Honestly, I don’t know whether “The Week That Was” refers to last week, while I was on my birthday trip to California — or this week, where between October 29 and November 6, I will have played seven church services, and a Friday night choir rehearsal YOWSERS!

I arrived home on Saturday night completely exhausted. The week started out innocently enough when my sister Margo and I drove to Simi Valley to meet my dear friend, Joan Ishibashi, for brunch.

Joan is in California taking care of her mom who just celebrated her 96th birthday!

After brunch, Margo took me directly to the home of my son where I began immediately to start sewing a Halloween costume for my grandson. I only had about two hours to sew before we had to pick up my grandson from school and from there we went to “Lala,” an Argentine restaurant (my choice).

I then spent the next two-and-half days sewing, which turned out to be more challenging than I had predicted it would take. Apparently we didn’t read carefully the instructions to purchase pajamas (as a base garment) that were two sizes larger than normal, and the first time he tried it on, it was too small! No way could he fit his arms in the sleeves. All those patches of colored felt added a lot of bulk to the costume, and I was forced to make adjustments and in some cases I had to resort to hand sewing.

But at last it was finished and my grandson got his wish to be a piñata for Halloween.

I also was able to practice my music for a couple of hours on my sister’s piano as well as to spend about six hours on my neighbor’s songbook. No wonder I came home exhausted, in addition to the usual pattern of jet lag and no sleep.

Then this week is All Saints Week, with high masses on both November 1st (All Saints Day) and November 2nd (All Souls Day), in addition to All Saints Sunday on November 6th. And because Thursday night is taken up with a service, the usual Thursday night choir rehearsal has been moved to Friday. Plus, there is a weekly Vespers and Benediction on Saturday afternoons. All that means is that there is lots of music to practice, and most likely I’ll be going every day to the church to practice and to register the organ.

On All Saints Sunday, November 5th, I’ll be playing Marcel Dupré’s “Cortège et litanie” for the prelude and the toccata from Olivier Messiaen’s “Dieu parmi nous” for the postlude. I don’t think I’ve had to practice so hard in years!

In the middle of all this, I just finished the layout of the program for Early Music Hawaii’s concert on November 11th, “Les Délices,” an early music group which will present a program called “The 14th Century Avant-Garde.” No rest for the weary!