21
Jan
2007
Jan
2007
hand bells
January 21st, 2007 at 09:29 pm by wRitErsbLock in UncategorizedI attended Christmas Eve service with my friends and neighbors, Kristen, Fred, and Trevor. Yes, I was one of those once-a-year church attenders that I’ve always mocked. The thing I miss about organized religion is the music. And I really wanted to go to a church service and sing all the great Christmas hymns. It was an enjoyable musical experience for me, with a shock: their church has a small hand bell choir.
Goodness, I think it’s been almost twenty years since I was in a hand bell choir. That must mean I’m old.
Since then, I’ve said things to K like, “did you know your church has a hand bell choir?” And she always says she heard something like that.
On Friday, she suggested I join her church’s hand bell choir. I’m reluctant to get involved in any organized religion at this point in my life. But then again, hand bell choir. They practice on Thursday evenings. K apparently talked to the choir director at church today and told the director about my desire to ring bells and my bigger desire to abstain from all appearances of religion. Director has no problem not shoving religion down my throat so long as I’m willing and able to ring bells. K thinks I should start.
Then again, on Friday night we told our normal Friday friends that we’re going to have to start either cutting out Wednesday night poker or Friday night festivites, or alternate weeks for Wednesday/Friday activites, because my schedule is overwhelming me.
Monday: school (get home at 10p)
Tuesday: school (get home at 10p)
Wednesday: poker (kick people out at 10p)
Thursday: RTY night (’nuff said)
Friday: normal Friday gathering (kick people out at 11p)
Saturday & Sunday: yard work, shopping, laundry, homework
Jim is very concerned that I’ll have no down time (translation: he’s worried he won’t get laid) this semester. And he’s right. So we’re cutting back on social time. Now is certainly not the time to add Thursday hand bell choir into the mix, with Sunday hand bell choir time in organized religious service. No matter how cathartic music can be, adding that time to my already overwhelming schedule might be too much.
I told K that I’d have to give it a week or two more for this semester for me to see if hand bell choir is something I have any energy left for.
Between you and me, I’m kind of hoping I do find I have energy left over. Hand bells are truly amazing.
On the other hand: organized religion.
And while we’re talking time crunch: I am so overwhelmed at how much television I’m DV-R’ing this semester. When the heck am I going to find time to watch all this crap?
Monday: 24, Heroes, Studio 60
Tuesday: Dirt
Wednesday: Friday Night Lights
Thursday: Thursday is no t.v. night until maybe we watch Food TV at 10p, I record The Office and am three weeks behind in watching it
Friday: Friday is no t.v. night since Battlestar moved, and we gather with friends that night. We record 1 vs. 100 and are three weeks behind in watching it
Saturday: nothing, but we don’t watch much television either, and clearly need to set time for watching recorded items
Sunday: Battlestar. I hate that they moved to Sunday.
We still have four episodes of The Shield from last season to try to watch before that starts back up in a few months. I’m overwhelmed by how full our DV-R is.
With me in school until 10p two days a week, and so many nights that we just don’t budget time for television, and with the above shows being shows I really enjoy (and not too bad, really, when you think of how much time a lot of people waste watching television), when am I going to find time to watch?
These are the thoughts running around my head right now.
I also have difficulty finding time to exercise.
Welcome to Pereiraville! I'm wRitErsbLock; I'm a runner who lives in Central Florida. Make yourself comfortable, comment often, and try not to spill your wine. Enjoy your stay!
Your 2¢
Thursday night, no TV????????????
Gasp!
I’m so addicted to Grey’s Anatomy; I can’t believe you don’t watch it!
I watched Grey’s until it moved to Thursday.
Since we have RTY on Thursday, and since she does nothing but watch tv at the egg donor’s house, we don’t let her watch much here. So we don’t turn it on (except for yell at the tv hour) until after she goes to bed.
As for Grey’s, I was totally turned off by the idiocy of two men being okay with both dating Meredith. I just don’t think she’s all that.
i loved ringing handbells more than any of my other musical endeavors. there is nothing more beautiful than a handbell choir. well, a good one.
especially when they use schulmerich handbells. i find malmark bells to be a little tinny.
an ideal solution would be to get some sort of exercise equipment (treadmill or elliptical) that is mobile enough to put in front of the TV so you can run and watch at the same time…. but, yeah, right, and the equipment in question is pretty prohibitively expensive.
Just wondering, but do handbell choirs wear earplugs?
I’m not saying the music is bad, I’m just thinking that those things would be REALLY loud if you were right next to them, and if you practiced for an hour or two, you’d risk hearing damage.
Figure those things are at least as loud as a leaf-blower.
Serious question.
it’s not that bad, Harvey. some of the higher bells can get too loud after awhile, but really, unless you’re ringing for several hours several times a week, you’re not going to have problems. maybe the director.
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