A month ago I had a series of revelations in the space of a week that went a long way towards working on the cobwebs in my brain and the clench in my gut.

I didn't post them at the time because I was figuring out how to express #3 in a way that didn't scream "I still have unfinished business". I knew at the time that the stuff would be back again in various ways, and it has been in various ways, but the memories of that week helped me get through one recent ARGH ARGH OH MY GOD CRISIS involving one of the people mentioned in relatively short order and without radical action (like getting very drunk and/or angst-posting ;). So here goes. They're long, and you may or may not be interested, so it's all cut for your choice.

( 1. Drivin' In My Car - Feb 12 )

( 2. Everyone's at the Party - Feb 13 )

3. Recherche des Kooks Perdus - Feb 16-18
This is the one I got stuck on earlier, so bear with me. ( It's got history )

( If you want to cut to the chase )

It's been a busy fortnight here on the Farm.

Last weekend's activities went relatively smoothly, if somewhat exhaustingly. A church full of music for the Lessons and Carols service put me in that warm Christmassy sort of mood. Best thing was that I'd had a nap just beforehand and had no responsibilities other than to show up with some food (which I probably could have bagged on with nobody the wiser, given the abundance), listen, sing, and try to be social (and be given delicious food and champagne for my troubles).

I have to say that I am impressed at the elves who transform the church into a pine-scented paradise annually. I was mostly back in the sacristry washing linen while everyone else was scurrying about but did my bit by using my mini-superpower of locating things in the sacristry closet to find the container with "THE PLAN" for placing the candle holders by the pews.

Note to self: run screaming from coordinating the December Hot Meals next year. Tough to do with the demands of a job and regular Christmas hoo-hah, especially as L&C is usually the same weekend. It was fun shopping for the gift bags (and, since we arrived at Costco at opening time, it was relatively pain-free), but I was Dead. On. My. Feet. And ended up doing my cookie-baking at 6 am Sunday morning. We did find out that Berkeley High runs an annual Christmas meal that really puts on the Ritz (five courses!), so if we coincide again next year, we can rethink what we're doing. (Apparently First Pres cancelled their Dec meal last year because they DID coincide. If we do, maybe we can hand out sack lunches and gift bags instead of cooking and serving dinner.)

It's been a bumpy ride this week so the Wonderful Christmas Magic Music and better-than-expected weather when I was out was helpful. One step forward, one step back. I am conking out early (was in bed at 7:30 on Wednesday) and sleeping thoroughly. I misplaced my ATM card, which caused huge anxiety. I found it this morning, to much rejoicing. Yes, I had looked in that place before.

(Which reminds me that I need to bake cookies or cupcakes or breakfast breads for the Youth Shelter as fulfillment for a Lost Objects Found promise. Now double.)

I talked to my nephew on his birthday, the No Sugar Advent seems to be having some effect on my waistline, and ayse is back from school for good, but one of my RFC buddies died, Lucy-cat's "cousin" Roo-kitten was diagnosed terminal with a rare lung ailment and died this afternoon, I got a letter from the Superior Court saying that one of the people in my jury pool had been exposed to TB so we need to have that looked at, AND the house is an absolute mess. I ended up having to cancel my house cleaning for December because I simply didn't have the energy to do the pre-prep pick up. Something had to give and that was one of the things.

To top it off, my parents just called and said that they were both sick as dogs, so I won't be spending Christmas with them. (Good news is that I have a chance to hang out additionally with ayse - thank God for good friends who don't mind if you invite yourself over for holiday dinner - and get to not only go to a proper Midnight Mass without waking anyone up when I come home, it will be at MY OWN CHURCH.

For some reason through it all I want to BAKE BAKE BAKE. I'm sure that's a good sign.

I might go over to ChainPetStore and get an on-sale cat-perch with extra-large platforms for Catmas - Lucy is such a big girl compared to Maya and Maggie, she could use the extra room. It also seems a bit more stable than the current cat-tower, which Lucy loves curling herself on top of, but keeps knocking over in her mad dashes to get away from the Jupiter People. (Even that was dodgy because I had misplaced both my credit card and my ATM card this week, but at least the latter has made itself manifest.)

That's it for now. I'll try to be a little more regular about the updating thing.

At the organ recital at St. Mark's last night, I briefly cornered the artist (as I was feeding him Snacky Bits) and burbled about how much I had really loved dropping in at Solemn Vespers at the Shrine of St. Francis in North Beach, where he had directed the schola, because the music was out-of-this-world.

His face fell because ... the church fired the choir.

I tried to back out of this as best I could, but I was really peeved about it. I went into the kitchen to vent. The director of music was in there, enjoying some of the Snacky Bits we reserved for him, and I said (after the "Boy, did I put my foot in it), "My nephew is Roman Catholic. I wanted to take him there and say "THIS is your musical heritage as a Roman Catholic." G. nodded, and I continued "But now it will just have to be "We're keeping it warm for you"".

Got a "you said it, sister" sort of affirmative noise from the peanut gallery.

I think it's my Meffodist upbringing that gets me kind of exercised about it. I learned to sing my theology in Sunday school. If "lex credendi, lex orandi" is a Very Anglican Keyphrase (figurative translation, "If you want to know what we believe, observe how we worship"), my upbringing would substitute whatever the Latin of the correct tense is for "to sing" for "orandi" as a Reasonable Methodist Alternative.

(Da Sheepy and Da Wabbit are welcome, of course, to kick my ass. I will say that I was only ten when I left, so we weren't doing heavy-duty stuff.)

As a side note, for locals interested in fine music, the SF Schola Cantorum will be performing Tallis' "Spem in alium" (with additional bodies to get the forty voices) at St. Mark's on Saturday evening. I'm on call this week, but I think I'll risk it.