This has certainly been a week of parties — social events three days in a row with organists! Wednesday was the luncheon with my former organ students, then last night I had dinner with organist Bruce Bengtson from Madison, WI, then tonight was our Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists Dean’s Reception at the Pacific Club — so many organists in one place for this island! One might think that the world is crawling with organists, but that is simply not true, in fact, quite to the contrary. How wonderful, though, that we have several new members!

John Renke, our AGO Chapter Dean, asked each one of us to state our name, then give a one sentence description of ourselves. I said, “My name is Kathy Crosier, and I’m supposed to be retired!” I think everyone died laughing!

Everyone was eager to meet our “poster boy,” Joey Fala, home from graduate school at Yale University. I am so relieved that Joey changed his travel plans to allow him to sub at St. Elizabeth’s where I was supposed to play this Sunday. I decided I just can’t play legato acceptably with this wrist splint on my left hand. In case you’re wondering, I need to wear the splint for four more weeks — luckily it will be off by the time I fly to Connecticut to hear Joey’s graduate recital. Joey spent the afternoon helping me take down my Christmas tree and putting all the decorations back into storage.

As I mentioned earlier, last night I had a delightful dinner with Bruce Bengtson and his sister and brother-in-law, who are visiting Hawaii on vacation. Bruce is a long-time friend and colleague whom we met through the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and my husband, Carl, spent part of his sabbatical at Bruce’s church, Luther Memorial in Madison, WI, where Bruce has been the organist and director of music since 1978. Bruce was also a graduate of Valparaiso University, where he knew our former assistant, Allen Bauchle. You might remember that I ran into Bruce unexpectedly last summer in Leipzig! Check out my post “Mecca for Bach Pilgrims.”

You won’t believe what I’ve got myself into now — Starting Monday, I’ll be typing three Sunday service bulletins, the weekly newsletter, plus this week only, the Annual Report for St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Their administrator took another job and so I’ve been asked to help them out temporarily while the office is in transition. I guess I can type church bulletins in my sleep, but as you can tell, there’s no rest for the wicked!