flowers from the sky!

Tonight and tomorrow, singers from the choir of the Church of What's Happenin' Now, Northern Outpost are doing a little "evening at pops" type of concert. There are a couple of big choral numbers that involve everyone -- the finale from Sunday in the Park with George and the title song from Oklahoma! There are also some small ensembles from quintet to octet size, a duet or two, and several solos. It's all really for fun, but it's also a fund-raiser for the congregation's arts program -- the only person getting paid is the accompanist, who is worth every penny and many more pennies besides.

A couple of folks in the choir encouraged, nudged, prodded and asked me what I was going to do. And I dithered and worried for a good long time. Finally I realized that I was just scared about letting these folks know me more and get closer to me, and that that was stupid and uncalled for.

Ergo, I pulled up one of the maxims by which I live my life:
This alarms me! Therefore I must DO it!

[Disclaimer: this maxim only gets applied to things that are legal and not too terribly dangerous.]

So I prepared a solo, a piece from the musical Wicked called "I'm Not That Girl," and put it in the program. We ran through most of the program last night during the choir's ordinary rehearsal time, moving from the sanctuary where we practiced the piece we will sing in the service this Sunday and going to the room where the cabaret is being held. It's a nice big space with a gallery that runs around three sides.

My song is on the second half of the program, after I've done a small ensemble and one of the big choral works, so I'm nice and comfortable in the room and warmed up. But last night we rehearsed out of order, so I was not so much nice and comfortable. However, some of the other singers were around to be a proto-audience, which was helpful.

So tonight, we had a nice crowd for the first performance, and things went well. I was pretty happy with how the solo turned out, and at the end I acknowledged the friendly applause with a little bow.

Then, WHUMP! A wrapped bouquet of yellow lilies, little white mums and evergreen landed on the floor in front of me -- surprising me and the people in the front row of the audience in about equal measure.

I found out afterwards, it was one of the other singers who had stayed last night to rehearse, who had decided that the song and the performance merited this. So he snuck up to the gallery and waited there, then tossed the flowers down. What a sweet gesture! Then he did it again for the next singer, a guy who performed "All I Need is the Girl" from Gypsy. So he's an equal-opportunity flower-thrower.

I got to thank him for the lovely gesture after the show was over. And tomorrow night, I've recruited a couple of other singers to wait with me up in the gallery, to toss down roses when he does his solo in the first half of the program.

What can I tell you? Paybacks are hell... :-)