A special weekend in DC - part two

My second day started early.  The choir was scheduled for a devotional time with Steven Curtis Chapman starting at 7 am.  I was downstairs about 20 minutes before and got on a line of about 5 people.  I figured that I would save seats for my friends as a payback for the night before.  When the doors opened, I was surprised to see my friends sitting in the front row with a seat saved for me!  So I had a front row seat and enjoyed what SCC had to say that morning.

We had a quick break and then it was time to start rehearsing. 

Our rehearsal schedule for the day consisted of a 3 hour time in the morning then about a 6 hour “free time” for sightseeing and then a second 3 hour rehearsal in the evening. 

I had been fortunate to do this same type of experience in February 2014 at Carnegie Hall in NYC.  As it turns out, about 80% of the choir were also repeating the experience.  We also had the same conductor / choir director and we were singing all the same music.  So as we started rehearsal, everything came together pretty quickly as it was more of a review for most of us.

During the morning rehearsal time, Steven Curtis Chapman is kind enough to take individual photos with each choir member.  There are some staff in charge of organizing this while the rehearsal is taking place.  They would come over to a row one at a time and have us go to a line in a side room for our picture time.

I have been an SCC fan for a very long time so it is always a thrill to have a few seconds to talk to him.  A lot of people try to tell him a whole lot in the short time we have, but I just really make small talk and thank him for the opportunity.  I had on my t-shirt from NYC so he knew I had sung in that choir and he thanked me for coming back.  Then a quick picture and time to go back to rehearsing.

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After the morning rehearsal, there was an hour of question and answer with SCC and his wife.  They are very funny together and it was interesting to listen to their stories.

At around 12:30, we were finished until the evening.  Two friends of mine who live in Baltimore decided to come down for the weekend since I would be there.  I hadn’t seen them in over a year so it was so great that they decided to do that.   They were just arriving at the hotel as I was finishing rehearsal so we quickly met up and went out for lunch.

We had planned to walk the National Mall and see all the monuments.  We did just that but it was HOT!  And we hadn’t seen each other in so long that we basically took a picture and moved onto the next monument while we kept talking and talking.  

After our walk, we had an hour to relax over a Starbucks and then I headed back to rehearsal.  Our 3 hour rehearsal ended up being about 2 hours because we had gone through everything we needed to.  I texted my friends and we ended up meeting up for a drink in the hotel lounge area.  We stayed up later than we should have but it was so much fun.