sonia | Singing at the farmers market

One of the women in the Balkan community choir signed up to sing at the local farmer's market, and invited people to show up. Totally casual and disorganized, but it turned out well. About eight of us showed up (I was busy singing and didn't count, and people left and arrived at different times.) Everyone proposed songs at the same time and we all paged through our music. I had just alphabetized mine in its folder, but it still takes time to find things, and of course now I have to alphabetize it all over again.

We did manage to choose songs, and I awkwardly blew into my pitch pipe for starting notes, and we didn't even discuss who was singing which part, and we sounded pretty good. It was so casual that I wasn't even nervous about performing. It felt more like a private singing gathering that some people happened to hear.

It was a cool foggy day, so the market was uncrowded, and several small children watched us with pleased attention. Adults applauded, and even left money in the hat one of us put out.

Then there was an argument about what to do with $32.70 from the hat, and we ended up donating it to a homeless services center nearby, since there's an encampment right by the market. I bought my veggies and fruit for the week, and then sat with a few folks as they ate lunch and chatted.