Christmas and the spirit of giving

Last night, my choir had its second of two performances. It went swimmingly. It was wonderful. The choir surprised me with a bunch of flowers. It's a really lovely arrangement, full of lilies and roses.

I went to pack up my things from the kids' play room, and what did I find there but a kid, playing. She was all, "look at me!" and jumping on a beanbag chair. We chatted a little while about how cool it is to jump on a beanbag chair. I went to move my flowers, and she was immediately next to me with two questions. Why do you have flowers? and Can I have one?

I knew in that moment that I was within my rights to say "no," and gently say an age-appropriate thing about respecting other peoples' stuff, but... there was another thought in my mind. What am I gonna do with these flowers? Put them in a vase in my house. And they'll be pretty for awhile, and then they'll wither up. And they'll die, and I'll put them in the compost.

So I gave her a rose. Because, what the heck. I had like four, and she only wanted one. I carefully extracted a rose and checked it for thorns, and off she went to show everyone.

This story is just a small and happy reminder that love is a flower that becomes even more beautiful when shared. I was given a bouquet, which was happy for me; I gave away a rose, which spread the joy two ways. The rest of the night, she walked around with that rose and didn't let it go even once. She walked out the door still holding it.


Choir flowers :) on Twitpic

Merry Christmas, and I hope that a blessing comes your way by way of blessing someone else. It is a great thing. :)

"A Diner Club Christmas": radio, album, shoshosho

I cram so much into my one little life. Certain aspects of this are admirable, then... others are stupid.

For example, the past week. Jam-packed each night of the week, including Sunday. Now when it's Friday night, everyone else is out and I'm home too tired to move from the space-heated recliner corner.

And I really don't mind that one bit. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Anyway, there's this supergroup of us: the Paper Janes (Shane and Jess), Battleshy Youths (Michael, and Andrew, and Mitch) slash the Honey Badgers (Erin with Michael), and myself. We recorded the Christmas album "A Diner Club Christmas," which arrived on Monday, and we promptly began selling them to everyone we know, and will continue to do so awhile (please don't hesitate to comment or contact me if you want a copy!). I have already signed a few copies for co-workers. ^^

Okay. It's not like I've never played music with people before, and it's not like I'm opposed to it. I'm known to appear at many formal and informal jam sessions, as whim dictates. I fulfilled all my small ensemble requirements in college. To be blunt, though: I chose guitar so that I would not have to rely on anyone other than myself. I am my own one-woman band. I like the independence. (Which is probably why I am still single, and pretty happy being just that.)

Despite my hermit-like inclinations, playing with this group has been pretty delightful. Not that we have a name or anything.

Sunday we were on Hometown Heroes. I can't say enough good things about Mark Rogers, who invited us to be on the show. Hometown Heroes is run by WSTW out of Wilmington. Being in the studio is kind of magical. I've been in radio stations before, and the magic never really wears off. It's tingly, it gets under your skin, it tickles. You're stuck in an eternal grin. The half-hour in the studio really flew by, sadly, but there IS a podcast available!



The show which we were on air promoting went off last night. The Queen - wow. Onstage downstairs at the Queen is an experience and a half. The best part about it (okay, one of the best parts) was the sound guys. They were so good to us. We had such needs - instruments and equipment and vocals and man, what a headache. Luckily Michael's on top of things and the sound guys were really nice on top of being dedicated and smart about things. We played well and I'm hoping there's a podcast coming out sometime... :) I had a ton of people complimenting my mad uke skillz.

That's my brief on that. There's a show or two on the horizon, and Christmas still to get through with the choir, and plenty of dancing for the new year.