Full Speed Ahead

I got my hymns today! And wonder of wonders, they picked one that goes with my offertory by sheer coincidence. Generally how this works is I get the hymns first and choose an offertory to match them, but for OS I, I chose prelude, postlude, and offertory months ago so as to spread out the practicing a bit. For a while, I thought maybe they overheard my practicing and threw me a bone, but apparently this is not the case. I'll take it at any rate. "If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee" if anyone's wondering. I learned the Schübler-chorale on it as part of my lesson study last year, and it just happens to be perfect offertory length.

Of course, now that I have the hymns, I have to actually learn them. This began in a marathon three hour session this evening. And actually, they're coming well, better than I expected. The challenge at this point is communion. Based on the services I've timed, communion runs 20 minutes. There are three hymns (including 8 verses, gahhh, of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives") to fill the time, but that covers about roughly half of it. For the rest, we turn to The Pile of music the other organists have bought for this purpose. I will come to like The Pile. It has easy music. Unfortunately, it doesn't have anything based on "I Know That My Reedemer Lives" that will kill a bunch of time. I guess after 8 verses, everyone will be tired of it anyway. Most of the evening's session was spent piecing together communion filler. I won't know for sure whether I have enough until I've learned it and timed it. And by that point, it will be too late to learn more. So, we rely once again on my ability to make stuff up as I go along, which should carry over to organ as long as I don't attempt to put a pedal part with it.

In other news, I now have a cell phone. (pause for ridicule from friends who stick it to society by not owning these) Before you ban me from all things engineering, allow me to explain. This is a strategic acquisition meant to deal with three issues: The trouble Boeing had contacting me for my interview over my dorm phone, the tendency of my car to experience misfortune on the road to and from Champaign, and the likelihood that I will be in some sort of leadership position in DBF next year. All perfectly legitimate in terms of sticking it to society. Social life not included. The number for said phone will be given out on a need-to-know basis, by which I mean that anyone curious enough to ask for it will probably get it. Assuming I can remember it. That's by no means a given.

Speaking of the car, it's experiencing misfortune again, or so I thought. It takes a few cranks to start it after it's been sitting for while. I thought that this might be a continuation of the battery trouble from earlier, but my coworkers suggest that it might be a result of a loss of pressure in the fuel line. Argh. I scheduled an appointment for it at the car place. And of course, now that it's about time for it to go in, it's working fine. That thing and I really don't get along. Anyway, it also needs new brake pads, so it's guaranteed not to be a wasted trip. And by "not wasted," I mean expensive.