Happenings.....

Hi!!!  I know it's been WAY too long.  Well, let me catch you up real quick.

This semester has been really super uber busy.  Short story version:  I needed 3 classes to graduate in May.  They were all only offered in the Fall.  So I had to take Music History Review II, Performance Awareness through Movement, and a theory elective, plus a chamber ensemble credit, plus lessons.  So I had 11 credits, which by the way is a TON  for a music grad student.  My theory elective ended up being Music Theory Pedagogy, a class where we talk about different teaching strategies for theory.  There was a ton of reading, writing papers, assignments, and article/book reviews.  Plus planning a 14 lesson syllabus and a final paper about my theory teaching philosophy.  Yuck.  I really like the class, but it was soooo much more work than what I bargained for.  As many ppl know, I am not very scholarly and hate writing papers.  I also had to write papers for my other 2 classes.  Also, my chamber piece took up the whole first half of my semester....the Caplet Masque of the Red Death.  It was an amazing experience, but there was a ton of rehearsing to do since it is a very hard piece.  So between rehearsing for the Caplet, and doing all my other class's assignments, I hardly had any time to practice this semester...which is bad because my recital is coming up in April, two of the pieces for which I am also doing a competition in June.  Plus, I am auditioning for the Chicago Civic Orchestra in March and that is going to take a lot of time as well.  Crossing my fingers that I get it, that would be awesome!!!

So there it is....my semester in a nutshell.  The only good thing about this semester is that I am officially DONE WITH CLASSES!!!!  That's right....all I will have to do is my big recital.  No more papers, no more reading, no more tests....just practicing all day long.   Woohooo!!!!!  I am really excited for that part.

Well, besides being so incredibly busy and often stressed out this semester, it is finally finals week and I will be driving home with my harp next week.  Provided it doesn't snow and close down the roads.  Then I have to wait.  But hopefully the roads will be clear enough to drive without problems.  I am a seasoned winter driver now, being up here in the midwest for so long, so I don't think it will be too bad getting home.  Again, fingers crossed!!

Sorry for neglecting my blog.  I know everyone likes to get updates on how I'm doing....I've just been going through a lot with school and such that I just haven't really had time, or really thought about it for that matter.  But for now on I am going to do better!!  Promise.  Love to all!!!!