October 17, 2006 at 2:59 PM

It is a dreary rainy day in Georgia but I am looking forward to my annual beach trip with girlfriends this weekend and lots of sunshine. This will be the 9th year for our jaunt to the ocean. There are 12 of us and there is nothing like a laugh-til-you-cry weekend with this group. We are all educators and try so hard not to “talk school” while we are there. At one time or another we all taught at the same school but now we are spread out over the state and use the long weekend to unwind and catch up on each other’s lives. We will consume mountains of junk food, drag our beach chairs to the ocean’s edge and drink martoonies. The sunsets at Seagrove Beach are spectacular and the waves tickling my feet restore my soul.

It was a busy performance weekend. The Southern Crescent Symphony Orchestra had 2 concerts and our church orchestra also played Sunday morning. The community symphony played 11 great pieces – the theme was Sacred Sounds in Sacred Places and each piece had a church connection of some sort. Our program included pieces from Bach, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Verdi and a couple of Morton Gould spirituals. The spirituals were written for string choir and were hauntingly beautiful. Our conductor declared Saturday night’s performance the best in SCSO’s 16 years of existence. I felt so much more at ease this time. Last year was my first to play with this group and I feel I am actually one of them now. It is a confidence booster not to be last chair (:))