sonia | I sang in a concert!

Not very loud, because I'm not sure of my part in these 8 songs I just met. But I stood up there with the rest, did not make any audible mistakes like singing when I'm not supposed to, and did not panic.

I also led a couple of dances out in front of the singers. I was so much more comfortable dancing than singing! I suppose the singing will come with time.

I got lots of warm energy from choir members I hadn't seen at rehearsal yet. One woman had come to my singing group years ago and never came back. I assumed we weren't good enough to hold her interest, but she said no, it was just too far to bike. I understand that!

For ten years, I sent weekly emails about my singing and dancing groups with news of other events and links to videos of songs and dances. People rarely wrote back, so I forget that there are all these people out there who got little gifts from me over and over. It's nice to get a little of that warmth back now.

I had so completely forgotten my word for this year that I had to go back and look for my post about it. Warmth. I've been noticing that the Wednesday night Balkan dance group has gotten warmer and warmer. Now some people hug me when I come in (yay!) and there are hugs all around when the last few people are packing up and leaving. When I first went to this group 14 years ago, the atmosphere was downright cold.

Basil is once again warmly asleep in my lap. I got Lilac's old heated cat bed out for him a week ago, and he's been spending a lot of time curled up in that, but I guess a lap is still good sometimes too. When I first got Basil he showed no interest in the heated bed, but now his 11-year-old bones seem to appreciate it.