According to the calendar on my phone, I was to leave today for my tour to Rome, Italy. So I stopped the newspaper and the mail, and packed my suitcase. I’m all ready to go! It was when I tried to arrange a ride to the airport, I thought I’d double-check the time of my flight and guess what I learned — I’m not leaving today after all! My flight is tomorrow! (I guess it’s better than finding out that your flight was yesterday!) So today is my reprieve.

Just to keep life interesting, perhaps you’d smile when you hear what else I’ve been up to just this past week — all in the midst of concert preparations, like baking cookies, having a houseguest, arranging for the timpani moving, attending rehearsals, stuffing programs, etc.

• I’m practicing Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms for the University of Hawaii’s Chorus concert on Friday, November 20. The concert will take place at Central Union Church, and because it’s not my “home organ,” I’ve had to book several practice sessions on their Aeolian-Skinner organ. When I found out my flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow, I booked another session today. The dress rehearsal for this concert is Tuesday, November 17, just two days after I return from Italy. Jonathan Dimmock, the guest organist whom I hosted last week, agreed with me that this is an extremely difficult piece to play on the organ because it is an orchestral transcription which was not done by an organist! There are some passages which are nearly impossible.

• You could consider me the new publicist for St. Andrew’s Cathedral (I don’t know what else to call myself! The person who can’t say “no”?) — I set up a Facebook page for their organ restoration program, designed a large 13×19 poster and ads for inclusion in the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus and Oahu Choral Society program booklets for both their Advent-Christmas season and the organ restoration. I also booked all of their Advent and Christmas events on the ArtsHawaii calendar. Dean Walter Brownridge took me to lunch yesterday to ask me for my perspectives on running a church office, which I did for eleven years at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church. No, I never got a degree in business administration, just in organ performance!

• I designed a postcard for Early Music Hawaii’s next concert, which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 14, 7:30 pm at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. The program is called El Siglo de Oro: The Golden Age of Spanish Culture and will feature the early music group, El Mundo. Richard Savino, director, will be leading this group of voices, guitars, gamba, theorbo and percussion. The program will be performed first on the Big Island in Kealakekua and Waimea, November 11 and 12 . For more information and tickets, check out their website.

• I became the newest board member of my condo association and have gone to one board meeting and two committee meetings so far. I was invited to be on the committee which plans the Christmas party, and I have already designed the flyer announcing the party, the tickets, and name tags. Guess who volunteered to take over the editing, design and layout of the community newsletter?

Yes — this is what you call retirement!