Spiritual Director

In response to my last entry, in which I mentioned the invitation to become a spiritual director to one person in the Companis program, queenofhalves wrote, "It sounds like a sign to me!"

I was thinking the same thing about the sign, and about God/dess presenting me with opportunities now that I've declared my path. But I'm also reluctant to just say Yes. I am worried about overconfidence, and the impact my lack of formal training may have on someone else.

On the other hand, it's not like I spent only a few minutes chatting with Craig. He and I talked for about six hours, and a significant chunk of that was about religion, my path and beliefs, and a couple of episodes in which I did offer spiritual direction informally. When we finally said goodbye, about four hours after he had made the initial invitation, he told me that he was even more sure I would be right for it than when we started. As "job interviews" go, it was a fairly in-depth one.

I emailed my non-LJ friends last night with the same information I posted here, including my caution about saying "Yes, I will be a director for one of your volunteers," and my friend the LifeCoach responded with, "We all know that you are absolutely ready to serve as someone's spiritual director. You have been for some time now. Claim and live your dream, my dear! You'll be remarkable in your guidance and support."

( I am suddenly reminded of my un-official senior theatre project. )

Agggghhhhh! My Preciousssss. . . !!!!

I managed to make my new computer talk nicely with my iPod this morning. I even ripped my new "Wicked" soundtrack CD to the iPod and it showed up very nicely.

Then I disconnected the iPod (safely! using the "remove hardware" feature!) and took it to my studio where I was going to listen to music as I did the second coat of paint on the air ducts.

I turned it on -- and my song list was gone. Vanished. There is no music showing at all.
None of the 1,262 tracks of music and audio are accessible.

I went back to the computer, opened MusicMatch and the iPod Manager, plugged in the iPod. I received an error message that the iPod had "malfunctioned" -- but it went away before I could take it all in. The iPod manager screen showed the same amount of memory used as it had before -- but no songs listed. They're there, it seems. But now they're invisible. The program then told me it was. . . gack - I don't remember what it told me. But I told tech support in the email I composed while I was staring at it.

Now neither computer reads any data on the contents of the 'pod, but both say "yes, there is data on it, here's the disk usage graphic."

Tricksy computers! They have mangled the preciousss! We hates them!

Dad, My iPod and Me

Important stuff first: Dad is doing great. He's been moved from ICU into a regular room, feels a bit weak but otherwise fine, has been eating and has been up for a couple of walks. His spirits are good and his voice is stronger.

I didn't visit today because I seem to be coming down with a cold: sore throat, body aches, tired out.

As for the Precious. . . . the only way to "fix" the iPod, according to tech support, was to do a "restore" procedure, erasing all my music files. Back to square one.

Oh well. . . . I didn't have anything planned for tonight anyway, and I'm too bleched out to study, so I'll spend the evening ripping my CD's again.

Life could be a heck of a lot worse.