Christmas party.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger      5 comments      link this post     


The party was fun.

I happen to know that there are photos in existence that show I:

• Talked to other human beings.
  
• Wore fancy shoes.
  

We'll see if they make it online or not.

Anyway, here are the details of the weekend so that those of you who have been either a) emailing me about it, or b) constantly checking back to see if I've blogged, will have something to read.

Thursday
On Thursday night, after dropping my stuff off at my friends' house in Aberdeen and having a delicious meal, I drove to Groton to see my older nephew play in the band for the Christmas concert. The band director, Reid Johnson, looked to be about five minutes older than the high school kids he was directing*. Nevertheless, I was extremely impressed with the quality and performance of the smaller jazz band and the full, high school band. Despite his youthful appearance, Johnson really did a great job. I've seen some band directors direct with lackluster involvement, but again, I was impressed by what I saw.

My nephew plays the clarinet. When the band had filed out and found their seats, my sister pointed him out to me. His music stand was up so high that all we could see was the top half of the his head, making photos a little less dramatic than my sister had hoped. We both gestured to him to push his stand down; with a slight grin, he pushed it down, my sister readied her camera, and...Johnson stepped right in front of the line of fire. We were up in the bleachers. My sister spent the rest of the concert, from there on, trying to time the camera to shoot when the director raised his arms. She likely got a lot of armpit shots with my nephew peeking through.

The last song the band played, Russian Christmas Music, by Alfred Reed, Arr. by James Curnow, was simply breathtaking. I told my nephew, once the concert was over, how much I loved that final piece and that I was completely envious of him for getting to play in such a great band.

Friday
Friday was a busy day -- it really pushed the boundaries for an introvert, all the busy-ness and new-ness and out-of-routine-ness. I got a chance to do a little baking, bonding, dressing up, and singing of carols and laughing with some wonderful people. I never knew so many adults had all the words to the Chipmunks Christmas song -- and the high, squeaky voice of Alvin -- down so well.

I met a number of fine people whose names I have all forgotten. Some taught at Northern State University, and others were connected through the church. I also learned a bit about martinis, gin, vermuth, olives, why not to eat the pretzel sticks, how to make a sauce for Lil' Smokies in a last-minute rush pretending to have confidence about cooking, and a bunch of other stuff that I've forgotten. I do know I did fairly well on not eating too much sugary food as well as impressing (for I am sure they were impressed) my fellow teetotalers with delicious, sugar-free, vanilla/raspberry Italian sodas.

Saturday
My friend took me to an antique store and bought me a fabulous wooden makeup box, which is, essentially, a lovely box with a mirrored lid that I am currently using on my desk to hold correspondence and letters that I receive and need to answer. I feel very Jane Austen about it. She also bought me a delicate rhinestone bracelet that looks very much like one my Grandma Helen used to have when I was a kid. And then, to top it all off, we visited a wonderful used bookstore that I had no idea even existed, right there in Aberdeen. (I should have known about the store -- my sister's boss's wife owns it, I later found out.) I found a couple of great books, have a strong desire to go back, and momentarily imagined that I had a store like that to run.

But then, it was time to go. Time for the five-hour drive home so that I could get to work with my own clarinet, picking out a song to play for the short Christmas program at our church on Sunday as well as running through some other piano music in preparation.

All in all, a great and busy weekend.


*A tall, nice-looking five minutes older.

Labels: christmas, family, friends, my life

Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger      12/17/2007 11:15:00 PM      (5) comments      Links to this post    
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