After sleeping in a toasty house for roughly six hours, Sunday morning greeted me rather rudely. I normally sleep at least 7 and 1/2 hours, which doesn't sound like much of a difference, but for me, even the tiniest bit of sleep can make the difference between a nightmarish day and one in which I skip around like a happy little bunny rabbit in the springtime. We did have a fantastic breakfast, however, and our host was very sweet in making coffee and providing delicious orange juice and giving us water for the day.
Upon arriving at the church, we unloaded ourselves in the choir room and immediately the room was full of noise. Lots and lots and lots of noise. After a bit of practicing (which, because of the really cool acoustics in the room, was awesome!) we sang the first service. Our prepared pieces went well, but I was rather embarrassed by everyone's apparent ignorance of the general flow of a church service. Granted, my first traditional service in the choir was frighteningly complicated, but I just pulled up my bootstraps and plowed on. There is a lot of book/paper shuffling involved in singing a service, and I was amazed by how many people didn't even pay attention to what was coming up---we were in the front!! Everyone can see you when you're in the choir loft, so it is imperative that you are on the ball!
The combination of lack of sleep, a noisy choir room, and the embarassment of that service was enough to send me into Crankyville. Disclaimer: I do not like to be cranky. It is no fun for anyone around me and I just seem like a total bitch (which I am not). When I'm irritable, or anyone else is, the irritable person spreads their irritability around a room very quickly, and even I don't want to be around myself when I'm like that. So, I left the choir room for a little while and just sat in the hallway, breathing and praying. I knew I would need some alone time later.
The second and third services went relatively well, and we were soon eating lunch and packing up the bus to go to the MOA (Mall of America), where I hoped to sit and have coffee for just one minute by myself. However, I ended up hanging out with my friend Amanda, but she doesn't annoy me in the slightest so everything was fine after that. I bought a shirt for five dollars and NO SALES TAX. It was great, coming from an area with an almost 9% sales tax. I also had coffee with another friend before we left, and though all of the sights and sounds of the mall were fun, they were a little overstimulating for me in my present state, so I was grateful to leave.
More tomorrow about the rest of the evening and the trip home...
Peace
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