Bitter Harpy Press: Things that made me smile today

Ok- the first one needs a little back story. Choir in high school was a big deal. Maybe just to me- but it was a big deal. One of the biggest honors someone could earn was a brick on the wall your senior year- kind of a legal way of saying "Heather was here". Three of the Baker girls traipsed through the halls of the HHS choir corridor- none of us earned bricks. The young Baker Brother was in choir too... but he didn't really care. He went because it was there- and all you had to do was sing. *He* was the one who earned the brick. I remember when I found out I freaked out! I was so proud of him! He might as well have said he'd just won a Nobel Prize! He claimed a brick- but he had no interest in ever going to paint it and he just left it there- with a piece of notebook paper taped to it. He left on his mission and didn't care anything about this brick. Oh. The. Humanity!

So with his permission, I took it upon myself to paint it for him. It was the only chance I would ever get.

He was really into cookies... anyway- I visited the brick a few weeks ago when my niece had a volleyball game at my alma mater (I'll blog about that another day). I got to thinking, you know, I really should have made it a Baker block- and not just Trav. He could have been the big lettering since he's the one who earned it, but I really should have put my sisters and me on there too with their graduation years. Just to say not only "Travis was here" but, "The BAKERS were here." It would have fit right in with all the family bricks. Some families had zillions of bricks. After a while it was almost shameful if someone from the family didn't get one- so they got one just because of their name (but I won't delve into high school politics just now).

Anyway- now that you have all that back story- Here are the things that made me smile today:

I dreamed that Patrick Stewart was my high school choir teacher. I was one of his favorites. I would ride in the car with him on the way to choir concerts and we would talk about opera and Charles Dickens. Half the time I had no idea what I was talking about but I tried so hard to sound smart so he'd keep talking to me- and like me. I knew at the end of the year he would award me with a brick. I was already planning it in my head- how I would decorate it. I was going to put my name on it- but also my sisters' names because we'd all traipsed through choir and I thought we should all be "immortalized."

On the way to an outdoor concert, it started to snow and I was really upset because I hate snow and hate being cold. He decided we'd only do one song- the Hallelujah Chorus. There were people walking to the location but I was in the car with him- and he seemed really sad. So I was trying to talk to him to cheer him up. When I opened the door to get out of the car he asked if i wanted to hear the aria from an opera called Bel Amie (I don't know if that's even a real opera) and I said yes and shut the door- he drove off and put the CD in the player and we ditched the outdoor concert and listened to opera. When we got back to the school people were hanging out in the choir room. There was a big glass case, like a trophy case, in the corner of the room and everyone was gathered around it looking inside. In it there was an antique toy piano with a leather carrying case. I announced to the class that he was going to award it as a prize to my friend, Cami. I was a little disappointed because I thought I was his favorite- but then I didn't mind because I knew he had to appear impartial. and I was further ok, because I knew he'd award me a brick and that's all I really wanted anyway.

I think I've been watching too much Star Trek lately- and thinking about that stupid brick.

Then- my aunt asked me to watch a movie with her. She just got some movies for her birthday, a gift from her rotten little sister (Hi Mom!). The one she chose was an old Jane Wyman movie called Three Guys Named Mike.