Palmtree Contemplations

        They say good things come to those who wait. For me, the wait was finally over when I received my own personal invitation to the wedding of Sir Nathan and Princess Adelaide. The greatest part was being invited not in my official capacity, as that of a scribe, but as an actual guest. It meant one whole day of not scratching away at parchment, one whole day of not asking question after question, and, most importantly, one whole day of speaking to whomever I wished to speak to at the wedding. Granted, the invitation did say The Scribe, though it hardly matters.           Some people want all the frivolous details of this wedding. For example, what was Princess Adelaide wearing? Well, she was wearing white, as brides often do. Interesting fact: the jewels on this gown were not diamonds, but recently shed dragon scales. If you want to know what style of dress it was, or the kind of bouquet she had, go ask a scribe who was there to actually scribe, because I most certainly wasn’t,

Thump thump. Someone is knocking at my door. My housemate, Lisa, pokes her head into my room. "Hey Rachie," she says. "Do you want to do what that one girl did?" "Do what?" "You know," Lisa giggles. "Join Eharmony." One of my close friends recently joined the website, and has been talking to me about it. I've always thought online dating was a little crazy. And yet, it is a slow evening, nothing going on, nothing at all.... I pat the bed beside me. "Let's do it!" And so we do. We opt for the free version, and both post very nice pictures of ourselves. Then we tackle the questions. There are a lot. We constantly confer with one another about these queries. "What do people notice about me first?" I ask. "Your eyes, and your smile, and your quirky jokes," Lisa tells me. "What do people notice about me?" "Your hair, your beautiful smile, how tall you are, your singing voice, just

"Nerds like us are allowed to be un-ironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it.... When people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.” -John Green Every Monday afternoon at 4 o'clock, I accompany the children's choir at Grace Episcopal Church. 18 months ago, the job didn't seem like something I would love that much. The rehearsals were often tedious, which is to be expected when you're working with 7-9 year olds. I sometimes sat at my keyboard for a solid 10 minutes without playing anything. Situations like the following occurred frequently:  Choir director : Now, we're going to work on those eight measures, all right? Yes, I see that hand. What is it?  1st child: My dog is going to have babies next week.  Choir direc