wedding bells and more
Hey Everybody,I want to say I've really enjoyed all the easter posts, weather posts, and the posts on pretty much everything since the last time I posted. This blog really brightens my day.
I was sitting in class last week when the front door to the class room opened and four random people walked in. Three of whom started setting up filming stuff. One lady offered a brief explanation, taping us for some ISU foundation, after which she promptly left. There was a guy with a camera, another dude with a huge boom arm and a microphone with a portable battery pack, and a rolling cart for the guy with the camera! So they set up in the corner, and then...the camera guy gets rolled back and forth in the front of the class room, with the microphone boom following. The boom was right in the middle of the projection screen where the professor was showing the notes. It was hilarious! Most people were laughing...though not as much as I was. It was like watching a bad movie with the boom creeping across the screen. One of the best parts was that the professor didn't even bat an eye. It was like he didn't see them at all. He was even pointing at stuff on the screen behind the microphone boom. What a trooper. I couldn't have done it. That was the highlight of that day of class.
I have a couple of "now that's living" moments for this post. It was a really good weekend. The first: I went to a local nursing home on Saturday with some friends. I brought my trombone, another guy brought his sax, and the rest of our friends wandered around talking to the residents. We played some songs separately, together, and took requests. My friend Rachel did her favorite of wheel chair dancing with several residents and "learned" how to waltz from the same lady who has taught her how to waltz in previous trips to the nursing home. When we where about ready to leave, a gentleman in a wheel chair insistently said several times, "Star Spangled Banner!" We didn't have it...I tried a bit to figure it out with my trombone but soon found I wouldn't be able to play it well on the fly...and since I was guessing he was a WWII vet, and the Star Spangled Banner probably meant more to him than just about any song in the world, I didn't have the heart to butcher it. As I was packing up...I thought of whistling. My lips were cranky after the extended t-bone session...but I bent them to my will, and whistled the Star Spangled Banner for him. As I was leaving I stopped to shake his hand and smiled at him, while looking at he gave me a smile.....a smile that warms the heart and re-fills the soul especially when knowing you had some part in its formation. It only lasted an instant, but I can still see it now clear as day.
The next is more an evening than one instant. The wedding bells in the title are not mine...but a friend of mine. She is the middle of three sisters and these sisters are more like the big sisters my little brother and I never had than friends. I went to her wedding reception on Saturday night. The best way to describe it is mmmmmm, good times.....I'm happy to say there was a little boy about 1 1/2 years old wearing plad who was trying to copy some of my dance moves. He will go far in life I, I can tell already. At the wedding, they played "Takin' care of business." There is a dance I'm not sure if you are familiar with called "the Alligator" that goes with the song. It invovles clapping, rolling around on the ground, hitting the ground, and kicking your feet in the air when you are on the ground. The last time one of the sisters got married, she was out there doing the Alligator in her wedding dress, rolling around on the floor and everything! She would have fit in well in our family. Anyways....My dad loves the Alligator more than eating I think(and he likes to eat as much as me!). He talks about the Alligator whenever there is reference to a dance, reception, etc. Another thing that you need to understand is that Monson men were BORN to do the Alligator. Watching my dad, my brother, and I lined up doing the alligator has been referred to as: "Spiritually fufilling," "Life changing," and "More beautiful than the act of marriage itself." I don't make this stuff up, I just tell it like it is.........................(Ok, I may have embellished the testimonials a bit." ;-)
Take care everybody, please keep the great stories coming!
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