This is the time of year where you summarize the year in terms of numbers. For example, I received these notifications from Duolingo, the foreign language app, about my progress in learning Spanish. As you can see by the above, I have an unbroken streak of 1955 days — as of November 30, 2024 when… Read More The year in numbers
If you think I’ve « gone silent » lately, you might be right. My last post in this blog was about 11 days ago, and just in that short time, I have been, in one word, overwhelmed— by the number of responsibilities and deadlines I am dealing with. Outside of playing for church every Sunday… Read More Not enough hours in the day!
This has been another “Race to the finish” week for me, with many tasks to accomplish before getting on the plane on Sunday to Seattle for a family reunion with my husband’s family. Wouldn’t you know, this is not only the week of The Polish Renaissance concert, but it also was the week that my… Read More One last push
I learned a new word today: Deux-olingo, which describes someone who is trying to learn two languages at once. I learned the word from one of the latest blogs on the Duolingo app, https://blog.duolingo.com/how-to-learn-multiple-languages/. Go ahead and click the link, you’ll find it most interesting! It’s only been about three weeks now, but I’ve spent… Read More Deux-olingo
One term my late husband used to say before any of our deadlines is “It’s going to be a race to the finish!” On May 12th the plan is that I’ll be getting on the plane to England and Portugal, but what I have to do in the meantime is almost an unending list of… Read More A race to the finish!
It was only a couple of weeks ago that I received a phone call from Nicholas Lee, Director of Music at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, asking me to play today’s two choral Eucharists in which Orlando Gibbons’ “This is the record of John,” was scheduled as the anthem. He had called me to ask whether I… Read More Someone was watching …
If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you may know that learning Spanish has been a pandemic project for me. Oh, I actually started a little over two years ago, but since last March, I’ve stepped up my daily Spanish practice. I often equate learning a musical instrument with learning a foreign language… Read More Learning a new language
Te amo, tutu! (I love you, grandma) I asked my grandson to call me “tutu” which is “grandma” in Hawaiian. These were his last words in yesterday’s telephone call. Two and a half years ago, if I heard these words, I wouldn’t have had a clue what they meant. It was then that I decided… Read More Te amo, tutu!
Last week, my sister posted a link to an article on the NPR website titled, “Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able to Pop A Pill For That.” In case you don’t know, having perfect pitch or absolute pitch means that you are able to identify or recreate a musical note without having a reference tone.… Read More A blessing or a curse?