Days to go: 973 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 27: I WON THE LOTTERY!!! Ok, I needed a few more zeros, but $10 is $10. I called Suz to see if she wanted to go for coffee. (My treat!)

I think I have won the lottery, in a way. Being on LTD means that most basic living expenses are covered, and, in fact, I am not allowed to get paid for any outside work. This is why I am able to volunteer at St. Leo's. It was originally just an offer to fill in as a sub-organist from time to time, but is rapidly turning into more than that.

I do feel a responsibility to the organ profession to be paid a just "commensurate with education and experience" wage (as the job ads say), and when I return to full time teaching and am seeking out a new church position I will probably negotiate for just that.

In the meantime, I accept presents.

A gift certificate to Red Lobster would be nice. Then I could take my sisters out for a special supper to celebrate the completion of Marion's herceptin and a NED scan for her, as determined up in Sudbury this week.

I would say that Marion won the lottery this time!

Days to go: 974 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 26: Another line of Bach learned. That's way lotsa many notes so far. Bit by bit the fugue is coming together. Susan said she would be interested in hearing the final product on the Letourneau so happily that is another goal to work toward (-- um, towards which to work?).

A very pleasant lunch today with Susan and Harry, then some relaxing on the deck. I feel so blessed to have such generous, caring friends. They had just returned from vacation and were doing what all teachers do in the summer: clean out the garage, paint the house, etc. Afterwards I went over to Nella's to get my hair done, and I must admit, I DO look b-you-tee-full!

It was nice to hear from Dianne (Guidance Part 1 course instructor) via email: it has been a week since the course finished. It seems like a year. I plan to take Part 2 online through OSCA starting in September.

Found out when my CT-PET scan is: next Friday! Friday, August 13, 2010!! FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, that is!!! I am not superstitious, no, not at all.

Oooooo.

:-)

Days to go: 975 -- Pieces to go :10

Day 25: When Julie (Julie and Julia, inspirational movie for this blog) burned the Boeuf Bourgnignon the night before Judith Jones came over for supper, did she give up? No, she did not.

Did she whine, "epic fail!" and throw a temper tantrum on the kitchen floor? No, she did not.

(That was for the lobster dinner, if I remember correctly.)

So am I going to give up air practicing so easily? No, I am not.

Tennis players, football players, all kinds of sports people visualize perfect plays: this virtual practice acts like actual practice and they play a better game. I can experiment with this. I DO want to be able to practice without a keyboard.

In the meantime, it was good to be back at the church practicing for real this afternoon. Another line learned.

Days to go: 976 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 24: Air practicing: EPIC FAIL!!!

Days to go: 977 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 23: This will be a short post because I still have to air practice. I'm on nephew Jim's computer, listening to some Bach from Iceberg Radio:

http://www.icebergradio.com

After discussion with TPTB (the very nice powers that be, I might add) at OTIP, it looks like no school for me in September but yes to volunteer work instead. For now. I am relieved. I have medical appointments lined up already and I just don't think it is the best thing for my grade niners to have subs at irregular times their first few weeks at school. So they will have one LTO instead, which will be better for them.

That Bach I'm listening to is so wonderful...I could just get lost in it. I remember so clearly Dr. Regula Qureshi playing a Bach chaconne on the cello in St. Joseph's Chapel (U of AB) at the blessing of the school year a long time ago. It was beyond classy.

Right, ONWARD, to air practice the exposition of the fugue. Hmmmm, I wonder if that Mike's hard pomegranate lemonade I just drank will have any effect on my concentration?

Nah.

Days to go: 978 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 22: Was inspired today by the story of Marie-Eve Chainey, who is a champion high-jump competitor from my hometown, Kapuskasing. She has been battling kidney disease for nine years.

Three years ago she was unable to walk and lacked the strength to wash her hair, and now she is back in competition. She undergoes nocturnal hemodialysis six nights a week for eight or nine hours while she sleeps.

"Nine long years, 800 blood transfusions and a stunning comeback to elite sport," reads the headline on the front page of the Toronto Star. Makes me embarrassed to be whining about my little kidney stent...

Back to practicing tomorrow -- more like air practicing, since I am at my nephew Jim's without a keyboard most of this week. I wonder if I should just buy a little keyboard and keep it in the car. "Have keyboard, will travel!"

Days to go: 979 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 21:

PIED BEAUTY

Glory be to God for dappled things--
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins)