7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol. 12

Well, look at that. I finally remembered to do the Takes when it was Friday!

FIRSTLY:
In the past couple of weeks we've discovered that not one but two of our Fathers are getting transferred... boohoo! Our good Father Trinh is off to Arcadia, CA, and Father Soos is headed for St. Mary's, Kansas, (unless something changes, which I'm still praying for. I'm afraid it's kind of a case of, "Thy Will be done, but can't you change your mind?" I'm rather terrible that way, I'm afraid...)

SECONDLY:
Well, the house is still not selling - actually, now that I think about it, we haven't had any showings this week. But we're keeping up the prayers and trusting the sale will happen when God wants it to.

THIRDLY:
I've been practicing the piano more this summer than any other of my life, and I'm thinking of doing my Junior Recital at the end of the fall semester. It should be fun. It looks, at this point, as if the program will be Beethoven's Sonata No. 1, in F Minor; Bach's Prelude and Fugue in G from WTC Vol. 1; and possibly, also, Chopin's wonderful Nocturne in C sharp Minor. I'm really looking forward to that and the concerto competition in November... fun, fun!

FOURTHLY:
One more shameless plug for the new Blog: http://tradcats.blogspot.com/ Come visit us!

FIFTHLY:
Tomorrow, Feast of St. James of Compostela, two of our beloved Jammers (who met before the Jam, though,) will be united in Holy Matrimony in St. Mary's. Here's to Conrad and Erin; God bless them!

SIXTHLY:
I managed to spend almost the whole afternoon playing the piano yesterday (or hearing it played,) as I was with one of my guy friends at the University, and we took turns playing for each other on the grands in Mr. Schene's room. It was wonderful! He showed me some very weird pieces he's thinking of playing for a service at the church where he'll be working in Chicago, (stuff by Ligeti and Stravinsky, completely lacking any real grace of melody or harmony,) and said he had to come up (for this weekend) with a couple of pieces related to the sermon topic, which was "The Nature of God and Evil in the World," or something similar. He showed me a pile of pieces and the one on top was Liszt's Pater Noster, which I'd never heard before. I said, "Well, with the deliver us from evil, the Pater Noster is perfect." He didn't understand until I began to recite the translation and he said, "Oh! It's the Lord's Prayer?" (It was funny... I guess it's obvious to me, but I found it amazing that not everyone knows that!) He agreed that it was indeed perfect and sight-read it for me - it's beautiful! After a fun afternoon of music and conversation, I headed off home on my bike and got caught in the rain, and so I rode home singing Mozart's Alleluia in the midst of splattering drops. It was a lot of fun, but I did make it home before the real storm hit. I do love storms! I guess it was a little bit crazy to go out riding in it, but I enjoyed singing and getting soaked...

SEVENTHLY:
I've been thinking... it's funny, being twenty. A lot of people have called me grown up and responsible lately; and I don't feel that way at all. I wonder if that's normal for twenty-year-olds. I guess I just have to try to live up to it. Being grown-up is hard! What happened to the days when all you had to worry about was coming inside for lunch and going to bed at a more or less decent hour?... Sigh.