I'm looking forward to this weekend, even if it will be spent in Mississippi.

SVCC is having a "worship retreat," which amounts to "Kip and some singers go hide out for 2 days and record a CD. And also have a devo." I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm singing alto this go-round, and it's fun to get back to it again. I sang alto all through college, but tried to increase my range by singing soprano for the last couple of years. (Plus, Dr. Ganus tried to convince me that deep down, I really wanted to be a soprano. Ha.)

Anyway, looking at the music, I recognize bloggers' names all over the place! Or if not names, then people and/or groups with whom they are associated. That's nifty. It makes it that much more important to sing it "right." Somebody worked incredibly hard to get it down on paper right, so I ought at least to have the courtesy to give it my best shot. ^_~

I've been walking around the complex with my iPod singing along. It dawned on me earlier what the alto part must sound like without any of the other parts -- and that's all any of the curious onlookers have heard. They must think I'm tone deaf or something.

That's one thing I like about a cappella music, too: all the parts inter-relate. They just make more sense when you've got all four (or more). Okay, too, as a convert, I prefer it to the untuned, no-tempo piano of TinyBaptistChurch, Inc., a.k.a. my first home church. But if I start talking about that place, I'll probably never shut up. It's a tiny church (with 25 - 30 on a crowded Sunday) so the auditorium was usually nearly empty, but the people were full of love. That church survived a lot of conflict. It's not small because it split and it's not small because they lost people (well, except for the random conversions which don't exactly count). It's small because it's located in the middle of nowhere, it's a 40 minute drive from anywhere and a lot of people don't even know it's out there. It's also small because the members who do attend, who do know it's out there, are getting older. Several have died in the last few years.

Sometimes I miss that church.