Things of beauty

I just want to say that I'm relatively pleased with things right now, at least in terms of the decisions I've made over the past week. One of those decisions has a great deal to do with most everything I do every day... something I'm actually doing right now.

This past Thursday, John and I went to the gym, then thought we'd head over to the Apple store, just on the other side of Central Park from where we usually are over by Columbus Circle. John was in the market for a new case for his iPod, and I never need much of an excuse to get over there. Okay, so that ONE purchace was probably expected. What might not have been expected, though, were the backpack I got for myself (my shoulder's been killing me lately, so I thought a single-sling backpack might help a bit), two laptops, and a double jack so that John and I can plug both of our headphones into one iPod when we're on the subway (comes in handy, believe me). So yes, an eventful shoping day. And yes, that's right... we got two new laptops. John's been wanting one for ages, since his is so heavy. My computer's pretty light, but rather cumbersome... something about how the weight's distributed on the little thing. Besides, Chuck has been working on us for years to get Macs. Well, he won. We each got a brand spanking new MacBook, and they're just lovely. I mean really, really beautiful machines, these. We've been spending the last couple of days getting used to the operating system (yeah, yeah, so Vista looks cool, but it turns out we can do the same windows-layering thing with the Mac OS... tee hee), redistributing our notes from old computers to new, getting the new ones set up on the home network, etc., in addition to doing actual work. Of course, we get to do the work on the new computers, so that's nice. I haven't named mine yet, but I think I pretty much have to.

Yesterday, John and I went to the pet store. We were shoping for a new carry bag for Kyadden, but have yet to decide on which one we should get, even now. At any rate, there was a bird there, a variety of parrot called a Caique (pronounced kah-EEK) whose name is Papacito. Anyway, he's the sweetest, most wonderful bird ever, loves to cuddle, and is just gorgeous. We were two seconds away from buying him and bringing him home with us when we noticed the price, which was a little ridiculous. We went home to do a little more research, and discovered that he was priced almost double what breeders sell them for, so we had to make the tough decision of not making this particular guy part of our crew. We'll definitely be back to visit, though, until someone gives him a new home. And who knows... we might decide to contact a breeder at some point in the future and give it a try with another Caique. Still, Papacito won our hearts, no question.

There's a chance that John and I will be teaching over the summer. There's also a chance that, from June 15th through about the 30th, we'll be going to the Phillipines with my Mom to visit all those members of my family that I've only ever seen pictures of, along with about three times as many that I don't even know exist. Either way, it'll be interesting. I'm just trying to look ahead into the distance. It's hard to do in the midst of so much work... John's bogged down in the other room with translation, and I'm working on readings and research and so on. The idea that there could be some kind of chock-full-o-beauty tropical vacation waiting for us in about four months does seem to help make the current passage of time a little easier to bear. Having a tropical bird around would probably do a beeter job of it, of course, but I'll settle for this, for now.

On a sadder note, Gian Carlo Menotti died. He was 95, and composed some pretty notable stuff on the classical scene, including "Amahl and the Night Visitors" and "The Consul." I want to extend my gratitude to him for many wonderful episodes I've spent performing his music... "Sleep, my love, sleep for me..."

Just beautiful... thank you for that.