Milestone in Adulthood

Today was a big day. We had simply wonderful weather, it was my "day off" that I force myself to take each week, Christmas is coming up, I live in a house, and I didn't feel sick. So, I went out and got some on sale Christmas lights and clips from Ace Hardware. I did the first half myself with a smaller ladder borrowed from Stacy. That part went really well.

Then I got the bigger ladder for the tall roof stuff and had Will help (it takes one to hold the ladder and one to climb). It was difficult and we kept running into problems. Thankfully both of us are easy-going, but hard working and laughed our way through much of it. Now all the lights are hung, though we need one more 8 ft extension cord and aren't actually turning them on until after Thanksgiving is over.

It was a milestone in adulthood to me to have a house and put Christmas lights up on it (the frustration helped me feel justified in the milestone label). Like that first time you have a blocked up toilet or the first time you get a flat tire, it was a neat way to say, "Well golly, I'm growing up."


(And since we're not turning them on for a week, I don't have pictures yet.)

More Thoughts on Wife Stuff

Tonight, we watched "A Beautiful Mind," and for once I put myself in Alicia's position. What would I do if confronted with her situation? Before now, I always put myself in John Nash's shoes. What would I do if my husband went insane?

This last Sunday the sermon at Grace was on being a wife. I can't say that I enjoyed it, but I did get lots of questions at least. It emphasized being submissive, humble, and trusting God. All good, I just was hoping that domestic abuse might be addressed. I have a few friends that need some counsel there and don't feel they can ask for help because they'll just be told they are obviously not submitting properly.

Alicia is a very headstrong woman. Aggressive enough to pull the two of them together when John Nash had no social skills. And yet, there was something undeniably beautiful and right about her too. She accepted John and advised him while giving him room and time to grow. She stopped him when he was wrong (sinning, so to speak) and loved him as much as she could. I think that there were two parts to that love she gave him. One was supporting him without coddling and another was rebuking his sin without coddling. No matter how far gone he was, she always tried to give him chances and didn't throw it in his face when he was not the man she needed him to be. She was an admirable woman even in very tough circumstances.

I was watching some musicians through the practice room doors the other day. I watched as the vocalist would tell the pianist what piece they were to do and the pianist would start playing that song (she was prepared to do so, of course) and at the right time, the vocalist would come in over top of her harmony. She would play loud or soft depending on the vocalist's dynamic choices. The vocalist messed up occasionally, but he fixed it later without the pianist saying anything or hinting that he did. And because of that, he took responsibility for those mistakes and the pianist helped him fix them by telling him if he got it right, encouraging him.

It was a beautiful picture of a relationship. I noticed that the two weren't playing the same instrument or even the same part. That's because it only works if you have two different parts. One clearly supported the other while he led and the vocalist respected the pianist's opinion and talents highly, even if he couldn't truly appreciate all she did. And you know what, she never did enlighten him on that bit of just how hard she works outside the time together.

Just a few thoughts.

For The Love of Music

So, as it happens, I really do love music. Excuse the romanticism, but I'm rather twitterpated and the object of twitterpation can't be embarrassed by my posting.

While I was searching for extra classes (just in case) for next semester, I saw the university had private harp lessons. The idea of harp lessons struck me as fun, so I looked up the teacher and when I couldn't find her listed as faculty, I e-mailed Kim, the main music secretary. While I waited, I played around on my 22-string at home and worked on Gamelan music and other timing related stuff until she e-mailed me back this morning.

Since there were no harp students this semester, the teacher is taking at least a year off. I was a bit disappointed at the news, so I walked past the practice room with the Orchestral Harp and gazed in longingly at it. 47 strings, 4 feet, 7 double pedals and overall simply gorgeous. After staring, I e-mailed Kim back and asked her if I could at least practice on that harp if it was school property and she knows how gentle I am when it comes to my instruments. She said that would be just fine and let me in to practice room X.

Okay...so, I didn't have the time to play like this. I knew there was a myriad of other things I could be doing, but once inside the room, I fell in love again and I was lost. It's hard to describe the wonder and childlike fascination when a musician is presented an instrument like that to play. Like a baby grand after an upright or an amp when you've been playing electric unplugged. I squeezed in around the harpsichord and situated myself in the proper harp technique, pressing the pedals with my feet while gazing up at all of the synchronized gears turning, listening to the overtones inadvertantly plucked as I did so. I got in proper hand positions, closed my eyes and played "Musette's Waltz" by Puccini. Oh, how wonderful it felt! Since, like the double bass, you lean against the harp I could feel it through my whole body, different tones resonating with different bones and filling me up to my ears. I rolled chords and played with dynamics, using far more octaves than the original arrangement I had memorized called for. And when I was done with that, I settled into a ballad emoting through the strings what I don't have words for yet.

I fell in love with music in a way I haven't done in a while. Sure, music always gets me quite a bit and I like practicing and performing, but this... It was transporting me to another dimension of interaction. I enjoyed every minute, dusting the harp off, tuning every one of the 47 keys, just everything. It was terribly difficult to part, but I had to go to class. I plucked one last bass note and put on the cover. But somehow, it renewed me to music in a way I've forgotten for a while. My flute playing had heart and my composing had emotion again. I guess that's what love does. I forget every time.