CDs listened to today:

• The Annuals: Be He Me
  

I'm pretty excited about this coming week. I'm taking my niece on a road-trip vacation. She's 13, nearly 14, and I've been begging my sister and her husband to let me take her on a trip like this since she was 11. Finally, it's happening!

My niece and I have been talking about our plans for a bit and we have a few definite plans and a few ideas that we'll figure out as we go. For sure, we'll go rafting on the Arkansas River, visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Mesa Verde National Park (I scored a very cheap room at the Far View Lodge right inside the park). We'll also find a stable for a horseback ride for her--and me, I miss being around horses.

The germ of the trip comes from my own childhood. It stems from my great aunt, Muiree (pronounced like "Marie"), who flew each of the kids in my family to visit her in San Francisco when we were 12 years old. She took great pains to make lots of plans for things that we wanted to do and she was unfailingly patient and energetic as she shuttled us around town. I remember my own trip: Giants game in the owner's box, Sea World, all the top restaurants, how could I forget? In a way, this trip is a memorial to her (she died about five years ago). Even when my parents' divorce strained family loyalties, she never was anything but loving and accepting of us kids. I can only hope to be an uncle like that.

CDs listened to today:

• Rufus Wainwright: Want One
• Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise
• Charles Wuorinen: Two-Part Symphony
  

CDs listened to today:

• Daniel Perlongo: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
• Suede: (eponymous)
• Johan de Meij: T-bone Concerto
• Arnold Schoenberg: Pelleas et Melisande, disk 2
• Various Artists: Essential Selection, Vol. 1, disk 1
• Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love
• Hebert Vázquez: String Quartet No. 1
• Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, disk 2

CDs listened to today:

• Parliament: The Best Of Parliament
• David Maslanka: Symphony No. 7
• David Maslanka: A Child's Garden Of Dreams
  
• Republica: (eponymous)
• Tom Scott: Bebop United
  

CDs listened to today:

• Arthur Blythe: Lenox Avenue Breakdown
• Henry Brant: Pathways to Security
• Hot Hot Heat: Make Up The Breakdown
• Rami Levin: Anima/Breath Of Life
• Jacob Druckman: Other Voices
• Megadeth: Rust In Peace
• Dave Holland: Seeds Of Time
• Charles Ives: Sonatas For Piano
  

CDs listened to today:

• Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise
• Norma Wendelburg: Sinfonietta
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano
• Extreme: Pornograffiti
  

CDs listened to today:

• Blur: Leisure
  

CDs listened to today:

• The Annuals: Be He Me
• Tadeusz Baird: Colas Breugnon - Suite In Old Style

CDs listened to today:

• Johan de Meij: T-bone Concerto
• Arnold Schoenberg: Pelleas et Melisande, disk 1
• Various Artists: Drum & Bass Sessions, 2, disk 2
• Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love
• Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, disk 1
• The Violent Femmes: (eponymous)
• Charles Wuorinen: Percussion Symphony
  

A has new health problems. She called me from on the road home on the weekend, begging me to locate a hospital, saying she was in major pain. I tried to guide her to one I found on Google, but perversely, the hospital I found was a closed mental hospital. When she called back to tell me, I confess I laughed a bit (I do that when I'm nervous). She hung up on me and refused to respond to my text messages or answer my calls. Imagine what it's like to not know why she needed an ER or what her condition was. It turns out to be gall bladder pain and she's now on narcotics for the pain.

We need help.

(Note: After posting the entry for this day, a friend suggested some of the posting was inappropriate. In deference to his views, which I believe are wiser than my own on this topic, I have withdrawn about two-thirds of this posting.)

CDs listened to today:

• Karel Husa: Music for Prague 1968
• Charlie Parker: The Legendary Dial Masters, disk 2
• David Maslanka: Symphony No. 7
• Bohuslav Martinu: Nonet
• The Replacements: Let It Be
• Tom Scott: Bebop United
• Krzysztof Penderecki: Symphony No. 5
• The Strokes: Room On Fire
  

CDs listened to today:

• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
• Everclear: So Much For The Afterglow
• Arthur Blythe: Lenox Avenue Breakdown
• Henry Brant: Angels And Devils
• Buddy Holly: Greatest Hits
• Rami Levin: Anima/Breath Of Life
• Lucia Dlugoszewski: Duende Quidditas
• Sarah McLachlan: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
• Dave Holland: Seeds Of Time
  

CDs listened to today:

• Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise
• John Abercrombie: November
• The Annuals: Be He Me
• Johann Sebastian Bach: The Art Of The Fugue
• Bloque: (eponymous)
• Norma Wendelburg: Sinfonietta
  

CDs listened to today:

• Krzysztof Penderecki: Symphony No. 3
• The Streets: A Grand Don't Come For Free
• Johan de Meij: T-bone Concerto
• Various Artists: Drum & Bass Sessions, 2, disk 1
• Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love
• Dorrance Stalvey: String Quartet 1989
• The Vines: Winning Days
• Charles Wuorinen: Genesis
  

CDs listened to today:

• Bob Margolis: Terpsichore
• The Replacements: All Shook Down
• Tom Scott: Bebop United
  

CDs listened to today:

• David Maslanka: Symphony No. 7
  

CDs listened to today:

• Dave Holland: Seeds Of Time
• Alan Hovhaness: Symphony No. 29 for Trombone and Band
• Charlie Parker: The Legendary Dial Masters, disk 1
  

CDs listened to today:

• Dave Holland: What Goes Around
• Rami Levin: Anima/Breath Of Life
• David Diamond: Symphony No. 5
• Rob McConnell & The Boss Brass: The Brass Is Back
  

I'm stuck in Omaha for work. I'm definitely feeling a little isolated and out-of-sorts.

CDs listened to today:

• Arthur Blythe: Lenox Avenue Breakdown
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4

CDs listened to today:

• Norma Wendelburg: Sinfonietta
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
• The Elms: The Big Surprise
  

CDs listened to today:

• The Annuals: Be He Me
• Jan Bach: Laudes
• Blink 182: Enema Of The State
  

CDs listened to today:

• The Verve: Urban Hymns
• Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love
• Charles Wuorinen: Five
• Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise

CDs listened to today:

• Johan de Meij: T-bone Concerto
• John Speight: Symphony No. 2

CDs listened to today:

• Syd Straw: War And Peace
• Tom Scott: Bebop United
• Arnold Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder
• Various Artists: Digital Empire, disk 2
• The Annuals: Be He Me
• Hebert Vázquez: String Quartet No. 1

CDs listened to today:

• Dave Holland: The Razor's Edge
• Arthur Blythe: Lenox Avenue Breakdown
• David Diamond: Symphony No. 2
• Mazzy Starr: So Tonight That I Might See
• Rami Levin: Anima/Breath Of Life
• Alan Hovhaness: Symphony No. 17 (Symphony for Metal Orchestra)
• Dave Holland: Seeds Of Time
• Vernon Reid: Mistaken Identity
• David Maslanka: Symphony No. 7
• Krzysztof Penderecki: Concerto for Violin

CDs listened to today:

• Jan Bach: Concert Variations
• Frank Black: The Cult Of Ray
• John Abercrombie: November
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, disk 4
• Missy Elliott: Supa Dupa Fly
• Norma Wendelburg: Sinfonietta
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 (Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conducting)
  

CDs listened to today:

• John Phillip Sousa: Marches
• Velocity Girl: ¡Simpatico!
• Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love
• Charles Wuorinen: Concerto for Piano No. 3
• Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise

My life has been a bit pressure-filled lately. Work is tough, for starters. Between staffing cuts and a new move to put a department on which I depended heavily out of business, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I've even taken a couple of days sick because of the pressures. I have to travel to Omaha soon to help take all the work in that department and move it to a new team--in the midst of all my other projects and work.

Then there's A, who is pressuring me to set up a firm date to visit her. This is tough for me, partly because of the pressures of work, and partly because of my finances. Things are a bit tight because I've been footing the bill for most of our travels and all of our entertainment. She's got a tight financial situation, too, so it's been the best way to go. My frustration is that I feel like I'm responsible for setting up and initiating just about every activity we do. Now I need to figure out the travel schedule, coordinate it with my work, work out the conflicts with my plans for a trip with my niece, find the money to visit--and try not to add stress to A, who really doesn't need more of that. And she is insisting that we adhere to a rigid schedule of visits, which she insists means I have to visit her and not the reverse. I feel like she's not doing her part, here. She constantly burns her time off from work the second it becomes available, blocking her ability to visit me--and spends every extra dime she has the second she gets it, leaving no resources to make a visit possible. I'm stuck... I need support.

CDs listened to today:

• Arnold Schoenberg: Die Glückliche Hand
• Various Artists: Digital Empire, disk 1
• Johan de Meij: T-bone Concerto