I Joined the Choir!

This evening I joined Brian, Cynthia and Ani (one of the foster teens) at an art exhibit down at the Cultural Center. A friend of theirs is a talented painter and her art was on display for the first time and they had been invited to the exhibit. I had seen pictures of her work so I was anxious to see it in person.

The exhibit was a little different than I expected. It started out with a man speaking to the group from the top of the stairs in the front lobby area. He talked and talked and I’m sad to say the only words I picked out were exhibit, artists, and beautiful. He said an awful lot more than that though! When he was finished another gentleman came up and spoke. I have no idea what he said. Then the original guy spoke again. Then our artist friend said a few words. Then another guy started talking and reading poetry. By this time I was in pain. I had been standing patiently shifting the weight on my foot the best I could. The pain accompanied by the heat made for a miserable time. Not knowing how much longer this was going to continue, I decided to sneak into an open area just behind us and find a place to sit. I was in luck…a radiator by the window proved the perfect to spot to lean on and rest my aching foot.

After a few minutes of rest I noticed a group of people entering the room carrying burgundy notebooks…small, three-ring binders to be exact. The women were wearing dresses and heels and the men were wearing slacks and button-up shirts. They began to enter the area of the building I was in…until then I had been the only one there. I smiled warmly as they began to gather in front of me. All of them smiled warmly back. I began to wonder who these people might be. Hmmm…they might be judges critiquing the art…or maybe they are investors. Yes, that’s it. They are investors looking at purchasing the art and the folders are pictures of the artwork for them to refer to. About that time, they began to shift from a group of people filling a spot of space to lines of people in an organized manner. Something was up and I was now trapped in my little spot by the window surrounded by this group of people. Suddenly one of them opened their notebook and it all became quite clear…I saw SHEET MUSIC! This was a singing group and I was smack dab in the middle of them with no escape!! Within seconds of my discovery their conductor appeared with his tuning fork and the concert began. I tried to slide as far into the window well as possible because the cameras were out and flashing. Then the conductor saw me and all I could do was smile. It didn’t phase him fortunately and the group sang with great enthusiasm. I must say it was quite the experience to be surrounded by these beautiful voices…I was just between the altos and the basses. They sang six songs total and I was up close and personal for all of them! So, I joined the choir today….sort of…if only I had known the songs!