Weekend in Paradise

On Friday we kicked off the first "First Friday Lunchtime Concert Series" concert. Patty Kelly, Kimie Minami and myself played piano duets by Brahms (Hungarian Dances # 5 & 6) and Mozart (the Overture to "The Marriage of Figaro") and some light pop stuff. We also played two piano trios: "The Home Guard" by M. Greenwald "We Three Kings" arranged by Schaum. We performed in the MITC at the College in Palikir and had a good crowd: a mixture of students, faculty, administration and lawyers from the capital. This Saturday we are meeting to plan the March concert.

Friday evening after work we walked home from Palikir to our house in Sokehs. It was Helen, Janhabi, Jen, Rohaizad and I. We made it in one hour and fifteen minutes and we weren't really pushing ourselves too hard. The plan is to walk it once a month. We'll see if we pull that off. The walking isn't so bad, it's just the traffic. There are no sidewalks and the roads are narrow and windy. Some cars gave us no leeway at all, they just zoomed past full speed inches from us. But it feels good to slow down and look around instead of just whipping down this road that we all drive so frequently.

Jen organized a snorkeling trip for Saturday morning. We took a boat from The Village to the Manta Cleaning Station, but there were no mantas there. So we moved out closer to the reef. Out there I saw three sharks (one leopard and two black tips) as well as the brightest clownfish I've ever seen. There was also a lot of the wavy kind of coral, as opposed to the stiff kind I usually see. Our trip included Lance and Helen also. When we returned at 12:30, we at lunch at The Village.

Saturday night Yen-ti organized a Chinese New Year celebration at the Summer Palace Restaurant in Kolonia. I love her New Year parties, probably because I like her so much and she has such great, positive energy. I helped her organize games, such as a quiz on famous dogs, and I led the group in singing "B-I-N-G-O" and "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window," in celebration of the Year of the Dog. The place was packed full and everyone seemed to enjoy laughing and talking all evening long. Very cool.

Sunday was our relaxing day. Rohaizad and I left the house one time to buy some cash power and see the movie "Fun with Dick and Jane." It was such a rainy and stormy day; I'm glad I stayed home. A bunch of friends did the Six/Seven Waterfall Hike, but doing an eight hour hike in a stormy deluge didn't sound fun. I hope they all made it back alright. I did manage to sketch out what I think is the last song I need to write for our Baltimore production of "Welcome to Micronesia" this summer. Jonathan wrote the words; it's called "Convenient."

Now that the busyness of the weekend is over, I can get back to the relaxation of work.