Well, guess what--our storm has been delayed until late tomorrow morning--seems it petered out around Santa Cruz and is waiting for another wave to catch up with it. Ah, California--lived here all my 68 years, and NO ONE has ever gotten the weather right. Of course, now that I've said THAT, we'll probably get the worlds nastiest gully-washer in two hours, LOL!
Anyhow, it didn't interrupt the all-day choral festival at all. And pardon me, guys, if I do a little bragging, okay? What it entailed is the four Catholic high schools here in Sacramento. I retired from St. Francis Catholic High about four years ago, spent about six months just lazing around, and lo and behold, the Catholic boy's school here in town called me and said, "We could really use an accompanist and assistant director, are you interested?" Well, fellas, I was bored STIFF with retirement and said yes, then reminded myself, "Wait a minute, the choral program at this school has always been a JOKE!". Anyway, to make a long story short, I met the new director, got involved, and three years later, we have built the choir from 26 kids to over 180. And we're not a joke, anymore. Last year we started a 22-voice men's chamber ensemble, and today, we took them to the choral festival. 16 of the guys could show up, we were up against schools that had anywhere from 30 to 100 students in their concert and chamber choirs, and we went on with our 16 guys and just tore the ROOF off! Right now, I'm walking on air, I'm so darned proud of my guys that I could shout it for weeks! We did two numbers, one a-cappella number in Latin (hey, it's a Catholic choral festival, remember!) and ended up with the only pop number in the festival--"Barbara Ann" and not the sweet Beach Boys arrangement, but the original down and nasty Regents version, and when we finished, you'd swear the seats were WIRED, the audience of parents, faculty and administrators just stood up and went POSTAL! Dang, am I proud of those kids--love 'em all to death. If I had thirty more of them I could rule the WORLD, LOL!
So, fellas, tonight the coffee--and whatever--is on me. Flo, start it flowin, darlin'. You know where to send the tab.
Tom