Reflection
It's been a whirlwind of activity these past couple of weeks. Here's the Cliff's Notes, for those of you who are actually interested:
Holy Week/Easter: Everything went very well. The three Triduum services started at 7:00pm and then we had our regular Mass schedule for Easter Sunday, so I basically spent the last 4 days in a row at Church. Not that that's particularly unusual; I do work there, after all, but I don't usually play so much while I'm working. By the end of the 4th Mass on Sunday, I was ready to collapse. My throat was dry and my voice was very tired. I had pretty much lost my lip at that point and was really working hard to squeeze out some of those notes. The Recorder Ensemble played extremely well - I was so proud of them! The Orlando Di Lasso piece we'd drilled so long and hard came out perfectly - all the rhythms were correct and I didn't hear any wrong notes. I only wish the microphones had been turned up a little louder since the organ effectively drowned out everything that wasn't directly amplified (ie: electric guitars and keyboards). I'd love to reward the girls with a day off from rehearsing, but unfortunately First Communion Masses are coming up in only 3 weeks and we don't have much time to review "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," so we'll be back at the grindstone this Thursday. My flute students also did very well and the choir as a whole had a really nice sound this year. All in all, the hard work was definitely worth it, but I'm exhausted. It doesn't help that we had a funeral this morning and another funeral scheduled for Wednesday morning; there is definitely no rest for the weary.
RIP Mischief: My mother's cat, Mischief, had to be put down this morning. We've pretty much seen this coming for about a year now. She's been on dozens of medications and the vet bills are almost as high as my parents' medical bills, but up until about a week or so ago, the cat had a pretty good quality of life. The vet suspects either a brain lesion or a brain tumor caused her final decline. In the end, "Missy" went completely blind, was dehydrated, had no appetite, couldn't jump or climb anywhere, and basically had no future to look forward to. She lived to be about 15 and a half - not too shabby for a foundling off the streets. My mother has declared that this will be her last pet. That's probably a good call to make at this stage of the game. Like our dear friend JW, my mother is becoming decidedly suspect of the month of April: this is the second cat she's lost around this time of year, not to mention all the human friends and family who made their final exits during April as well. I can't say that I blame her, but I do have to keep reminding people that somebody wonderful was born in the month of April, so April really can't be all that bad.
The House: I'm taking a little break right now, but I intend to go back to cleaning the bathroom soon. Everything about this place has gotten away from us over the past month or so, but I'm guessing we'll get things back in order soon enough. We've figured out what we want to do with the floor (although we still haven't picked out any tile), so Carl is back on track with nailing down the bamboo. We're THIS CLOSE to being able to nail down some quarter-round in the main Living/Dining Room, at which point we'll finish the baseboards and actually get the furniture put into place. YAY! We'll also be able to set up our permanent aquarium; the permanent aquarium holds about 500 lbs. of water, so we wanted to make sure we didn't have to move it for any reason once we set it up. We did manage to find some otocinclus catfish to help with the algae problem and they've already made quite a dent in the temporary tank growth. We'll probably keep them in the temporary tank until the permanent tank starts to show signs of algal bloom just to make sure our little "vacuum cleaners" don't starve to death in the new set-up. In related news, I'm very close to finishing the stained glass window for our new sidelight by the front door, so hopefully we'll get that installed by the end of the month. I'll post pictures as soon as there's something to post.
BRF: It's official - Jezebel Harlotte and her banana, Foster, will be back for the 2009 BRF season on Saturdays only. I really hated the way I felt at the end of the 2007 season and I didn't want to leave it that way. I was frustrated, burned out, and basically knew I wasn't coming back for the next season about 3 weeks before 2007 ended. Coming back to Faire as a patron, however, lost its appeal quickly and I knew I had to get back out there and perform. I don't know what will happen after this season, and I don't know that I will ever go back to doing Faire full time, but I'm back part time for this season and we'll see how this scenario plays out. And yes, part time was my idea, not Bob's. He's been very accommodating and straightforward to work with so far, so I think this relationship will work out quite well. I'm looking forward to the new season and all the changes I will be experiencing - new Artistic Director, new Street Director (it's still Adam, but I didn't get to work with him last year), new Costume Director (again, I assume it's the same person as last year, but I haven't worked with her yet), and all the other firsts that happen every season. I think this will be a really good season.
Weight Management: Well, I pretty much fell off the wagon with a lot of my diet watching and all of my exercising, but I've still managed to lose weight. I'm down to 186, which is halfway to my second weight loss goal. More importantly, I've gotten back into some of my clothes that didn't fit about six months ago, so I'm really happy about that. Total weight loss so far: 32 pounds. Inches lost off my hips: 7. Inches lost off my waist: 6. Inches lost off my bust: 4.5. I'm hoping to get myself back on track and rev up the exercise so I can start to see some real improvement soon. I need to make my target weight of 176 by the end of June so that Jezebel's corset doesn't squeeze the life out of me like it did in 2007. I'm still gunning for an ultimate weight goal of 130, but that's not going to happen by June (or September, I suspect), but I'm in no rush. I don't want to gain any weight back, so "slow and steady" works just fine for me. I see the nutritionist again tomorrow; hopefully, she won't be too hard on me and we'll come up with some strategies for making it a little easier for me to stay on track.
Holy Week/Easter: Everything went very well. The three Triduum services started at 7:00pm and then we had our regular Mass schedule for Easter Sunday, so I basically spent the last 4 days in a row at Church. Not that that's particularly unusual; I do work there, after all, but I don't usually play so much while I'm working. By the end of the 4th Mass on Sunday, I was ready to collapse. My throat was dry and my voice was very tired. I had pretty much lost my lip at that point and was really working hard to squeeze out some of those notes. The Recorder Ensemble played extremely well - I was so proud of them! The Orlando Di Lasso piece we'd drilled so long and hard came out perfectly - all the rhythms were correct and I didn't hear any wrong notes. I only wish the microphones had been turned up a little louder since the organ effectively drowned out everything that wasn't directly amplified (ie: electric guitars and keyboards). I'd love to reward the girls with a day off from rehearsing, but unfortunately First Communion Masses are coming up in only 3 weeks and we don't have much time to review "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," so we'll be back at the grindstone this Thursday. My flute students also did very well and the choir as a whole had a really nice sound this year. All in all, the hard work was definitely worth it, but I'm exhausted. It doesn't help that we had a funeral this morning and another funeral scheduled for Wednesday morning; there is definitely no rest for the weary.
RIP Mischief: My mother's cat, Mischief, had to be put down this morning. We've pretty much seen this coming for about a year now. She's been on dozens of medications and the vet bills are almost as high as my parents' medical bills, but up until about a week or so ago, the cat had a pretty good quality of life. The vet suspects either a brain lesion or a brain tumor caused her final decline. In the end, "Missy" went completely blind, was dehydrated, had no appetite, couldn't jump or climb anywhere, and basically had no future to look forward to. She lived to be about 15 and a half - not too shabby for a foundling off the streets. My mother has declared that this will be her last pet. That's probably a good call to make at this stage of the game. Like our dear friend JW, my mother is becoming decidedly suspect of the month of April: this is the second cat she's lost around this time of year, not to mention all the human friends and family who made their final exits during April as well. I can't say that I blame her, but I do have to keep reminding people that somebody wonderful was born in the month of April, so April really can't be all that bad.
The House: I'm taking a little break right now, but I intend to go back to cleaning the bathroom soon. Everything about this place has gotten away from us over the past month or so, but I'm guessing we'll get things back in order soon enough. We've figured out what we want to do with the floor (although we still haven't picked out any tile), so Carl is back on track with nailing down the bamboo. We're THIS CLOSE to being able to nail down some quarter-round in the main Living/Dining Room, at which point we'll finish the baseboards and actually get the furniture put into place. YAY! We'll also be able to set up our permanent aquarium; the permanent aquarium holds about 500 lbs. of water, so we wanted to make sure we didn't have to move it for any reason once we set it up. We did manage to find some otocinclus catfish to help with the algae problem and they've already made quite a dent in the temporary tank growth. We'll probably keep them in the temporary tank until the permanent tank starts to show signs of algal bloom just to make sure our little "vacuum cleaners" don't starve to death in the new set-up. In related news, I'm very close to finishing the stained glass window for our new sidelight by the front door, so hopefully we'll get that installed by the end of the month. I'll post pictures as soon as there's something to post.
BRF: It's official - Jezebel Harlotte and her banana, Foster, will be back for the 2009 BRF season on Saturdays only. I really hated the way I felt at the end of the 2007 season and I didn't want to leave it that way. I was frustrated, burned out, and basically knew I wasn't coming back for the next season about 3 weeks before 2007 ended. Coming back to Faire as a patron, however, lost its appeal quickly and I knew I had to get back out there and perform. I don't know what will happen after this season, and I don't know that I will ever go back to doing Faire full time, but I'm back part time for this season and we'll see how this scenario plays out. And yes, part time was my idea, not Bob's. He's been very accommodating and straightforward to work with so far, so I think this relationship will work out quite well. I'm looking forward to the new season and all the changes I will be experiencing - new Artistic Director, new Street Director (it's still Adam, but I didn't get to work with him last year), new Costume Director (again, I assume it's the same person as last year, but I haven't worked with her yet), and all the other firsts that happen every season. I think this will be a really good season.
Weight Management: Well, I pretty much fell off the wagon with a lot of my diet watching and all of my exercising, but I've still managed to lose weight. I'm down to 186, which is halfway to my second weight loss goal. More importantly, I've gotten back into some of my clothes that didn't fit about six months ago, so I'm really happy about that. Total weight loss so far: 32 pounds. Inches lost off my hips: 7. Inches lost off my waist: 6. Inches lost off my bust: 4.5. I'm hoping to get myself back on track and rev up the exercise so I can start to see some real improvement soon. I need to make my target weight of 176 by the end of June so that Jezebel's corset doesn't squeeze the life out of me like it did in 2007. I'm still gunning for an ultimate weight goal of 130, but that's not going to happen by June (or September, I suspect), but I'm in no rush. I don't want to gain any weight back, so "slow and steady" works just fine for me. I see the nutritionist again tomorrow; hopefully, she won't be too hard on me and we'll come up with some strategies for making it a little easier for me to stay on track.