The only news I have to comment on today was the report that Fran Drescher is creating a musical based on “The Nanny”. Of course, I should be ecstatic because I love “The Nanny”, but I’m reserving judgement until I see the first public incarnation of the musical. You can bet that I will be there wherever that may be. Then again, things like this are announced all the time and they never see the light of day. I’m not holding my breath.
Today, I tried to buy tickets to Wicked in NYC and most of the time, the Ticketmaster site was not working right. I’ve been trying to book my hotel and flight for the Religious Ed Congress in February, but I can’t seem to get the right flight and hotel combination that I need. It’s been a lousy tech day. Tonight, the dog camp people brought the boys home when I wasn’t home and didn’t latched the pen right so Leo got out and went straight to the garbage under the sink. He can open the cabinet door now, which is why they are in a pen when I am not home. Luckily, there was only paper and stuff in the garbage so the mess was minimal. Old habits die hard, I guess. I knew he had done this as I looked in on them on the webcam before I went into rehearsal. I was mad… I told Shannah and Karen that if he ate anything that made him sick, that’s just too bad. We’ll miss him. (and as I just typed that, I choked on my diet coke… karma I’m sure)
I have a story to tell. I don’t know how long it will be, but it’s going to cover a good part of 30 years. I’ll tell you now, it’s auto-biographical and is about myself and my friendship with my bff, Judy. But it’s one of those stories as when I write about this friendship, I’m writing about my life as well. So let’s see how this goes, shall we.
Spring, 1988 – College of San Mateo. A 19 year old college student, not knowing what the hell he is doing with his life, signs up for choir because the teacher happened to be the same person who student taught at St. Matthew’s Catholic when he was in second grade. Little did he know, that signing up for choir would change his life forever. The sign ups for the choir had been low but the class went anyway. The second week of class, a group of people from St. Charles Church in San Carlos joined the class, so our attendance was better. Among the people from St Charles was a middle-aged woman named Judy. A piano player, a killer alto, and a woman with a dry sense of humor and strong personality. They hit it off immediately.
When the semester ended, so did the class, he was then asked to join the choir at St. Charles Church, which he did. Being a Catholic all his life, he had played the organ at his parish in Angels Camp since he was in 8th grade. No formal training, of course, he just did it. What a change this was from the traditional hymns of St Patricks Church in Angels Camp to more contemporary songs in Liturgy and a piano in church! He had never seen anything like it before. He quickly learned the routine of the choir and met some great people. Some who he’s still friends with today. During his 2 years with St. Charles Choir, he was a pianist, organist, choir member, and cantor, as well as learning all he could about Liturgy and liturgy planning. He grew up a lot among the people of St. Charles Choir and later on with the Belmont Community Players and San Carlos Chickens Ball folks. Along with all of this, his friendship with Judy grew. Judy, hanging on for dear life to her position of accompanist for fear she’d lose it to this new kid, was always very generous with providing him with music and such. He even wrote some piano/organ duets for them to play together. It was an interesting friendship. He became friendly with other choir members and they would sometimes get together outside of church and hang out. One New Years Eve, they had a party at Judy’s house. A tradition that would continue for many years to follow, even after the brexit of 1990 of the St. Charles music ministry.
In 1990, the then choir director at St Charles told him that he should give St. Matthias Church as call as they were looking for a Music Minister. Evidently, someone thought that he had what it would take to be a Music Minister. This pattern of people tell him that they thought he had what it took to do a job would happen several times in his career! So, he went for an interview, and a second interview and was hired. (later to find out he was the third choice!)
And that, dear friends, is all I have to say about THAT…so far.
Mattei
And That's All I'm Saying About THAT 