My unexpected day

The beginning and end of my day were as expected.  Everything in between was a surprise.

I hadn't gotten the message that there was a funeral this morning, but even if I had I probably wouldn't have realized I wanted to go.  It wasn't until Teri told me whose mom it was that I realized I wanted to go and support the family in their grief.  So instead of getting the second attempt at transferring pictures out to my sister-in-law via e-mail, I showered and dressed and went to the funeral.

I'm pretty sure I've never had a string break in mid-service on one of my classical guitars before today.  About midway through the first communion hymn I heard that distinctive snap, then had to get the broken string out of my way so I could finish the service with the other five.  It was very odd - enough to cause me to miss receiving communion.

After the service, I went downtown to pick up replacement strings.  I knew I was due to change the set even before the one broke this morning, so this was a good opportunity.  Then I stopped at market and picked up a pound of raw honey.  I love raw honey!

When I got home, I was asked to immediately get out of my suit and help finish bathing the dog.  I have no idea how she'd have managed had I not come in.  Then I put together some shrimp salad with the leftovers from last night, (oh, an additional thing that went as planned!) and proceeded to change the strings on my classical.  I basically finished in time to change my clothes for mass, which I wanted to attend because I thought we might have some other area folks in the church for the concert.  My new strings held tune surprisingly well; I just discreetly fine-tuned them once during the service.

The concert was wonderful.  Wonderful!  Tajci and company - including her sister Sanya - provided a very nice musical reflection on Jesus' sacrifice for us.  It was uplifting and moving; I loved how she worked in songs and hymns with which we'd be familiar, yet in new ways that were so interesting.  Pescador de Hombres in Russian, then Spanish!  Via Dolorosa.  A wonderful arrangement of Were You There.  Ah, too many to remember all of.  I loved how she refused to break the narrative, keeping the music going so that we didn't have a chance to offer applause.  It was the first chance I've really had to miss Jubilee; my Lent has had plenty of reflection, but my Fridays have been so busy I haven't had a chance to miss our wonderful Way of the Cross ministry.  After they completed their reflections on Good Friday, they offered some more concert-like selections, even bringing Tajci's sons up to sing on a few songs.

After helping them get torn down following the concert, we finished the evening by being just in time to get Taco Loco to bring home for a late supper.

Ahhhh.