seek ye first: the story as I remember it. to erica on her 27th birthday

Now,I'm not trying at all to be sacrilegious. Just to be clear. It's Erica's birthday so I am sharing this just for her sake. She thinks this story is positively hilarious. And then this morning in church-the very phrase(seek ye first) came up so I just feel compelled to tell you guys(us guys) all about it.

flashback to senior year. I was finished with cheerleading. My mom was a bit afraid that if I did not have an "extracurricular activity" that I would get into trouble. So, she told me to try out for the school play. Now I remember quite a lot of arguing over this. I mean ME...in the school play?? I was way too cool for this. I mean-I sat at the cool lunch table. I couldn't be caught dead in the school play! gag!

but as these fights usually did play out-my mom won out and I agreed to try out. I didn't think too much about it which is a polite way of saying I thought nothing about it. I knew I'd have to sing for an audition-but hadn't really thought ahead to what I might sing. I don't even know that anyone knew I was trying out. Maybe Erica-but she would have been under strict instruction not to tell a soul.

but the day came-I remember quite clearly-it was a Friday afternoon. I had to walk into the auditorium(which was quite huge) and was expected to sing a song. Now there are two problems which immediately should spring to mind:

1.) I have a terrible voice
2.) I had no idea what to sing

I mean...what do you sing for a musical audition? I clearly didn't know. I knew how to cheer and be cool-but that was about it. So I marched in there looking confident-feeling slightly less than that. It just so happened that I had to sing in front of Mrs. L and Miss. D. I had a long history with Mrs.L. It began in 9th grade when my horrendous boyfriend made me cry all the time and she became my therapist. Then, during sophomore year she continued to be my therapist when this same horrendous boy and I broke up and he proceeded to date my then best friend. By junior year I was over that and had begged my way into yearbook(she was the sponsor) and by senior year I was leaving during yearbook each day to go "sell ads"(code for 'erica and I are going to get ice cream and McDonalds' When I was in yearbook I would harass her with questions about life,love, and marriage. So we became quite close. Oh, the days. I was quite a terror in high school. Anyways, long story short-Mrs. L and I had quite a history(pretty certain that is how I ended up in the play after this horrific audition.) Miss. D and I also had quite some history. I have known her all my life through church. So that is just setting the scene-these weren't complete strangers-they were FRIENDS!

Here I am in the auditorium-still without a clue as to what I will sing next. Now, I'm not really sure what compelled me to do this but all of a sudden in a very off key voice I started singing...'seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness' okay,words can't really describe the looks on their faces. It was absolutely terrible. Awful. But somehow I made it through that first verse and they cut me off and very politely asked if I knew anything else. I was so mortified that I said 'no.' I didn't know what else they had in mind-but I wasn't sticking around to find out. So on that glorious audition note-I left...called Erica to do the post-mortem and I think I hid out all weekend dreading facing those 2 on Monday.


Why 'seek ye first?' good question. It just came to me. To this day-when I think of it-I seriously want to shrivel into the fetal position and never come out from under the covers. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've been truly embarrassed and this tops the list for sure!

How did it all turn out you ask? Well,Monday my name just happened to be on the list.I made it. I was going to be an actual "drama queen." I was no leading lady-but then again-I never expected to be. I was floored to even be on that list. I'm pretty sure it was only because Mrs. L knew I wouldn't take no for an answer. I've never been very good at taking no for an answer. And you know what else-the play was amazing. No thanks to me of course. But it really was. E can vouch for that! She came twice! And I think it was good for my "too cool" attitude also. These are the kinds of things where I look back and know that mom knew best.

ps,the stage director gave me a "britney-like microphone" not knowing anything about my audition...let me just say that after one practice round with it-I was politely told that someone else might be better suited to get that mic. Oh well..life goes on. Seek ye first!