Era of Perpetual Bachelordom, Day 439- Another Year, Sort Of in Review

So, we survived another one, did we? It actually wasn't all that bad: nothing particularly spectacular happened, but there was a lot of behind-the-scenes work and a lot of small projects that went well enough that they should eventually lead to big projects. And nothing went really seriously wrong. Work continues to be work, and I continue to be good at it... we've progressed to the fabrication and assembly of actual parts- most of the interesting stuff is being done in Macon, GA, and I may be able to make it down for a week at a time here and there to watch. I've established that I can play weddings- any more of those would probably happen over the summer. Church orchestra has also come into its own to the extent that it can, and in a flurry of activity over Christmas I've established that the violin can be heard over the organ and play along on hymns, so we'll see where that leads. And of course there's organ itself, which mainly means the Bach fugues at this point, of which there have been two so far and will probably be many more.

All this takes place against the backdrop of what can politely be termed the consolidation of my social life. Most of what happens now revolves around the church group and to a lesser extent orchestra group (not to be confused with church orchestra- everyone there is much older or much younger), which honestly is fine- they're decent people although there aren't many of them. There are now no dating prospects whatsoever, a situation that has existed since September and, based on predictions made back in September, will persist until at least this summer, and may continue beyond that depending on who moves where and does what once they graduate or finish whatever they're currently doing. This really shouldn't surprise me at this point.

So, for the year ahead, resolution-making is really a lost art at this point and has degenerated into an affirmation of projects already in work and stuff I would probably do anyway even if I didn't resolve it. So here goes:

The big defining project of the year will be the Mendelssohn Concerto- nothing can surpass it- which will be pursued to its logical conclusion, whatever form that may take. It's looking like September concert based on current progress and scheduling. There's a secondary proof of concept which theoretically should happen late January-sometime in February for which I need the whole thing ready. It's actually pretty close- the practice effort on the third movement has more or less been the model for how these things should work.

The fugues will continue, and continue to get harder, as long as I remain single. This overrides any radio-station related protest, which instead will take the form of inside jokes buried in the service music that few will notice and fewer will understand. The current project is the G minor fugue, BWV 542, which may or may not be known as the "Great" Fugue- the label is inconsistently applied to it and several others depending on where I'm scrounging for information. It's also coming along well- if only I could get Pages 5 and 6 worked out. This does not imply that the fugues will cease, or cease to get harder, in the spectacularly unlikely event that I'm ever not single.

Work will continue to be work, and I will continue to be good at it.

And beyond that, there's the usual apartment maintenance stuff- cooking to the extent necessary to avoid starvation and boredom with what I'm eating, and cleaning to the extent necessary to avoid losing stuff and keep the spiders out of sight and out of mind. I haven't seen any lately- clearly I'm winning.