Skip to main content

Meow-llet

If I'm doomed to be a crazy old lady with copious amounts of cats, their names will be Martellato, Ringbert, and Meow-llet, among others.

If you are a normal person I'm sure your hand is slowly traveling up to your noggin to scratch it in pure confusion right now. I came to the realization last night that I have a lot of "bellchoirs". In fact, I'm like a crazy old cat lady except my cats are groups...people who come together to ring bells. As of this moment, I have been asked by 2 churches, 1 community group and 1 quartet to join...all since I moved here to Huntsville. I am filling in on two services on Easter and am constantly getting phone calls to sub for members in Huntsville's community handbell choir, the Heritage Ringers. And don't forget I still keep in touch with all my friends from Bronzeworks, ringers from the choirs I directed at Resurrection and my kooky little quartet buddies from St. Luke.


I have shyed away from joining any of these groups permanently, mostly due to my work-travel schedule. Being a member of a bellchoir means you are a soloist; missing rehearsals is very hard on the rest of the group.

But for now, I'm just a ringer Ringer. I fill in wherever and whenever the next bellchoir needs me.

[Hopefully, I will forget about the name "Meow-llet" by the time I am old...I would hate to think some poor-cat soul has to answer to that.]
Labels:

Comments

  1. Lisa KThursday, April 21, 2011

    Hey! Who are you calling "kooky"??? Ha! We are the very definition of kooky. I miss you SO much. You can be a "ringer" in AZ anytime. I'm sure you are in demand in Huntsville...they would be crazy not to want you to join their bell choir. You're awesome missy! It is amazing how fast the word spread that you are in Alabama. :)

    I'm kind of diggin the name Martellato. It sounds like a cat that will pounce on you when you least expect it. :)

    Luv ya NBG!!
    BP ;)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Who has two thumbs and loves comments? Nerdy April!!! Type one out and hit publish!

Popular posts from this blog

The road to curing Type 1 Diabetes

From the moment of diagnosis, the road is rough, the learning curve is steep and the stakes are literally life or death. The map is less-than-helpful - paths originating from virtually every corner, coalescing at a center point (aka "diagnosis") and bursting back outwards - some paths cross and wrap around each other but others are isolated. And even with all of these roads, most of the territory is uncharted - how did we all get here and how will we all exit? Where are the obstacles we haven't found yet? Which passage holds the key to unlocking the solution?

On any given day I feel pretty isolated with this disease - I'm the only T1D in my group at work, the only one in mission control, the only one in my family. I go through the logistics of calling insurance companies, ordering supplies, changing sites and troubleshooting malfunctions mostly on my own. Even those pesky carbs really only get counted in my brain, no group think for a meal bolus here. But there is b…
3 comments
More Nerdy This Way! »

International Travel with Type 1 Diabetes

Whew! Back from one international trip and on to another next week! I will admit my eyes roll every time I get the "we're gunna need to pat you down" talk at TSA, but international travel is a whole different animal. I thought it might be fun to see what goes through my brain and into my bags for these types of trips!


I wouldn't be a NASA Flight Controller if I wasn't good at planning, the key to international travel as a T1D is PLANNING!

3 months prior

Assess supplies. Mine come in 90-days supplies so I like to inventory at least 3 months prior and make a plan to order more early if the trip is going to coincide with the end of my 90-day stock. In my experience supply companies are usually pretty good about adjusting orders as needed if you tell them the reason for the early request - just mention you have an international trip coming up and want to make sure to have plenty of supplies (and backups!) in time. Request a loaner insulin pump. It's likely the comp…
2 comments
More Nerdy This Way! »

Hot OJT

Last week I had the chance to mentor a newly certified ADCO trainee - the NASA process is called "Hot On-The-Job-Training", or Hot OJT. What makes it "hot" you ask? Well, essentially I am hands off - he is sitting at the console, working all the plan reviews and updates, making calls to other flight controllers and to the flight director, reacting to anomalies and preparing material for the shift handover. My job is to act as the fault tolerance - a backup ADCO of sorts.

Tuesday was his last official day and by Wednesday morning he was in the backroom sending commands to ISS in preparation for the docking of a three-person Soyuz.


The beauty of this system is the gradual buildup in responsibility. There is a subtle shift from student, to subject matter expert, to fresh operations trainee to advanced trainee and finally to certification and real-time operations flight controller - the process takes two years on average and is considered by many to be enough specializ…
2 comments
More Nerdy This Way! »
01 09 10