvements. If you haven't listened to it before, I recommend getting the CD from your local library.

Enjoy!

Foreshadowing

My journal entry from May 4, 1991:

"Before the Scripture Bowl [This was an event in which all the kids who attended early morning seminary would race to see who could find a scripture the fastest based on a keyword, spiritual principle or historical reference. Because, yes, we are that kind of geeky. My ward won, btw.] started, Todd was holding a little baby and when he came over I naturally took him (the baby). Then Vinny came over and asked me jokingly if it was my child. I didn't say anything, I just kept playing with the baby, but Todd took over. He put his arm around me and said, "No. He's ours." I didn't say anything to that either. It was just a strange feeling."

I should mention that every now and then I will see Todd and burst out giggling. This is usually followed by me saying, "I can not believe that I grew up and actually married you!!" I mean that in a nice way. Really.

More Dances

Journal entry from April 13, 1991:

"We danced together ALL night.  [This isn't exactly true.  I remember specifically dancing with Maury and Vinny that night, as well.  But apparently they didn't count.]  I had a simply wonderful time.  I can't believe that it's over.  Sometimes I just wish that I could read guys' minds just to find out how they interpret a situation."

We did dance together quite a bit that night.  It was a ballroom dance.  So everything was waltzes and foxtrots and cha-chas and polkas.  There was one particular time as Todd and I were galloping around the room, he stopped and picked up a couple of daffodils from off of one of the tables and handed them to me.  Not only did I totally melt inside, but I took them home and dried them.  I kept them inside my curio cabinet with all of my precious music boxes until the summer of 1994.  I was packing my room up so my family could move to Wyoming, and I found the flowers tucked behind a music box on the top shelf.  I decided that I had been ridiculous and silly at age 15, and who needed old dried flowers from that silly Todd Smith anyway?  (By age 18, I was sooo over him.)  ;)

I totally wish I'd kept the flowers.

The Dance

This is where the story of Todd and I gets interesting.  Because at age 14 I was a great journal keeper.  I can pull out the actual overly dramatic documentation of the night, written on the very night it happened!!

(Todd hates it when I get out my journals for things like this.  He usually points out that just because I wrote it down that way, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the way that it happened.  I'm sure I recorded every detail with absolute integrity, but I'll include his disclaimer nonetheless.  Because I love him.  And he's cute when he gets all indignant about things.)

 Journal Entry from Dec. 27, 1990:

"We had a dance at North Branch tonight, but I just wasn't in the mood, so I moped around for a while.  After a while, I went out to the Clinton foyer and was looking at the bulletin board when all of a sudden a voice behind me said, 'You bored, too?'  It was Todd Smith, but he had been asleep on the couch with his back to me, so I hadn't expected to hear a voice.  Especially not his.  He was having a rotten time, too.  So, we decided to do something useful.  We grabbed some shovels and went outside to shovel snow.  Then we went in the kitchen and helped to get dessert ready.  It got me in a better mood in no time, but then he left.  It was fun, though.  I hope we can get to be friends."

Poor Todd.  He had just passed the time with me.  I decided I was head over heels "in like" with him.  At future activities we did spend more time together and got to know one another a little better.  But I had a very romantic sub-plot going on in my head.  Todd didn't.

My other girl friends from church had boys at these same dances, that they liked, so we came up with code names for all of them, so we could talk about them during early morning seminary and church without the boys from our ward knowing of whom we were speaking.  We weren't nearly as stealthy as we thought we were, but the memories sure are fun!  I have an entire folder of paper hearts, dance countdowns, and posters with lyrics to our favorite song, "Somebody" by Depeche Mode, on them.  All of them made with our respective "love" interests in mind.  We were so wonderfully silly together.  It still makes me smile to think about it.

Because of Todd, my attendance at Stake Youth Activities was 100%.  Here's an entry from the Valentine's Dance in 1991:

"Tonight was the Valentine's Dance!  [Todd] and I had an awesome time. .. We were being quite immature the whole night....He's so fun to be around.  We sat next to each other at Friendly's after the dance  and had a blast....When it was time to leave Friendly's he got up and gave me a hug, but I couldn't get really 'into it' 'cause his Mom was standing right there watching us.  However, when I was just about to leave I told him to give me a hug.  He said he already had, but he gave me one anyway.  It was a 10 as far as hugs go, and even after I let go he kept his head on my shoulder.  It must've looked like more than it was because Brother Clegg on his way by said, 'Keep it up, Todd.'  It was a wonderful night."

Wow.  More embarrasing journal entries later.  I was extremely prolific about Todd from January to June of 1991.  After that...not so much.  ;)

Boys Who Sing

My Dad was in the Stake Presidency when I was a little girl. Basically, that meant that he had lots of church meetings and had to travel around to all the congregations within the stake. Sometimes my Mom and I would go with him.

One Sunday in particular, we went to the ward (congregation) that Todd attended.  After the main meeting (Sacrament Meeting), the children go to Primary.  There are lessons and singing and all sorts of good things.  Anyway, that day in primary the music leader was introducing a new song called "Love is Spoken Here".    I loved learning new songs.  It was like having a puzzle dangled in front of me.  I HAD to solve it.  So, I paid very close attention to everything that was taught.  (This paid off, because they didn't start teaching it in my ward until the next month.  And I totally knew it already.)  The girls sing the first verse of the song and the boys sing the second verse, then join together to sing the third verse.

  There are some wards where the little boys are very enthusiastic singers.  Then there is the majority.  So, my seven year old self was very interested in the melodious singing coming from the opposite side of the room.

I craned my neck around to see eight year old Todd Smith.  I remember thinking, "Hm.  He's a really good singer.  That's Todd.  I remember him.  He cries when he gets teased."

I should mention that he didn't look at me once.  Nor does he remember this event at all.  Nor did he remember that I was even at Treasure Island all those years before.

He does, however, remember our anniversary.  And my birthday....um, usually.

The next time I saw Todd Smith, I was 14 and he was 15.  But that will be tomorrow's story.

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.