Finally Did It

Believe it or not, I cancelled my EverQuest account today.

I know, I know, many of you will think I've gone mental (you may be right). But it was really just eating up money! It didn't matter if I didn't play while I was a Guide (even though playing was part of our requirements. Shhhh, don't tell anyone!) since the play account was free. But since I left in August, I didn't log on once. I was hoping to return to the Guide Program last month, but there are so many other things I'd rather do with my time. It might be different if I didn't spend so much time in front of the computer (for my job and all my graphics programs and things like that =) but why keep paying for something that you don't use, right? I was sad to do it, but it's nice that the small bill it produced won't be coming, and I won't have to feel guilty about not playing anymore!

Besides, who wants to play a video game when you can drive out past the area you work in to sing some very . . . less than stimulating music as a favor to a friend? Ok, well, I do, honestly, but I said I would sing and so I did. The Mass included music that was written by a friend for litanies written by one of his friends. If you've never heard a litany or don't know what it is, it's a kind of prayer that uses repetition: there are several in every Catholic Mass. These were long vocally challenging pieces, but not really stimulating. One thing I've learned about observing Mass is that many people put themselves on autopilot, and go through the motions while their minds are elsewhere. We prayed the rosary on the buss-ride to the church, and it was almost like near everyone just flipped on a switch and started reciting. I don't understand why people who can seem so devoted can't pray among others with passion in their voices. Litanies seem to encourage the autopilot syndrome, and more than a few people lost interest about halfway through. We did sing Ave Verum Corpus, which is a lovely song by Mozart that I've always wanted to sing with that choir, but we started going to a different church before my vocal skills were ready for it. If I got nothing else from this day; I sang a beautiful piece of music that I've always wanted to sing, with a great group of people. Never heard it? Here's a midi! (For the record, I sang in the Alto section for this mass, with the exception of Ave Verum Corpus, where I joined the Sopranos. My voice is comfortable with either level. When I sang Mozart's Requiem in college, I was an Alto, and I think I had the best part! Mozart loved Altos, my director would say!)

One of the priests at my old church joined us for this, Father Jenkins. He told me a story that was both happy and sad. Right before we stopped going to that church, I had told him and Monsignor Hughes that I had lost my cat. Apparently, Monsignor felt so bad for me that he went and got me a kitten! A little calico whom I've never met. Apparently, she was quite the terror. When Father Jenkins was transferred to another church, he took the cat with him, and still has the ferocious 10 year old. And today was the first time I felt sorry for not going to church. So Monsignor never got the chance to deliver his gift, and I'm sorry he never got the chance to see how happy the gesture would have made me. Of course, the reason that gift was never delivered is because I would never have had the sweet calico I have now, and that would be a sad thing indeed.