Monday Moanin'

Apologies to Bob Talbert, may he RIP.

My granddaughter found my eyeglass lens, in my recliner. So apparently I had lost it the night before, and not noticed til I got to work. So that's all better now.

Niece's 30th birthday on the fourth. Celebrated at her place on the fifth. She lives in the 3rd floor of an old house in Pontiac with a couple of guys. We dragged the whole family there - I got the sense they were waiting for us to leave so the REAL party could start. Lotsa drinking, lotsa 80's tunes, a pretty good spread, but HER friends still hadn't showed up. We left about 10:30.

Fourth was a family get-together. Kinda sad that only half the family comes anymore - everyone's mad at everyone else. Still a good time, the grandkids really enjoyed the pool. And I was introduced to Cisco, apparently the drink of choice in the hood. A 12oz bottle packs the same wallop as a 40 oz. malt liquor. The red tastes revolting, but the peach is pretty good. Good thing I wasn't driving - really easy to get toasted on that stuff.

Another reminder from my prof that I really need to move faster with my organ pieces. He's right of course...

...so I spent all my spare time this weekend working in the studio on a pop setting of some song lyrics someone posted in the HomeRec BBS (got the lyricist's permission first). I'm happy with the result, but, of course, it's not helping my organ class.

NPM convention next week - debated not going, since I'm not working in the field now. But I hadn't seen most of my NPM pals since '99, so I'm going anyhow. For RC musicians who wrote off NPM as a bunch of lefty guitar pickers, things have changed a lot. Much more emphasis on organ repertoire, implementing Vatican directives, and a generally scholarly tone that didn't used to be there. Not that we'd ever be confused with Adoremus or Call to Holiness. But much more centrist than in the past. A good place to be.