Working on the Train

I suppose I could, but I never work on my computer on a plane. For one thing, the seats are often too close together. But here on the train, it’s more spacious and there’s something soothing about working with the quiet rumble and steady rhythm of the train and the world zipping by outside the window. (With a little extra zip on this bullet train!). 

 

While closing out the notes to the Shanghai course, I stumbled into the idea of cataloguing all my Sibelius PDF’s on a word document, both to remind myself what pieces I have that I might consider reviving and to see how many there actually are. 356, I discovered, and that doesn’t count Sibelius arrangements that never got made into PDF’s and handwritten arrangements that never made it to Sibelius. When my old computer died, I couldn’t get my active Sibelius files onto the new, so that’s on my to-do list to see if a phone call to Sibelius might help revive them. And organizing the handwritten ones that I have in several actual folders (not the desktop variety) is a good rainy-day project. I suspect both projects would uncover another couple of hundred, which means over 500 choices when planning workshops. That’s more than enough to keep things fresh. 

 

And while I praised the fellow that doesn’t need to work all the time in the last post, the one that loves to is not to be discounted. I have two Orff Chapter workshops coming up at the end of September and the planning and dreaming about which of the 500 plus pieces/activities I’ll choose is part of what adds depth to the present moment, that anticipation of something to look forward to. I remember on a rafting trip in the Grand Canyon, a fellow traveler told me there are three keys to a good life: 

 

1)   Good work.

2)   Someone (or many) to share it with.

3)   Something to look forward to. 

 

I agree. 

 

Like tonight. Tonny invited me to go to the Blue Note Jazz Club to hear a local Chinese group, so instead of my usual time-filling habits in the hotel room (most Crostics, Solitaire, and Apple TV), I’m looking forward to stepping out for a little night life. 

 

Meanwhile, back to work. (8/30)