A Piece of the Puzzle & Perspective

Last night, as I was watching the Canucks lose to Anaheim (boo hoo), I was working on my 1500-piece picture puzzle, which at this point I'd say is about 3/5 completed. It's taken FOREVER because I have so little evening time. Anyway, at one point, I looked down beside me, and my sweet little Sam, who you've all seen in a picture or two, was paying attention to something on the carpet between his paws, and yes, he'd worked over one of the puzzle pieces so it was mush: non-recognizable aside from shape and a general lightness to it. Ruined. I cried. Literally. Months ago he ALMOST ruined another piece, he sort of scratched it, but we rescued that one. This one is beyond repair. We have decided to buy another entire puzzle just for the two pieces (well, the one, really) to make a complete puzzle. A big 1500-piece picture puzzle is really a waste with a missing piece. The picture is of Schloss Neu Schwanstein in Germany. It's a really HARD puzzle; the hardest I've ever done and I'd been making very good progress the last week or so. I really want it off the coffee table before summer.

I lost all joy at doing the puzzle after that (well, and the silly Canucks were losing) and so I covered it up and stopped for the night.

Tonight we're going to see the Overcoat, which is playing to rave reviews everywhere, but I've heard people say it's really weird, too. For one thing, there's no dialogue, it's all sort of mimed, and set to music by Shostakovich, which, eeeeeeeee, I'm a huge fan of classical music, but I'm not that fond of Russian composers in general, with the exception of Tchaikovsky. But, who knows? Go with an open mind. A friend of mine won tickets and she asked me and then it turned out she couldn't go, so she gave the tickets to me and so Mr. P and I are going. I think he's a reluctant companion, but he agreed to go with me.

Now for the perspective on the ruined puzzle piece. My (adopted) sister in Germany may have lost her partner last night. He's had cancer for a few years and has fought it with chemo and the usual surgeries and what not, but last night my parents said that they'd talked to her and she said he'd slipped into a coma and the doctors didn't expect him to make it to morning. My parents are off to Germany today (coincidentally). I think they'll be seeing her on the weekend. It's very sad, and it sure puts into perspective the "tragedy" of a chewed picture puzzle piece.

Choir

I sang in the church choir for the first time yesterday. It actually exceeded my expectations, though at times it felt surreal being up there with the choir members instead of in my usual spot in the main part of the church. Joining the choir is certainly not a decision I regret. I don't know for sure, but I think all the practicing of the two hymns I've been doing at home over the past two weeks may have been like praying a lot, because I sure have a "joie de vive" over that time and also a huge amount of energy which even cut through snow and cold and yucky weather. And now, for the more secular, though not really, I'll spare a prayer that the Canucks win Game 7 tonight. Fingers & toes -- all crossed.

Bleeeecccchh

The Canucks lost again. Now it's down to a final game 7 in Vancouver on Monday night. Thankfully I will not be able to watch most of it because I'll be tutoring. We've got probably the best goalie in the league, but it doesn't help much when your team can't score goals.

On a more positive note, from previous posts, many of you may know that we are color and green starved here in Calgary, where the winter seems to be going on forever, and ever. I found this beautiful site when I googled "nice pictures" (to help me feel better after the Canucks loss). Take five minutes, go to the site, and click on "view slideshow". Sit back and enjoy. Absolutely breathtaking photos of these people's garden. Looks like it may be on the coast of England.

Any Bird Enthusiasts out there?

I think this is a Cooper's Hawk. Can anyone help me out identifying it?

April 20

Spring in Calgary. Isn't it just lovely? All this snow fell overnight. Sheesh.

News

My student and I had our first duet performance on Saturday for the old folks at the retirement residence near our homes. I've discovered that my nerves always fail me when I'm nearing the END of what I know I will be playing. Normally the nerves hit at the end of the song or two I'm playing for friends or even family at home; this time, the nerves hit at the end of the program we'd designed. It was only the last song which gave me problems, which was a shame because it was our signature piece. Well, it will be even better next time. On an up-note (no pun intended), all my solo pieces went flawlessly with the exception of one mistake. NONE of the mistakes I made were of the nature where I wanted to run and hide or had to start all over again. So all in all I'm pleased at how it went. Preparing for performances is a really good thing because it makes you polish those pieces that still have troublesome spots. You CAN'T just say, oh well, that's good enough. So it's really improved my playing overall. I'm working on polishing three more pieces for the next time we go to perform there.

I have joined our church choir, so more performances are in the offing. My first time singing with the choir will be this coming Sunday. As I can't make the regular practices (Thursday nights), I practice on my own and also I have occasional sessions (private) with the music director of our church, Robert, so that I'm not going in cold. They also practice before the service on Sunday mornings for about 15 minutes, so hopefully that will be enough. I've always wanted to sing in a choir. My secret ambition is to be cantor. I don't know if I'm good enough, but time will tell. For sure I'll have to practice for a long time and receive some instruction before that becomes a possibility. I've also decided to take private voice lessons over the summer with a teacher whom I've heard a great deal about. A friend wants to sing with me, which I find very exciting.

I start my piano lessons again today. My music teacher's mother died this spring, so by unspoken mutual consent, we'd delayed the start of my lessons until now. I'm very excited to be starting them up again. For awhile, I was just fine working on my own, but I realize that my progress will be limited without formal instruction. I'm particularly interested in getting back to the theory. At some point I'd like to be able to improvise: play pieces with melody and chord charts only, perhaps even differently each time I play the piece. Jazz, of course, is generally played this way. I don't play any jazz yet, but that's on my list of things-I-wanna-do, too.

How about those Canucks!!!!!

To my favourite team, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for pulling out that win last night. What a thriller.