Hits and Misses (September 9-14)

HITS

• I love starting the week out with great music! I decided to make time to work on some solo repertoire and pulled out the Beethoven sonata in F minor (Op. 2, No. 1). I really do love this piece and enjoyed getting to start brushing the cobwebs off of it again.
• A benefit of working in a college music department is having access to the Naxos Music Library. I've listened to some great recordings of the Beethoven sonata this week as well as works by Brahms, Copland, and Hindemith. It's been a useful tool to get to know some music I wasn't so familiar with and I'm looking forward to listening some more this week.
• I am blessed with some wonderful friends! It is such a wonderful thing to sit with friends when I'm not feeling well and have their laughter lift my spirit and mood. It's true that laughter is the best medicine. I've been feeling much better this week......and have just a few more days of antibiotics to complete this round.
• Our family reunion was a success.  We were thrilled to have 21 family members join us for lunch, laughter, and love. It's sad that we don't see each other more often, but I was pleased that Mom saw that we can do things like this without too much expense or stress and that everyone here enjoyed themselves. She's already beginning to think about when to do it again and what she wants to serve. (Heaven, help us!)

MISSES

• I hate to have poor lighting indoors. It makes so many things difficult. The light in my bedroom blew on Friday morning and the only replacement bulb we had in the house was a 60 watt. Things are so dark right now that I can barely accomplish anything at all. I'm doing all of my reading in the floor of the piano room until I get a higher watt bulb.
• Combine poor lighting with a disorganized closet and you get my other major problem of the week:  I can't distinguish between blue and black slacks! It has gotten so bad that I'm putting on a pair of pants, walking outside to determine their color, and then selecting a shirt that matches. No wonder I wear khaki pants most of the time. I'm looking for a solution, but haven't settled on anything that will be easy to maintain.
• Confusion in the workplace can turn the tide of any day. Last week, I received an email that I was in danger of missing a deadline. When I replied that I had submitted the paperwork the week before, I was told that the sender recognized the mistake as soon as the email was sent. Rather than correcting the error, it was decided to just let it slide. Grrr!  More emails followed that sent me on wild goose chases and showed that there is still confusion about my office hours. I try to avoid confusion at all cost and communicate clearly. Sometimes people just don't understand despite our best efforts.
• There's no feeling quite like watching a 3-inch binder full of music slip out of your hands and land on the ground. Music spilled everywhere and the top ring of the binder no longer lines up correctly. Thankfully the pages stayed in order, so I only had to put them back in the binder. With holes that don't always correspond, that task was easier said than done.....now I just need to grab another binder from the office supply store so things won't hang on the top ring. 
• After the reunion was finished and everything was returned to normal, the battle with the mosquitos began. In the span of roughly 4 hours, I have killed over 10 of the critters in the living room and have the whelps on my arms and feet to prove it. 

There you have it! Another week in the books. Now it's on to another week of excitement without the plans for a family reunion. We'll just have to see what the upcoming week holds in store.