Selling books also means counting books. Yes, it’s mid-year inventory time. Because I carry more than 550 titles, it’s quite the project to stack, mark each with a SKU tag and count the items. Phew. Okay, my inventory is not as large as the chain stores, I know, but counting it is still a daunting task. Never mind that I only got three hours of sleep last night, finishing the details before the “official” counters arrived this morning. Why? Because I had opted to attend the annual church choir banquet last night, held at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, my home church. This, instead of working in the warehouse—whereby I shorted myself on sleep time in the process. Starting next week, the fall season begins in a rush right after Independence Day, and we start a deliberate slide into the Christmas season. I know, I know—it’s too early to talk about Christmas shopping! Yet here we are, halfway through 2006 as July 1st lands this weekend.
Speaking of my church choir, last night’s event mimicked the Academy Awards in Hollywood—it was the “red carpet,” Colorado style. Each year, a chosen committee selects a banquet theme. Last year, we had a Fifties Party. The year before, a Western Hoedown. At the other end of the scale was last night’s formal, sit-down dinner affair, complete with the little gold statuettes. We gave awards that Hollywood can’t compete with, except for choosing the Song of the Year. Choir members cast votes two weeks ago in anticipation of this week’s award ceremony, complete with the theme music from the annual televised show.
The “Paul A. Awards” (named after a beloved staff member, who is a dynamite clarinet and saxophone player) recognized those in our nearly 200-member choir for outstanding achievement for being the:
Loudest Alto, Tenor and Bass singers
Person Most Likely to Forget His/Her Vocal Part
Person Most Likely to Ad-Lib the Words
Funniest Choir Member
Person Who Smiles the Most
Most Demonstrative Worship Singer
Most Talkative Choir Member
Person Who Disrupts the Choir the Most
Best Hairstyle
Best-Dressed
These were designed to make light of the idiosyncrasies all singers have, striving for attention in ways that only persons on stage can. However, I’ll mention that we in the worship choir know our focus is to be on God, and not on ourselves. We also selected three members (one from each section) whom we admire as each being the Most Inspirational Singer—an honor for each of them to receive.
Chosen as the Song of the Year was “Your Name,” a song co-written by Dove-award winning Christian singer, Paul Baloche, and our very own guitarist and member of New Life Church’s worship band, Glenn Packiam. Of the five nominated songs, this dynamic composition combines harmonious chords and expressive lyrics that recognize the “strong and mighty power” that is the “shelter” of our God. Packiam is also a member of the Desperation Band, a group that releases CDs through Integrity Music. Its latest release is "Who You Are" and is available online.
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