I’m in a bit of a grump space right now, and I don’t like posting when I’m feeling this way. Work is really stressful, I’m having major issues with my shoulder (the OTHER one, this time, GAH), I’m finding it very difficult to be a parent right now, and I can’t stop checking the news for the latest political horrors being perpetrated in the US. It’s like watching a train wreck only all the potential victims are us.
I got an email the other day that our choir start date has been pushed back at least 2 weeks because they haven’t succeeded in finding replacement choir leaders for us yet. Plus, it’s that kind of cold, raw, wet weather that is just depressing, and it’s not even February yet. *suck*
Sitting at the computer aggravates my shoulder to no end, and guess what I do all day long? I had a massage today and it felt better for about 10 minutes. Now it hurts as much as it did before.
I’m once again the VP Membership for the AWC. The woman who was doing it, who took over for me a year and a half ago, couldn’t manage the job to the extent it requires, and apparently hadn’t been managing for a very long time, despite offers of help and back up from me and others on the board. I think she probably felt I was a control freak, but under her watch we dropped to below 100 members down from the over 200 there were when I left that position. Some of the people who had pending registrations when she officially quit had been waiting since September and had never even been contacted. 🙁 Three of them have now been called, talked to and activated and the other 2 have been emailed and responded to. And 2 former members rejoined at the meeting last night, so we’re on our way back up.
Since I took over VP Membership, I proposed that one of the women who has been co-secretary take over Editor for me, and she agreed, so that worked out well. It would be nice for this to be a good AWC year considering it’s the 20th anniversary of the club’s founding this year, and it’s already had a rocky start, since with membership so low, we haven’t had our usual income and that has meant several cost-cutting measures like charging for some activities that have been free for several years, canceling meetings to save on hotel conference room costs, removing the raffle gift from the meetings we DO have, and stopping the free sandwiches we were providing as well (free to the attendees, not the club).
On Saturday, I sang, with 5 other women from my department at work, in a huge gospel fest at the new concert hall in Malmö. We were part of 1100-member choir, which was pretty impressive. We FILLED the hall. In fact, we were more people singing than there were in the audience. It was a very long, intense day. I left the house at 7:30 a.m., picked up my colleague Anette and we got to Malmö at 8 a.m….early but we weren’t sure of where to park and all so we figured it was better than being late.
We sang ALL day, practicing the songs we had been learning on our own, plus a few brand new ones that we learned during the course of the day. There were several directors, some who only directed one song, and three guest artists, including 2 from America: Dr. Carl Hall, a gospel singer and director from Atlanta and Aaron Marcellus who was in American Idol and Stomp. The other one was Leila Adéle, a Swedish singer who has been in Melodifestivalen and Idol.
Of the 9 songs I memorized by listening to them on CD in the car for the last 2 months, we sang 5, plus the 2 new ones I mentioned, plus back-up on the solo songs that the guest artists did. We performed in 2 concerts in the evening, the first at 6 p.m. where our half of the choir was up in the balconies and the second at 8 p.m. where we were on the stage.
You can see photos and videos here.
Anders and the kids came to the second show, the one where I was actually on the state but they couldn’t see much of me as I was almost in the center, in the second row, and was hidden from their view by the directors every time. Karin sang along with all the songs, and said afterward, “Why didn’t you let me join in, too?” When I laughed and said I didn’t think she would have been interested, she exclaimed, “Well, I want to do it next time!” Hahaa! I don’t care that much for gospel, to be honest…I felt sort of dragged into it by my colleagues, but it WAS fun, and we sang other songs that weren’t really gospel, too, so all in all, I think I’d do it again.
I was bummed, however, that all the women’s marches were the same day as the gospel fest, which meant I couldn’t join in. Several of my friends went to Copenhagen for the march there, and I would have loved to have participated. I’ve really enjoyed seeing all the pictures and videos from the marches all around the world, and all the witty signs everyone had. But I hope that all of these people who are suddenly finding their voice really understand that just marching is NOT enough.
Things to look forward to: Spring, Pie Night, the end of Kick Off season at work