Ups and Downs

I accidentally let slip to the person who drove us to the Moeck factory that my new tenor would be an early birthday present. She told some of the other members of the recorder orchestra, so on Wednesday the two altos on either side of me said happy birthday and asked me what day it was. I said Saturday. Isolde handed me a gift and told me I should unwrap it. It's a crocheted decoration for my bike bell. Anyway, that was all very nice, although I was a bit embarrassed. At the end of the rehearsal, which was a whirlwind of trying to sight-read music from my neighbor's stand an octave below where alto recorder notes are usually written and trying to remember that fis means F-sharp, the conductor announced the birthday of one of the tenors. The birthday person gets to choose a piece they all play. Afterwards, my neighbors started whispering to me that I should choose a birthday piece. Since I don't have most of the music, I was asking them to ignore my birthday while they were waving their hands trying to get the conductor's attention. The conductor wished me happy birthday and asked me to choose a piece and asked in front of everyone when my birthday was. I said Saturday the 25th and then they all realized that my birthday was the coming Saturday, not last Saturday. A dead silence. Then my neighbors told me that next Wednesday they would wish me happy birthday and that I should rewrap the present, although they said it nicely. A bit humiliating.

Crocheted Bike Bell Flower

In Germany the birthday person brings cake or candy for everyone, so next Monday in choir I'm supposed to bring something. They sit the birthday person in a chair in front of the conductor and the birthday person picks a song and the choir sings it. Again, there are several songs and I don't know them all. I'm glad that last Monday was a holiday, or I would have had the same mix-up in choir as I did at recorder rehearsal. I left the space for my birthday on the "contract" for joining the choir  blank on purpose, but the choir leader came up to me to ask after practice to ask when my birthday was, since I'd left it blank. Don't travel if you can't stand embarrassment.

Other ups and downs this week: It's back in the 30s and 40s with lots of rain. I pulled out my fake uggs and gloves yesterday for a cold, rainy ride down to our church home group last night. We used to play a story game with the kids called Fortunately, Unfortunately. Fortunately, there are going to be Portuguese fireworks Saturday at the Herrenhauser Gardens as part of a fireworks competition. Unfortunately, the soccer final at Wembley is Sat. night. Fortunately, because of the soccer match, there are still tickets to the fireworks. Unfortunately, the weather forecast says 100% chance of rain.

The biggest downer this week was that I got word that my long-awaited new writing center space is being given to someone else. This after a meeting in January with plans laid out and buying some furniture for the new space. This is the second time that promised space for a writing center separate from my office has been given to someone else. Also, trying to arrange plane tickets for Ross and his friend is too much like going to Vegas. One minute I find a great fare, then I email to see if that fits with them, and then that fare has doubled. The 9-hour time difference doesn't help. I'm off upstairs to play recorder and fill my mind with beautiful music. Wednesday there was a flute, cello, and piano trio concert. The flautist was absolutely top-notch. Two pieces I had never heard before were wonderful:  trios by Bohuslav Martinu and Astor Piazzolla. Rich said we should count concerts the way we used to count castles visited when on sabbatical in Scotland.