I'm basically chained to my desk for the next 5 days. Thesis writing: it burns!

Yesterday, for the ecumenical service, we had a guy from the Word Festival speak. I can't seem to get excited about the Word Festival and his long, long, long, long sermon didn't help. It did help that a guy with twin girls sat down near me and we played peek-a-boo during parts of the service.

I was pleased that we sang 'Kingsfold', 'Repton', and 'Cwm Rhondda' for the hymns. There was one other, but eh. Those three are some of my favorites.

The anthem was something forgettable, but easy to pick up since I'd missed rehearsal last Tuesday evening. I think the easiness was picked to accomodate the people smashed from the music ball the night before.

Mass in the evening was super long. We had not only the usual kyrie, gloria, psalm, gospel acclamation, memorial acclamation, communion antiphon, sanctus, agnus dei, regina caeli, salve regina, and four hymns, but also the sequence 'Veni Sancte Spiritu'. Of the four hymns, two had 7+ verses, so lots of singing.

When I intoned the Kyrie, I felt like my chest was going to explode. The previous cantor was a soprano. Since I'm an alto, the organist lowered the piece, I think by a tone and a half. Unfortunately, that meant that towards the end of lines, I was having a hard time having enough air to sustain the notes, plus keep them loud. Which of course made me nervous and compounded the air-intake issues.

The homily for the day was an anti-abortion one. I don't even know precisely what I want to say about that. You could tell the congregation wasn't totally agreeing with him because people shift around a lot more. The things I notice from the organ loft...

Things went well until the Agnus Dei, at which point I was confused because Father skipped around in the missal a bit. I was trying to find my place and the organist gave me the tone for the Agnus Dei and I had to fumble for my Liber before beginning.

I spoke with the organist after and he seems happy enough with what I did, but I'm a little frustrated. I think it will help that he's going to raise the tone of the Kyrie and I'm going to dog ear the 'de Angelis' bits in my Liber so I can open to them quickly.

Exciting times, no?
Right then, back to work.

I'm exhaustified.

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK. It is also the 4th Sunday of Lent.

For the ecumenical service in the AM:
Introit - Attende, Domine (plainchant, 1st cent)
Anthem - Lord, Hear My Prayer (Mendelssohn-Bartholdy)
neepheid's lovely fiancé sang the solo
Hymns - Forgettable, except that we got to sing 'Nun Danket'

For the Catholic service in the PM:
the usual, though a new intonation on the Psalm since we did the 23rd tonight
Hymns - very odd words to the tune 'Personent Hodie', the rest ordinary

I have a weird throat thing where it doesn't hurt but feels like it needs cleared constantly. Hmm.

Today for lunch, we met A&C with children, neepheid + fiancé, Scumbag, and a few others at John Lewis. We picked a good day to be a party of 13, as usually that would be impossible to seat on a Sunday.

It was lovely to see my darling goddaughter on Mothering Sunday. However, I made her cry when I wouldn't let her pick her nose. Ah, well.

This has been a long weekend.

On Friday, there was a Station Mass for the Catholic community of the Aberdeen diocese. I went along to the service and we sang the usual plainchant for the service.
And, we sang 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross'.

On Saturday morning, I went to my own church as usual. I wasn't supposed to be on piano duty, but the pianist on the rota didn't show up, I played. Not bad. I realized that I can now play without freaking out about unexpected hymns. Woo.

I spent the rest of Sabbath with A&C and the kidlets. Alexander is double the size of my last visit, I swear. He's convinced that he's big enough to eat everything the big ones eat. Silly baby, pizza is for adults!

This morning, we had the ecumenical service at King's College as per usual. I was a bit surprised to see that only 2 guys showed up. We were luckily doing Franck's 'Panis Angelicus' for the anthem, so it was okay. We performed it in a mock-canon style with the altos against the sopranos. Considering it was set in soprano range and that there were 8 sopranos to our 3 altos, we did pretty well. Alto power, biff!
The introit was the Kyrie from Mass XVII.
They also celebrated communion at the service. We don't usually because the Catholics won't take communion at an ecumenical service and they don't want to offend them on a regular basis.
We sang 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross' for the closing hymn. That's round two.

This evening, it was regular Catholic Mass at the university. Dr. Williams was away this week doing a program at St. Machar's, so we were a little disjointed. The Memorial Acclamation was at the wrong point in the service, I'm thinking.
Anyway, we were the only ones, the Father started with the wrong tune for the Salve Regina, so there was an awkward five seconds of him singing along before we restarted the piece with the right tune.
The closing hymn was 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross' in case they didn't get enough of it on Friday. So, that's round three for the weekend. I started making up new harmonies in self-defense.

Honestly, it seems like a lot of running about, but singing is one thing I can do pretty effortlessly and I feel accomplished when I'm finished. And, I need a sock in the ol' morale at the moment.

Tomorrow, supervision. Joy. If only my confidence extended to that hour. *sigh*

I think I've said it before, but the Christmas season sort of crushes me. The rushing and crowds and the stress...eating too much or not finding a gift for that one difficult person or general Bah Humbuggery...

Singing at Christmas time always makes up for it. It's why I go to church so many times at Christmas. It breaks my crotchety little heart to see people coming together to sing.

Unfortunately, my favorite carol is never sung by congregations, so I just have to hope that it gets chosen from time to time by whatever choir master/mistress I happen to have from year to year. Admittedly, it would be hard for a congregation to spontaneously sing this one. :)

I didn't know until recently that it is connected to Aberdeen. The Scots words were written by a musician from the Wedderburn family in the 16th century. It's called Balulalow.

Here's a rendition of the last verse from King's College Cambridge.



O my deir hart, yung Jesus sweit,
Prepair thy creddill in my spreit!
And I sall rock thee in my hart
And never mair fra thee depart.

Bot I sall praise thee evermoir
With sangis sweit unto thy gloir.
The kneis of my hart sall I bow
And sing that rycht Balulalow.

Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it. If not, have a warm and happy time.

Tomorrow is the carol service for our church.

I'm not sure how the stars aligned to produce the state of affairs for tomorrow. I'm not only preaching the sermon, but as the minister of music, I'm in charge of getting something for the kidlets to sing.

We've thankfully decided not to have them sing during the nativity scene. Instead, I suggested Christingles.

I found out about them while reading through the hymnal during the Sunday service one week at King's Chapel.¹ One of the hymns was called 'It's rounded like an orange' set to the tune of 'The Holly and the Ivy'. As a non-Brit/non-Anglican, I'd never heard of Christingle services before.

It seemed like something visual, tangible, and easy that the kids could get involved with during the Advent season.

In theory.

In reality, dates for the carol service got moved about and it ended up a week early, which is why it is tomorrow and not the 22nd. So, the kids won't have a chance to make them.

So, yesterday I spent a while wrapping 70 oranges with red ribbon and sealing them with a candle-image stamped bit of sticker. Sticker doesn't really stick terrifically well to orange peel.²

Tomorrow, everyone in church will get an orange. The kids will hand them out before singing the hymn I mentioned above. Honestly, I hope the congregation eats their gift of citrus during the sermon. It will stop them paying attention to me.

And then my plan will be complete.

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¹- I don't feel I should have to listen to more than one sermon a week. *shrugs*
²- This did give me a fantastic chance to watch some TV absolutely guilt free. :)

1. Us: ybunny leaves for Brazil today. After almost 6 months not going, I suppose it's due. Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. We had a smallish celebration for his 30th birthday last night since he will undoubtedly be out of the country on the 11th of December. We'll try to get something together when he comes back. Probably won't be until after Christmas at this point.

2. Uni: I'm frustrated with my topic. I don't believe it. Not that I don't believe in it (I don't...), that doesn't matter. I don't need to have faith in it, I just need to think it works. And, I don't. So, it's making me a bit crazy to have to write about it when everything I write leads to a session of 'this is BS, this is BS, this is BS' chanted like a litany. I meet with Dr. S on the 6th of December, I waffle between fear that he's going to throw his hands up in frustration that I still haven't finished this chapter or hope that it will be okay to try to steer the direction a bit differently.

3. Church: Christmas comes soon. I'm working with the kids on a Christingle song and the Children's Ministries people are putting together a nativity play. It seems like the 15th of December is coming up unreasonably quickly. I also have to preach again that day. Fortunately, productive procrastination means that I've already written my sermon. Of course.
Also, I was ordained as an elder last Sabbath. At my age, it seems a little oxymoronic, but I'm happy to help, so fair enough.

4. Cats: Sean Seamus growls when fed. He's afraid of us stealing his food, or something. The problem is that he picks up a chunk of his wet food in his mouth and carries it to where he thinks we won't take it from him and proceeds to leave little crumbs of meat mush on the kitchen floor, the hall carpet, the mat by the kitchen sink, the bathmat, etc. It's disgusting. I was trying to mop up some of this disgustingness and he gave me a good swipe on the finger. So, now I have a plaster that makes my finger stiff, and by association, typing difficult. Sounds like crayolaab and I are in the same boat.

5. Chapel Choir: We're in the midst of lots of appointments. We have practice this Tuesday, then carols at the uni tree lighting on Thursday, a prison concert the same day, then church Sunday in the morning and evening, practice the next Tuesday, church the following Sunday, then practice on Monday for the carol service on Wednesday the 12th. Not as rushed as the undergrad choir I was in, but I was getting remunerated with a scholarship when I was an undergrad.

6. Socialising: I haven't seen the Ms as much as I do usually, and I don't see that improving over the next month. I really miss my family and ybunny leaving isn't a cakewalk. Luckily, my mum comes in 3 days, so I'll get some family. I feel like an enormous homebody, but I feel guilty going out if I haven't written tons. Luckily, clairdeluney coaxes me into outings, so I'm not as bad as I have been in times past. I should socialise more within my own department, but I feel like the odd one out most times and I had enough of that in grade school, thanks.

It's pretty sad that I can sum up everything going on it six points, but there you are. Wow, I'm pretty emo today.

Today the high was 12C/54F here. That's the official reading. However, I know that while I was in town earlier that it was only 9C/47F.*

It's bizarre to be this cold in June. JUNE!

Where I grew up** it's 33C/90F today.

Hot summers in flatland Carolina meant lots of potlucks. Some were just sort of 'in the area' ones, but my favorites were the church potlucks.

When you grow up in the South as a vegetarian, you don't eat a lot of the things that are considered staples of the cuisine: pork, chicken, and fish.

But, that means that you get to spend more time with mashed potatoes, fried okra, black eye'd peas, succotash, nut loaf, biscuits, iced tea and a never ending array of desserts.

Desserts are something of a religion in the South. They've taken a toll, collectively, on the waistline of Southerners in recent decades, but back in the days of all day field work or mill work they were no problem.

Because of the heat of the South, dessert was the chance to cool down after any hot items consumed during the main part of the meal. Even if you're served hot apple pie, it'll come with some cool (and hopefully homemade) vanilla ice cream.***

There are the redeemable desserts...those containing fruit. Cherry or peach cobbler, blueberry buckle, apple pie or dumplings.

Then there are the ones that are completely an indulgence.

Of course, those are the best: homemade moon pies, brownies, blondies, seven layer bars, sugar cookies...and my particular favorite, chocolate pudding pie.

When I was about 7, we attended a little church in Wilson, North Carolina, roughly 60 miles from our tremendously rural home.

A lady named Betty Lou**** made a chocolate pudding pie in a graham cracker crust with meringue on top. It would sit in the heat of the kitchen during church and the meringue would sweat and form little orange beads on the surface. I thought that was how meringue was supposed to be...and I secretly miss that when I get 'proper' meringue.

When we moved away from North Carolina to Georgia, Betty Lou gave my brother and I a whole chocolate pudding pie as a going away present.

We couldn't have been happier with diamonds.

Any nostalgic stories about food?*****

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* Degrees Celsius were observed, degrees Fahrenheit are my own half-assed conversion.
** We actually lived further out, but this is the closest city town hamlet.
*** You've got to know that redthought makes some mean homemade ice cream.
**** Really her name. :)
***** I'm okay with being a sap on my own, though.

I couldn't sleep last night. It was my own fault. Oh, well.

Armed with no sleep and Goldfish crackers, I spent the day with my goddaughter, her sister and her mother. We had a fantastic day and I didn't even begin to feel my exhaustion until the chilluns went to bed. There was much singing and playing and I even got to teach the sister a little German. Goldfish crackers are magic.

I came home to discover that I have indeed not been provided with hymn numbers for tomorrow's church service. I am, to put it mildly, irritated. It's bad enough to have to play the hymns sight unseen, but worse to do so when I know I'll be tired. As my sister says, I'm mad now, but tomorrow when they give me a bogus excuse, I'll buckle...like a belt. *headdesk*

I'll really be looking forward to Skalloween by the time evening rolls around.

PS to anyone who doesn't previously know me and who will be at Skalloween: I'll be one of the Blues Brothers. I'm stoked. Yes, that's right, that's what gets me going these days.

I only operate one opt-in filter for LJ. I'm generally anti-filter.

However, there is one area in which I find that people have a hard time being nice: religion.

I occasionally post about spirituality, my church, religion, beliefs and theology. However, I will not entertain any bad behaviour. That's why it is an opt-in filter.

If you want to be added, leave a comment.

If you do, that means you agree to these two things:

1) You will not attack any other users for any comments they make. You may attack me if you feel so obliged. I have a pretty tough skin if you have a valid argument. However, I don't expect that everyone does.
Keep your hands comments to yourself.

2) You understand that this is written from a Christian perspective, but that it is written by someone well versed in theology and actively engaging with the historical-critical method. I believe, but I have not been lobotomized. Just making sure you've got that under your belt.

Alright...filter = comment. :)

On a side note, LJ is crap today. I'm not getting comments emailed, and I'm pretty sure I've double commented on people's posts because of the crapness. Ahm.

In case I'd not mentioned it before, I'm the pianist for our church as of the last 9 weeks. It's nice, good to be doing something useful with a skill I'd let lapse.

I tried to post this last night when it was pertinent, but... *gestures to above statement*

I'm excited just now because I've got music picked out for the next two weeks, plus one after break. (I'd forgotten one's meant to use Christmas songs during December.) Yay for organization.