Priest Laurel Cultural Outing or Showcasing My Immaturity

Just for curiosities sake, how many of you know how truly immature I can be?

To the list that previously included at least one member of the bishopbric and my Laurel class I have now added: the bishop and the Priests, including their advisers (but lucky for me at least one of the advisers was already well aware of my immature tendencies since he is the husband of one of my best friends).

So about a month ago the Laurel class was invited to attend a rafting excursion with the Priests. This included an over night stay in a cabin owned by the YW second counselor (just for clarification's sake the boys slept at a campsite more than 10 miles away), and attending a local theatrical performance of Oklahoma. I love this musical! The entire trip was an outstanding time but I intend to focus on what interesting details as can be shared about the rest of our adventure in another post.

So after a fun and conversation filled two hour drive with my two graduated seniors, who I miss dearly now that they are at BYU, we arrived at the small tourist town where we would attend the show. We arrived at the theater and after appropriately scattering the adults amongst the youth for supervision and interactions sake we settled in for what we hoped would be an enjoyable show.

I mentioned this was a tourist town because all of us who have experienced the phenomena of tourist towns know that there are always those places who specialise in over dramatizing whatever stereo types the particular area has been labeled with. Not surprisingly this town has a distinct 'country hick' tone to it. Thus the pre-show performers were doing jovial performances of popular country songs along with some very humorous dancing. Some of it was actually pretty good, but it was all still funny.

Now I enjoy country music and dancing but the 'overacting' on the part of this cast was such that I had a hard time keeping my chuckles to myself. By the time the second performer started. The Laurel seated closest to me and I were looking away from each other to assist in our struggle to stifle our snickers. Remember I was here as an adult supervisor. I was meant to be the responsible person in the group of youth I was seated amongst.

As with most of my Laurels I have become great friends with this particular girl and we truly enjoy each others company. For those of my readers who have once been a twelve year old girl with a best friend that you couldn't look at without giggling you can totally picture what I looked like and felt like in this moment. For those of you not blessed with having had this delightfully immature experience, I'm not sure there is a better way of describing this. Just be sure I was not feeling at my 'adult composure' best. I was relieved when the actual show started and I was no longer being encouraged to sing along to country themed children's songs while trying not to laugh my head off.

The musical its self turned out to be much better quality than the opening acts. As it turned to the scene of Ado Annie singing her theme song I was reminded of something I hadn't thought of in years. Now this is a very personal confession considering my inability to carry a tune. I sang "I'm just a girl who can't say no," in a single's ward musical performance when I was 19. You can not laugh! I was horrible. But it was tons of fun. Lucky for me that is a song that doesn't have to sound great if there is sufficient theatrical flare which is a talent I was blessed with. So I like to believe it wasn't the mortifying experience it could have been. I'm probably wrong but I don't want to remember it that way. Anyway it is just a funny memory for me.

Given that I was already in a silly mood after the previous performances I couldn't help but laugh to myself. The laurel sitting next to me who had been laughing before, thinking she had missed an opportunity to enjoy a joke, asked enthusiastically what I was laughing at. I tried and failed to explain the joke in whispered tones given my inability to speak without laughing. Hoping a simpler phase would work I said, gesturing at Ado Annie, "I was her."

My laurel looked at me with her mouth hanging open and then started laughing uncontrollably, but mostly silent. Realizing she may have been aware of my abysmal singing ability given all the opportunities we have to sing near each other I still didn't think it warranted this extreme reaction. I waiting for her to gain control before asking why this was so particularly funny. After a short discussion we realized that she thought I was saying that I had behaved like this character in my actual dating life and not that I had simply impersonated her in a 'play' that consisted of a collection of classic Broadway songs.

Now whether this was or was not a true portrayal of my single years I would certainly never admit such a thing to a young woman I hoped to encouraging to make good choices in her life. And although I was not a saint I do not believe this would be an accurate portrait of my dating experiences. At first I was aghast at her having accepted such a belief but after realizing that she had been quite as shocked that I would say something like that as she was that it could possibly be true I laughed so hard at the misunderstanding that I spit out a loud snorting cackle that I'm sure was heard all over the small theater.

The other adults in our group scowled in our direction hoping to silence the rude disruptive youth who was laughing so noisily. I don't think they were sure who it was but I couldn't hide from the Priests seated right in front of us. I was still laughing when they turned around to glare at the YW making such a racket. I will never forget the look of shock on their faces when they saw it was a YW's leader and not a Laurel giggling like a rambunctious school girl during a play.

I was embarrassed, but not enough to stop laughing. I could hardly keep a straight face the rest of the play despite the release of exuberant laughter I allowed myself during intermission. The young men kept looking at me like I was both crazy and dangerous, giving me a very wide berth as they returned to their seats for the second half of the play. The other YW jokingly complained to the bishop that I was out of control to which he responded teasingly that he had placed me in this calling with the hope that the youth would be a calming influence for me.

So now my secret is out and basically the whole ward knows what an immature misbehaved child I can still be at the most unexpected moments. I always try to keep this particular personality flaw hidden when moving to a new place or meeting new people and I believe that I had done an acceptable job hiding myself from this ward (excluding the Laurel's and a small handful of others) before this experience. But alas I can never control myself for long and I have now been completely exposed.

Oh well, immaturity is more fun anyway ;).