Skip to main content

Johannah's Final PMEA Festival

It's with a sad heart that Johannah attended her last PMEA festival.  She's a senior, so it's no surprise. Unfortunately, she won't be attending the All-State PMEA festival this year--she was a few seats short of qualifying.

Funny how easy it is to write that when in reality it was a horrific situation.  Johannah was incredibly embarrassed that she didn't make it, and having to attend a four day festival after finding out on the second day that she won't be advancing was difficult.  She still isn't sure why she didn't make it, because she felt her audition was good.

When I finally saw her after the concert, I knew she just needed a hug, right there in the hallway.  She broke down in my arms, and we just beelined it out to the car.  More hugs, and a full-on crying session.  It wasn't much consolation, but in all honesty, she was due for a bad audition.  It's almost impossible to maintain a perfect record as a musician, qualifying and being the best at every festival and competition.  She's been doing really, really well since the summer, and it was about time for Fate to realize that it wouldn't continue.

She hopped in the car and just wanted to get home as soon as possible.  She didn't even bother to take off her choir robe.

While we had been gone, the heavens had opened once again and dumped several inches of snow on the Commonwealth.  I had been forced, once again, to drive through a crazy, blinding blizzard to the concert, and we returned home before John had been able to get home and plow the driveway.

Try as he might, Greenie just couldn't get up the driveway, around the tight curve, in the deep snow.  We had several attempts at just getting up the initial hill, and when we finally made that but started skidding off the driveway on the curve, I just gave up.  After all, John and I have spent too many hours this winter towing our different vehicles out of different situations on our driveway.

So, to add salt to the wound, Hannah got out of Greenie, grabbed her stuff, and walked up the driveway.  In the snow.  In flats.  With no coat.


At least we had picked up kebaps on the way home.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Quest for Birkenstocks

One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...

Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I'm writing this, not as a complaint, but as a plea.  If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it. My children are talented.  In fact, every child that I have ever met is talented in some way.  That's the fun thing about meeting kids--discovering those hidden talents. Some of the talents my children possess are very public--you guessed it...music.  Some aren't so public--kindness and generosity. My kids are frequently judged by other children because of their musical talents.  Other kids see them as "snobs" because they play their instruments well and because they are willing to share those talents whenever asked. My kids never play with arrogance.  They recognize that they are better at music than most kids their age, but they never, ever show it.  In fact, they are very generous with compliments towards other kids and their efforts with music.  I have raised them to appreciate anyone who tries to do anything with music--it's ...

Johannah's Bridal Shower

One of the only reasons to lament my daughter not living in Utah anymore? Sister Mecham.  When I think back to the absolutely classic, beautiful, elegant, heart-warming bridal shower she threw for Glo, I literally sit in awe.  Her talents and abilities are unmatched! Believe me, I was hoping anyone  would volunteer to throw Hannah a bridal shower.  Being only two weeks post-op, I knew it was going to be very difficult for me to stand up let alone host the thing.  I even asked several people about me throwing it, thinking they would tell me it wasn't  up to me, but do you know what they ALL said? Of course  I should host it. This is what we do, baby! So I took a deep breath and decided to do it the best I could do it, knowing that I would never equal what Becky Mecham could do. Since Hannah's wedding colors were Tigers colors, and since Hannah loves baseball, I figured a baseball-themed bridal shower would be perfect for her.  And she agreed! But l...