Category: Out & About

Flying

Alrighty, I’m off again, this time to Tokyo, Japan. My cousin is getting married on Saturday and my mom and sister are already there. The shuttle service is coming at 4:20 tomorrow morning and my flight from Austin to Dallas leaves at 7:40 am. Ah yes, the joys of international travel schedules. My flight from DFW leaves at 10:10 and I’ll arrive in Japan on Thursday at 2:30 pm (Japan time). It’s a 13 hour flight and they are 14 hours ahead so I end up loosing a day. On the way home, I leave Tokyo at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, February 27 and I arrive in Dallas at 3:35 pm on Wednesday, February 27. Yup, yup, I get to travel back in time!! Well, I guess I should get packin’ now. 😉

Love you, mean it!
~C

p.s. I’ll be available periodically via Yahoo! Messenger & Skype. Both usernames are the same so if you know how to find me via Yahoo!, you can find me on Skype. 🙂

When I Get Home

I am now home from TMEA. I left feeling like we accomplished a lot…despite only having gone to 1 clinic the entire weekend. It was very much a jazz education focused weekend for me and I think I grew a lot as a musician, educator and supporter from my experience. 🙂 The three big highlights (in no particular order) –

  • Meeting, hanging out with and having several conversations with Ron McCurdy. Wow, what an amazing individual. We spent a bunch of time together on Friday and I’m blessed to have met him and I’m excited about the future of this new friendship.
  • Sitting in the IAJE meeting, with over 50 people there (there are usually about 15, with officers), listening to everything we’ve done in a matter of 6 months and having the people we affect tell us about the other positive directions they’d like to see their organization go. And that it’s not out the realms of possibility for us to get these things done. Collaboration is so invigorating!!
  • Seeing several of my ex-students as future music educators at the convention with smiles on this face. One student sent me a text that said, “Man I love this place!!”. How awesome is that???

    • It was really nice to see everyone, as well! Those of you that live further away, I hope your travels home are safe and I hope to see you again soon. Seeing you guys brighten my life even more than it already is!

    Next: Tokyo, Japan. 😀

    Ain’t She Sweet

    Today was so much better. All the EVERYTHING that was going on last week and through the weekend has ended and things have calmed down a smidge at work. I have all my grades entered and verified for the progress report and I can actually see the top of my desk at work!

    Tonight, I came home before dark (a first in about 2 weeks), had a yummy dinner (Taco Cabana) and now, I’m going to do a load of laundry and pay my bills.

    This recent exhaustion really put me in a mini-depression over the weekend. Luckily, I managed it fairly well by not drinking and trying to get in sleep when I was home. When I was around my students, I tried to take a long breath before I snapped at them and tried to spend a little time just hanging out with them in the band hall. I’m really proud of myself in not getting wrapped up in being tired and making it more drama than it was. Don’t get me wrong, I did my share of whining. LOL. But I kept it minimized (as much as I could) to the people who would understand and help me through it, rather than just anyone who would listen. It’s the little things, huh? 😀

    The musical was a success. We made over $8000.00 in ticket sales and with that, donations and the little bit of money we got from the school’s budget, we broke even on the production. AND, everyone involved did a spectacular job. There isn’t one person who worked on this production that shouldn’t be proud of the outcome and compliments. It’s all well earned!

    Playing in the pit orchestra of the musical was another great experience. There is A LOT of music in South Pacific and we played almost constantly. It was a lot of fun. During the first act, there was a little bit of down time and I got to catch up on reading magazines and getting some school paperwork done.

    I read an article in February’s issue of Marie Claire about Tony and Heather Randall and their marriage before Tony passed away. They had a May-December romance but it seems like it wasn’t in any way like the Anna Nicole Smith/J. Howard Marshall thing. They seemed to truly love each other, despite all the life differences their age difference seemed to hold. When asked if she would marry an older man again, she said, “Yes, yes, yes. Life is such a crapshoot that even when a relationship doesn’t make sense on paper – and even when it’s fairly easy to predict that not everything will be ideal – having love for whatever length of time is always better than not having it at all.” Pretty smart, if you ask me.

    February will be an interesting month. We start with Crystal’s birthday, move into TMEA week and then I leave for Japan for a week. We finally and painstakingly got the itineraries set and the tickets bought. I’m just glad that I keep my passport up to date because this trip is happening way faster than I’d have a chance to get it renewed!

    I know, I still have to write about the end of my New Years trip and it really won’t be a long post but I guess this is the post that I really need Crystal to talk it through with so we don’t forget anything. Our memory of that part of the night really is patchy! LOL

    OH, has anyone watched the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? I don’t watch it but someone said one of the characters looks just like me. I looked it up on IMDB but I’m not so sure. What do you think?

    Well, I hope you all have a nice week.
    Love you, mean it!
    ~C

    Magical Mystery Tour

    When I was a kid, my mom told me that whatever you are doing on New Years Day is what you’ll be doing through out that year. On New Years Day, I was traveling (back to Austin from New Orleans). Turns out that this old saying may be true because I have had several offers to travel at the end of February. I can only take one because my students can’t have me not there that many days but still, I’m honored to have been thought about for the 2nd one. The first trip (not counting TMEA) is to Japan for my cousin’s wedding. My mom, sister and I will be in the Tokyo area right around a week for it. I’m so excited! The second was an offer from Music For All (and/or Bands of America) to go to Indianapolis to be Shelly Berg‘s personal assistant type helper person as he clinics the BOA Jazz Honor Band during the National Music Festival the last week in February. Let me tell you how HARD it was to turn that down. But, if this opportunity came up once, I believe it won’t be the last.

    If you haven’t heard yet, this is the weekend that Stony Point Fine Arts Department is putting on their production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific. We had opening night last night and everyone that went is raving with their reviews!! If you’re in the Austin area and are interested in coming to see the production either tonight (Friday) or tomorrow night (Saturday), it’s at the Round Rock ISD Performing Arts Center (next to McNeil HS) on McNeil Dr. Doors open at 6:00 pm with the show starting at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for students.

    Also, if you’re a jazzer and are interested, IAJE-Texas is having a Jazz Symposium on Saturday from 8:00 am – 3:00 pm at McNeil HS (on McNeil Dr) this Saturday. Cost is $25 for IAJE members and $40 for non members. There are two main sessions – one about teaching improv and the other about working your rhythm section. Lots of good clinicians working this event. Bring your instrument!!

    If you’re interested in either thing up there, let me know and I’ll get you more details if you need.

    Have a wonderful day and weekend.
    Love you, mean it!
    ~C