What I Did Instead (Went On Vacation!)

(Note: I thought I had posted this already!  Well, better late than never!)
This past November, there was a problem with a group I was working with.  It all had to do with music and harp, an inexplicable and unnecessary rude email from one of the leaders to me, and an unexpected invitation that same day from another group that helped salve the wound (a group I am happily working with now).  I don't want to go into details since this is a public blog, but suffice it to say, it was so disappointing.  I have moved on, but still am flabbergasted by the whole sequence of events.
There was a special event planned for February with the old group, that I was so looking forward to.  I had blocked out a series of days from my work schedule to accommodate this.  When everything fell apart, I had this rare lengthy time off.  Paul had not been feeling well, basically from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  When thinking of a gift for him for Christmas, I thought time at the beach would be therapeutic.  Plus we had enough points on one credit card to cover two airline tickets, enough on another to cover the rental car.  So I booked a long weekend in Florida.  We had a lovely time.
I made sure, on the evening of the event that I was not part of, that Paul and I were drinking cold champagne in a warm place.  And celebrating our lives together.

This Christmas Season 2016

Christmas this year was/is unusual.  It was very musical choir-wise, not harp though (at least - not played by me, we did a special piece with choir and a professional harpist).  I was on the "bad list" at work, so was scheduled for all of Christmas, other than a small window of time later on Christmas Eve. Robert is in Portland, and Julie and Tyler went to Michigan since I was stuck working.  So our big family dinner is yet to come.  But I will give you the highlights so far, starting from early December.

Early December: 

Handel's Messiah, a new church for us, with a new choir.  

I was asked to sing a "O Thou That Tellest", my first solo.  

It was nerve-wracking, but all went well.

Our fireplace needed extensive repairs: 

Tuck-pointing, chimney cap, a stainless steel liner, and a fan.  ($$$)  

But all is well, and I love being able to use the fireplace again.  

Before Christmas frivolousness:

Christmas red toenail polish!

(And a kitty who likes to rub his chin on toes!)

Christmas Eve Choir Music:

Multiple pieces, including selections from Britten's "Ceremony of Carols".  

We had Ben Melsky as our harpist (awesome, playing the difficult harp accompaniment).  

I practiced long and hard on this piece.  

Musically it is difficult, but also the text is Middle English and Latin.  

(Here's a sample: "Wolcum Yole!" Voci Nobili with harpist Willy Postma)

In a nice surprise, we have been slow at work.  I had to go in from 11 AM to 3 PM, but then was downstaffed for the rest. Paul, Kristin, and I had a nice Christmas Dinner together - enjoying each other, but missing the rest of our family members. But we will all be together next week.  Julie and Tyler are home, and Robert will be visiting from far away Portland.  

(I haven't seen the lad in four whole months!)

Organizing The Music - After

My music is now nicely organized, but I would not want to have to do that sort of project again.  I purged quite a bit.  I got somewhat stuck on the arrangement of the files. Alphabetical by composer or title?  A little of both?  What categories go in which file box?  I spent more time than I care to admit figuring this out.  I finally came up with the following categories:

• Alphabetical Harp Solos - (loose copier copies from friends' books, etc. collected over the years)
• Harp Collections and Methods - (for example, Daniel Burton's collection of Mozart Arias, and all technique books)
• Piano, Voice, Flute, and Band Music
• Harp Solos, Christmas/Church, Ensemble, and Miscellaneous - (the solos are ones purchased from publisher, alphabetical by composer, Miscellaneous are things such as harp repair, tuning, etc. books, programs from concerts I want to remember, and so forth)

I found that I had multiple copies of loose music, so I purged the extras.  I collected a pile to give to my teacher, and if she doesn't want it, it can also be recycled.  Then the "fun" began. Sorting and sorting.  Being that I have selective OCD tendencies, it was important to me that the files be arranged symmetrically.  I had five major colors of file folders.  Each color needed to be used in the same order, with the tabs fanning out uniformly across the width of the file box.  This took a lot of time, but the result was pleasing:

Everything managed to fit into the four file boxes I had designated for music.  I also condensed two broken down binders into one, containing only music that I would regularly play at church or at a cocktail hour.  The Christmas and Church music will at some point need to be subdivided somehow, but my brain was fried after this. The file boxes were then labeled, and placed on the shelves in the basement:

Paul and I moved the love seat and book shelf to the west wall, and the harp and my harp shelf to the east.  There is one pile containing music I am currently working on, the single white binder containing my "standards", and music that I am interested in working on once Easter is done.  It is so nice to be organized in this way:

Here is the new furniture arrangement, which looks so much better.  To the left of the harp, by the east window, will go my Little Oratory:

I'm so glad to have this done.  I now know where to find almost any piece of music, my harp area and sacred space are clean and organized.  The next step is the creation of the prayer table (to be constructed using vintage pew ends that someone gave Paul years ago, and he never knew quite what to do with).  My hope is to have the oratory by Easter.

Organizing The Music - Before

Back in the year 2011, five years ago, I had posted about three areas I wanted to organize: sewing stuff, long hair stuff, and music.  I completed the first two that year.  It has taken me five years to get around to organizing the music.  There was a reason for that; the music was all over the place, in large unorganized piles, and the thought of going there was completely overwhelming.  I had four file boxes that I had started organizing previously, but as I said - it was overwhelming, and so nothing was really done.

But in preparation for and during this Lenten season, I have been reading a book called The Little Oratory.  The book is about creating sacred spaces in the home, in particular a prayer table, or oratory, to be a bridge between church and home.  I loved this idea, and wanted it for my home.  But where to put it?  I considered each room of the house.  The dining room is too crowded, as is the sitting room.  The foyer is too busy of a space.  But the parlor, which is also our music room, seemed perfect: quiet, peaceful, and we even have two small stained glass windows there!  The recommendation is that, if possible, if one could be facing east when at the oratory that would be ideal.  But we had our love seat in that space:

However, I thought that if I reversed the placement of everything in the room from east to west, I could have the harp by the window on the right, and the oratory on the left.  This seemed ideal.  But then there was that pesky little problem of disorganization of the music.  I wanted the room to be worthy of a sacred space.  But this is what I saw:

And this was just the tip of the iceberg.  Besides this and the files already in boxes, I had another stack near the files in the basement, and another huge stack in a small cabinet in the dining room.  The writing was on the wall - I had a big job to do, and do it I must.  

It "helped" that right around the time I decided to do this, I had a small cut on my index finger: one of those tiny, but horridly painful cracked skin cuts from winter weather and handwashing as a nurse.  Small as a paper cut, but infinitely more deadly in pain, rendering me unable to practice harp.  So I gathered everything together: all of the music, the four file boxes, file folders, label maker (for the outside file box labels; the label tabs were done by hand or I would be working forever on this), a Sharpie marker, and a good movie to watch:

It is important to note that I did this gradually, over at least a week, because it is boring tedious work.  Plus the fact that I tried to move everything out of the way once done for the day, do we could still live in the space.  It was important to be by a TV while doing this to stave off boredom, but it was right plunk in our living space.  During, before moving out of the way (I Spy - three cats!):

Stayed tuned for the next post: After!

Dancing Again

I have finally, finally gone back to ballet.  Illness and flaring up of old injuries have kept me away.  I have started slowly, but am going to a very nice adult class.  I need to build strength, both muscular and cardio-wise, plus I need to be more stretched. The first time I went was very difficult and overwhelming.  I felt so out of my body.  My brain and muscle memory knew what to do, but the body could not respond.  Today it was a little easier, and definitely more enjoyable.  There were times when I was very joyful and smiling and having fun.  If I am going to do this however, I need to get to class at least twice a week, preferably more. Mostly I just need to go to bed earlier so I can get up early enough to get to one of the many morning adult ballet classes.

It is still the most enjoyable way to move one's body and exercise.

1st position - we begin to dance.

The Young Master Practices

It's not always easy to get Tyler to practice, but I do try to keep him with this.  He is so musical, spent a lot of the Christmas season singing carols, always on pitch.  His teacher is working with him now to refine his positioning and bowing.  He has improved his placement of the violin itself on his shoulder.  Mrs. Roberts is doing a lot with improving his bowing technique.  He needs to work on the break in his wrist.  But he sounds very nice.  I was able to spark his interest more when I explained that next year, when he is in middle school, he will be able to play with their orchestra.

Christmas Was Lovely

This Christmas was one of the best I have ever had.  It was mostly stress-free, pleasant happenings, happy memories.

Christmas Eve - I only had to work a half-shift, then came home to eat and rest before Mass. I sang with the choir.  We started before the Mass.  We sang a lot of different music, some very difficult, some familiar.  It was a lot of work learning it.  But we sang well.  The whole Mass was very beautiful.  Then home to finish up wrapping and do the stockings.  Julie outdid herself by baking tons of cookies for Santa.

Christmas Day Morning - Ty woke us up early, very excited.  We opened gifts.  I got a bottle of Jo Malone Orange Blossom (I have been wanting it for perhaps a year!).  It smells divine. The Little Boy was happy with his gifts.

Christmas Day Afternoon - Cooking!  Kristin made her usual lasagna.  I made the dark and soft restaurant rolls and seasoned the Tofurkey to bake.  Robert and Sierra made all of the sides, with me just helping here and there with chopping, and then minding everything while it baked.

Christmas Dinner - How beautiful.  It was candlelight and china, tasty wine and unusual beer provided by Sierra, and the food turned out great.  The conversation was pleasant, no fighting amongst the siblings, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

It was a blessed season.

Ty places the star.

The tree, all decorated.

Orange Blossom Deliciousness!

Meeting the Archbishop - 170 Year Church Anniversary

Last Saturday evening, for the Vigil Mass at St. Joseph, we celebrated 170 years since our church's founding.  There were at least 17 current and former priests, and the celebrant of the Mass was His Excellency Archbishop Blase Cupich.  Bishop Francis Kane was also there.  It was pretty awesome to see two Bishops on the altar in their mitres.

Our choir sang. We had a live string quartet to accompany us, plus, our director put other instruments into his keyboard, so it sounded like an orchestra.  There were two soprano soloists who sang so beautifully.  Our director picked some fantastic music, very moving and uplifting.  In particular, When In Our Music God Is Glorified by Green/Stanford/arr. by McDonald and Faithfulness by Chisholm/Raney.  We also sang excerpts from Hör mein Bitten by Mendelssohn, with a soprano soloist.  This was tricky!  Difficult parts, all in German! What was really neat is that this piece was written in the same year our church was founded. And our church has a strong German influence. More props to our director for finding it.

At the end, the Archbishop greeted the parishioners, even posing for pictures.  I got such a nice photo of Tyler with him.  He's holding his crozier, which I have never seen up close.  It was a marvelous event!

The Hole in the Wall (Mushrooming Project)

There is a saying in any remodeling project, that of "mushrooming".  What this means is that while doing one project, one may uncover (or cause) another project to spring up.  In our case, the work in the kitchen (gutting, hammering, etc.) caused the weakened plaster on the north wall of our dining room (adjacent to the kitchen wall), which was already suffering from a large crack, to begin to fall off.  Thus the "hole in the wall".

Of course, with me being musical, this brought up a piece, one that I have played on harp, but also love in Regency/Vitorian era movies, such as Wives and Daughters.  The music is by Henry Purcell, and it has many names: The Hole in the Wall, Hornpipe from The Moor's Revenge, or Hornpipe from Abdelzar's Suite.  So I have been playing that piece on my harp and hearing it in my head all week. (You can hear the piece here.)

Before we could begin, there was a *small* task, i.e. preserving the wallpaper border that I love. Since we are only re-doing the north wall (the east wall had already been replaced with wallboard prior to the border being applied; we are not touching the south and west walls until a later date - huge mushroom, involving new windows, structural stuff, insulation, etc.), I did not want the border to just end.  So, faithful Paul undertook the painstaking task of removing it.  This is not an easy task.  But he did it, and it is rolled up, waiting to be reapplied once the new wallboard is up.  (More to follow in upcoming post once complete.)

The border - isn't it beautiful?

The Hole in the Wall

Paul starting the tedious process of border removal

He did it in stages - it took three days 

  

Gutted corner with cats

The full view

 

Donnie, on the dropcloth-covered table, looking beauteous

Reclaiming My Harp Space (with a little tangent about water filtration)

For the past few months I have been in a harp slump.  A lot of it had to do with all of the kitchen cabinet boxes preventing me from actually getting to my harp.  But I was also in a slump in general.

A kitchen remodel is horridly stressful, my diet was terrible, we were unable to use our Reverse Osmosis water filter that I love (and I am very fussy about water - I don't like it to begin with, but having to do without the relative non-taste of RO water and instead drink bottled or tap water was very hard for me).  Incidentally, we did not get the RO filter because I am a fussy princess (!); we got it because I have a thyroid illness, and fluoride, which is in most tap water, is bad for this.  The RO is the only type that can get the fluoride out (at least, that is my understanding).  So I wasn't drinking well, and I am not sure how the exposure to fluoride affected me, if indeed it did.  The point is - my health has not been the best through this.  And when I don't feel well, or feel depressed, I don't play.  Ooo, what a tangent that was!

Anyway, as I mentioned in my previous post, I was inspired to play again by the harpist at The Drake.  But, Paul and I also finally were able to unclutter and clean our parlor, which houses my harp, making it accessible to me.  This was an icky proposition.  You see, we have three cats.  And three cats, combined with three sensitive kitty stomachs, combined with a room that humans cannot get real access to...well, you get the picture.  Vomit-palooza! We also had multitudes of storage boxes and cardboard cabinet containers to deal with. There is still a small amount of stuff to be dealt with, but it looks like a living space now, and, more importantly, a harp space.  I can finally practice comfortably and in clean surroundings.

My new music arrived, the Brahms Intermezzo.  It is a gorgeous arrangement in a Brahms collection by Daniel Burton.  I have begun working on it intently.  It is lovely.

The view from my harp:

Tea At The Drake 2015

Last week my "Tea Ladies" and I went to The Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago for afternoon tea.  It was so lovely.  We had a marvelous time.  The Drake even accommodated my gluten-free request.  My ladies and I agreed that it was a most splendid time, better in summer than during the holidays.

But the highlight was the harpist.  Her name is Lisa Marie Kahn, and she was wonderful.  She really lit a fire in my desire to get back to practicing (my harp has been buried in the parlor amongst all of the kitchen cabinets and other kitchen and house detritus - how's that for a word?!) that has been claiming the space (more on the reclaiming of my parlor and harp area in the next blog post).  In particular, the fact that she just happened to play Brahms Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2 just as I walked in - this is one of my favorite pieces, and I had no idea that there was a harp arrangement.  I managed to catch her later, just before she began another set.  She very kindly showed me the arrangement, and told me where to order it from.  I went home and ordered it instantly after I walked in the door.

Here are some of our photos.  You'll note that every one of us wore a hat!

That's me on the left, Barbara on the right

Barbara and Sandra

Pam, Kathy, and Colleen 

(Note the beautiful flower arrangement, and a bit of the harp in the background.)

All of us, in the Palm Court of the Drake!

Recording with the Church Choir

Last night, and the Thursday before, our church choir recorded a CD in honor of our church's 170th birthday.  We still have a few pieces to tweak, but we got the bulk of it done.  I have no idea how it sounds!  Hopefully it will be a nice addition to our festivities this fall.

Good Friday - Our Lord's Death - Stabat Mater

Yesterday was Good Friday.  I had the privilege of singing Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with our church's cantor, who is a marvelous soprano.  I used the picture above as inspiration.  We sang it during the Veneration of the Cross.  The piece is beautiful (hear it here, I listened to it endlessly).  The words are in Latin, and depict the sorrow of Mary, Jesus' mother, at the foot of the cross:

Stabat Mater, dolorosa
iuxta Crucem, lacrimosa
dum pendebat Filius

There are translations online more in keeping with the meter, but I wanted to keep the literal translation in my mind.  Here is what I came up with:

Standing Mother, sorrowful
next to the Cross, weeping
while there hung her Son

I Should Probably Explain (Choir)

I realized that I never did explain how I ended up back in the church choir.  You may remember past posts here and here.  I had had simply a terrible experience with a former choir director.  He has since moved on to apparently greener pastures, and a new director was hired, one who had worked off and on there previously.  I was not planning to rejoin the choir, but God intervened in a most fascinating way.

There was this one Sunday in the summer of 2013, after the other director left, when I went back to my church.  We had been away for almost six months.  Somehow, we ended up at the 9:00 Mass, which we never go to (we are not early birds).  It just so happened that another former choir member ended up sitting right behind us.  After Mass, we walked out and ran into yet another choir member, one who was/is still an active member.  He asked us both if we would come back.  It became one of those situations, "I'll come back if you'll come back!"  And we both did.

I am very glad to be back.  It is not a perfect choir; every choir and director has its idiosyncrasies.  But in general I am happy there and glad to be singing again.  I have not offered to play harp there yet.  I don't know that I will; I was so traumatized by my previous experience.  But at least I am making music for the Lord again.  And that is a good thing.

The View from the Choir Loft - Lovely!

Easter Table

A long, but beautiful weekend: the Triduum, tons of choir music to sing each day of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Saturday Vigil Mass, working a day shift Easter Sunday morning, and then coming home and cooking and baking with family for our meal.  I am grateful for Christ's sacrifice and Resurrection, for family, music, and good food.

In the Pastures of the Lord

This morning at St. Joe's we sang a beautiful choir arrangement of Pastures of the Lord by Curtis Stephan.  It is simply gorgeous, and totally inspiring.  It almost brought me to tears.

Lord, now your servant may go in peace;

your salvation mine eyes have seen.

I will walk near running streams

in the pastures of the Lord.

The day is gone, the work is done;

many battles I’ve lost and won.

I shall rest and find welcome

in the pastures of the Lord.

Lord, lay me down in verdant fields,

in green valleys with golden hills,

there to find your face revealed

in the pastures of the Lord.

Lord, let this trav’ler find sweet repose.

From pain and sorrow your mercy leads

to living waters, where angels sing

in the pastures of the Lord.

Lord, now your servant may go in peace;

your salvation mine eyes have seen.

Only goodness shall follow me

in the pastures of the Lord,

in the pastures of the Lord.

Reflections on Christmas

Christmas was lovely this year, except that I became ill on Christmas Day.  I had a stomach bug.  But my family took over and made the dinner.  Fortunately I was able to sing at church on Christmas Eve.  I rested all Christmas, briefly watched the gift exchange, and then later was able join the family for Grace and candle lighting, that is all.  But it was a lovely season.

We had some snow.  Donnie could not resist venturing out.

Our tree was beautiful.  This is my favorite ornament.  

I wore my hair in a blinged-out fashion.  Sparkles!

We sang the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of Midnight Mass.

 

Then we came home and ate some figgy pudding with a chocolate Brandy Alexander sauce.  

Then Santa came!

Our Advent Wreath candles were replaced with pure white candles on Christmas Morn.  

Welcome Baby Jesus!

Our Last Christmas Party as a Team

Earlier this month, the team of doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, and medical assistants that I have worked with for the past five years all got together for a Christmas party.  It was a lot of fun, but very sad: our clinic is closing, and we are all scattered to the winds.  Some are going to a new pediatric clinic, others to other practices, some quitting medicine altogether.  I am going back to the NICU I worked at previously.  I brought my harp and played for everyone.  Katie's house is an old Victorian, which I love.  So the harp felt right at home!

(Note: the perspective on my friend's camera was a little off - the harp looks enormous!)

Easter Elsewhere

This Easter we did not go to our parish church for Easter Sunday Mass.  I could not bring myself to go there, due to the unpleasantness that occurred around Christmas.  (See post here.)  So we went to the other Catholic Church in our village.  It is a lovely church, smaller than our parish, and has a strong Irish influence as opposed to the German influence of our parish (which I have no problem with of course!).  We have gone here several times since Christmas.  As with most Catholic churches, there are wonderful stained glass windows.  The ones at this church have a different Saint portrayed on each one.  Tyler and I especially liked the window for St. Patrick.  He liked the shamrock and snake (St. Francis was said to have banished snakes from Ireland, although this is thought to be symbolic); I liked the Irish harp in bright yellow glass.  

I wore my "Easter Bonnet" (pictured above, with the 1960's handbag that I also carried) and this coat.  I received several nice comments from other congregants.  One lady told me she had been on the lookout to see if anyone was wearing an Easter bonnet, and she was pleased to see mine!

It felt so strange not to be singing or playing.  I simply sang along with the congregation.  But I was okay with it.  I feel that God doesn't care where I worship as long as I do!  But I was moved by the Mass in general, and a special gift God provided: I can rarely sing high E's; I am an alto through and through.  It can be so frustrating to have one's voice break on the high note of a piece.  Easter morning I was able to sing the E.  A small thing for sure, but it meant a lot to me, especially given the circumstances.

The Young Master Performs

Tyler, six years old, plays in a violin recital.  He does very well for six!  Here is him playing one of his pieces: