Tour Days 2 and 3: On the Willows

Long days + no internet in my room = no blog. My bad. I hope none of you were waiting desperately for this. OK, actually, I kinda do, but that's only because I'm selfish.

Um, let's see. Monday we drove a lot. We had a nice Frisbee game, I think, at a rest stop and we used the bathroom in Gettysburg because the walking tour would take more time than we had and it just seemed to make sense to head out without, sadly, viewing the history. But we got here safe, after an excursion to Wal-Mart and we got to be close to lights out, with a few escapades and maybe a little bit too much help from the in-between chaperones. Apparently someone's a little bossy, so we'll see how that plays out. It's funny the difference between tour groups. I think I'm the same as I always am but so many people haven't yet been exposed to my overbearing authority mongering that they're a bit offended. Advice would be appreciated.

Tuesday we got up early and headed out to the church that we sang at in the evening and did a sound check and things. Ron did a devotion and the music minister at the church passed out a basket with little rolled up pieces of cloth which were actually parts of the costumes from their Passion play- they're a little famous for it, but this year is their last year (low attendance). I'm kinda excited about the memento. We also talked about God moments, like Ron does often, and I would keep you posted on mine but they're mostly tainted, so I'll save you.

We got to Philadelphia and split up into groups and descended upon the city. I was in a group of Mrs. Nelson, Amber-Drew, Hannah, Yon and Kaitlin and we were in most desperate search of a Philly cheese steak from a street vendor, which was found in good order and we returned to the park behind Freedom Hall to enjoy them. Hannah fed the birds (until one got close to Yon's foot and then she stomped down before holding her legs out in front of her for the next fifteen minutes, no lie). We asked people if the cheesecake was good in Philly, which elicited much laughter- really, it was good times in the park. Mrs. Nelson almost had Coke come out her nose and Kaitlin and I agreed that we had had an ab workout because of the copious amounts of laughter going around. We walked around in search of cheesecake, but to no avail. We ended up going back to the Liberty Bell (which is free, btw, in case you were curious) and found awesome t-shirts and dessert at Panini's, the Italian place next to the French/Spanish place with the cute guy out front. We sat in the... well, not the warm sun, but most everyone was happy that it was cooler yet not raining up here. Desert was wonderful and we got a photo of our 'Philly Cheese Group' as Yon deemed us. Amazingly, we were all on time for the bus and we ended up at a mall for dinner and then on to the concert.

If there's something extra me and Jessie have to agree on, it's that we love the concerts. We had a nice little discussion about this. And every year, we have a concert that we feel went pretty badly, where the music wasn't coming and was getting in the way of God coming out of us. I mean, if you're worried about your note, you're not worried about the lyrics or whether the congregation is understanding the lyrics. It didn't help that we were tired (though energy poured back out of a lot of people as soon as they got down stairs with some sugar and a basketball court). Still, I don't think that we did too much harm, though Bobby doing the worm (the song was I Am Free and there's a lyric that states that we're free to dance and dance we did) was a bit much in my opinion. The ride back was quiet after Ron put in We Are Marshall (PS- that's Mrs. Nelson's home town, who knew?), though the football movie seemed to inspire some tackling downstairs where the guys are staying.

Perhaps it's a classic case of wanting and expecting too much. I'm not one to settle for a distracted performance, but I'm a perfectionist. I'm not one to be excited about bending the rules, even something as small as the three-to-a-group rule, but I've also been too much of a good girl my whole life to have an objective view on that. I'm not one to let rudeness slide, but I'm also frustrated (Cousin Tom just dropped in unexpectedly and he has a way of getting under your skin, if you know what I mean). Beyond all of this, I cried myself to sleep last night for the second time in my life, I think, because there's some dark pessimistic part of me that's afraid that I'm watching the death of the choir, slow and painful as if it were cancer, terminal, diagnosed and ignored. I care too much, I think, and I make too big of a deal of small things because I want too much out of this tour, but there's a bigger part of me that's much more rational that says that there's not too much wrong with wanting us to be the best we can be. Anyway, here's hoping that the rest of today is something to smile about.