Jan 22, 2014 - Choir! 21-hr workday! Record (for me) cold!

On Sunday, we were finally able to restart choir.  I love the choir.  I do wish there were more of us, even if the larger numbers mean some people aren't as talented.  I just want people who love to sing to be able to sing.  My plan for the choir this winter was to sing "Come Thou Fount" in March, and an arrangement of "Where Love Is" for Valentine's day.  I was certain I had seen a copy of "Come Thou Fount" in the music cabinet, but when I got to church, I couldn't find it.  I'm working on an arrangement of the other song, and I wasn't done with it, either.  So I had nothing.

But the choir is great, and we had exactly a double-quartet.  2 of each part, if I sang Tenor.  So we put the chairs in a circle, picked up hymnals, and sang songs by request.  One of the choir members suggested 102, which I had never heard before.  It turns out that "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" is a lovely song.  We sang through it a couple times, sang through it a capella, and I asked if the group was up to perform it this coming Sunday.  They were, so we did it a couple more times, and then we moved on.  It's a lovely lovely thing to spend 20 minutes on a piece to make it nice instead of 6 hours.  It's wonderful and simple.  This week I'm working on my arrangement, and I found a royalty-free arrangement of "Come Thou Fount" from Sally DeFord that we'll use.  So we're back in full swing.  It's going to be a little lighter this year, and we'll do more, simpler pieces, instead of a couple hard ones.

And I'm done with my weird work schedule, which means I have a weirder one.  I spent mid-Dec to mid-Jan working 12-hr days for one half of the week, and having a lot of days off.  Now I'm back to M-F, but I meet with my night shift team at midnight every other Tuesday.  So yesterday morning, I got up at 4, like I always do when I have certain responsibilities at work, and hit the office at 5.  I worked all day, and then stayed through until my team meeting ended at 1:30am.  I missed meeting with them while I was on my other schedule, and it was really nice to have an "air your grievances" session with them.

When the meeting was over, I sat in my car and turned the my car thermometer read -3deg F.  This was a now record cold for me to be out in.  It didn't feel that different from 15.  I got home at 2 and went to sleep.  When I headed back in to work at 9:20 this morning,the car temp was 2 deg.

Work is really fun and challenging still.  I do love it.  I always hope for the best, and work to make it even better.