As the Wise Old Jewish Maid, Yente, Would Have Said: 'People, people..."
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Tuesday night was awesome. Collette was amazed at the number of people who had the same mindset – the same views on the Christian life, spreading the Gospel, the church, and world views. Spending the evening at the Spinnings – four and a half hours – from 6:30 till eleven at night along with Judah and Evangeline… Between the six, they shared thoughts on the church, diversity within, the need for the true Gospel within the “white middle class Republican” class, sin, wealthy Christians, theology and doctrine and political influences within the church, and simply a plethora of everything discussed. It was completely refreshing, and over baked ziti, salad, and garlic bread for dinner, coffee and tea following over the ice cream and brownies. “American Idol” played on the television off and on mute throughout the evening, just as a part of the conversation. And Ecclesiastes showed them his new drum with an awesome deep tone (ironically found for him by his mother at Marshall’s as a decorative piece, and made in Ghana!). Little Carnelian spent the first hour or so with them and even pulled herself up in Collette’s lap for a little while with a book. And Collette enjoyed looking around at the little Valentine’s decorations set up around the living room and kitchen – the Spinnings wanted to make it a special family holiday, also reminding them of the love of Christ. And there were tales interwoven of Ecclesiastes and Aubree living in Jupiter, Florida, near billionaire’s homes, including a women’s Bible study held in a mansion where the wife of McCormick (the spices) was present and the experiences with the wealth and extravagance of Christians and etc., the negative and the positive of so many things… And of Evangeline working with refugees at her former job, scraping by on pennies and the discussions of poverty, physical and spiritual… There was no way to sum it all up – the desire to grow in Christ and fulfill His commands and glorify Him. Challenging thought – It was a good evening.
Wednesday was a rather frustrating day, but Collette and Linnea spent a short part of the morning looking up cruises to Jamaica for October, nothing very extravagant, and Collette hoped it might work out soon. And the night before, Mom and Dad had gone out to El Maguey for dinner and to buy Dad some new socks and a few new Izod shirts for Australia. He would have bought some shorts as well, but there were none on sale (which made sense, it being January and all…). Dad had worn a light pink shirt to church, Sunday, and a handful of people had commented on it.
“Probably because it’s a conversation starter,” Dad reasoned.
“Real men wear pink,” Rose said.
It was interesting looking over the choir madrigal schedule and name-list after Rose showed it to her that morning. A handful of the kids Collette did not even recognize, and even more she had never sung with (as she had already been out of choir for almost three years). But even the siblings of some of her old fellow choir members, she had heard of through Joe and Rose. And the last names still associated memories from older siblings in choir years past.
Ladies’ Madrigal including (but not complete)
Sopranos:
Summer West (whose brothers were Spurgeon (who was a walking theology text, wore thick glasses, and was engaged to be married – the same one who lost the ring while proposing) and “Pooch,” or Yaotl, who was generally jovial)
Lollipop South
Marjolaine Applebutter (a tall blonde girl with rather severe yet drooping eyes, who had played an Egyptian in one of the many Mr. Sing summer plays)
Hortense Succotash (whose brother, Edred, died at fourteen; the choir sang at his funeral)
Second Sopranos:
Jacky Rocking (whose older brother, Ex Nihilo, was the co-head honcho with Carrie-Bri when “The Group” first materialized)
Echo-Josue Mushroom (a young rather pretty girl, of whom half the male population of choir was smitten)
Florence-Michelle Monticello (who lived in the El Dorado trailer park, if Collette recalled correctly, and whose older brother was likely (by that time) married to Faustine-Coy Chicolinni, a Catholic girl who was once in choir and sang a role in Camelot one winter (of which they were all going to see) but the roads iced over so badly that they canceled the drive over)
Altos:
Collie Hart (a girl that Collette remembered from when Collie was very little – short, blonde, and the a-typical home school pianist)
Godelieve-Aldetha Teach (whose voice was rather strong and low, (once sang a duet with Justus of Orange entitled “Ye Spotted Snakes” – or something to that effect – at the last madrigal dinner) and whose father taught biology classes to the home schoolers)
Mixed Madrigal 1 including (but not complete):
Sopranos:
Lydie Argonaut (a sweet young girl with long dark brown hair who never failed to say hello to Collette by name at every choir concert; her older sister once hung out with Carrie-Bri and both were interested in fencing)
Summer West
Altos:
Marcellette Igloo (a girl who played a lower brass instrument – perhaps a bass sax (if such a thing existed) in the jazz band, and whose older brother was known to be the nicest young man to have ever sung in choir)
Annamaria English
Rose Snicketts
Tenors:
Wallace Hobcoggin
Joe Snicketts
Cunegonde-Oliver Valentine (took voice, as had his older brother – both with flops of blonde hair, his older brother having dated the second oldest Cast-Iron girl who was one of the best friends of Lydie Argonaut’s older sister)
Basses:
Magnus Pi
Curly Silverspoon
Amets Yuletide (his older brother graduated with OLeif and Collette and worked on the shipping floor at UPS, both actively involved in AWANA over the years)
Mixed Madrigal 2 including (but not complete):
Soprano:
Ariel Ernie (whose older sister, Cashmere, was practically engaged to be married to Lollipop’s older brother, Old Blue, and was also greatly involved in drama)
Hortense Succotash
Altos:
Sparrow Creek (the older sister of a boy in Frances’ Scout troop, and the daughter of Frances’ Scout leader who would guide him through Eagle; also worked at Dairy Queen up the road from Mom’s and Dad’s, but would stop shortly in order to teach piano)
Orianne-Rosette Solomon (long, long dark brown hair, always wore jumpers, and whose older sister (who always appeared as though she were 35, though she was only 18) graduated with Violet Gentles and went on to Pensacola College in Florida)
Tenors:
Giuseppe Sage (the cousin of Marcellette Igloo and the brother of Crystabelle Buns (who did have Krone’s disease after all) and played trumpet in the jazz band)
Jims Mormon (the young handsome Mormon who sang “Silent Night” at the last choir performance and was a scandalous monk in the previous madrigal dinner)
Tor English
Zo-an Yellow (the young gentleman who was apparently an adamant Armenian and played the little deranged doctor in “Arsenic & Old Lace” the previous fall)
Basses:
Robert-Shaw Monticello (a lanky kid with a flop of dark hair and a black leather trench coat, the sister of Florence Michelle)
Yaotl West (known as “Pooch” to most of his friends, and infinitely wearing shorts (even on the coldest of January days)
Men’s Madrigal including (but not complete):
Tenor 1:
Jims Mormon
Tor English
Wallace Hobcoggin
Giuseppe Sage
Opi Northcutt (a kid with an awesome smile from TFC, Quizzing, and Liberty – the typical Aeropostale male, glasses and short-cut spiky blonde hair)
Tenor 2:
Joe Snicketts
Othniel Navy Avonlea (a thin, blonde kid from the old days of Quizzing of whom Carrie had a crush, until she found out that he was younger than Joe, which swiftly brought the crush to an end)
Cunegonde-Oliver Valentine
Zo-an Yellow
Bass 1:
Curly Silverspoon
Robert-Shaw Monticello
Bass 2:
Magnus Pi
Yaotl West
Amets Yuletide
Shanghai Avonlea (the younger brother of Othniel Navy who could have played as a line-backer, and quiet, reminding Collette of a blonde version of Samwise Snicketts)
“He struck down two ariels of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit when snow had fallen.” – II Samuel 23:20b