I had a phone call from the wedding soloist yesterday around 10:30 AM. She was on her way from Ann Arbor but wasn’t sure if she would make our noon appointment. I told her to call me when she arrived and I would meet her at the church. Eileen was busy getting ready to go to the annual Hatch Family reunion. She cooked a big piece of pork to take with her. I didn’t accompany her because of the wedding. As is usual these days, the wedding was weird. No singing, of course, even though the one Bible reading was one that mentioned singing. The minister preached. As I said yesterday I was the only pastoral staff person there. The janitor came in about an hour beforehand and wondered where everyone was. He was responsible for the sound system. Fortunately my soloist did not ask for a mike. By 5 PM, the place was full. No programs. After the reading of the one Bible passage the poor dude said, “the Word of the Lord.” Dead silence. The bride walked in to the soloist singing the song embedded in yesterday’s blog. We had to lower it three or four steps to fit her voice, despite my request that she tell me what key she wanted it in (“I sing it just like the YouTube”). At one point, I think she got lost. At any rate I wasn’t with her for several measures toward the end of the song. But she came through like a trooper. I got paid. When I got home Mark was already here. I hadn’t thought much about feeding him beyond thinking that there might be some leftover pork for him after Eileen got home. There was. We shot the shit for a while over martinis. I do enjoy his company (Hi Mark!). I’m still recovering from a different time zone and slept in until 6:30 this morning.