So, the last two weeks have been about checking things off lists.

De-Christmassing – I brought the boxes up and started the ‘striking’ process. As I said on FB, I also inventoried the boxes of ornaments I never bothered to unpack this year. We have SO MANY beautiful ornaments! We collected them on trips, and Charles asked for new Swarovski ornaments every year for the last couple of decades. It definitely feels like honoring his legacy and memory to really do Christmas right. Next year, I’ll take the time and put up both trees, and clean all the ornaments, at least the glass and crystal ones, before they go on the tree. But I also culled: “Ick, that’s ugly, off with you.“
Also, the Wyndham Hill “Winter Solstice“ albums are the perfect “take down the tree“ music. Quiet, respectful, elegiac, and just Christmassy enough. I’m not done yet – there’s a new ornament storage box and tree storage box on their way from Amazon. I’ll keep nibbling until it’s done.

After that, I can reset that corner of the living room and finally make it into Music Library Land. Also should find myself a wooden music stand to order.

The estate: finally I have not only an estate account (populated by C’s checking account, savings account and so on), but the debit card and checks and online access. The debit card still doesn’t work – I can’t say I’ve been impressed with Citibank during this whole process – and I need to work on that, but it’s not urgent since I can always transfer money into another account and pull from there. I have paid off the two outstanding credit cards (hurrah) and deposited the three checks to him that have been sitting around waiting for a place to put them.

I’ve started the conversation about having the co-op shares transferred to me. I have some followup tasks before we really get that started, but there’s no rush.

Health: I finished my PT work and visited my doctor, and presented her with my plan – which is simply to join a gym and keep doing the exercises (and exercise in general) and work on the weight loss. This sounded like a good plan. There’s a Blink Fitness in Jackson Heights, and it’s not expensive, and so I joined that and have been a couple of times. I’ve found that if I go midday Saturday, it’s very crowded and I can’t get on the machines I use, but but if I go first thing in the morning on a weekday, it’s fine. Also, because I’m coming from home, I don’t have to change and shower there, a big plus.

Ruddigore: we cast the show! It was fun, yet difficult, because we had so many great auditions and for some roles could have cast it several times over. Then we had to cast the chorus – usually, everyone who wants to can be in the chorus, but we had such a great response, we had to trim the list and create a waiting list. A shame, but good for the show. I’ll post a link later with the cast information. Now I can turn my attention back to picking which version(s) of the score we’re going to use. I love this show so much, it’s such a joy to be able to delve into it.

I’m sure there’s more, and there will definitely be a ‘next post’. I’m currently on an interesting trip that will warrant one.