Gimme an O! Gimme an R! . . .

What's that spell? ORGANIZED!

God spare me from having to deal with disorganized people!

I got to Chaparral Christian Church a little around 6:30 this evening, knowing the first student I was scheduled to accompany was on at 7:35. The teacher I'm working for, Stevie Fox, was in the lobby of the main building. She said, "Thank God you're here." (Oh, I feel a primetime comedy show coming on.) She was surrounded by little singers, so I sat down, turned on my iPod, and refreshed my ear on the ten pieces I had to play tonight.

At about 7:05, I noticed Stevie had disappeared without a word to me. One of the girls who was singing tonight stuck kinda close to me, said she didn't know where Stevie was, but took me to where the rest of my little girls were waiting. I directed them to the room where they were to perform. At the appointed time we went in, not knowing if we were the next ones to perform. Stevie hadn't told me anything about protocol, and this was the first time I had accompanied singers for a NATS competition.

One of my five girls wasn't there yet. When number three of my five finished singing, in walked number five with her mother and younger sister, dragging a suitcase. Seems Stevie hadn't given her the name or address of the performance venue. The mother had walked into the lobby of the hotel and overheard someone talking about the church.

We got through it. The five little girls (ages 12 and 13) did fine, and I got out of there alive. Stevie was still nowhere to be seen. I drove to the hotel where we were to stay, knowing that I was to share a room with Stevie. The woman at the desk had no record of my name and couldn't give me a key until Stevie showed up — and I had no clue when that would be. So I drove to Nordstrom and looked at brown shoes for half an hour. I drove back up to the hotel, parked for a moment and, frustrated, punched "Marriott" into my GPS system. Then I called the Marriott Suites in Old Town Scottsdale and asked if they had a room. They looked up my account and said, yes, they had a room for me and they would make it an executive room. Woo woo. All those points pay off.

I drove the seven minutes to the Marriott and checked in. Opening the door to my room, I walked into a living room that contained, not a sofa, but a six-person conference table! Remember how Cheryl and I keep getting upgraded at the Marriott Marquis? I think this may be the ultimate upgrade! The table is so large I could have slept there rather than this elegant king bed.

And to bring this post back around to being single, the thing I missed the most this evening was having someone to call to complain or laugh or commiserate with. And then I realized that I could pull out my laptop and write this post and you'd all laugh and moan with me.

And I can hear you toasting me for taking care of myself.

Thanks!

Tomorrow morning at 10:00 I will go back up and accompany three more students, then walk around Nordstrom a little longer and head back to Tucson for afternoon tea at Tohono Chul with some Pi Phi friends.