The First 55 Minutes

So, this didn't start out to be a banner day, at least not the first 55 minutes.

• 5:30 a.m. Woke up to pouring rain. On picture day. Awesome.
• Suffered intestinal distress while showering. I'll skip the details to give you the polite version of the story and just say that the end result was the toilet was clogged. Before 6:00 a.m. Double awesome.
  
• Stumbled in the dark to go to the other bathroom to get the plunger. Ran headfirst into the bedroom door. (The awesomeness will continue to escalate throughout this tale of woe. Stay with me.)
  
• Got the plunger.
• Tripped on the laundry basket and ran into the bathroom door frame on the way back to my own bathroom.
• Unclogged the toilet and rinsed out the plunger in the shower.
• When attempting to put the wet plunger into a plastic bag to contain the germs and avoid contact between my skin and all things germ-related, I realized there was a giant hole in the bag. The hard way. When the plunger fell threw the bag and landed on my bare foot with a big, wet plop.
• Re-showered feet. And plunger. And entire shower enclosure, just for good measure.
• Went downstairs to walk the dog and realized we are completely out of dog food. Fed the cat instead.
  
• Listened to the dog voice her heartfelt complaints about the lack of dog food and the unfairness of the availability of cat food for another hour.

I'm happy to say that once I left my house, the day went smoothly.

Tonight we bought brand new furniture tonight for the first time in at least 16 years. We're borrowing PawPaw's truck to pick it up tomorrow because we're too cheap to pay for delivery. When Dan watches football this Sunday, it'll be as if he's sitting on a marshmallow. A really soft corduroy marshmallow that reclines.

Oh, and I played an acoustic bass guitar for the first time last night IN FRONT OF OTHER PEOPLE EVEN at our small group Bible study. It was monstrously huge and crazy awkward to play, but I loved it. Jimi Hendrix (not that Jimi Hendrix, but he's just as talented as the one you're thinking of) is letting me borrow it. I have the coolest friends in the world!

Oh again, I was evaluated at school TWICE in the last week and rocked out my scores both times. I still have two more unannounced observations this year, but hopefully my scores are good enough on the first two to give me a little padding in case I bomb the next one.

So, other than the first 55 minutes of today, it's been a great week.

Rock Star Wanna-Be

My friend Loren gave me a little bit of good-hearted grief this week because I haven't blogged in a while. Mostly because she likes to read about herself. But I didn't realize just how long it's been since I've blogged until I opened up the old Blogger account and realized...wow. January? Really? Um, okay Loren, you win. I'm blogging.

Here's why I haven't been writing much. Or, you know, at all. After taking a lesson a week since January, I've learned to play bass. Like, really play. In front of people. Without throwing up or wetting myself.

It all started back in the spring, when Dan and I (mostly Dan, but he let me come along just to humor me) were asked to lead worship for the Student Ministry service on Wednesday nights at church. We were very interested in helping because we love our youth pastor and our teens (and we happen to own our very own teenager who is gracious enough to pretend he doesn't know us when we're in the Student Zone). But this presented a challenge because there were very few songs that I could actually sing and play at the same time. Or, you know, play at all. But luckily this was after TCAPs were over and I could relax a tiny bit about the school stuff and focus on being a rock star. I played for hours every night and worked up a few songs that I could sing and play as long as I played a really simple bass line while Dan carried the song and I just sang harmony. Then we found a handful of songs that I could sing the lead and play. We had a couple of awesome students who were willing to sing with us on stage, and we had a blast doing it. We stopped when school got out because they changed up their Wednesday night service for the summer, but Dan kept working with the students who helped us lead. Our goal all along was to mentor them and equip them to lead worship themselves instead of having us old folks in there.

At the end of May our regular bass player told me that there were two months in June that he would be out of town and I would need to fill in for him. I really didn't think I was ready, but Dan convinced me that I was. Our worship pastor agreed and put me on the schedule. Then I saw the songs for that first service and nearly fainted. They were really challenging songs! I took what I thought was the hardest one to my bass teacher and said, "Help me play like that." That was Monday night and by Wednesday night's rehearsal, I had it. Because it was summer, I had lots of time to practice before that Sunday's service. I was nervous that first morning, but it was such a rush. It. Was. Awesome. I loved playing side by side with my hubby--rocking out for Jesus.

Long story short, I ended up playing five Sundays in a row before taking a break to get ready for school to start. I took 4 Sundays off from playing bass (during which I went back to doing Praise Team, choir, and even acting in a skit twice) before playing bass again last week and this week. The guy who usually played bass before I started is still playing, he's just playing electric or acoustic guitar because, unlike me, he can actually play more than one instrument. I'm not that talented yet. And I still have a hard time playing and singing at the same time. But I love being part of the energy of worship in a church full of beautiful, spirited-filled, imperfect believers.

But let's get to the important stuff: my friend Loren. She's a great children's pastor, mommy, wife, friend, and child of God. And she is a crazy-good singer herself, in case you were wondering.