Long weekends

It's funny how a long weekend makes the regular weekend part of the long weekend seem more restful. Saturday was a homework day for me, as always. However, instead of having a feeling of "this is the only day that I can get my homework done so I need to work really hard", I had a feeling of "if I don't get it done today, I can finish it on Monday". Sunday was my rest day and I usually have a sense of "better have all my fun but get to bed really early so I'm not zonked on Monday." Instead, I had lots of fun and relaxation-based activities without the "get to bed early" necessity. So, both days were more relaxing than they usually are. Today is like a free day. I'm doing homework (studying for my midterm this week in Discourse Analysis) but I feel like I can stop whenever I want because it is a free day. In fact, I just stopped about a half hour ago. I also slept in until 9AM and talked on the phone with family members until lunchtime. Yay! Tonight we're having dinner with Rob's SLACA (Second Language and Culture Acquisition) partner and his family.

All that jazz

We went back to Prince of Peace Church in Arlington in the morning.
After church, we hurried back to the apartment to change out of our
'Sunday best' for the All Africa Diaspora Market being held across the street at
the International Museum of Cultures. I was thinking we could grab food
there that would not only be nourishing but interesting. Rob got a
smoked brisket sandwich (Texan) and I got some meat-on-a-stick with a
side of boiled corn-and-greens-in-a-lump (African). I was surprised when
I tasted Rob's sandwich: it was smoked salt beef! Good grief ... all the
sodium and all the smoky carcinogens a person could ever want, rolled up
in a white bread wrapper, soaked in barbecue sauce. Need I say more? I
enjoyed my sticked meat but had to put a bunch of hot sauce on the
corn/greens combo. I don't know what those greens were but they didn't
taste like any greens I'd had before. Not spinach, cabbage, turnip,
collard ... maybe kelp. I have very little experience with kelp.

It seemed like the festival was mostly composed of vendors of touristy
items and 3 food stalls so we didn't stick around long. The schedule
reported a concert later so I thought, "Hey ... African music! Let's
come back!" We returned at/around 4PM and went inside the museum. We
were directed to a back room which looked primarily like it was used for
storage but was occasionally repurposed for other events with rows of
chairs, a TV/VCR combo and a podium with an attached microphone.
Scattered about were pieces of old exhibits, some nailed on the wall,
others stacked horizontally near the rafters. As it turns out, the
concert was Norman Fisher, a soprano saxophonist, performing jazz to an
accompaniment track. Rob and I sat with maybe 6 other people for the
first few songs. Norman asked at one point if there were other jazz
musicians in the crowd. I didn't respond until he asked about jazz
singers. He offered me the opportunity to join him. I explained that I
had been coughing all week. He responded that he had as well. I said I
didn't know the words to the songs. He said that he was about to do
"Satin Doll". Well. I could hardly say no to that.

I went to the podium. Norman switched on the mike. I realized as the
backing track began that it was a little low for my range, that I hadn't
warmed up, that I couldn't remember all the lyrics as clearly as I
thought I might have been able to. But I began when my time came
nonetheless. It was a good time. Surreal (singing about a pickup
scenario as the male protagonist on the grounds of Wycliffe property
from behind a podium under fluorescent lighting) but good.

Hummingbird

After much sweat and near-tears last night, I quasi-finished my Totonac 2 discourse analysis. I was pleased to discover, upon in-class discussion, that I did indeed get the general idea and picked up on some discourse elements manifested in surface features. Yay!

Here's my freaky story for today: During chapel, I was heavily using the essential oils I was carrying around to help my breathing and the little sinus headache that was developing. I alternated between several blends, including peppermint, rosemary, lemon, clary sage, rose, eucalyptus and pine oils. At the end of chapel, while the back door was propped open, a hummingbird flew into the chapel and headed for the front, where I had been sitting. It went straight to the ceiling above where I had been sitting and bounced around against the ceiling above my chair in an area roughly 4 feet in diameter. As I am (as you well know) the ultimate source of the woes of the world, I assumed that my use of oils was to blame, that I had unwittingly lured this poor flower-essence seeker inside and trapped it against the oil-coated ceiling tiles between 2 oil-coated fluorescent lights. I took out my oils and attempted to lead the bird outside, all to no avail. As I left, those in charge of chapel activities and grounds were trying to whisk it away from the ceiling with a broom. I left before anything unseemly occurred. I'll have to check with them next week and find out what became of the wee thing. Most likely, it'll fatigue and come down from the ceiling. I tell myself that so I don't have to imagine it expiring from its efforts to escape.

My voice was a little better for singing this morning but I didn't use a mike, kept more to the backup. I focused on drumming instead.

Looking forward to sleep and regeneration this weekend. I have scads of reading to do and another Totonac charting project to tackle but I have to select a day off as well. Balance, as they say.

Prayer request: Russia

For more information on the situation with the Russian school hostages, go here.

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Skipping to the weekend

Man, I feel like crud on a stick today. I woke up at 4:40AM because my nose had sealed shut and couldn't get back to sleep after that. I had a momentary snooze but it doesn't count because I was dreaming about my nose being sealed off and having that yucky mouth-breathing-all-night taste in my mouth and not being able to get it out. Sleep like that doesn't count towards my overall total productive-sleep hours. If this were undergrad, I'd be tempted to not be here today but I know that I'll be totally out of the loop if I miss a day. Rob says that the pollution warning is red today. I can tell. My body seems to be like a pollution monitor here: the color of the skin on the back of my throat seems to be directly related to the pollution warning colors. I used my Sinu-cleanse kit last night but it was too late; the sinuses on my left side were already impacted. Sigh.

I'm preparing songs for tomorrow morning's chapel. We rotate song selection opportunity among our worship team members and it's my turn this week. I have them selected and tabbed already, just need to get the photocopy access code for the chapel budget before I can be totally ready.

Tonight, I work at the library. Not really looking forward to vacuuming, as weak as I'm feeling. Maybe I can finagle Rob into helping; he's a good vaccuumer.