Honors Chorus

Little One was invited in February to participate in the County-wide Honors Chorus program. All the music teachers in the county selected small groups from each school, representing 10% of the school's population. The program involved only fifth-graders; Little One's school had 8 students. I believe our music teacher expected more dropouts than we actually had; so in the end we had more than our 10%.
Beginning in March, the kids stayed after school two afternoons a week to learn the songs and practice. There were 8 songs representing several cultures around the world. There were 2 American songs: "Turkey in the Straw," and "Glory Bound."
On Friday of this week all the kids boarded buses at their respective schools and traveled to a high school out on the edge of the county to practice for the first time on the stage as a large group. There were 200 students. The county, thanks to a generous grant, had hired a fantastic children's music director to come in for the weekend. She had written or arranged many of the songs they performed. She was there on Friday to teach them movement for the songs and direct them vocally. The kids practiced on Friday from 12 to 5. How exciting -- to ride the bus 15 miles and practice at the high school!

Yesterday they practiced all day -- from 9am to 3pm. They were provided lunch and snacks. The performance was at 4pm, with the doors opening at 3:15. I had noticed on Friday that the auditorium did not seem big enough to hold families for 200 kids, so I got in line for the door at 3pm and saved a seat for DH. Good thing! We were on the 3rd row, right by the aisle and diagonally across from Little One's position on the stage, so she could see us. Many, many families wound up standing up in the back.
I was familiar with the songs due to her having practiced singing, and she had played them on the piano. (They were loaned the sheet music from February through yesterday.) Each child had also been given a CD to practice with, I guess in case they forgot the tunes and could not read music.
The program was awesome. It's quite a weird feeling to clap, yell "Woo Hoo," and cry, all at the same time. She clearly enjoyed it, with smiles and laughter and intense concentration throughout the program. ALL the children seemed to have a blast, and I hope the county will continue this worthwhile program in the future.
We are thankful she was included. I believe she'll always remember the experience.


Little One and one of her best friends, after the performance.

Another Interlude

On the day after September 11, 2001, I wrote a piece called, "Interlude in Wonderland." Some of my friends who read this blog might remember it. I had a lunch date with Little One on September 11, and I went from the chaos and tension of the middle school where I worked at the time, to the blissful innocence of Little One's elementary school, where the administration had wisely decided it was up to the parents to decide whether or not to tell their children what had happened, and how to go about it. The school was amazingly normal, calm, peaceful, and full of little smiling faces. It was amazingly healing for me. What a gift from God to allow me that time!

I have had another interlude this week. Friends/neighbors/members of our church had a death in the immediate family and had to travel 3 states for the funeral. Taking their 2-year-old and 4(and-a-half!)-year-old sons seemed a daunting task. Having a pretty flexible schedule, and loving to Nana (verb) any children available, I offered to move in for 3 days and keep the boys so the young wife could go down and be with her husband. DH and Little One generously went for it, despite some minor inconveniences.

Staying in this home with the boys was my pleasure and delight. The mom is THE best housekeeper I have ever observed, and I had 3 whole days to study her organization. The boys are sooo sweet and unspoiled -- meaning, unspoiled by the world. They are basically sugar-free, commercial-free, sweet-spirited and happy little boys. I was away from the distractions of my life (ie, email and politics) for 3 days, wrapped in a happy little cocoon.

I am back home now and very pensive as to what changes I can make here so that the things that distract, bother and worry me here, can make a big EXIT from our life.

I did not realize that this simple gesture to the family would become a gift to me, but it did. How cool is God.

Haunting Day

Today has been totally weird. There are some commercials on TV where the characters have things hanging over their heads. In one commercial, it's a fast-food logo. In another, it's a dark cloud. I guess today I had fog.
It started well enough. I have made a commitment to have my morning coffee on the porch in the mornings, instead of in front of the computer looking at the news. The goal is to set the tone of the day with nature instead of .. well, the computer and news. This morning was very very foggy and everything seemed ethereal. Well, can things seem ethereal? I guess they either are, or they aren't. To seem ethereal, somehow that seems to be an oxymoron. Or maybe redundant.
But I digress. Had a lovely morning drinking coffee and watching the fog.
We are "redo-ing" Little One's room. Out with the twin beds, back in with her old iron bed. Right now, no beds are in there, as we are in the process of removing the carpet. Today I spent about two hours pulling staples out of the hardwood floor with a long pair of pliers. Got the blisters to prove it.
When the mail arrived I learned of the suicide of a member of our church. I won't go into the "who" or the "how" or the "how I learned," it's not important. It happened several weeks ago and, living in the fog as I do, I had no idea this had happened.
My heart is heavy for the man who felt he had no choices left. I cannot imagine the sadness he felt.
My heart is heavy for the person who found him.
My heart is heavy for his family.
DH and I are shaken by the whole event -- we feel, well, shaken, is all I can say. I am still processing this. The day started with the fog, and in one sense, that's how it ends tonight as well.

This is One Amazing Child

Little One had to research her name and develop a corresponding coat of arms for her AG English class. Her paper is copied below; I don't have a copy of the coat of arms. When I get it, I will post it. I thought the paper was dear-- I will save this in her scrapbook. Here it is:


Traci Niquole (Nick-ole) Leak
My name is Traci Niquole (Nick-ole) Leak. My mom named me this because she had a friend named Traci and a friend whose last name was Leak. Niquole (I have no clue where she got the spelling), has nothing and nobody that I’m named after.
Traci means, ‘Brave’ or ‘Valor,’ and it comes from the English language. Niquole as Nicole means, ’victory of the people,’ and comes from the Greek language. Leak means, ‘to escape.’ It came from Middle English and probably came from early Dutch before that.
On my coat of arms, I drew a griffin for bravery. I drew this because my name means bravery and I thought that it would relate very nicely. I chose the crescent (top right), which means victory, because of my middle name. Also on my coat of arms, I drew a dolphin. The dolphin stands for my love of swimming and love of dolphins. Last, I drew bubbles because they are colorful and are very pretty and I love them.
Through all my life of bravery and victory and escapes, I have been known to learn quickly and have fun, doing almost everything I do.

The Auction

Yesterday at 5:30 I sent the following email to my DS1:

Well. son, I have to leave in half an hour for this thing. We have worked our little hearts out and I truly hope it is a success. All the neighbors gathered at the shop at 10:30 this morning and just started working. No one stood around and said, "what do I do?" -- everyone just found something and started. We got home at about 4pm.
We've got great food, beer, wine, champagne, and sodas + water, most of it donated. Our little DJ is awesome. We've got lights and seating and fun games, cool doorprizes and great auction items.
We had very good coverage in the paper yesterday: www.salisburypost.com .In the search window, type in Maggie Blackwell and find it in there.
We planned for 120 guests and so far, we have 105 registered. So many have said they will pay at the door that we are afraid we will have to turn some away. The Fire Marshal certified the building at 145.
I just told (DH) that if this fails, it's MY failure. It was my idea, my implementation, and my decisions.
So, I am taking a deep breath and going to do my makeup. Cross your fingers for us.
Love,
Mom

Now it's the next day. I would have to say it was a ..... success.

I never quite understood the meaning of a "grass roots" effort, but if anything was, this was it. We just decided to do this thing. We blocked out afternoons and went to area businesses and said, "We're building a park and need to raise $32,000. Can you donate anything to our auction?" They gave. and gave.

We had an article in our neighborhood newsletter, asking for new, unused items, or antique items, but not second-hand general items. The neighbors gave. and gave. We had 5 trips to auction: one to North Myrtle Beach, two to Ocean Isle (a week trip and a long weekend) , one to Hilton Head, and one to the mountains. An antique armoire. 3 bikes. gift certificates to every restaurant in town. Haircuts, color, pedicures, manicures, waxing, tanning, personal training, and massage. Games. Big cardboard standup thingies of Star Wars and Nascar. Art. Art lessons. Music lessons. The final item of the night was a scrapbook of the elementary school here in the neighborhood that has long closed. It included school photos of children, letters from people who went there in the early 20's, attendance awards, news articles, all collected over the years. The local folks who had gone to this school, primed themselves to bid on this book.

The team gathered at the shop at 6pm to be sure we were ready. The DJ, bless her heart, had set up in the morning. She was ready. The caterer was ready. The bartenders, two college girls who needed community service hours for school, were ready. Our auctioneer was ready. And we? We were ready.

At 7 folks started coming in. At 8 they were still coming in. From 8 to 9 or 9:30 the place was packed. The food was great. Our loveliest neighbors greeted the guests at the door with a flute of champagne. The music was wonderful. Understanding that the group would be mostly 35 to 50, our little 17-year-old had loaded her IPOD with a zillion tunes including jazz, Cajun, Beatles, Van Morrison, a little reggae, and one or two rap songs. She hooked that tiny thing up to these awesome speakers that had a mike attached for us as we auctioned and gave door prizes. The caterer brought 2 servers in their white coats and they filled and refilled the food. The room was dim, illuminated only by tiny white Christmas lights and the various antique wall sconces in the room.

Our invitation had said anything goes on clothing, from jeans and sneakers to top hat and tails. Well, folks took that to heart. Tuxes. Bermuda shorts and sandals. Beautiful evening gowns. Jeans and Chucks. Plaid shirts.

As is always the case with our neighborhood, we had a great variety of ages represented. Our youngest guests were somewhere in their 20's. Our oldest were, I'd say, 75 or so. And there were lots of us in between.

At 8 the music stopped and we began the auction. I gave door prizes and our auctioneer called the auction for 30 minutes or so. When she needed a break, she called me over and I gave more door prizes. We alternated in this fashion till shortly after 10, when the last item sold.

The faithfuls stayed long after the guests had gone home. The money gal rang up our total. The helpers danced and drank and laughed. We were happy and tired and had never once had lost our focus that we are building a park for our children.

As for me, I was too excited and anxious and busy to see if people were truly having a good time, if it were a really good party. In retrospect, everyone ate a lot and drank a lot and talked a lot and laughed a lot. The place looked great and we did not run out of beer or wine. At the end, all the faithfuls recapped the events of the evening and agreed it was a great "do."

I had been hoping for about $3,000 net to go directly to the park. After repaying the expenses of putting the thing on, our take is a little over $6,000.

It didn't stop there. Today at church, one of our church members approached DH with a check in his hand. "I grew up in Fulton Heights," he said. "I am so proud of what you folks are doing over there -- I want you to have this." It was a check for $500.