Today felt like Christmas

I received a number of cards today from friends across the world and I feel so honored to be remembered by such good people. It felt jolly good to get them.

Also I decided to check out a new music store I heard about recently. I had low expectations for the store, but it more than exceeded my hopes. The sales woman really wanted to help me and she was doing lots of things to help me get the information I need. I liked it when she said, "I'm very happy. We had a good Christmas. Now I have to restock the shelves." She was beaming.

I have to figure out what to do. I never had an formal musical lessons, but I'm inclined to buy a keyboard for the parish. Now, there are a couple of decision points along the way. I could buy something and lug it to each of the four churches each day or I could get something just for rehearsal. I like the idea of bringing it a more church appropriate instrument. We have plenty of guitars and while that it good, the choir goes on their own beats and they make their own adaptations along the way. A keyboard could set a tempo for them to follow and give them some grounding.

Since I'm not a keyboardist but can find the notes, do I get an small keyboard to start out and then maybe build upon it or just get what I need right away? I have to examine funding, but is it wiser to purchase once? Then I have to learn how to play it.

There's also a simulated drum set, a basic guitar, and a two-level xylophone that can soften some of the music.

I feel like a kid in a candy shop looking at my options.

I did not go to my office at all today. Wow! What a break.

I hate driving here.

I don't like walking here.

A friend of the Jesuit Center asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. I told him I would go to the Do Re Mi shop to check out music (a different store altogether.) He asked me to wait five minutes. I told him that it would only disappoint me if I waited because his concept of time doesn't match mine. He begged me to wait as a person he was waiting for called him and said he would arrive in five minutes. I told him I doubted it. I decided at that point, though I didn't tell him, that I wasn't going. I figured I would drive to the other music store after an hour but that I would catch up with a few Skype calls. An hour and 15 minutes later, he came running over to me to apologize profusely. I told him I was leaving the premises and I would return in an hour. He asked about going for a walk and I told him I was on an adventure. I realize that he was very disappointed in himself. What am I going to do? Fret about it? I can't carry any emotion about it, but I don't want him to weigh himself down.

However, I do realize that my life here is about going nowhere fast, getting nothing done in a timely manner, and achieving little. It is a whole value shift, not a judgment. I used to say that I am downwardly mobile, but I can amend that to be downwardly immobile. My precision of meeting goals when I was a banker has come to an end.

I hate driving here.

I went to see "The Life of Pi" today. I read the book a decade ago and I'm glad they made it into a film. It was very good. The cinematography was excellent and the film was faithful to the incredulous story and I am left with many questions at the end. Though I wish it was not in 3D, it was a beautiful story.

I saw "the Hobbit" in 3D and that movie was very dark because of the glasses. I wonder if they clean those glasses or just put them back into the plastic sleeve - duping us. Both pair of glasses had dirty cleanses I had to clean before I could see out of them. I hope "Les Mis" is a regular film. I wouldn't see it but I think Anne Hathaway is a great actor. It is an all-star cast.

I hope those feral cats do not wake me up again as they did last night. The female cat finds shelter within the iron gates of my window. It is warm and protected there. The male cats sound vicious. This one mating session pierce my REM at 4 a.m. They screeched for the longest time and very loudly. It was only four feet from my head. Before I go to bed, I will research how the length of feline mating season. It gives me nightmares, not because of fear, but because I'm drifted off in space amidst these awful noises. I remember being asked to watch pigs mate in Jamaica one Easter Sunday. I felt so bad for that 200 lb sow who did not seem ready for the 300 lb boar. The ongoing cries made me shudder. I'm glad I'm in the inner city where I won't have to subject myself to camel mating time.

I think I moved off subject a little.