Two days off

I'm in Newport Beach, after a wedding rehearsal at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel.  This is going to be the poshest wedding I'm singing.  The bride has at least four processionals.  One of them is part of the 1812 overature, Handel's Water Music, and of course the obligatory Canon in D.

  Tomorrow Mom, Aunt Dawn and I are going shopping to kill time.  I have to shop for the three months of tour.  I can't carry a lot, but I need a second pair of jeans, and sneakers, and socks.

The brief blogs will end as soon as the stress is over.

New Job

We interrupt this blogging break to tell you that Rachel will be touring with Wycliffe Dinner theater in the fall.

Sorry

Hey guys, the blogging is on hold for a bit. I'm too busy doing wedding stuff. Yesterday I frosted flower blossoms onto 250 sugarcubes. I baked cakes, cupcakes, and petit fours. Drea made over 300 mints. And I helped hold up an arbor while dad screwed it together. Today, I'm running to Oxnard to pick up my bridesmaid dress. I work tonight. Tomorrow I'll be back to the baking and decorating. So, I'll try to update. There are lots of good stories, but no time to write them!

See some of you at the wedding, and the rest of you after!

Daily Bread

A guy walked into the bar and ordered a Tangueray and Tonic.

For a change, this is a happy story.

A pre-teen came up and was quite demanding, and very brusque. The guy turned to me after he left and was astonished at how many people seem to come here to be demanding and have a bad time over imagined neglect and poor service. They should just be greatful to have the prosperity to be able to be here, away from the city, and enjoying themselves and their families. I liked him right away.

We got onto the subject of musicals and opera. He likes both. We discussed our favorites. I'm not sure how it came up, but the conversation ended up on Tolkien, Lewis, and Chesterton. We discussed thinklings for an hour and a half. It was one of the best days I've ever had out there by the pool. And his last thought was, "You are very odd, you know that? For someone your age. But hold onto it. It must be very lonely, but you've really blessed my day." Need I mention, he's a "mere" Christian. He blessed me more than I could possibly have blessed him. It was a great day.

Everyone is coming

My parents are on the road here. They should be in late this evening. Then, let the wedding madness commence. I'll be going to my Grandmother's house tomorrow to start baking, planning, and all around getting ready for the briday shower. And my bridesmaid's dress is in at David's Bridal. So another trek to Oxnard is in order.

Did I mention I will be eloping?

Celebration

I just payed off the first of my student loans today. Let all do the snoopy happy dance together, shall we?

Efficacy of Prayer

After church sunday I went over to the alcove where the prayer team gathers. Between a change in job, family coming into town, and my sister's wedding, I figured I could use some outside prayer. Let me first say, I am really grateful for those two ladies. I am. They mean the best, and probably have a much better relationship with God than I do. I am not judging their faith. I am a little bit mystified about their prayers.

Lady #1 wanted the Holy Spirit to flow from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. She wanted him to wash over me and bath me in...I can't remember her exact words...warm fuzzies was what it amounted to.

Lady #2 took over. I tuned back into the prayer at that point. She started talking about patience and fortitude. Great start! Then it took a left turn and sounded like the entire self-help section of a Christian Bookstore. I was supposed to reach out and take hold of something, and throw it to the ground, and sit on it. And know that God will supply if I will only grab onto it. Meanwhile, Lady #1 was speaking in tongues. At least we'll call it that. There was no one interpreting, so it wasn't for my edification.

So, at the end of it all, I didn't feel any of the peace I was supposed to be tackling to the ground. They had all the warm fuzzies, and I just wanted out. Big false-happy smile and a thanks, and I ran for the hills.

Maybe later I'll make this a theological discussion, but for now I'm caught between feeling bad that I'm criticising two heartfelt prayers, and being shocked.

Minor Disaster

Tonight a cart hit a speedbump too slow to go over, but enough to rock three racks of glasses off the back. 57 casualties. 18 were saved. When the head of food and beverage said to start phasing out the old glasses, I don't think this was what he had in mind...

Screwtape Revisited

Heaven help us all, these people are horrible. HORRIBLE!

At one set of tables, no one is allowed to sit until Grandma decides where. The night before last they brought in four bottles of wine, and wanted extra glasses to go around. Today we tried to anticipate them, and places double glasses on the table they were at before. Murphy's law; they sat at the other table. We started shifting the glasses, and one of the ladies said, "Oh, no no no. We won't be having wine today. They've all been wine tasting."

Table two was better. One man brought in four young children, sat them at the table, and then made to leave. "Ok, kids, have fun at the movie later." The waitress asked if an adult was planning on staying with them. "No. Does someone need to?" She answered in the afirmative, and he promised to send back "one of the twelve year olds" to babysit. They adults wanted to eat after the kids had left.

Table three. Oh the charmers. They can't sit down at once, and they want to order one drink at a time. No one will look at you when you come to the table, but they get quite offended when you walk away. We got slammed last night. The busser came with one table's food. They didn't feel they needed to wait any longer. I looked up and the first table was gathered around the tray of the second table's food yelling, "who had swordfish." They caught me staring, mouth open in disbelief, and one lady tried to..."Oh, well, they've been waiting for a long time and..." I pretended not to hear.

The last I heard before I headed home was the same harried waitor back at table one asking about dessert. A little kid piped up, "Is the dessert going to take as long as the food did?"

Another day, another dollar.

The quarterly report didn't happen until this morning. Wendy and I got lazy last night and watched Tombstone instead. I think I may have to become a grudging Val Kilmer fan. I loved him in the Saint, and was semi-ambivilant about him in Batman when I was a freak about the movies. I even had a poster.

I'm going to go plant an ivy and a star jasmine that I bought yesterday. English ivy is one of my favorite green plants, except for irish moss. That's the lush dark green kind with little white flowers. I'm going to have them surrounding all the stepping stones in my english cottage garden of my dream house.

And tonight I'm bartending in the main restaurant. Well, mainly grabbing beers and putting lids on things. I'm the "bar back." It usually means I go home early. Which is good for my state of loafing, but bad for paychecks.

I heard from Wycliffe yesterday. They want to make sure my letters of recommendation are coming so they can process my application. It sounds like they might want me. Two or three more days and the suspense will be over. I don't know if I'm fit for a ministry oriented performance. I'm not an "on-fire, preaching, witnessing, praying-over-people" kind of girl. This troupe recommends daily bible study (check), group fellowship and praying (gulp) and accountability. I don't like to pray in front of people out loud. This is very frightening, and out of my comfort zone. Two more days. Maybe three.