warble and rise like a sparrow

I thought the week before Thanksgiving was going to continue turning the boring up to 11 here at work, but it turns out that one of my bosses just figured out how much help I can be in preparing for two major hearings today and tomorrow, and I’ve been a headless chicken all day.

I’m sort of inventing a quinoa dish to take to Thanksgiving at MP’s. It will have: quinoa, butternut or acorn squash (haven’t decided), dried cranberries, sage, and pecans. I’m also taking a totally spectacular strawberry Jell-o pretzel dish (it sounds weird, but it’s the best thing evar) that has so far been entirely MM’s domain, so I’m nervous about not making it right. Wish me luck.

I can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait to go to Pennsylvania on Friday. BF and I are taking a weekend trip just for the two of us, an indulgence, and I have been returning to it as the carrot on the end of the fishing pole for over a week now. Just a few more days and I get to actually be enjoying the relaxation instead of just dreaming about it.

Joanna Newsom on Sunday night was amazing. I had a wonderful time. I had wondered how she could possibly play the complicated harp compositions and sing at the same time, when the singing melody doesn’t always match the harp part, but upon watching her, I realized that for her, it’s all of one piece. It’s not about doing two things at once, it’s about the song as it was written. She seemed to be completely involved in every song she played, no matter the mood of the song (or how often she has likely played them – some were from 2004), and she really seemed to be enjoying making music with the rest of her backup group. (I hesitate to call it a band: two violins, a trombonist, a drummer, and a dude who played five other instruments.) I will be first in line the next time she comes to town. I hope next time she gets to play somewhere with better acoustics – a lot of the finer points were lost in the echo. She’s actually playing Carnegie Hall tonight, and I imagine their acoustics are tolerable.

BF went with me, and although I was afraid I’d feel awkward and unhappy for him, that he was having to sit (actually stand) through Crazy Harp Lady with me, he did a lot of convincing before the show that he was going of his own free will and wasn’t going to have a terrible time, and I felt okay with it. Except that we had to watch Joanna’s harp being tuned between the opener (who is another story) and the main event, which took half an hour. I mean, I know the thing has 40-some strings and has to be tuned, but jeez.

When I went to see Moby in college, he played my dream setlist. He played every single one of the songs I wanted to hear and almost none of the ones I didn’t. I’m not a superfan of Joanna’s, so I didn’t have a dream setlist for her, but I’d hoped that she’d play “Sawdust & Diamonds” and “Baby Birch”, and she did. So I walked away very happy.

Things are shifting with the birth-control decisions, but I don’t really have the energy to talk about it today. Too much happening at work. Hope you all are getting through this week with a minimum of holiday stress.