Pointless non-personal photo of the day:

I was going to post something fairly personal today (not a photo, despite what the post title says), but I've changed my mind. You're left with a rather moody-looking begonia to admire instead.

I'm not especially moody myself at the moment, if you wondered. I just have a bit of a headache because the neck is apparently having some trouble sorting itself out. It's never a good thing when turning your head sounds like an ad for breakfast cereal.

Anyway, personal stuff. I'm never all that happy with myself when I find myself thinking of posting personal things to the blog. I know that the blog might be a tad more interesting if I did (or maybe not. I don't have an especially interesting life, and I think that's a good thing for my mental health), but I've never been comfortable with the idea of the internet as a big, non-private diary. You know as much about me as I want you to know, and I think we should both be happy with that.

What brought on this line of thought in the first place was the accidental rediscovery of some things I'd put away in my grandfather's old music case. My father had been looking for a small briefcase to use for some files he has to haul around. I knew I had a couple of old ones stored in my closet here at his house, and when I picked up my grandfather's music case (just to move it, in case you wondered. I wasn't going to give it to my father since -- as you should have been able to tell by the way I typed my grandfather's old music case -- it's a bit of a keepsake. Even if I never actually knew my grandfather, yes) I was surprised to find it full.

I'd forgotten that I'd put my university choir keepsakes in it, you see.

Well, that naturally led to a real trip down memory lane, including a flip through the concert programs that we used to hand around the tour bus and sign like yearbooks for each other.

I wonder if they still do that?

Not to get into details since I changed my mind about that part, but it's interesting to look back at how people saw me then. The generic "have a great summer" responses from the first tour where no one outside of my own section really knew who I was, the many references to cat's cradle (what can I say? No such thing as mp3 players back then, boys and girls. We had to do something on the bus), and the more specific anecdotes from later tours when we'd become old pros.

And were, no doubt, signing the newbies' programs with "have a great summer".

On the slightly less generic side, it seems that outside of my circle of friends (who were much more... in-joke when they signed the programs. And shut up, world. I did too have friends) I was known in the choir for having all the words to the songs memorised (I didn't like to hold a heavy music folder for an entire concert), smiling when I sang, and having a dry/sarcastic sense of humour.

Hmmm.

About that last one: who'da thunk?

If you're curious as to where the personal stuff comes into all of this good-natured remember whenning, well... that's the part that I've decided isn't going to make the blog. Something pretty life-changing happened on one of those tours, and a very small written comment -- hardly noticeable -- reminded me of it, that's all.

And really, the internet doesn't need to be flipping trough my old concert programs.





You're welcome.