The good and the not-so-good

The theme from last night: coincidental perfection

The choir was originally supposed to sing at a church in San Francisco instead of Sacramento months prior to the tour. Plans got jumbled in the mix and the parish was unable to host the entire choir. After unsuccessful calls to numerous churches, Dr. Duffy looked beyond San Francisco and found St. John’s Lutheran Church in Sacramento. They were able to move their Lenten Mass to the evening to tie it in with the choir and found host families for everyone. The fact that we ended up at this particular church was unexpected and sort of last minute.

So we get to the church and it is absolutely amazing. Because the acoustics were perfect, a couple of the choir members asked me if I could video record the concert. I have a little Flip Video, which doesn’t have great sound quality. On a long shot, Saul Schlegel asked one of the church officials if there was any way for the concert to get recorded. To go along with the theme of coincidental perfection, they were able to get a recording system set up on the balcony in no time. They had a sound check before the concert, and wulah, we have a CD of the service. We listened to it on the bus ride to San Francisco.

Because it was a Lenten Service, the choir only sang 12 songs. To keep with the theme, the concert was beautiful and had a flow unlike any other show this tour. The songs chosen, and the order sung, was perfect for the service.

The serendipity didn’t stop after the concert, either. After passing the microphone around on the bus and sharing host family stories this morning, it became apparent that many students were put with families they could relate to.

Several students stayed with people from the same path of life; like musicians, organists, school music directors and artists. Last night was special for me because Misty and I stayed with two journalists; Amy, the political editor for the Sacramento Bee Newspaper, and Dean, a freelance writer. I’m a journalism major and Misty has a broadcast major. What are the chances two of the four communication majors on the trip get put with a family of journalists?

For the not-so-good news:

Coincidental perfection ended this morning. As Arnie navigated our bus through the hectic streets of San Francisco, looking for a place to let the group out at, a delivery driver got a bit too close and took the right mirror off the bus. We had from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm to roam around San Francisco on our own. However, when we met at 2:30 Arnie was still getting the bus fixed. The choir kept busy by singing on the steps in downtown San Francisco. No one had a hat to lay on the ground, but I bet they could have made some money! We left sometime around 4:30 and with the traffic, didn’t arrive at Lutheran Church of Good Shepherd until five minutes before 7 pm, which is the start of the show. The church was very patient and the students got unloaded and dressed in no time.

It’s 7:20 and they’re about to take the stage. Dr. Duffy commented on what a good job everyone did at staying calm and keeping positive. I was surprised at how cool and collected they are. Brandon Spencer gave the group a hint of motivation and asked the choir to sing for Arnie, our bus driver, because of everything he does for them.