Friday of oddities: Yet Another List

Things I did today:

1. Went shopping for relentlessly nutritious breakfast foods and horrible acid drain cleaner. Felt quite strange about this juxtaposition.

2. Took the lazy bus route to school. This involves taking three buses instead of one just to avoid walking the three blocks to my usual bus stop. The 105, which I take for all of three blocks, is invariably empty except for me and occasionally one middle aged woman riding for the same three blocks. Today I was the only passenger, which apparently brings out the religious nut in the bus driver. In response to my polite "How are you?", he informed me that once, 27 years ago, he saw the face of Jesus Christ three times in one day. I dutifully made impressed noises for the thirty seconds that remained of my ride, and then debused as rapidly as possible. His impassioned advice about "holy living" will stay with me until...well, I already forgot the details, so I guess not for long.

3. Discovered that "Songs of Solomon," the collection of sacred vocal music by Salamone Rossi (1570-c. 1630), is a four-hundred-year-old pun. The music contains a total of zero settings of the Song of Solomon (aka the Song of Songs), the text I was seeking; the composer seems to have thought himself clever for having the same first name as Solomon the Wise, and named his song collection in honor of that commonality. Which leaves me at a loss for my paper that was going to focus on the nonexistent setting.

4. Hummed for an hour. First voice lessons after some weeks off always frustrate me, as I hate losing technique, but my current teacher is good about reminding me of my progress as the lesson continues, so I can usually rein in my frustration. Also she's a yoga teacher too, and that always makes lessons fun. Another thing that made this lesson fun was the discovery that we've been to the same thrift store in San Francisco, despite the fact that I've been to San Francisco a grand total of twice in my life, and have never even seen most of it. My teacher bought her shirt, purse, and wallet in the same place that I recently bought a stuffed hedgehog and tortoise.

5. Baked most of my emergency cookie dough. For a month I've had a huge double recipe of chocolate peanut butter cookie dough waiting for the right moment to spring forth from the icy depths of our Frigidaire, and the meeting I've scheduled for tomorrow afternoon seemed like a good excuse. There will be all of four people there, counting me, and one of them is also baking. Plus I still have teglach left from Passover. These circumstances might perhaps suggest that my baking was unnecessary tonight. Pshaw, say I. Baking is always the right thing to do.

6. Made a list. Lists make me feel like I'm organized. In reality, I am not organized. The fact that I absentmindedly left school on Wednesday with neither my iPod nor my shoes attests to this fact. Today I managed to remember all of my belongings and apparel. Hooray for me!