A day of rest
I spent today doing mostly nothing. It was great! I went to Mass last night so I didn’t even need to leave home to go to church. Speaking of Mass, this is the second week in a row that I didn’t think the music sucked. Yeah, I’m as surprised as you! Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t great. Not even close. But it wasn’t terrible. Oh, and I’ve watched a few televised Masses over the past few weeks. The music is consistently dreadful with those.
Anyway, I spent part of today awash in nostalgia for the 70s. I watched a Time-Life infomercial for Singers & Songwriters and also several episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss some of the fashion of the 60s and 70s. And of course, the 80s. I watched The Lost Boys again yesterday. Geez I really miss the 80s.
Other activities today: I cooked up 6 cups of rice along with a package of Freedom French cut green beans and 4 chicken breasts. Not only was it tonight’s dinner, but tomorrow’s and Tuesday’s too. I got the week’s laundry done. I did more festival stuff with Aluatis including getting the second Spring Steed. And I watched some other stuff on the TiVo; The Event, Walking Dead, No Ordinary Family, Modern Family.
I grow ever more eager for my Portland trip. Still a month to go. David is flying on Southwest from Texas. I hope his plane is crack free.
Thursday activities
I stayed home from work today. Despite having the whole day, I feel like I didn’t get much done. I did a bunch of festival stuff with Aluatis. I guess that’s something. I got a little caught up with Survivor. Mary should be happy. I refilled my prescriptions. That’s definitely a good thing. I went grocery shopping and bought food for the month.
Grocery list
Bag of frozen chicken breasts
pack of fresh chicken breasts
6 bags of frozen vegetables
4 packs of pasta
2 jars of pasta sauce
2 loaves of bread
18 eggs
6 packs of steak
4 boxes of cereal
8 boxes of oatmeal
2 packs of bacon
gallon of milk
ketchup
olive oil
bunch of bananas
bag of frozen fish filets
peanut butter
low sugar jam/preserves/jelly/whatever
The oatmeal is for work. I get three meals per box, so 24 breakfasts over the next month (3 more than I should need)
The cereal, eggs, and bacon is for breakfasts at home of which there will be 9.
I have 6 steaks and 9 chicken breasts. Add to that the 10 fish filets and that should get me 18-19 dinners. There will be three times this month that I’ll be at a church event or meeting where I’ll get dinner. So my total becomes 21-22. The pasta will get me 12 or so meals. So I should be covered for dinners. I’ll just have to figure out lunches and I’m set for the month.
I might need to buy more vegetables mid-month.
(Sorry to Suzanne that you had to read this twice!)
Tonight I had my ARISE group. It went well. We talked about doing a bible study after this season ends. I’m looking forward to that.
Friday, fish, & fotos
I got pretty much nothing done at work today. I did help one faculty member with a course he wants to revise, but that’s about it. Pretty sad really.
After I got off work at 12:30, I went to Tasty Kitchen, a Chinese place on Burney, to meet Tonja for lunch. We had a nice meal and talked about life and Disneyland. I had the salt and pepper fish. It was pretty good. I was impressed at how clean the restaurant was!
After that, I met with Vangie and Hallie to work on goals for the strategic plan. This was a very productive meeting! I think we are all energized by how well on track we seem to be at the parish these days. For those of us that stuck through the hard times, the reward is sweet!
This evening, I had a decision to make. Should I go to a belly dancing party and take photos of the lovely ladies dancing, or do I stay in to play on the computer and watch TV?
I went out and took photos.
Limitless & Liturgical Strategic Planning
So I found a new toy. Thanks to Paul Berger for introducing me to xtranormal.
I did some research on liturgical strategic planning and liturgy committees today. Got some good stuff. I’m thinking of asking Eloisa to join us as she has some organizational communication background. I may be pushing my luck though. I’ll have to think about it some more.
I saw Limitless tonight. It was pretty good. I loved the camera work and editing. There were moments when the camera was zooming down a street or down to street level from a height, and my brain was briefly tricked into feeling the movement. On Thursday nights, Brenden Theatres sells hot dogs and Polish dogs for $2 each. I had planned on getting a Polish Dog, but when I ordered one, it turned out they weren’t ready. So I got a hot dog. It was quite good, but I had been looking forward to that Polish dog. So I got one after the movie. It was yummy.
Catalogs and Council
We received the college catalogs late last week. It seems that this was an incredibly quick turn-around on our order! I went by Receiving to pick up a couple of boxes this morning. I printed out labels and have begun my distribution process. Yay! Something to do for a few days! 🙂
Pastoral Council meeting tonight. It went well. Among other things, we discussed our progress on the Strategic Plan. We’ve decided to break into smaller groups to develop tasks for each of the goals. I am leading up the group working on the liturgy goal. I’ve asked Jim, Oscar, & Deacon Jose to join me. I will also ask Mercedes even though she’s not on the council.
Afterwards, Steve, Fr. Ramon, Vangie, and I went to Perkos.
I am really enjoying the feeling of progress I have right now. It just feels like St. Stans is really getting back on good footing. And this golden age will be more stable than the last one. Bet on that.
What to sing?!?!?
Last Friday, my friend Steve asked me if I would play for a funeral this morning. I agreed and he told me that Fr. Bill McDonald would be the presider. He said that Fr. McDonald would call me that afternoon to talk about what was what. So, later that day, I did receive a call and was told that there was already someone scheduled to do the music but could I provide some praise & worship after communion? I told him that p&w really wasn’t my strength, but I’d be glad to give it a go.
I agonized for two days about what songs to do. The one request was that I do a Holy Spirit song like Spirit of the Living God. Ok, that would work, but what else? I thought I’d do a medley of Spirit of the Living God, I Want to Praise You Lord, and the chorus of Awesome God. Cool.
So I find these songs on the interwebs and I practice singing/playing through them. Wow. I could not seem to sing in the same key I was playing in. I was horrible. Finally, I decided to change plans. I opted instead to sing Holy and Anointed One, I Lift My Eyes Up, and Spirit of the Living God. Total improvement! These songs flowed much better and I could find the correct key!! Feeling much more at ease about the whole thing, I went to bed.
Then this morning, when I was double checking with the priest, we cut my part down to just two songs. Cool! At the reception that followed the funeral, several people told me how much they missed me singing for Mass. I tell you, that was really nice to hear. 🙂
Something to do
Today consisted of
- waking up not according to some predetermined schedule, but when my body was done sleeping (spring forward, who cares?)
- watching some tv (an episode of V to be precise)
- going to Mass (the music continues to be mediocre)
- lunching at Sips Bistro with Steve and Fr. Ramon (I had the Chicken Cesar Wrap.)
- spending a couple of hours at the milonga at Azucar (Silvia and I had made plans to go. It was mostly tango, but also a smattering of many other styles. Mary in particular was very kind and asked me to dance several times. If you know me, you know I like dancing and have no problem with partner dancing, I actually prefer it, but I do need to know the steps.)
- more tv (forthcoming. Perhaps some Being Human or Ordinary Family. I should watch the dvd I have from Netflix, The Island.)
- LOTRO (Aluatis needs to continue with Volume 1.)
- posting here (which I just finished.)
Working for the weekend
Last night, the Knights put on our first of two fish frys for Lent. There was a pretty good crowd and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I thought that it went as smoothly as it’s ever gone. Having extra fryers for the tilapia worked out great! For the first time I can every remember, there were no delays in getting food out to be served. I’m very pleased by how it all went!
This morning, the pastoral council met to work on the strategic plan for the parish. There were just over a dozen of us there and I feel like we really got some work done! And on a personal note, this is the most engaged I’ve felt at church in almost a year. Yay!! Anyway, today’s purpose was to take the vision statements that had already been articulated, and develop goals from them. A few of us will take what was done today and tighten up the language and refine the goals a bit, then, in a month or two, the entire council will meet for another workday to develop the tasks which the parish will use to acomplish the goals. Very exciting and satisfying to feel like we’re getting stuff done!
I think I’ll be staying in tonight, but there’s a slim chance that I may go out. If I do, I’ll certainly let you know about it.
From the Yiddish
I am a total schmuck. I realize this will come as no big surprise to most of you, but I feel that I should acknowledge the fact from time to time, if only to keep it real. An elderly gentleman from church, a member of the Knights, passed away last week. I learned of his passing on Tuesday and sent out an email to the other Knights informing them. I also told them that I would let them know as I became aware of more details. The funeral was today at 1:00.
- Schmuck exhibit 1 – Despite learning of the date and time of the funeral on Thursday, I neglected to pass that information along until I was asked about it this morning. Ugh. Only slightly mitigating this neglect was the fact that we did announce the arrangements at the Council meeting on Thursday night. I still should have sent a follow-up email.
- Schmuck exhibit 2 – I received a phone call on Saturday from a number I didn’t recognize. I didn’t answer it and it usually takes me a long time to listen to messages. So today, at about 1:30 I listened to 4 or 5 messages that had accumulated on my phone. The one from Saturday was from the widow of the man who’d passed away. She was calling to ask if I’d participate in the funeral service.
Man I suck.
Music at St. Stanislaus (again)
The Dedication Mass went well however my attempt to record it did not. I’m told that the video is still in production.
Since then, we also had to plan for Holy Week and the Triduum. It was hectic but I think that Holy Thursday went exceptionally well. Good Friday was meh, and the Easter Vigil went well, but again, Thursday was really good. Several musicians from the Spanish choirs as well as several people that were new to music ministry at the parish sang with the choir for one or both days. It was the first truly bilingual Triduum that we’d done at St. Stanislaus.
For weeks prior to Easter, I’d been saying that I couldn’t wait for the 13th and be done with the preparation for Holy Week, etc. But come the 13th, I was already trying to look ahead and plan for the next big thing(s) for music at the parish. I identified four specific things that I want to move forward with.
• First, we need to be looking for more opportunities to bring everyone together to do (bilingual) music. Perhaps Pentecost will be the next logical opportunity.
• Second, I want to try to restart the local chapter of NPM (National Pastoral Musicians). Maybe instead of trying to organize this on a diocesan level, we can work on a greater Modesto area gathering. Anyway, I’ve asked Beth Holtan, Music Director for Our Lady of Fatima to consider taking a lead on such a project.
• Third, I want to start a hand bell choir at St. Stanislaus. I believe that we can make a start at this with 2 octaves of bells and 6 ringers to play them. I’ve asked Jeff Bonilla, my friend who teaches music at Central Catholic to consider directing such a group. Or even if he’s not willing to do that, maybe we could borrow the school’s bells. I think a hand bell choir is doable and I’m setting Christmas 2009 as the target date for the debut of this group.
• Fourth, I have long lamented that there are all these kids that study instruments in jr. high and high school (and college) and never do anything with that experience after graduation. Parallel to that, we have all these kids in the parish who play clarinet, or baritone, or tenor sax, or whatever and we do very little if anything to allow them to put that gift to work for the church. I’d like to try to put together an orchestra of these kids (and adults who still want to play) that could play a couple or three times per year (Christmas, Easter, mid-summer maybe). In addition, if there were a few parishes doing the same sort of thing, we could even get together for combined orchestras now and again. Now, I say orchestra, but it would probably be more like a concert band, and not a full one at that. I imagine that we would do stuff like four-part choral arrangements of hymns arranged for A, B, C, & D parts so that any instrument could play one of the four parts.
Any suggestions about how to approach any of these ideas?
