yesterday elicia drove us to institute choir. i was trying to have good thoughts and eliminate the negative ones, so at times i had to avert my eyes, like when we were going over the patulla bridge practically attached to another car's bumper. i sang along instead and told myself "laura you aren't driving and just step back unless you really feel in danger" and so i did.

choir was good, but my voice wasn't at it's healthiest due to rawness factors in my throat, and the music we were singing had all these high g's, if you can imagine, f's and sustained e's. brother roeder made us do this siren screeching exercise to help us reach the high notes, and it worked for a little while. i don't know how successful my g was, but it helped me reach some kind of f. i'm going to practice that technique at home. by the end of the two hours of singing though, i was bearly screeching out a d, and the other sopranos had similar issues. i was more and more tempted to sing tenor which is mostly in my range. we're singing an arrangement of as i have loved you, put together by brother roeder himself. it has three verses and each verse just has a variation of wording found in the first verse, getting more and more personal. like the second verse starts out 'as he has loved us' and the third verse is "as he has loved me." . as the song progresses it becomes more and more about the music than the words. what i mean is that the music steals the show, and the third verse is less a verse than words attached to music with every part (satb) doing something different and saying something a little different. he put on the beginning of the 3rd verse that it should be sung like a mahler adagio, long and slow, but very beautiful and reflecting inwards. one of the boys in the bass (the rowdy bass boys) asked who mahler was, and i felt a teensy wheensy bit of smugness, but only teensy wheensy because that is about how much i know of mahler but at least i've heard one of his symphonies. i'm partially educated--the worst thing for smugness. anyways the sopranos have to start out this verse on what brother roeder (who sends andrea his warmest wishes, or something like that, in return and said i did look like you when i said 'present' during roll call) likes to call the floating e. i wish it were floating, but it's a high e held for two consecutive dotted half notes, only as loud as p and there is only four measures of rest to build yourself up to it. what i mean is cold turkey. i can tell it's his favourite verse, the one he's most proud of, the build up of the whole song if you will, and i feel bad every time we sopranos do it less than lovely. this choir class is interesting and challenging. i like it very much.

after choir was the dodgeball tournament and i helped karey put out freezies (i had a jumbo blue one and it was very very good, everything a freezie should be and more.) for a while. the boys were incorrigable, like in sound of music, always sneaking back for seconds and thirds, charming while being naughty. then i watched the games for a while and then elicia and i went home. i talked to the sutton girl who's in our choir and just got back from her mission. i told her that i used to babysit her and that i remembered that her mom went on her mission to somewhere chinese speaking. she was surprised that i remembered that, but what i didn't tell her, and i think this was a good decision, was that her mom was the only person who ever told me that she hated her mission and that it was a terrible nightmare and everyone was mean to her.

when i got home, i watched the end of that movie i've seen with quaid and scarlett johansson with the lucious lips, with randy and scott and heather. and now i have to go get ready. me and karey and randy are going to see madagasgar. and if i know karey, she's worried that i won't be ready on time, and with good reason.