Singing at a Naturalization Ceremony

I was a part of The Granite Gents, a pick-up quartet that sang at a friend's naturalization ceremony yesterday. It was a pleasure and an honor to sing God Bless America and Star-spangled Banner in front of 85 newly sworn-in US citizens in the Concord, NH courthouse. The whole experience was something you make movies out of: temperatures of -6 F, parking illegally (if only for a few minutes), a quartet that had never sung before in that formation (Don't try this at home; we are professionals!), and then, a few sentences into the Judge's welcoming speech, the fire alarm going off! Apparently a pipe in the fire system froze and burst, triggering the alarm. As the Judge put it, "I would call it a false alarm. The GSA will not."

And speaking of six degrees of separation, the Judge (in the picture above) was none other than Steven J. McAuliffe, husband of Christa MacAuliffe. It's awesome, the number of people I have come in contact with because of barbershopping.