getting up on time

How to get up when your alarm goes off

I am going to try this. If it works, I'll let you know. Added it to my 43 Things.

For me, waking up is one of the least pleasant acts in my life, but I really enjoy the time I am awake.

fame and fortune

(By fame and fortune, I mean fortune in the sense of good things happening, not in the sense of money in pocket.) It was a good day Friday. I showed the new arrangement of Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains to my choral conducting professor, who is also the director of the Women's Glee Club at the University. He wanted to use it for his women's choir for a concert on December 3rd. Great!

Yes, great. But he wanted an SSAA arrangement with piano accompaniment. No problem. Finished it this morning. Well, actually, I worked from midnight to 5:30, then gave up and finished it at 10:00 after a class. Those easy little projects never are, are they? But I am thrilled that the Women's Glee Club is going to sing this piece, and the annual Christmas concert is a fairly big one. They also rebroadcast it closer to Christmas on KUNC, our local public radio station, where I do my internship. Yes, I'm living high on the hog in the lavish lifestyle of a choral composer. I think we may even move into a place with a bathtub and a dishwasher next year!

Don't take the last part of that last paragraph as whining. I love my life. I love doing what I do. Money means nothing. I just visited some friends whose new baby is having a bit of a rough start. I am reminded once again of the fragile nature of life and the blessing it is simply to breathe. If you are reading this and you are a religious type, a prayer for little Austin couldn't hurt.

optimism

Everything is about to go very well.

(Important note: This is not an election night commentary. This is not a political commentary. Although I appreciate the democratic process and I am grateful to have been born in a country where I can vote, my current cheerful mood has little to do with the early returns that are just coming in.)

From time to time, I just have to believe that good will come of what is happening in my own life and in the world around me. I have just recommitted to be a better optimist. I have added it to my 43 things. I have started keeping better track of the motions of my mind.

It strikes me once in a while, this unshakeable idea that I have every reason to be thrilled with life. When I have this feeling, good things generally happen. Do they happen because I feel this way and expect them, or can I somehow sense good times in advance? This is an interesting philosophical question which I will continue to ponder.

As for right now, I am completely thrilled about gratemusic.com and LDSmusic.us and what we are doing there. I am optimistic about my family and my personal financial situation. I am thrilled about our marriage. I am excited about my education. I don't believe that I will live without inconvenience or difficulty, but I feel that the good will completely override the effect of whatever problems arise.

Perhaps the election does have something to do with my focus on this subject of optimism. All the analysts and the different parties and candidates are talking about the future. On the radio in the morning, there will be many prognositcations about how our next two years will be in America. There are many doomsday voices. There are many who say that our new leaders will fix everything. Neither side is accurate. Some laws and policies have noticeable effect in the lives of the governed, but generally our happiness and our life situations are governed primarily by our thoughts and desires and how we go about realizing them in the framework of God's plan. This new political season ought to be a new season of optimism and new commitment to make life good for ourselves and those around us.

a long rant about something completely unimportant

My newest 43 Things goal is to finish the cinnamon toothpaste. I shall explain:

I bought a tube of cinnamon toothpaste a few moths before we were married, so I suppose it's been at least 9 months. It's a very big tube - family size or something. My wife hates it, so she uses another type of toothpaste that she doesn't like but also needs to finish. If we could just throw perfectly good things away, all would be well in our medicine cabinet, but as it is, we have two full-size toothpaste tubes, each about half full, slowly being emptied. They take up a lot of space in our little apartment with very little storage space. I suppose it doesn't help that I only use a small amount when brushing.

I didn't even get to the cinnamon one until a few months ago, because I was finishing a different toothpaste she also didn't like. It was one of those with two different pastes in a boxy plastic pump, and she (and I) didn't like how it's almost impossible to get equal amounts of both sides. The cinnamon tastes good, but the logistics of tube space sharing are too complicated. Toothpaste problems can put an undue strain on an otherwise harmonious and exciting marriage.

I think we may have to throw a party at our home when I finally finish the cinnamon toothpaste and we can be united as a couple in our choice of dental care products. Imagine - only one tube of some sensible mint toothpaste neatly placed in the cabinet! Some day, it will be a reality for us.