Wow! I can't believe it is already December and our church choir cantata is just a few weeks away! We have just finished reading through the entire work but not really begun the serious shaping and tuning needed. Yikes!
Granted, this is one that the choir has sung before. The title is Angel's Joy by Don Innes. It has wonderfully singable melodies and comfy harmonies. The range is well within easy-to-reach levels and the words are not challenging. It harks back to a gentler, kinder era when music was sweet and pretty.
Today is our regularly scheduled weekend rehearsal. My goal is to work for the first hour in sectionals so we make sure all the pitches and timings are correct. Then we will take a short break to view the slides that will show while we are singing (since the choir doesn't get a chance to see them while we are presenting the cantata), and then come together for the second hour to work on shaping and phrasing and dynamics and all those other aspects that make printed notes into engaging music.
While we are practicing, members of the congregation are decorating the church for the Advent / Christmas season. They put up and decorate trees, hang greenery and angels and ornaments in hallways and the fellowship hall as well as the sanctuary. The place looks wonderful and festive! Perfect timing for our musical offering.
Today we make excellent progress. Next Thursday we will work on the woman's piece (a sweet lullaby) and the men's piece (we three kings of course), then sing the whole cantata from, as my Grandmother used to say, "tither to yon," a saying that cracked up my alto section. OK, pillar to post. Or beginning to end. Or here to there. Or however else your colloquialisms take your fancy! Any way you say it, we will sing the whole enchilada.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Snow!!!
Can you believe it? The first real snow of the season. We have had a few flakes in the air before today, but not a white sky of dancing flakes! It almost feels like winter is here. Of course, it doesn't stick to the ground or make driving all that difficult.
What is there about first snowfalls that delights us so? Is it still the memory of a day off from school, the freedom we used to get from the daily drudgery and the plodding normality of day to day life that we recall? That doesn't happen for adults. We still get to go to work for the most part unless its absolutely horrible out. AND we have to drive in the slippery stuff. No vacation in that.
Is it the covering of all the bleak browns and bare trees with such pristine clean whiteness that appeals? Perhaps, but the snow does not stay pristine for long. Add the sand and salt from the road crews and soon enough white turns dingy and ugly. Could it be the cleansing of bugs and germs and bacteria that lifts our hearts? I hardly think that cause for outward joy, benefits notwithstanding.
So what IS it that makes us smile and fills us with happiness when the snow first begins to fall? Maybe it is a throw back to when life revolved around the seasons of the year. One worked hard in the spring preparing the fields and planting. Summer brought the back breaking labor of weeding and hoeing and watering. Fall meant hours of harvesting and preserving, picking, bending and carting heavy loads. But winter! Ah, winter is when you hunker down indoors by the blazing fire and mend your gear. It is leisure well deserved and a time of being at rest.
Maybe that is what we instinctively feel when those first few flakes begin to fall. The full larder, the abundance of our labor safely stored, the let-up in toil, the comfort of hearth and home. Yes, I think that must be it - our primitive recognition of times past, of the orderliness of creation, of traditions long observed.
Still, I can't help thinking how sparkly and pretty it all is in spite of the fact that my larder is not driven by seasons but by paychecks.
What is there about first snowfalls that delights us so? Is it still the memory of a day off from school, the freedom we used to get from the daily drudgery and the plodding normality of day to day life that we recall? That doesn't happen for adults. We still get to go to work for the most part unless its absolutely horrible out. AND we have to drive in the slippery stuff. No vacation in that.
Is it the covering of all the bleak browns and bare trees with such pristine clean whiteness that appeals? Perhaps, but the snow does not stay pristine for long. Add the sand and salt from the road crews and soon enough white turns dingy and ugly. Could it be the cleansing of bugs and germs and bacteria that lifts our hearts? I hardly think that cause for outward joy, benefits notwithstanding.
So what IS it that makes us smile and fills us with happiness when the snow first begins to fall? Maybe it is a throw back to when life revolved around the seasons of the year. One worked hard in the spring preparing the fields and planting. Summer brought the back breaking labor of weeding and hoeing and watering. Fall meant hours of harvesting and preserving, picking, bending and carting heavy loads. But winter! Ah, winter is when you hunker down indoors by the blazing fire and mend your gear. It is leisure well deserved and a time of being at rest.
Maybe that is what we instinctively feel when those first few flakes begin to fall. The full larder, the abundance of our labor safely stored, the let-up in toil, the comfort of hearth and home. Yes, I think that must be it - our primitive recognition of times past, of the orderliness of creation, of traditions long observed.
Still, I can't help thinking how sparkly and pretty it all is in spite of the fact that my larder is not driven by seasons but by paychecks.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
You've Got Your Nerve
Mostly I spoke with the intern in the neurologist's office. She chatted with me for quite awhile, taking down my history, documenting my symptoms, asking questions. It felt good to be able to say "here's what's going on, here is why I think it is happening, here are my concerns." I gave my spiel about believing that most of what I am experiencing is from the many years of treatment - after all, you can't keep taking toxins and being radiated without some effect.
I told her that I was well aware that my symptoms come and go, and that in the overall grand scheme of things, weren't really all that big a deal. Just that I don't want something to get out of hand and end up in a mess when I could have prevented it. Especially considering that sometimes my legs feel like lead weights and just don't move well. She understood and assured me that it was entirely right and appropriate for me to track what is going on even if there is nothing of concern at the moment. I relax a bit. She steps out to connect with the doctor.
He agrees that we should run the nerve tests, but nothing full scale or overwhelming. Just a check in to see where things lie. I am shown to a testing room. The technician has me lie on the bed while she revs up the machine. She places a warm pad on my right leg which feels wonderful, especially considering that for the next 10 minutes, she will be using her 'cattle prod' to send electric shocks down my leg to activate the nerves - 3 in particular. Yikes! Thank goodness I didn't get the full 9 yard treatment!
I get the results right away. Same as last time I had this test over a year ago. Some neuropathy. I could take something for it if I want to, but neither the doctor nor I see any reason to take yet another drug when I can control the symptoms with movement and on the really bad days, Tylenol. So he agrees, but wants to see me again in 6 months. The one thing he puzzles over is that Rituxan is not really known for causing nerve damage, but that is all I am getting, and I do experience the neuropathy when getting the Rituxan. So he wants to keep touch.
OK. I feel like that woman who spent all that she had on doctors and was none the better for it! At some point I am going to pull the plug and stop all this crazy running around. Happy December.
I told her that I was well aware that my symptoms come and go, and that in the overall grand scheme of things, weren't really all that big a deal. Just that I don't want something to get out of hand and end up in a mess when I could have prevented it. Especially considering that sometimes my legs feel like lead weights and just don't move well. She understood and assured me that it was entirely right and appropriate for me to track what is going on even if there is nothing of concern at the moment. I relax a bit. She steps out to connect with the doctor.
He agrees that we should run the nerve tests, but nothing full scale or overwhelming. Just a check in to see where things lie. I am shown to a testing room. The technician has me lie on the bed while she revs up the machine. She places a warm pad on my right leg which feels wonderful, especially considering that for the next 10 minutes, she will be using her 'cattle prod' to send electric shocks down my leg to activate the nerves - 3 in particular. Yikes! Thank goodness I didn't get the full 9 yard treatment!
I get the results right away. Same as last time I had this test over a year ago. Some neuropathy. I could take something for it if I want to, but neither the doctor nor I see any reason to take yet another drug when I can control the symptoms with movement and on the really bad days, Tylenol. So he agrees, but wants to see me again in 6 months. The one thing he puzzles over is that Rituxan is not really known for causing nerve damage, but that is all I am getting, and I do experience the neuropathy when getting the Rituxan. So he wants to keep touch.
OK. I feel like that woman who spent all that she had on doctors and was none the better for it! At some point I am going to pull the plug and stop all this crazy running around. Happy December.
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