Summer Nears

The last few weeks have went by very quickly. I have helped move my brother into his new house, had my very last jazz concert (sadly), written two papers and have organized (with the help of my teacher) a group to assist me in performing the Artie Shaw Clarinet Concerto, which I will perform for my jury, and to close the Clarinet Studio Recital. So, as you see, the end of the semester has been hectic, and I still have a listening exam this week, and Concert Band Concert followed by Finals Week.

Luckily however, I will have an adequate amount of time to study, and no back-to-back exams like I had last Spring semester (those are definitely not fun).

I hope to update my blog more regularly in the future. Unfortunately it always seems to be one of the first things I cut, when other things arise.

Oh, by the way, I would recommend Opera Mini (just recently released) to anyone who owns an iPhone/iPod Touch, as it is very fast and effecient. I would not however recommend it as a complete replacement, but only as a compliment to the Safari browser.

My Brother's Wedding and dogsitting

For the last couple of days I have been involved in activities involving my brother's wedding. The first of the activities involved readying my gift to my brother and his bride, music to them from me.
I performed on my clarinet and saxophone. Originally I was going to perform three pieces, but I trimmed it down to two pieces which worked out wonderfully. The pieces I performed solo, with backing tracks were, Endless Love on the clarinet, and Misty on Alto Saxophone. Gathering the backing tracks for these pieces was an interesting and strung out process, but I finally accomplished it, and ended up purchasing the backing track for Misty to find one that was just right, and it proved to be the right decision, as out of the two it was most liked.
For the actual wedding, I was an usher. Being an usher involved going the day before, and practicing with others in the wedding party, learning how to carry out my part, after many changes we came to a final plan and were ready for the next day.
On the wedding day everything went very smoothly, and proved that the great amount of practice, and planning were essential, and paid off. The groom and bride looked great, and the wedding was great, and the reception was good, with very nice food, especially the vanilla and chocolate-covered, fresh strawberries. During the reception, I was even coaxed into dancing with the bride, and dancing is something I rarely if ever partake in.
After the wedding I promised to dog/cat sit for my brother and his bride. From Saturday (the wedding day), until Monday afternoon I watched their two dogs, and one kitten. The dogs behaved pretty well and the kitty also, except for one instance, the first night when it woke me at 3 a.m. In that instance I gave it a late night (morning) snack, and it went back to sleep. The Wedding week is now over, after the flurry of activity during that week, most weeks will now seem dull.

Finals 2009 Week Two

Today I took my final in my Spanish class, which is a huge relief, as it was the last Spanish test I will ever have to endure. I have now taken all of the Spanish classes that I must take in order to graduate. Tomorrow I will take my last Final and finally be free of college for a few months..., for the most part, for I still have a few things to do concerning my academic and professional futures.

The main things I will have to do during the summer that are school related are:

1) Work on improving my clarinet skills. Though in my mind I seem to have reached a plateau on the clarinet, there is much room for improvement especially in the tenseness of my left hand.

2) Decide what I would like to do after college, which is a chore. This will probably consume my thoughts for many days and nights during the long summer days, and like most of my problems, will not be resolved until after summer is long gone and I have used much of my time worrying instead of enjoying the time.

I hope that after Finals, when my summer break begins that I am able to enjoy the summer, and hopefully make the summer enjoyable. Though I must think about the future, the present is very important as well

Finals Spring 2009 Week One

Tomorrow I take the plunge into my first two finals of finals week. I have prepared for this endeavor by studying feverishly yesterday and from 7:30 am till around 9pm today. For my first test I will explain the change in Social Darwinism in the 2oth century through Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal Legislation. In the second part of the same exam I will compare the Joads from "The Grapes of Wrath" (which I just finished reading today, and read in about 3 days), to Jurgis in the "The Jungle", and why the Joads did not achieve the American Dream.

An hour after my first exam I will then proceed to take an exam in my History of China class.

After these exams I will practice my clarinet piece with my pianist for my jury, and probably go home and pass out.