epiphany

Stuffed

I have had way too much food over the course of yesterday and today. One of the ladies at church was kind enough to make a big meal for everyone who was helping out with music et al at the Easter services. The food was good--especially the lamb--and there was lots of it. Additionally, the church provided us snacks, sandwiches and desserts throughout the day. Today we had an Executive Committee meeting at work, which also means a lot of food: pastries in the morning, really good sandwiches for lunch, salad and cookies. I order that stuff myself, so I try to make sure that it's good.

For supper I had the grand meal of a banana and a glass of milk. I don't think I really needed to eat anything, but the banana was close to going bad, and I hate wasting food. That's my big news for the day. I'm looking forward to returning to my regular meal schedule.

Sunday Strikes Back

It's Easter. I've been quite busy with choir rehearsals and performances for church. My voice is back pretty well (still a few control issues), and I'm thankful for that. Unfortunately, Sunday has reared its head again after several weeks at bay. So Easter is feeling a lot like Good Friday ought to.

Tasting, Tasting, 1-2-3

I went to my first "tasting" tonight. Since I help organize events for work, I now have opportunities to try out food from different catering companies. Well, I've at least has this one opportunity with Jewel Catering. No others are in sight. But what a pleasant opportunity it was!

First, I must say that sending an unattended single young man to a food-oriented event is probably not the wisest decision. When your daily diet consists of (beware--major personal revelation coming)

cereal
yoghurt
orange juice
green tea (lots of it)
a sandwich (meat and cheese or peanut butter and jelly)
a banana
carrots
whatever snacks people happen to be offering at work
milk
either a hamburger-style patty or fish sticks (normally only if lunch was pbj)
a potato with butter
a cup of frozen veggies (peas or corn),

just about anything anyone else makes for you tastes good. But I really do think that tonight's food was nicely done. At times it reminded me of Dalian's Swissotel (and that is saying something). Not everyone at my table was impressed, but not everyone at my table looked as though they were there for a good time. A girl sitting next to me complained that the salmon skewers were too salty. I thought they were fabulous--they were roasted in honey for crying out loud! I snuck back up for a second. The same lady whined to her mother that buffet food always tastes not-quite-personal. I think that lady needs to get out of her parents' house and learn to enjoy the treats life gives her. Someone else wasn't too pleased with the poppy seed cake. But can you honestly expect poppy seeds to taste good when you could be having chocolate, as was I? And I was one of the lucky few to get an outside piece, which meant a surprising amount of extra frosting. And tasty frosting it was!

The representative I had spoken with signed me up for two attendees, so I had considered asking a girl to join me. (Calm down, Mom.) However, since I wasn't quite sure what a tasting was, I decided against it. It would have been nice to have someone else there, but I'm definitely glad I didn't invite anyone. First off, the bus ride from downtown wouldn't have been too romantic. More importantly, just after I signed in, a young attendant smiled brightly and said, "What's your bride's name?" That would have been an interesting introduction for a co-worker or a first date. Turns out I had forgotten that the evening was aimed toward engaged couples making reception plans.

So maybe the discontented girl will be leaving her parents' house soon enough. One can only hope. And pity her husband-to-be.

General Fluff

After what I'm told has been an unusually warm and dry winter, as of this weekend the weather seems to have shifted to match what I experienced my first Spring in Seattle (2003). We've been having patchy rain and cooler temperatures.

My voice is coming back fairly well, but at this point I'm still not sure how well I'll be able to sing for the Good Friday and Easter services. Most of the songs won't be a problem, but our two big pieces have the tenors up on F's, G's and A's for a while. Yesterday I couldn't make a sound above a D. A fifth is a lot to get back in five days.

Oddly, while I was sick, I felt more happy somehow. It's strange how moods flow. Of course, I've also been listening to some introspective songs the last day or two, so that could have something to do with it. But the pretty folk song melodies have inspired one of my own. I'd best go work on it while it wants working.

Cannon Beach Photos-pt 3

Thanks to a finicky internet connection, these--the likely final installment of the Cannon Beach photos--are up later than I had hoped. Oh well, there's no accounting for routers.

Cannon Beach Photos-pt 2

For this round, you get to enjoy various forms of sea-life, the first shot of my mysterious new glasses and a revelation of the dangers of wading to get your photos.

Communication and Lack Thereof

I'm actually going to write one of those "Sorry I Having Been Blogging" posts. The truth is, I haven't had a whole lot to say recently. When you're in China, there are lots of new experiences and lots of new reactions to the differences in the world around you. When you don't have a job, you have lots of time for thinking and writing and taking photos with your friend's digital camera and blogging and being on the internet in general.

Well, not being in China and having a job, I'm finding myself with fewer unusual experiences and far less time to spend online than I used to. I figure most people are not interested in my cold or how late the bus was again. :-)

Additionally, many of my earlier thoughts sprang from conflicts and controversies within my home group of churches. While I do keep up with some of what has been happening via other people's blogs (Joy has a link to a new forum/blog called Sharper Iron that LOTS of people seem to be jumping onto; Bob has had some good thoughts as well), I'm distant enough--both physically and, surprisingly, emotionally--from the controversies to have little to say anymore.

So what has been going on? Well, I seem to be in the midst of my annual losing-of-the-voice, just in time for all the choir practices leading up to Good Friday and Easter. Work's been fairly busy. And the evening bus is typically late, though I'm on an earlier schedule now and get to eat my supper before 7:00 instead of 8:00, which makes me happy. I'm also making early plans for my assault on getting back into grad school (in other words, I've begun looking into various schools' music theory programs).

That's about it for my life. The cherry trees are blooming, and my street looks like a pink snowstorm passed through. It's sunny. When the air is still, it's warm. But the winds are still quite cold.

Finding a lost voice is difficult with all the petals calling as they drift down the sunny street. Perhaps if I find my voice, I'll find I have something to say again.

Cannon Beach Photos-pt 1

I tried to post some of these the other day, but between a shaky internet connection and getting sick, they've had to wait.

More to come later . . .