Tuesday

10:20 am Let’s see if I can shoot this out before we leave for piano lesson.

(Yes, he could drive himself, but I really need confirmation of recital dates, etc, from the teacher, so I’ll drop him off.)

Narrator: She did not get it done before leaving. Someone came in and started talking about Attack on Titan. While impatient and tempted to dismiss the distraction from the room, she remembered, once again, that life is short, life moves quickly, and that in seven months, she might be sorely missing such distractions, so she turned from the keyboard and listened.

4:09 pm

Writing: Getting close! Completely on schedule. I’m writing the little short sections (about 2k words left on that), as well as revising the rest at the same time. Last to write will be the introductions – one for parents/catechists, the other for children. I’ll probably dedicate this weekend to that. Then turn it in, clean off my desk, clean out my computer files and put my mind to something new!

I was in Living Faith on Monday. Go here for that.

Reading:

I finished Ladies with a Unicorn. It didn’t live up to my expectations. There were some interesting observations, and I really liked the main character/narrator – a woman who’d lost her husband to the Germans in the war, had been injured herself, and bore the results of not-great plastic surgery on her face. I really wanted to hear more about her. The ultimate insight of the plot is hers, but since most of the novel involves her listening to other characters talk and talk…the impact is slight.

As a good example, she’s talking to a young actress, who is in turn telling her about a long drive into the Italian countryside with the film’s director, during which the director narrates the history of film. So it’s pages about the history of film, as told in the breathless, frequently italicized voice of a 20-year old Englishwoman.

I mean, it was a diversion, and there are worse diversions, but it didn’t tempt me to read any more of Stirling’s work.

So I finished that up last night and found an e-copy of D. H. Lawrence’s Sea and Sardinia. Where did I read about Lawrence last week? Something, somewhere, I don’t remember. I’ll figure it out. Anyway, I’ve never read Lawrence and have not been interested in doing so, but this article (whatever it was…it will come to me) piqued my interest, if not in his novels, but – surprise – in his travel writing.

Well, gentle, reader, I couldn’t put it down. I mean…nothing much happens, and Lawrence is constantly vacillating between annoyance and rage, but I found it utterly absorbing and, in a weird way, delightful. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a travel narrative in which I did, indeed, feel as if I were there. Part of it has to do with Lawrence’s use of the present tense, which surprised me. But it’s all due to his extraordinary descriptive gift.

I didn’t end up finishing it – I got about 2/3 of the way through and it was 1:30 am, so……

After I tap, tap, tap in my scheduled chapter revisions tonight, I’ll finish and have more thoughts. And I’ll probably track down that article, too.

Watching:

Since last week, I’ve watched two movies in theaters: Licorice Pizza and Tragedy of Macbeth. I enjoyed both, the latter more than the former, not surprisingly, and I’ll try to write about them in the next couple of days.

Listening:

Done with the Christmas music, on to my usual weird mix of piano-based jazz, 20th century piano music, medieval and renaissance, Latin American Baroque, and gypsy jazz. This is yesterday’s and today’s playlist – an enormous collection of piano transcriptions – one of my favorite genres, if you can call it that. Piano transcriptions, mostly of orchestral music, but also chamber pieces.

Also gearing up to hear quite a bit of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Saint-Saens over the next few months.

Oh! How could I forget!

The main live listening event occurred this past Sunday at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Over the past year, the Cathedral has been in the process of having a new pipe organ built and installed. It’s finished! It’s gorgeous!

This past Sunday was the inaugural recital, and it was fantastic. Playing was Nathan Laube, and here’s the program. Here are the program notes.

Photo from the Cathedral’s Facebook page here.

I particularly liked the arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G-minor. I lobbied for Piano Guy to choose that as a piece this year, but he demurred, taking a quieter route. Well, at least I got to hear it here!

(And folks, the organ’s all paid for, thanks in great part to a generous bequest as well as the generosity of parishioners. And built and installed under Covid restrictions. Quite an achievement.)

Cooking: It’s back to just the two of us. Still working through that Mexican Braised Beef, red beans & sausage. I think some sort of turkey soup is coming, though.

Traveling: Hahahaha.

Just wait a few months, though…just wait.

Doing:

Went from this

to this in a matter of a little more than an hour.

Even better because this year, I actually took the time to organize the ornaments as I took them down, instead of just dumping them all into boxes in my rush of I just want to get this done and all this stuff back down in the basement. I got rid of a lot of junky stuff that’s somehow accumulated over the years, and, most importantly, organized all the antiques – those from my parents’ homes (including Christmas decor from when my father was a child in the 30’s) and my own childhood, which are yes, now, antiques. Most of the latter – and there are not that many – have a distinct mid-century vibe.

The whole thing – the taking down, the hauling up, the hauling back down, the sweeping – a dreaded task, but such a delightful feeling when it’s done, yes?

But…. with a mental and spiritual question mark hanging, nonetheless.

I may say, “It’s good to have things back the way they were.” But are they? And isn’t the point of Christmas that…they aren’t?