Wednesday, 6/1. "Impromptu Concert" or "Why Do They Call That a Museum?"

I didn't really do this on purpose, and I'm not sure why I haven't done this before, but for whatever reason our days have started a little later on this trip. I'm not complaining. I've been doing this a long time, and late nights/early mornings have always been a part of it. Still are, but 30 extra minutes in the morning really makes a difference. An hour is a gift direct from God.

We started out by going to Our Lady of Life for a morning concert. There were a few interesting things about this one. 

After Nick conducted, I introduced him to the room. Here's a great picture of me trying to make a joke about his age and the audience's dreams of becoming a conductor that didn't land well. By "didn't land well," I mean "didn't actually make any sense to anyone in the room other than me."

The layout of the room was pretty cool! It had two levels. You may notice from this picture that it's just like church...nobody sits in the front row. But after you notice that, maybe you'll see that the youth really spread out and make sure everyone has at least one (usually more than one) quality visit.

This is Fran. She approached us and said that she's a retired music teacher (K-8). She's also an organist at the St. Louis Fox theater (their only female organist). And she plays the piano, which she demonstrated for us...and then invited us to sing along! We sang "How Great Thou Art," "Amazing Grace," and "Old Rugged Cross." She used every key on the piano, and it was a joy to sing with her.

I also ran into this kind soul. This is Teresa, and she's Terese's mom (Terese is in Chancel Choir). I thanked her for lending us such a talented soprano and invited her to sing with us. She said she does sing but politely declined to sing with us, opting instead to listen to the concert. She's delightful though!

You know, I get so focused while I'm conducting that sometimes I don't look very closely at what Leanne is doing. Apparently during one of our songs she let Sir Trots-a-Lot handle the accompaniment. He's very good. He is not as good as Leanne.

You may not know how important lid position is on a piano. Some pianos have multiple sticks to set different heights. Sometimes all you need is to prop it open a little bit, so you find something around to prop it open. I was going to use a coke can that I found, but Leanne, well, let's just say no self-respecting pianist is going to let someone put anything liquid inside a piano. Ever. And especially not a sugary drink. So she went and found a book. Full disclosure: I have nieces and nephews, making me Uncle John. I'd like to introduce you to my book:

After the concert we changed to get ready to go to the City Museum. Grace and Elena argued over who could wear the tshirt, but eventually the compromised and just both wore the same shirt.

We planned to eat lunch at the City Museum and also to play there. It's not what you're thinking when you think of a museum. It's...truly bizarre. Lots of tunnels and chutes and passageways. Places to get stuck in. Unfortunately I had to carry the "football" (my backpack which has all our tour things in it), so I didn't get to really explore (and the time I did wound up lowering myself through a very small tunnel pulling two backpacks behind me as I went...making simultaneously thankful that nobody was there to see it and a little bummed nobody was there to see it. I also climbed through the highest part of the outside part of the museum.

I'm not going to put a comment on each picture. I'm just going to lay down a bunch of pics and let you try to figure out what this place is all about.

After the City Museum, we headed for Memphis. Our original plan was to check in to the hotel, change for senior dinner, and then go to senior dinner. All was going well. Then we got to the hotel.

"I'm here with the Youth Music Mission large group."

"What group?"

[Digs into notebook and finds contract.] "This group."

"Let me call the sales manager."

The next several minutes are something of a blur to me, but the end result is we went to senior dinner while they sorted out what they were going to do. This is why I always carry the contracts with me. I've never had to use them until yesterday.

Senior dinner was great. It was Central BBQ (because Memphis). We had our own room. We ate together and handed out awards. We celebrated our seniors. We laughed and cheered.

What we did not do was take pictures. I thought about it when we were walking out, and all the chaperones said, "I was so in the moment I didn't take any." So I'm really sorry about that. You'll just have to take my word for it. It was awesome. I will tell you the aware recipients though:

Attendance, 80%: Lucy Cowden, Wesley Cowden, Caitlyn Bemiss, Sadie McMillen, Grace Smith, Annie Wahlen

Attendance, 90%: Carter Loughran, Cole Jones

Attendance, PERFECT 100%: Oliver Loughran

Mr. Congeniality: Cole Jones

Spirit Award: Sir Trots-a-Lot

Chaperone Award: Chase Malemezian, Mariann Kersh

Director's Award: Carter Loughran, Will Merrill

Amazing Bus Driver: Will Overman

Graduating Seniors: Annie Wahlen, Grace Smith, Josie Byrne, Owen King

When we got back to the hotel, they had figured out how to find enough rooms for us to be in, though it wasn't ideal.

We did a brief devotional and took some time to write postcard to invite folks to be a part of the youth choir, after which the girls headed to one of their rooms to take a picture that is apparently a longstanding tradition.

I'm a little surprised the guys haven't come up with some kind of a parody of this tradition...a picture they take every year. Maybe they'll come up with something next year.

Taped 'em in and went to bed while visions of waffle danced in my head. I hope the waffle maker works better than the reservation system!