Multi-tasking

I had marked on my calendar that this was to be the morning that I both sang a duet and read in church, but as I hadn't heard from the minister, I assumed I wouldn't be reading. Nevertheless, I showed up 45 minutes before the service, since the walls of Churchill House are quite thin and my neighbors probably wouldn't like to hear vocal exercises on Sunday morning.

Just a guess.

The piano was locked when I got there, but I was able to stand in the corner and hum a bit without feeling too self-conscious. Roy the organist gave me the cheat Post-It of the day (a little service he does for me, since the minister likes to pair hymns with other tunes and I'm still reading most of these tunes cold), and we decided to run the duet once my partner arrived.

Then I saw the bulletin. Yup, that's my name on the front.

Whipping out the Bible I had borrowed the week before (my NIV translation is slightly different), I scanned the verses and breathed a quick sigh of relief - I had a total of seven to read. Not too shabby. The minister told me that he had tried to call yesterday, when I was at Ian's "Dead Animal Feast," but he didn't leave a message on my cell phone, and I didn't want to call a strange number at 10 PM, so there we stood.

We got the piano unlocked, ran the anthem, and then it was time for the service. We had no men again - Bert's on vacation - but we had a whopping six women, including four altos, though one had to sing soprano on most hymns since she accidentally picked up the Melody version of the hymnal. It was great fun - sing, sit for prayer, surreptitiously chug contents of water bottle for sustenance, read, sing anthem, listen to minister read, sing, read, sing, sit for a while, sing once more. The ladies seemed to like our duet, so all was well.

There's nothing quite like a solo F in the morning to give an alto heart palpitations, but I didn't crack, thank God. Still, if anyone knows how to make my leg stop shaking when I get nervous, I'd be grateful for the tip...