I used to get so nervous when my students played a concert— my pulse would start racing and the palms of my hands would get clammy and perspire. I think I was more nervous than my students! And with every mistake they made? It was death by a thousand cuts! I wish I could switch places with them and put them (and myself) out of misery.

Happily, none of that happened yesterday at our Organ Students Concert, a fundraiser for the scholarship program of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists. Everyone played reasonably well and there were no major train wrecks. Best news of all, we raised over $800 for the Scholarship Fund!

Here is a slideshow of photos by Linda Muller.

It was our biggest student concert ever, and although nobody did a headcount, I would guess that there were about 125-135 people in attendance. Wow! We definitely did not print enough programs!

Here is the program— eleven students played and all but two are my students. Only one person (Nanami Mata) has played the organ for more than two years. For the rest of them, this is a new pursuit within the last two years, and two of them have played less than six months.

Something unbelievable happened which made the day that much more tolerable. Yesterday was super busy, and I started the day practicing at St. Mark’s for the Sunday service before driving over to the Lutheran Church for the first of three last-minute lessons (the day before I had given five lessons). I stopped at the bank to make a deposit then went to the grocery store to buy some paper napkins for the reception which followed the concert. When I got home I packed up the seven dozen cookies I had baked the night before when I realized that I had not put my eyedrops in. Ever since my eye infection of Dec. 17 (see my post “Cyclops“) I’ve been on a regimen of antibiotic and steroid eye drops, plus prednisone, taken orally. My doctor is trying to wean me off all the medication and I am now down to putting drops in three times a day instead of six times a day.

I looked in my purse pocket where I keep the pink-capped bottle, and to my horror, the bottle was gone. Where could it be? I thought about retracing my steps, from St. Mark’s, to LCH, to the bank, to the grocery store… I looked in the car and it wasn’t there. I was already running low on the drops and asked the doctor to refill the prescription. The problem was that my insurance company already decided i wouldn’t be eligible to refill the prescription until January 21st … so I was prepared to call the doctor on Monday to ask if she had a sample she could give me.

While I was standing at the reception table, I saw Bill Potter and Jennifer Lane approach, and one of them was carrying a pink-capped bottle. I was overjoyed— it was my lost eye drops! I was so relieved!

As for my vision, I have definitely seen improvement and although everything is not yet back to normal, last week in the doctor’s office I was able to see the fourth or fifth line down from the big E. Good enough to resume driving at night.

Thanks for coming to the concert.

Deo Gracias! All good!