Well, not exactly, I’m only trying her out and I actually don’t like her that much, but if you know me at all you’ve probably guessed that there’s a new instrument in my house.
After going to a beautiful lessons and carols service at St. Luke’s Cathedral in downtown Orlando (oh, how lovely to be in high church and glorious music again!), I connected up with a Celtic harpist whose playing is just the sort that I want to learn. She arranges and composes and I liked what I heard. I ended up visiting her to take a lesson and rent a little harp from here in the precious three weeks I have left before moving to Switzerland. Perhaps one might accuse me of not using the time wisely. We’ll see what you say after I’ve landed a harp teacher in Basel. 
Anyway, I couldn’t help myself and it’s been a lovely week of my fingers teaching my brain how to play harp again. For those who missed it, or can’t keep track of my soap opera of instrumental affairs (haha), I took two years of pedal harp while at Eastman and loved it. It’s been another two years since I’ve had my hands on a harp, so needless to say I couldn’t play anything at first, but progress has been quite satisfactory. Practicing is a good break from all the tasks that must be done. As I hinted at, it’s not a very good instrument, requiring constant tuning and delicate maneuvers to get the levers to work, but it’s a good refresher instrument with four octaves and I didn’t have to decide about what to buy. Now that I’ve had some time on an instrument I feel much more confident about being able to pick one out on my own. I’m hoping Switzerland will provide the opportunity . . .
In the other news, we had a love, though hot, Christmas here in the Sunshine State. I managed to relax and enjoy the time with our guest, Kathy, before going into overdrive to get ready for Switzerland when she left. I alternate being perfectly peaceful with being panicked. I’m afraid there’s been a bit too much peace for me. I’m used to working under stress, and I don’t know how to handle this attitude. “Move to another country? Eeh. Been there done that.” I’m praying God will open my eyes to any truly essential preparations . . .
Oh yes, and writing a blog post is also perhaps not the most important task to be doing at the two week mark. Back to work!
