and then it rained.

[fox]

So yesterday, as I said, all I wanted to do was put an ice pack on my head and lie down. I did this (after eating far too much lunch), and slept for about four hours, getting up only once for purposes relating to having eaten far too much lunch, and then was awake for a couple of hours before I went to bed, and had no trouble falling asleep (though, frustratingly, I woke up at two-hour intervals throughout the night).

In the couple hours I was awake between the nap of extreme unconsciousness and going to bed, it rained.

So based on the past several months' (not to say years') worth of experience, that's a shocking correlation between a rapid drop in atmospheric/barometric pressure and my becoming suddenly droopy and utterly useless. I feel like I'm coming down with something, I mean to say, and I have to lie down now now now, and a storm blows in, and then I feel better. Or I get on a plane, and by the time we land maybe as little as an hour later, I am totally exhausted. You're not supposed to get jet lag when you fly from DC to Boston in the middle of the afternoon, but I do. Of course it's not possible to sleep soundly on a long flight; but I always sleep suddenly on a short flight as well; which means I have not stepped off a plane without feeling groggy in ages.

Yesterday was the final data point, because I had really been feeling fine, and then bam, so this morning I called the doctor. When she calls back in response to my message I will tell her that I have for a long time observed a relationship between rapid drops in air pressure and my inability to stay alert or even keep my eyes open. I don't know if there is anything to be done about this. I happen to know that my sinuses are wicked narrow, particularly on the right side, but I don't know if having them roto-rootered is a solution; their walls are not unhealthily thick, I mean to say, they're not swollen, just the open space is teeny. Maybe I'm wrong about that. We'll see. Maybe careful attention to the weather forecast and a sudafed when it's supposed to rain will do something helpful. I genuinely have no idea, but I can't go on as I've been, because it's getting worse.

Comments

[twistedchick]

You're not the only one with atmospheric side-effects. I can get horrible air-pressure headaches just before a storm -- feels like my head will either cave in or explode, never sure which -- and they're relieved by rain coming. Also, the pollen this year is making me excessively sleepy; I'm napping way more than usual, whether I want to or not.

And it was very good to see you, however briefly. I have been thinking about some ways to tell how conservative the place you're singing may be, and these come to mind:
-- Who chooses the music? Are there some sort of written guidelines (from the priest or the parish council) or does the music director have ultimate power over what music is done?
-- When was the music written, and by whom? If any of the music was written within the past 50 years, the parish is likely to be less conservative. A great deal of post-Vatican II music was written, up to about 1980, and not all of it was folky or informal. Some of it was choral, some of it was solos. Also, if there is music in that period, and you name some of the composers, I may be able to tell you. At one point at the end of the 70s I sang as cantor in a parish choir that was the 'demonstration choir' for new music; we were the ones who premiered it for the diocese at regional conferences.

There are more data points but those are a start.

[fox]

I believe the music director (a layman) chooses the music, but I don't know what kind of guidelines, if any, he follows.

There's a balance between the sort of modern stuff that I don't like at all (almost certainly written in the past 50 years, yes indeed) and a good amount of Renaissance polyphony, which pleases me much more even if it is an indicator that the place leans rightward. :-) Yesterday was Gibbons, today is Palestrina and Allegri, later this week there'll be some Byrd, and I'll take all of it over Rutter and his analogues.

[twistedchick]

Oh, I wouldn't think of Renaissance polyphony as rightward; it's not, necessarily. However, if they had you singing a lot of pietistic Victorian-era stuff (the kind of thing my mother sang in 1930 or so in her choir) then yes, you're dealing with people who have not left Vatican I behind. Also, much of the Holy Week music tends to be good old stuff from back then rather than more modern things; even in the very liberal parish I used to attend, we did old chants during Holy Week and a lot of centuries-older things.

It would seem to me that the parish might be attempting to tread a line on the middle of the road. One other off-the-cuff indicator is lay involvement. Vatican II expressly allows for lay deacons (male) to assist with the Mass, and sometimes to preach; lectors (male and female), for the various Bible readings and to lead the responsorial psalm between them, and lay eucharistic ministers (male and female) to help give communion (bread and wine) to the congregation. You may gauge the relative conservatism of the parish by looking over time (not necessarily just this week, because Holy Week is always different) at who does what down there in front and which gender. I doubt, however, that they're going to have girl altar servers in Virginia, though we had them back in Churchville; they were the sisters of the boys who were supposed to be there but didn't show up, so when the girls came to make their brothers' excuses for them, they were asked if they wanted to help, they were trained, and they served (except when the bishop came to visit, so that nobody would officially have to acknowledge that it was happening.)

ETA: Rutter is an Anglican composer, I think. That in itself tells me that the parish is not hard-right-wing; the very conservative branch won't listen to music written by anyone not explicitly Roman Catholic except for classical things like Bach. I well remember the fuss made when our elderly pastor wanted the Protestant version of the Our Father sung at his funeral -- we did it anyway, but the fuss made by some in the hierarchy was annoying. We figured that if Father John, who had had his throat shot out as a chaplain in WWII and then had served at the parish for about 40 years with a husky voice, wanted the Halleluia Chorus and the version of the OF that was sung across the street by Union Congregational, he could have whatever he wanted and the Parish Office could just lump it.

[fox]

Oh no, that's why I specified Rutter's analogues. I don't think we've actually had any Rutter at this church, but I can't remember the names of the composers who have written That Sort of Thing. It seems from your suggestions that it may be the more modern-type stuff than not - certainly nothing that feels "pietistic Victorian-era" to me. :-) And they do have women lectors and eucharistic ministers, as well as Spanish speakers (and evidently a Spanish Mass), though as you say not girls serving on the altar.

[twistedchick]

Then I'd say the parish is as forward-thinking and post-VII as you can get in Northern Virginia.

This is notable, especially since the Episcopal congregation at The Falls Church has explicitly sided with the far-right bishop in Africa and the EC is having a lawsuit with them over who actually owns the church where George Washington served on the vestry. And since the Episcopal bishop there explicitly refused to ordain women there, however qualified and legitimate their request, if they were 'women of a certain age', because it was all about hormones and not about God. (Not a joke -- this is why a longtime acquaintance there who'd done all the seminary studies got herself ordained by a small splinter Old Catholic branch that encouraged women priests, instead of staying Episcopalian as she was raised.)

Which is to say that in an area where the Episcopal hierarchy is so restrictive, having a Catholic parish that is even middle-of-the road is a miracle, so this one may be actually more reasonable than that. But there are ways and ways of going about things, these days, and you're not likely to see directly the ways in which the parish is liberal because such things are often done quietly these days. This, for two reasons: if the bishop is conservative and the parish is liberal, the parish can find itself without a priest very quickly (priests are often transferred unexpectedly when they get popular and effective "to avoid the appearance of a cult"), or worse; or, if the bishop is liberal but quiet about it, to keep the bishop from getting hauled over the coals by Rome.

[fox]

Our accompanist in my big choir is the music director at The Falls Church and fairly conservative himself, but was I believe dismayed when he came to be employed not by The Episcopal Church USA but by the Anglican Communion of Nigeria, or whatever that schism-group's name is. Members who didn't care to belong to the Nigerian church have been meeting over at Falls Church Presbyterian for years - but recently the case was decided, and The Falls Church, the building, was adjudged to belong to The Episcopal Church rather than to the congregation. So at least there's that?

Hadn't thought to consider other denominations' troubles in taking the temperature of the Catholics who employ me, but it's a good point. I still see a fair few "Benedict XVI says" bumper stickers and avert my eyes, but I can focus on my alto colleague who believes what medication she takes is none of her boss's business, and be okay. :-)

[twistedchick]

I think it's reasonable to look at what's going on in the EC when you want to evaluate the RC in an area, because the EC is the first place that Catholics who feel pressured to leave may go; the current Book of Common Prayer is little different than a missal in some ways, and the service is a lot like what might have happened if the Mass had been translated into English in 1790 and then updated. Many, many of the Episcopalians I've known are ex-Catholics. There are also ex-Catholic pagans and Quakers, but not as many, as well as a few Buddhists.

The thing is, if the EC in an area is too conservative, too authoritarian, then there's not much chance of Catholics joining them to leave Rome. So more might stay where they are, some things considered.

I figured the church would belong to the diocese; it was theirs first. There are stickier ownership issues when the building in question is something like a school built by the parishioners, as in too many places I can think of, but that is a story for another time.