My Sunday

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dyspepsia, pentecost sunday

Alas and woe.  I was up twice in the night, and am still feeling some effect of dyspepsia.  So I am missing Holy Eucharist today, and the always-fun reading of the Pentecost gospel lesson in several languages.

I am feeling more like myself now, and hope still to make the audition early this afternoon, followed by another audition later this evening.  More on these two items as they materialize.

Samson the Feist meanwhile snores on the sofa, oblivous to the tongues of fire goings-on of this Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost

The Feast of Pentecost is upon us.  The Trinity is now complete.

Saturday at home

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front porch, morning prayer, strawberries and cream, voice lesson

Sleep late.  Breakfast of strawberries and cream, eaten whilst at the patio table.  Read the newspapers al fresco.

Putter around.  Read Morning Prayer on the Feast of Thurgood Marshall.

Read some more.

This is my Saturday.

I’ll teach a voice lesson in a bit, then go with D to see the new Baz film version of the Gatsby tale.

One dahlia is poking up from its back yard bed by the patio.  And the rabbits have already taken its leaves off.  Alas.

From my front porch just now:

Coq au vin blanc

My friend Todd is dining with me this evening. The menu includes made-from-scratch coq au vin blanc, with a starter of cucumber salad with citrus dressing.

Prep time was 45 minutes. The meal is now in the slow cooker doing its thing.

A new back yard

Organ recital

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Episcopal

After sleeping in this morning (having dreamt of Modern Family after overdosing on the first season last evening), I made French toast and bacon and enjoyed the First Day of Summer Break.

Soon enough, after Morning Prayer, I readied myself for some errands, stopping by church to visit with Rob, going to the Gaylord Music Library at Washington University for a bit of research on secular songs by William Byrd.

And then I stopped in at Christ Church Cathedral (soon to be my new church home) for the noontime organ recital played by Pat Partridge.

Thus begins the First Day of Summer Break.

Eve of the First Day

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choral music, christ church cathedral, coq au vin, evening prayer, musical theatre, pasta dinner, private voice lessons, webster university

‘Tis the Eve of the First Day of Summer Break.

I have worked every weekend since well before Thanksgiving.  Between church services on Saturdays and Sundays, concerts, lessons, events to attend at school, international travel, and most recently a round of final concerts then Commencement Weekend, life has been exceptionally rich.

Even this past Saturday was an eight-hour day, with Sunday a five-hour day of events that kept me ‘on.’

I was in the office on Monday for ten hours, Tuesday for nine, and today for eight.

Leaving the office at 5.45 today, I left a pile of things I was going to bring home, but then decided not so to do.

(None of this is complaining, mind you.  I love my job, and I don’t regret doing it, or doing it well.  But I’m due for a bit of down time, since my last day ‘off’ was one day in Spring Break.)

And just like that, with a simple pasta dinner, I am celebrating the Eve of the First Day of Summer Break.  Tomorrow begins the first of an annual series of three- or four-day weekends.  I’ll read Evening Prayer in a few minutes, then orgy on Modern Family (the first season on DVD arrived today),the faithful Samson by my side.

To celebrate, I have closed up the house and turned on the air conditioning.  Sweating and this damned boot don’t meet happily.

What is in store the next few days?

I’ll celebrate my First Day of Summer Break with a brief meeting at church, then Noonday Prayer and a noon-time organ recital at Christ Church Cathedral. Then I’ll continue work for a while in the afternoon on my operetta project.  Friday is a cooking & cleaning day (the home office is in dreadful state), with T arriving for dinner of coq au vin.  Saturday brings two private voice lessons, after which I intend to catch a movie.  Sunday, after church, is not one but two different auditions, one for a show, the other for a chorus.  And then I’m back to work on Monday and Tuesday next week.

So let the Eve of the First Day of Summer Break continue, and LONG LIVE SUMMER.

 

Spring

Few simple joys in life are more profound than experiencing Spring.

I sat outdoors this morning, a mug of coffee at my right hand, Samson the Feist close by on his own patio chair.  We read Morning Prayer. We enjoyed the sight of the soft blue sky.  We paused and felt the air.

Then a robin started going after a worm in the newly-sodded yard.  Ten minutes later, that robin had devoured most of the worm, and had the rest in its beak.  Then two other robins wanted in on the action, and the Original Robin decided to flit about and play keep-away.

A good time was had by all, especially me as I watched the simple ritual of eating and protecting unfold in my own little plot of this earth.

Now time for the office . . . .

Before & After

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back yard, nature, sod

With great delight, I hereby announce that the sod arrived today!

I’ve been waiting for a new back yard for over a year.  Today I have one.

This is what things looked like this morning:

I came home from school to find the ugliness gone:

Now the gate needs to be reinstalled.  Samson was certainly enjoying his perch as I watered the yard!

Isn’t school out?

I’m at the office.

Ten hours yesterday.

Nine hours today.

Tomorrow will be shorter, only because I leave for a while for a dentist appointment.

I thought school was out for the summer?