It's Relative

Earlier this week it was -17, the kind of cold that freezes nose hairs. Today it was 40 and felt balmy. I drove with the windows down and the fresh air was most welcome.

I had a few hours less of nausea today than yesterday, and after a three-week sick-tummy-roller-coaster, those few hours made me feel like a million bucks.

The temple reopened this week after a two-week maintenance close. I was missing my temple time after just two weeks. My friends in Atlanta have been without a temple since July 2009. But, in a little over three months they will have the spiritual high of a temple open house and temple dedication by the Prophet.

Without realizing it, I dropped my cell phone getting out of the car this morning in Denver and it fell face down in a puddle of slushy snow for 5+ hours. When I came back to the car I miraculously discovered it under the front driver side tire. The speaker sound is a little fuzzy, but it works and it isn't an crushed pile of plastic in a parking lot 50 miles from home.

Every Saturday morning in January I attended stake choir rehearsals. The 75-member choir and 10-member orchestra are performing tomorrow for our Relief Society women's conference. I have been privileged to mingle with some of the very best musicians in the stake for weeks. Most are music majors who have sung in choirs or played in orchestras, professional and otherwise, for years. I attend as a mediocre, off-key singer, who struggles to breathe in the right place, and hit high-ish notes. I also attend hoping to learn a few things about how to run a good choir rehearsal. I should feel envious or embarrassed or less-than-up-to-snuff. Mostly though, I am amazed that I can claim association with such a phenomenal group.