Christmas 2011

Watching football on Christmas with Dad.

Last night we went to our church. I played with my informal clarinet quartet as the prelude. We played three settings of Christmas songs I found at sheetmusicplus.com. There's not much out there for clarinet quartet for Christmas. Guess I'd better try writing something - setting some carols or something like that. Nevertheless, when the music is written for clarinet quartet, it sounds better than a transposition of a quartet for some other grouping of instruments.

The service was very nice, but lasted longer than I would have liked. Since I was playing in the quartet and singing in the choir, I got there at about 9:45, and we left at almost 12:30.  That's a long time.

In the morning we had a nice breakfast and then went to mass with Dad; he's Catholic, I am not. I don't mind going to mass every once in a while. It's very similar to the protestant Christian denominations, with more ceremony, accoutrements, and memorized sections than I am used to. The mass lasted longer than I would have liked. The archbishop celebrated mass with the church we chose, and certainly that contributed to the length of the service and the large crowd. (Since I'm not a Catholic and I don't know the Catholic churches around here, I found the church via Google Maps, searching close to my house. Hey, whatever works.) Incidentally, the church website did not mention the archbishop presiding.

Big church. Kansas is really good at growing large churches; everyone seems to go to church, here.

Dinner consisted of homemade spanakopita, carrot and raisin salad, and a dinner roll. For a beverage, I bought a bottle of Cava, a sparkling wine from Spain - it was very good. I keep hearing about it on The Splendid Table and elsewhere; I had to give it a try. I purchased Poema Extra Dry at the recommendation of the salesperson at my local liquor emporium. Pretty good - I'm now a fan! I think it ran around $13.

Dessert was my favorite Christmas cookies: Toffee squares and Date Nut Pinwheels (recipes from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book).

Good food. nice weather, a little bit of God...all in all a good Christmas.

My Favorite Christmas Carols

I have sung in choirs for many years even at Christmas time and have sung many settings of Christmas carols. The song of popular culture don't always do it for me - they sound a bit manic at times (Happy! Presents! Santa! Snow!).

Here are some carols I really like this year:

In the Bleak Midwinter: I like this one because of its mournful longing sad tone. The tone is foreboding of Jesus's sacrifice to save humanity, yet there is an underlying theme of great love To me it sounds like God is saying "I know what I've come here to do, and I'm going to do it anyway."

O Come, O Come Emmanuel: This is another carol with a minor/modal tonality with with a feeling of longing.   It sounds like a Jewish song to me - the Jewish people crying out to God to send the savior.  I imagine they could continue to sing it today. Christians sing it as a way to represent the historical longing that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, before he came to us.  It's in Dorian mode, which makes for interesting listening and singing, in this world of rigidly 8 note scale

Hoo boy, digging into the recesses of my memory of music history for that one.

The Holly and the Ivy: I used to think this was the stupidest hymn ever. What does the running of the deer and a holly prickle have to do with Mary bearing Jesus Christ?  It seemed like someone wanted to sing a secular folk tune about woodland plants, then threw in the Christian reference to make the song acceptable, because the priest said they had to. Then.... then..... I figured it out. It's a long simile for the birth and life of Jesus. Sometimes I'm kinda slow.

Into the more popular hymns:

Angels We Have Heard On High: Love the harmony on the "Glorias."

The Christmas Song: Another one that is good to sing and gives a feeling of warmth.

Morning Star: Moravians are a small Protestant Christian denomication that has a relatively large concentration in central North Carolina. We used to live there and I was intrigued by them - I had never heard of them prior to moving the the Raleigh area. One year we went to an authentic love feast at a Moravian church and it was awesome. Morning Star is their "favorite" hymn, called the Moravian "Silent Night." It's a simple folk tune, but sweet and kind.

If I think of any more, I'll post some more. I need to get a move on today!

My Stephen Minister

A Stephen Minister from my church is helping me get through all the emotional turmoil of losing my Mom about 6 months ago. She helps me a lot, and most of the time we don't really talk about mourning or sadness or how I miss my mom. But having that support, having someone to talk to about the times when little things make me think of Mom, is really helpful. 

I am doing well with my grieving, and I probably won't need a Stephen Minister any more in the near future. I want to get through the holidays with her available, and see how that goes. 

Last time we met, we talked about closing the official Stephen Ministry relationship. We both expressed that we'd like to be friends afterwards. That's nice, and I'm pleased. Then she said something that struck me as odd: one reason she enjoys me is because I speak with a big vocabulary. 

Hm.

I have never thought of myself as having a big vocabulary. At least not in that way....I don't know. I try hard not to sound pretentious or stuck up by using words to impress or confuse, but the fact is, I know words and I like to use them whenever appropriate. My main goal is to communicate clearly. 

I guess the comment just made me think. I like being thought of as having a big vocabulary. 

Geico Commercials

And now for something completely different.

We watch a lot of our TV via Hulu. We gave up satellite, never had cable, and now we watch over the air TV and recorded shows. Occasionally we'll buy a program on iTunes.

You can't skip over the ads on Hulu. Fortunately, there aren't too many commercials. Unfortunately, there aren't many sponsors, so you get to see the same ads over and over and over again.  Geico happens to be a sponsor of Hulu shows we watch and we see their ads repeatedly.  For the past several months, all they run are the ads showing the announcer guy saying "Would switching to Geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance?" The next sentence is a truism or saying that's obviously true, but they interpret it creatively.

Examples of the second sentence are "Whaddya live under a rock?" or "Do dogs chase cats?" or "Is the pen mightier than the sword?"

I invented a simple game - try to guess what will be the second sentence.  The announcer guy says the first sentence almost identical each time, so it's a little tricky... I suppose if I paid close attention to the ads I'd detect differences in his tone, timing, expression. But, what's the fun in that?

It would be an awesome drinking game - if you get it wrong, you have to drink.  If you don't guess, you have to drink.  If you get it right, everyone else drinks.....or something like that.

For me, it's just a fun way to make the commercials go by faster.

I like those ads. I especially like:

• Did this little piggy go "wee wee wee" all the way home?
• Would Foghorn Leghorn make a really bad book narrator?
• I like how the chicken hawk grabs the club and stalks off camera. Moment later you hear a whack...then..."auugh."  Hilarious.
• Do people use smart phones to do dumb things?
• Yep. I have the brostache app.

A Ride on the Southwest Chief - part 2

I did not have a lot of trouble sleeping in the car. I woke up a few times, and I was a little paranoid about rolling out of the upper bunk, but overall not bad. The bunks were on the firm side, probably as a result of the thin mattress. A Benadryl helped me get some sleep. The temperature in the cabin was alright - hot then cold then hot again. We managed to adjust it well enough to be comfortable.

When we awoke, it was about 7:30am, and we were nearly in Colorado. I didn't notice the stops in Kansas while we were sleeping - the train stops and starts very smoothly. The dining car attendant made an announcement over the intercom that there were seats available for breakfast and we decided to go. We cleaned up a bit, changed clothes, and made it to the next car for some food.

Breakfast was pretty good. The menu is limited, including a "continental breakfast," French toast, scrambled eggs, and the omelet of the day. We were seated with a gentleman going home to California after visiting his daughter in Kansas. The meal started with a welcome cup of coffee.

I had the continental, and I chose the steel cut oatmeal (the other choice is cold cereal). You also get fresh fruit (a grapefruit half and a small dish of strawberries), Activia yogurt (which I don't eat because it has gelatin), milk and brown sugar and raisins for the oatmeal, and a choice of bread (I had the cinnamon raisin toast).   The oatmeal was quite good and hit the spot, and the fruit was fresh and juicy. Unfortunately, the  brown sugar for the oatmeal was rather dried out. Dear husband had the French toast and said it was tasty. Our booth-mate ordered the omelet.  It looked pretty good.

Meals are included in the fare if you get a sleeper car. If you're in coach you have to pay for meals.  It isn't cheap, but it's not bad, running between $8.00-$12.00 per entree or so.

Then back to the room to watch the world go by. We folded up the upper bunk, packed up the lower bunk mattress, and set up the two face to face seats. Now we had ourselves a little cubby to camp out.

Had I been paying attention, I would have taken more pictures to document the journey - you'd think after blogging for 4 years, I would know better.  What can I say... I'm more of a writer than photographer.

Here I am in our car, passing the time with a knitting project:

On the Southwest Chief 11/23/11

Yes indeed, the window is on the right side of the shot, the door on the left. It's a narrow little room. And yes, its not the most flattering shot ever.

The rest of the morning we lounged in the car, looked out the window, stepped off the train briefly to stretch our legs in La Junta, CO (a 10 or 15 minute stop), and played with all the toys we brought with us. In addition to my knitting, I also brought a couple of e-books on the Kindle and the how-to book I also received with my new camera.

Train travel is not very fast. At times, we crawled along at 10mph or less, and at other times, it seemed we went up to about 70mph. I was surprised by this, having only had longer-distance experience on the Shinkansen in Japan (upwards of 300mph). The train lurches sideways on the tracks and makes all kinds of weird mechanical noises. I was surprised how much of the time the whistle blows.

Lunch was at 12:30. We were seated with a couple from Michigan who were going to San Diego to visit their son for Thanksgiving and we had a nice conversation with them over our veggie burgers. The  menu was short again, but we were thrilled to see vegetarian choices. Curiously, though, the vegetarian salad of the day, which our booth-mates each ordered, was topped with bacon. Bacon?!?!

Since when is bacon a vegetable?

Probably since Congress acted on the matter.... Ha ha ha ha ha!
(This is a reference to a recent news story that the United States Congress was considering counting pizza as a vegetable on school lunches)

Anyway, lunch was pretty good and we indulged in dessert to top it off. I had the Tiramisu parfait, which was creamy and rich. Husband had the bourbon pecan pie, and said it packed a punch from the bourbon. One of our booth companions had the ice cream, which turned out to be a prepackaged cup of Haagen Dasz.

By the time lunch was done, we realized we only had about 3 hours til our destination. We wanted to see some more of the train so we went down to the lounge car, which was on the opposite end of the dining car.  I pulled out the camera to play a bit.

Here's what much of the landscape looked like. 

We are in northern New Mexico at this time, north of Santa Fe

The lounge car has sideways facing seats, a few bench seats, and larger windows. In the shot above, you can see the reflection of the windows behind me. There are several tables with bench seats for snacking or playing cards or games.  It was not crowded. 

Looking down the lounge car

Snack cafe is on the lower level

We sat for a while, but ultimately decided we liked our little berth better. We could take our shoes off and stretch out. I understand a lot of the coach passengers sleep in this car.

In another 90 minutes, we were pulling into Albuquerque. About 10 minutes before you arrive, they warn you that the next stop is coming, and they tell you how long the stop will be. Some stops you can get out (and smoke, if you need to) and some stops are just to drop off and pick up. There are a few long stops where you have a good 30-45 minutes to wander around, but on our leg of the trip, we got on during a long stop, and we got off at a long stop. In Albuquerque, there were vendors set up ready to sell their goodies to the passengers.

We met our family easily at the train station in Albuquerque. The train station was really quite beautiful, in the middle of town, not too far from University of New Mexico.

Our Thanksgiving with the family was ready to start, officially!

A Ride on the Southwest Chief - Part 1

As I wrote earlier, we went on the Southwest Chief Amtrak train from Kansas City to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. I have never traveled by train for a long ride before and I learned quite a bit about train travel.

It's a lot of fun... a little magical even.

We reserved the smallest sleeper cabin, called a roomette, and it was tiny. We boarded at Kansas City's Union Station at 10:30 pm. The sleeper cars were in the front of the train, and I'm not sure how many sleeper cars there were. Maybe 4?  We were in the last sleeper car, nearest to the dining car.

It was hard to find the right car. There weren't many employees down by the tracks to point you in the right direction. The cars are marked as "sleeper" (something like Streamliner Sleeper). Your ticket tells you which car and which room you're in. Ours was 6/330 : room 6 in car 330.

We found the car by luck. Our car attendant was Pinky, and she took our tickets and had us wait in the downstairs of the car. She finished up making up our car and then we climbed the narrow spiral staircase to the second floor.

Yes, these cars are two stories. The cars connect to each other on the second floor. The first floor had several rooms (including a big one at the end of the car) three bathrooms and one shower room. There were luggage racks for bulkier items. We only had 2 bags and all of our stuff were in those bags, so we didn't check them or put them on the rack. No security for those bags...but it just didn't seem like a high-risk situation.

You know, like the old days, when people respected each others' property, minded their own business, helped each other, etc.

Up to the room we went! There's an upper bunk and a lower bunk in our tiny little room. We were on the south side of the car. The sliding door is glass, but you have curtains to draw for privacy.  It felt like we were little kids playing house under a large piece of furniture!  We could sit up on the lower bunk. We tucked our possessions where ever we could (not much room at all - we had to be creative) and we were on our way.

I took the upper bunk, where I could not sit up. The front of the room has about 10 inches between the edge of the bunk and the sliding door. After watching The Soup on the iPad, we settled in for sleep.

Plans for Thanksgiving

This year we are going to see dear husband's parents, who live near Albuquerque, NM. It has been 6 years since we went to their place, and I thought they'd enjoy seeing us. They travel to see us much more than we travel to see them - it's high time we went to their place.

This trip, we're doing something different - taking the train! We have tickets on the Southwest Chief Amtrak train for Tuesday, and we will arrive in Albuquerque on Wednesday late afternoon. We reserved a sleeper car, since it is an 18 hour trip and we leave Kansas City at 10:30 pm.

I sure hope it is on time.

I'm excited to try something different in travel. The book "Life's Little Instruction Book" (which was very popular in the early 90s) put the idea in my head to take the train. Then, when we went to the Missouri state fair back in August, we saw that the Southwest Chief line goes from Kansas City to Albuquerque, well, it was meant to be.

18 hours on a train is fun. But 36 hours? Uh, not so much. We're taking a flight back home.

I plan to blog on the experience. I really hope it is fun!!