Sunday, December 10, 2017

Sunday, Dec. 10 Tour Stop #8: Cascade Christmas Lights, Lebanon, OR

I just had to check my calendar to see what day it is!  This tour has been a WHIRLWIND so far and it's not even half over.  The bummer is that I have tonight and tomorrow night off.  The cancellation of tonight's show, coming the day before I left on the tour, was very upsetting.  I understand the decorator's reasoning but coming at the last minute I was unable to find a decorator to fill the spot, and now I have two days off. When I originally planned the tour I'd hoped to have a concert every night, but that's kind of an unreasonable goal. Still, I never wanted to have more than one night off at a time.  Oh well. Lots of driving over the next few days but luckily some great friends have stepped in to take me in for the next two nights.  I won't be able to visit with them for long but it will be wonderful to see them again.  Then I hit Odessa, TX on Tuesday and my host there has two days of events planned for me for my visit! He is a professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and he has arranged for the choir there to join me on The House on Christmas Street! There will definitely be a video of that!  I spent a lot of time creating a choral arrangement and I can't wait to see how it turned out!  I'm doing a children's concert and a Christmas concert and it's all going to be fantastic!

ANYHOW let's get to yesterday's show!  I'd been to Mayor Paul Aziz's house on my 2012 show and I've never forgotten what a truly nice man he is so I was eager to see him again.  Just a few months ago he was hospitalized with a dangerous Staph infection and I contacted him to say that if he needed to cancel his concert I would completely understand but I would still come by to visit.  But he said, "No."  Nothing would keep him from hosting me!  He enlisted the help of some friends, got his display up and running, and greeted me with a smile and a warm hug.  I also met his wonderful lady friend and his sister, and I bonded immediately with them.  Warm, wonderful people!

There were five people who sat right in the front row...Paul had put up chairs under his arches...and I told them I was worried it would be too loud for them but they wanted to sit there anyway.  I'm not sure how they all were related but it was obvious after a while that the young man and woman to my left were sweethearts.  They were very cute and he was so shy.  A couple of times I sang right at him and he just blushed.  It was great!  I was so happy to be able to sing for that family.  And then a couple of rows back there was a little girl who really caught my attention with her enthusiasm.  And over to my left there were two sisters dancing on the sidewalk.  These are some of the things I always notice when I'm singing because I just feel so good seeing that my music is making people happy.  It's worth every long drive, every sleep deprived night, missing home...it's all worth it to see people happy and enjoying themselves because of me.

The charity last night was Lebanon Kid's Packs. This organization provides backpacks full of food for children to take home over the weekend. Things they can easily prepare themselves in case there is an issue in the home. I've never heard of anything like it but I think it's a great idea. I don't know how much money they raised but I know that Paul is supporting them all season with his display so I hope they raise a lot.

The hardest part about doing these concerts is that I get to be with these people for a few hours and then I have to leave them.  I really hated leaving last night.  It seemed like I'd just arrived and then I was going, but last night I had to drive after the show.  I drove for about three and a half hours through FOG after the show to get to my hotel, because the tour stop that had been planned for tonight is 15 hours away from Paul's house. The plan was to get some miles behind me last night, get a few hours of sleep and then go down to SoCal today.  But I was EXHAUSTED by the time I got here to the hotel.  It was the first time on the tour that I've really had to  sing REALLY LOUD in the car to keep from falling asleep. But don't worry...if it ever gets really bad I do pull off the road and take a power nap.  Luckily I arrived here before it got to that point!

Before I sign off and hit the road I want to do a quick recap.  So far the tour has  raised about $2500 for charity and two filled bins of food for food pantries.  Not bad as the weather was bad at a couple of the stops.  I still have eight more concerts to do and would love to see a big number at the end!  So if you're coming to a concert, please raid your piggy bank!!

Thank you for keeping up with me on my tour blog.  Have a wonderful Sunday!  I'm off in search of BIGFOOT!

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