This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

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December 2006
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Five Bad Weeks

It has been a really bad five weeks. Starting with what happened with Zuri which had me in very horrible frame of mind which I am still working to get over. These last five weeks I have been sadder and angrier and meaner and less patient than I remember being in many years. I think it is almost over though. Five weeks is enough. Meanwhile, almost as soon as that happened, Brandy got sick. Then Brandy broke her leg. Then this last week I’ve been sick. It has been a bad five weeks.

Of course, then I remember that right before that five weeks I had a kidney stone episode. And right before that we found out my Saturn is dying. And right before that some one bumped into Brandy’s car in a parking lot while I was in it waiting for her to come out of a store. (No serious damage.) Literally the day before that someone dented my Saturn in a different parking lot while Brandy was driving. (It was the mom of one of Amy’s schoolmates… we know her.) And a week before that, someone smashed in the window of Brandy’s car and stole her purse while she was at a school rummage sale within sight of the car.

And come to think of that, before that we had months of tension about selling the house.

And going back almost a year, there was all that nonsense in Florida.

Come to think of it, it has been a bad couple of years.

All in all, though, I am now at a job I enjoy and can grow in, we are now in a decent house that we like in a decent neighborhood, money is no longer a major day to day concern, either through my previous employer faling to meet any of their commitments like last year, or through maintaining two households like the first part of this year. Amy is in a school she loves, and she is doing very well.

MOST things are going very well and the trends are all in good directions.

But there have been some very hard bumps and bruises along the way. And the last five weeks has for me very tough in terms of those personal at home things. But I can see the sky again now I think.

And I really really hope the next five weeks… hell, the next five months… the next five years… are all up trend all the way. Well, at least mostly. I don’t need any more months like the last month please.

Musical Day

Saturday was a musical day in the Minonagony household. The morning had us getting up early (for a weekend) to get Amy to a church in Everett where her chorus was singing for a “Lady’s Tea” at some church up there. It is their first public performance of the season and somewhat of a warmup. I took this picture and was busy trying and failing to post about it from my Treo and so intent on trying to figure out why it wasn’t working (never did figure that out) that I didn’t notice at all when the music suddently stopped mid-phrase and there was a gasp and a commotion as a parent ran up to retrieve her daughter who had just fainted on stage. It was not Amy. After a few minutes of everybody composing themselves they started over at the beginning of that song.

After that, we raced back down to Seattle to the University of Washington. The bass teacher we had taken Amy to didn’t quite know what to think or how to approach the task of teacher her after her first lesson with him, so had arranged for her to be seen by HIS teacher, a professor of Music at the UW. So we got there just in time, only to be the only ones there. Both the teacher and the professor ended up being about 30 minutes late. When they got there they took Amy and asked Brandy and I to leave. So we went and got coffee while Amy had a one hour session with the Professor. Apparently she did pretty well other than her usual 11 year old attention span and taking it seriously issues. They are going to consult with each other and get back to us on what they think the best approach to continuing her bass education will be. The Professor is also going to try to get us set up with the Seattle Youth Orchestra, which Brandy had sent email to over the summer but who never answered us. Since Amy doesn’t have an orchestra at her school (too small) it is important to have an actual outlet to perform… it gives a direction to lessons and practice and such.

Anyway, musical day.

Award to the Father

I’m a little bit late getting this out, but a couple of weeks ago my father, William Minter, was given the “Bud Day Award” by the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars. Congratulations to him!