#27, #2, and part of #28

it was a busy, stressful yet completely enjoyable weekend. by friday night i was thinking through each part of the weekend and planning it out in my head so that i was as best as prepared as possible. the weekend events may seem minimal and like no big deal at all to most people, but it was more all of the little details involved that i needed to have in line.

saturday began for me at 8am when i woke up. i knew that i had to get up and ready, get my things together for the entire day, get gas and money, and be at jay's place by 9:45 at the late st. his church (savior community church in nyack, ny) was participating in the second annual "not your mama's music festival" with other nyack churches. it just so happened that his church was on first thing, pastor frank leading with electric guitar a set of praise with lauren and matt on piano/vocals and drums. despite jay and i's ability to kill any buffer time (extra time before we need to be somewhere) and be fashionably "late" to most things, we got to the park pretty much just after 10. no big deal, savior CC didn't go on until 11ish anyway. the setting was gorgeous - the band set up in a gazebo at a park with a great wide green lawn with a playground in the back, right along the hudson river in nyack. the tapanzee bridge was in view just a bit south of us. the sun was shining (most of the time). just a wonderful morning and afternoon of music to glorify God through all different denominations, but united in faith in one God. jay cut out for a hair cut for a chunk of the afternoon, but i stuck around playing with kids and in fellowship with others. he returned with some goodies from the italian festival - philly cheesesteak, sausage and peppers, zeppoles. but soon after we had to head out for our next event.

this brings us to number 27 on my list of '30 by 30'. i must confess that when i put this item on the list, it was something i already knew i would be doing. but hopefully i can be excused of this, and not seem like i am cheating, because it is something that i had thought about putting on there and wanted to do anyway. i had been debating about putting some sort of concert on the list, but thought the usual concerts i attend were too typical. it has been years (probably about 10 years) since i attended a symphony orchestra concert.

i grew up with an appreciation for classical music - it is often playing from my mom's car, from our house stereo system, at mama's, but even my aunt jan and uncle steve have contributed to my appreciation for good music. although i wanted to quit playing the violin for some years growing up, my switch to the bass violin gave me continued experience in performing some good classical music. so it is no surprise that gustav holst's 'the planets' would be something i am familiar with. as it turns out, one of jay's favorite musical pieces of all time is jupiter: the bringer of jollity from holst's planets. some time back he made a "bucket list" (a very short one) that included his desire to see the planets performed live. a combination of my love and appreciation for the music, and his desire to experience it live, led to our buying tickets for the albany symphony orchestra.

as it turns out, albany is only a 2 hour drive from us. we left jay's house by 4 and easily arrived at our destination by 6 with time to get some dinner before. right across the street was an irish pub, mc geary's, where we had dinner and played some pinball before heading to the palace theater. my photos do not capture it at all. the outside of it looked like any old theater with some flashing lights and big sign. jay even commented that it reminded him more of a cascino. but as soon as we entered, we walked into a lobby that was quite impressive. gold trim surrounded the place, lots of mural paintings, impressive lighting. it felt like the perfect venue for a symphony orchestra. through the lobby we entered the theater to see most of the orchestra members on stage practicing and getting ready for the concert. for a while we just stood in the back taking it all in but then headed to our seats - row F of the orchestra section, pretty much directly in the center with enough rows ahead of us to put us at a height of inclination that we could see many of the musicians. it is worth paying a little more for these seats, in my opinion, as i like to observe and take it all in as i listen to classical music. my eye frequently falls upon the bass violin section (as i used to play this role in the orchestra), but also to the celloists and percussion - especially the timpany. i am always impressed with the violins of course too and what i could see of the back brass sections.

as we sat down all of the emotions of such an environment flooded over me. i tried to explain to jay how being at places like this for events such as these make me feel very special. i couldn't think of a better word, other than privileged. over the years, my parents have exposed me to different cultural opportunities that i may or may not have appreciated at the time, but now treasure and value and hope to eventually share with my kids someday. i realize that not everyone gets to do the things i have, or not everyone chooses to, but i am grateful for the experiences.

the first two pieces were very enjoyable - the second one featuring an incredible cello sololist that had everything completely memorized. but my excitement and the anticipation lied with the planets. as soon as the lights dimmed again after the intermission, i could feel the goosebumps rising. mars: the bringer of war is the perfect dramatic introduction to the 7 movement piece. i had forgotten how much i loved that piece as well. then venus: the bringer of peace and mercury: the winged messenger. as mercury ended, i knew what was next. jupiter. as a smile fell upon my face, i looked over at jay, who shared my same smile. i love music, but i love live music even more (usually anyway). i love watching it being performed, watching each instrumentalist, watching the maestro conduct, watching the audience observe. i love how i feel inside as i listen. jupiter is a fantastic piece with so many good parts, but i was struck at how much i loved my favorite section. it amazes me the way music can capture emotion and make the listener feel. as i watched the string instruments in unison with their long bow strokes, i could actually feel my eyes well up a bit with tears. in those moments, although there is nothing specifically "religious" about it, my mind came to ponder the awesomeness of God. i thought about His creation and the enormity of the universe - the stars, the galaxies, the planets. i thought about His love a

nd grace and the way He works in my life. this past week i had been reflecting on love (as i mentioned in the previous blog), and in particular the verse from 1 john 4:19, "we love because He first loved us." in those moments as my ears were filled with beautiful sounds, my heart was also full of the beauty of God. it is hard to express in words, but it was overwhelmingly good. upon the silent of the last note of the piece, i noticed the woman next to me in the corner of my eye. i could tell she wanted to clap and was also struck by the performance. then, without trying to seem to obvious, i looked again over to jay to see his reaction. i didn't want to impose too much pressure on his "bucket list" item. but as i looked over at him, again with a smile that i could not nor did i want to contain, his face broke out into the same smile too. whether or not the albany symphony orchestra presented the best performance of jupiter or not, it was absolutely breathtaking.

it seems almost wrong to jump from that to the next accomplishment of my '30 by 30' list, but it must be done. i got to bed around 1am on saturday night after our drive back home from albany. my alarm was set to wake me up at 6am so that i could get up to put the pork shoulder in the crockpot for its 6 hours of cooking. up until this point, i hadn't really allowed myself to think much about this task i had taken on. i hadn't completely acknowledged how inexperienced i was - this being my first time i was going to make bbq pulled pork, but also my first time handling animal meat in such a way. the 8.5 pound pork shoulder just fit into the crockpot while i added some a&w root beer for it to cook in. i went back to bed for a couple of hours before slowly waking up to what i assumed was the smell of cooking meat. i got up to look at it, and proceeded to look at it probably almost every 15 minutes afterwards until i went to church. i don't know what i was expecting to see - obviously not much would change in that time.

after church, i headed right home to begin the next step - the pulling of the pork. i grabbed the shoulder by the bone and began to cut off chunks of the meat in order to pull it a little at a time. it wasn't as easy as i expected, but with some hard work i got the meat to separate a bit. nausea kicked in a little bit - i think it was a combination of smelling the meat, working so brutally with it, being somewhat tired still and my appetite increasing. for a little while, i wasn't sure that i would even be able to eat and enjoy my work. eventually i came to a piece that pulled as perfectly as i expected the whole thing to. liesl arrived with her share of the pulled pork (we both cooked them separately), and we combined our crockpots into one, somewhat surprised at the little amount of meat we got for each of our 8-9 pounders. baby ray's bbq sauce was added and it all started to look a bit more appealing.

with #2 at completion, the rest of our lunch items came together for our first family sunday dinner hosted/coordinated by me, as per #28 on the list. bbq pulled pork, two types of cole slaws provided by kate, sweet potato fries as i requested of mama, and a delicious apple crumb from aunt jan for dessert. it all tasted good, but more importantly, it was another opportunity for us to spend time together as a family.