And, oh my, how busy the days suddenly became! Dave’s sister, brother-in-law, and 2-year old nephew arrived in town from southern Oregon on Thursday. They rested up from the drive on Friday then the fun began on Saturday. First I had a riding lesson Saturday morning on my favorite lesson horse, Washington. I just love this horse and would love to buy him but there’s the little problem of my not having a job at the moment. The horse is likely for sale because he’s not a good lesson horse. Only a few people can ride him, not because he’s mean or anything but because somewhere in his career he lost his confidence and won’t do many things he used to do. Despite all that and despite that other capable riders won’t ride him, he has become the object of my affection. Sigh… I hope to ride him next Saturday too.
After my lesson we stopped at Shakey’s Pizza to pick up a bunch of pizzas for lunch at Dave’s parents’ house. Dave played with the nephew for several hours, while I got to catch up with adults for a while. I was exhausted already when we went home in the late afternoon. Still we had one more event to attend: the Gay Men’s Chorus of LA holiday show. The chorus was fabulous, as usual, with their combination of antics (you should’ve seen they’re version of “Santa Baby”!) and very serious songs. The Vox Femina (the LA women’s chorus) also performed in the first half of the show. They have voices of angels. Afterward, we waited for my friend who is in the chorus. It was his second performance of the day and it showed in his face. Sunday he would have two more.
We got home after 11:00 p.m., which is very late for us. I woke up too early on Sunday, didn’t feel rested but couldn’t go back to sleep. I lazed around in my bathrobe all morning and into the afternoon. At 3:00 we were to be back at his parents’ house so we could follow the sister, BIL, and nephew to Pasadena for Evensong at All Saint’s Episcopal Church. Our mutual friend, Jim, is the bass soloist in the Canterbury Choir. Evensong featured a multi-part Bach piece in which Jim sang two duets with the soprano and a solo. Jim sings barbershop quartet at Disneyland for his real job (if you saw the movie “Haunted Mansion”, his voice is one of the graveyard statues singing barbershop quartet). It was wonderful to hear him sing opera during Evensong.
The service was beautiful and I’m convinced that I want to go back to more services. Church service is one of the few times I’m in the present. I’m searching for more times when I’m in the present. So far, I’m in the present when I’m riding horses, doing yoga, church, and a few of the tasks I do for my research. I’m defininitely on the right track. Also, what was interesting about the service yesterday is that I have not attended church since I was a teenager (we were Lutheran). Back then I didn’t think about the recitations and now I am. What is the “communion of saints”? Church definitely has different meaning for me as a mature (finally!) adult than it did as a kid, where I just accepted the words without thinking about them.