Esther and Noteworthy

When I first got home from my mission I decided a good way to meet girls would be to take a ballroom dance class. That class would ultimately lead me to my bride, though not in any way I could've ever pictured.

One of the ladies I met in that class was a brassy, fun, confident New Yorker named Esther. She was fun to dance with if only because she had so many interesting things to say. Since she was only about 5'1" we didn't make very good dance partners, but we definitely became friends anyway.



Fast forward a couple months. Esther is a fan of Vocal Point, and she decides that BYU ought to have an a cappella group for girls. Since she knows I'm in the group, she approaches me about starting a group. Talk after talk, discussion after discussion, we ultimately decide to do it. We bring in my buddy (and fellow Vocal Pointer) Dan. We draft a performer's contract, we choose a name, we pick an audition date, and we roll the dice. As it turns out, the group is a big hit. Not bad.

Who shows up to the audition? There are around 60 ladies in the hall waiting to join the group. The most memorable for me is a lovely 5-foot half-Italian Ohioan freshman named Rosa Parma. The rest, as they say, is history.

So why am I telling this story? Because Rosa spent her whole day getting out to Bath, NY today. She's napping at this very moment, waiting for Esther to come home from work, after which Rosa and Esther are driving tonight back here to New York City. Esther is spending the weekend here! We're super psyched to have her.

The other reason Esther is on the mind right now is because a couple days ago, she just accepted the offer to be Noteworthy's director for 2007-08. The girls are ultra excited to have her, as they should be.

The one not-so-great thing right now about Esther is that she was recently in a bad accident at work (in construction). She broke her hand basically. She can't use one hand, and she's on all kinds of pain medication. She's totally functional, except for the whole hand thing.

The weird part of the story is that not even a week later, one of Noteworthy's returning members just cut off her thumb. Like almost all the way. At work. So Noteworthy's first vocal percussionist and their last vocal percussionist have no thumbs right now. Take this as a word of caution to all you female beatboxers out there.

Regardless of thumbs or no thumbs, we're determined to have a fantastic weekend with Esther. And we're sure she will lead the Noteworthy ladies to great success this coming year.