The kids were awesome…in every way. I love to sing solos, yes, but when the kids I’m directing sing solos and do a good job, it’s way more exciting for me than anything else…they were awesome. Eddie, Austin, Maegan, Molly, Tina, Marie, and Courtney thank you for your beautiful little voices and smiles and big hearts. You are what Easter is all about and you make it worthwhile!

Okay, so I really don’t HATE Easter, there are just some things I dislike about it. Now don’t get me wrong, Easter Vigil is a whole other story. Easter Vigil is people who want to be there because it’s the real deal…the night when all the new people come into the church…it’s very very cool…even if it is 3 1/2 hours long…yikes! At Easter Vigil you have basically three kinds of people…those who are Easter Vigil junkies (meaning they just really like that particular service and come every year), those who are coming back for the anniversary of their own entry into the church (sort of a like a junkie, but with a little more invested), and those who are coming into the church that night and their families. So Easter Vigil is cool. LOVE IT.

Easter Sunday, on the other hand is mostly about those people who come to church like twice a year, heretofore known as lily and poinsettia Catholics (some call them Chreaster Catholics, I prefer to use the flowers). They come to church twice a year because they think they are supposed to and so they have done their duty. Whatever. Then there are also what I like to call PAPAL Catholics (Palm Ashes Poinsettia And Lily) meaning they come for Palm Sunday and get palms, Ash Wednesday and get ashes and the two major religious holidays of the Christian world. Either way, it kind of bugs me. Why? Well not because I really have anything against them coming to church…but to me it's like…why aren’t you here the rest of the year? It seems a bit…I dunno…hypocritical to come two, three, four times a year and call yourself a Catholic or a Christian…but that’s just me. It seems to me that you should be there all the time or why bother? But again that’s just me.

Now why does all of this make me hate Easter? Well, because of all these extra people we have to put up this huge tent in the parking lot because the church is not big enough to hold all these extra people…so that takes up a gazillion parking spaces and since I have to get there early to be ready for the next mass, that means that I get to park in the dirt and walk through the dirt in my nice pretty purple Easter dress and my brandie new white sandals…THAT is what I hate about Easter…There. I feel much better now.

Well, tonight was one of those nights…the kind that don’t happen all too often…Easter Vigil at church…all 3 1/2 hours of it. I sang two solos…one at about 8 p.m. and the last at about 11 p.m….gotta love that…and lots of stuff in between. I’m still getting over the sinus infection gunk that everyone has had, so my voice is not in all of it’s glory yet, but I did okay. My goal going in (knowing that there was no way I was going to be in perfect voice) was just to have fun…to enjoy what I was doing. That was the advice I got from a friend…which I appreciate…you know who you are and I wuv you! And I made people cry…what more could you want? No not because it was bad, but because it touched them…I think the greatest thing is when you know that you touched someone so deeply with something, whether it be words, or music, or art or whatever…that their emotions spilled out…the first time it ever happened…making people cry when I sang…it was like this unbelievable thing…here I am doing what I love to do…and it touches someone else. There is a power in that that you can’t understand unless you have felt it. There was a quote I read recently that said something like…you have nothing to do with the talent you have…it’s what you do with it that you are in charge of…wish I could remember the exact words because it was very cool…I’ll have to find it again. Anyway, while it is true that I nurture my gift, it’s very true that I have nothing to do with having that gift in the first place…just like I have nothing to do with the color of my eyes or how tall I am…I was just made that way…but…what I do with that gift…well that is totally under my control. I love to sing…I think if I lost that ability…it would be the hardest thing I would ever have to face…because even if I lost everyone and everything in the world…if I still had my music…somehow there would still be hope in me…okay…I’m going to stop the philosophical rambling and get some sleep! More singing tomorrow, and even more important directing children to share THEIR music…I have nothing to do with having my gift, but I have everything to do with how I share it…directly or indirectly…what was that old song? I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony? Okay, I’ll save that one for tomorrow…night…I’m out.

Well, here’s my first entry and my time is limited at the moment, so it will be short and sweet. This is supposed to be a place for my thoughts…positive, negative, good, bad, on a given day…come share them with me…could be scary though!