Being back at choir practice tonight felt so good! We are doing a beautiful arrangement of Just As I Am for Ash Wednesday. It's nothing like the hymn, but when we finished practicing the song with the new tune, David played the old familiar hymn tune and much to my surprise, everybody in there knew it by heart and sang it heartily. Billy Graham would have been proud! I sang for two hours without coughing and practiced the choreography with the chorus for the Mardi Gras program. I won't be in any of the single acts but can do 3 or 4 songs with the larger group. Still haven't decided what costume to wear. I may pull out the mini-skirt.

Rather than going to the Hilton today with the Water Lillies, I had lunch with a new friend, another Jeanne. She has a 6 letter name so readers, you will be able to distinguish between her and Jean when I mention them. Jeanne is a Democrat, who did not grow up in the South, but did grow up in a minister's home, so we have a couple of things in common right there. Her husband, also a Democrat, teaches Political Science at Tougaloo. It's nice to be able to speak uninhibited Democratese with a confidante. Welcome, Jeanne, to Ms. Sippi.

There are actually several Democrats at St. Philip's, several in the choir, in fact, but none with whom I've had the opportunity to talk privately very often. It's kinda strange when the choir is having dinner on Wednesday nights because the long dining table has the right leaning people on the right end and the left leaning people on the left end. Somehow, I wind up in the middle but have noticed that my head is turned more to the left than the right. Their conversations are far more engaging to me.

I didn't go to the dinner after choir rehearsal tonight. For one thing, I was very tired, and for another thing, Law and Order is back on Weds. nights at 9:00. Jack McCoy is the D.A. now, and I dare not miss it. Tonight's episode was really good, didn't you think? Moral of the story? Yesterday's tactics of combatting bullying and violence with more bullying and violence just leaves more people wounded or dead and very little accomplished in the solving of the original problem.

In today's email, I got a link to the speech given by my friend the Rev. Ed Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. He spoke to the Exempt Organizations Committee of the American Bar Association meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 18, 2008. Anyone interested in the IRS investigation of his church should read this speech. It ultimately concerns us all and our freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Jeanne, make sure your husband sees this, if he hasn't already.