Today’s workout

I gained weight at the beginning of this summer (for me this year. started around April 30). I didn’t realize HOW MUCH I sit until summer started and I didn’t have to walk around campus every day. I guess I what I really didn’t realize is how much I walk around campus all week. So I’ve been trying to do something active through the week as possible starting in June. Mostly, it’s been walking the dog around the neighborhood next to my house. If we go the whole neighborhood, it’s about 2.75 miles, up and down hills. It takes us about 35 minutes so that’s a pretty good pace.

Today, we only walked half the neighborhood because I wanted to do my Power Yoga video. It’s a deceptively good workout because you’re feeling calm and relaxed but later in the day, you realize ol’ Rodney Yee really helped you get moving. I am sore by the afternoon whenever I do it. I only get about halfway through it because I’m not quite limber enough for the backbends and such towards the end. Well, I put the video in and it starts skipping ahead during the workout. I looked at the disk and a few fingerprints but no scratches. I cleaned off the disk and put it back in only for it to just stop playing all together. Boo!

I remembered I had these magazine workouts I’d cut out recently, once called, “The All-New Muffin-Top Workout” from the June 2012 issue of Glamour (page 128). Okay, let’s give it a go. WOW, it’s a workout for your abs and mid-section! I feel good enough that I have no desire to slouch as I want to continue to feel the burn as I type this blog entry. That one is definitely a keeper. You just need some floor space for 3 of the 4 moves and either two 5 pound weights or a jug with liquid in it that weighs about 10 pounds. You’re sitting for that move.

Next workout might be from the August 2001 issue of Better Homes and Gardens (page 182). Not sure when or where I pulled this workout but I found it in a bag recently. Maybe it was from my dentists office….

Such an honor!

This summer has been my busiest summer in quite a while. Last month, I attended the University of North Texas Conducting Collegium for two weeks (4 sessions). It was such an amazing experience and I was fortunate to meet so many wonderful people (shout out to the Peanut Gallery!!!). There were 44 pieces and there was something enjoyable about almost every one of them.

The purpose of the Collegium is multi-fold. If you’re a conductor, you gain the experience of conducting the UNT Wind Symphony while getting feedback from the fantastic faculty, learn a great piece that you (hopefully) enjoy and if you’re planning on applying to UNT for an advanced degree, it’s a pre-audition of sorts. The pieces that are assigned for the Collegium are the pieces to appear in the next (9th this year) volume of Teaching Music through Performance in Band series, published by GIA. Directly after the Collegium, the Wind Symphony and staff worked an extra week to record all the pieces for the CDs that goes with Volume 9 and now, the staff is working on the CD edits. The participants in the Collegium are basically rehearsal conductors for the recording session. Pretty cool honor, huh? (But that’s not the big honor this entry’s title refers to.)

The piece I conducted was Celebration, by Joseph Turrin, and it is a great piece to open a concert with! It’s a Grade 3 piece but it doesn’t mean its easy. It’s available via C Alan Publications.

So, the big news – during the Collegium, they replaced a piece that was obviously too difficult to be considered a Grade 3 (this year’s music was all Grade 2 & Grade 3) once they ran through the piece. Every piece that is on the CDs has a Study Guide in the book written for it so one needed to be written for the replacement piece and Professor Corporon asked me to write the Study Guide. Yes folks, I’m about to be PUBLISHED!!! And it’s such an honor that of everyone that was there, he asked me.

I’m writing about Akatonbo by Joseph Spaniola. It’s published by Musica Propria. It is a beautiful piece and we read it several times with the Stony Point Concert Band but it never quite worked for their UIL program. I’ve also been excited that it’s a western interpretation of a Japanese folk song. Talk about fitting me to a T! 🙂 There are very strict guidelines from GIA on how it should be written but they include a template to work from which helps so much. I’m almost done with the writing part. I just have a few questions (which, of course, may lead to more questions) to get answered by Dr. Spaniola. Speaking of the composer, I’m so blessed that he’s been so kind and helpful in this process. They asked me to write the study guide in about 2 weeks (everyone else had about 3 months) and having access to him has been a Godsend!

Hardest part about writing for me is writing formally and not writing in circles. I’ve always had issues with that so editing takes a village. Thankfully, I have a few people who have offered to help. It’s about time to send them a draft. 🙂 Anywho, I just had to take a break from all my researching and writing I keep Tweeting about share this exciting news!

Love you, mean it!
~C

“And Breathe”

I’ve been craving a really good stretch. I got a little spoiled before I moved because I found a great yoga studio in Round Rock and haven’t quite found the same energy (or affordability) of practice here in Huntsville. In fact, I think yoga is still considered eccentric and hippy here! We’re literally out in the woods.

Anyways, I’ve started back to practicing yoga with the use of my DVDs and YouTube videos. Today’s practice included 20 minutes from Gaiam’s A.M. and P.M. Yoga video and 30 minutes of standing poses from Gaiam’s A.M. Yoga for Your Week. As I sit at my desk typing this blog, I feel myself sitting very tall and it’s almost uncomfortable to slouch. I’m wide awake and haven’t had any coffee yet, either! Yoga practice successful!! I walked the dog for about 10 minutes before my yoga practice.

I’ve been a bit of a sloth lately and not getting in much exercise. I think the stress of some of my projects this semester has “encouraged” me to slob out a bit during whatever free time I’ve had. Not good. I’m working now to reverse that mindset and have been exercising 4 to 5 days a week. This week, I’ve alternated between 3 mile walks with the dog and short walks with the dog with the addition of a good yoga stretch. Tomorrow, I may do another day of short walk with some yoga because we’re headed to Austin and I think a good stretch before I make a 3 hour drive will be better than anything else.

The next two weeks will be spent at the UNT Conducting Collegium with a full schedule but I plan on taking my DVDs with me (I have about 5 yoga and 1 Tai Chi DVDs now) and getting in workouts as often as I can.

Krez’s Special Shrimp Wonton Soup

The inspiration

My friend Krez has this Special Shrimp Wonton Soup at a restaurant called Chopstix in McAllen, Tx and posted a picture recently. It looked so good, it inspired me to try to recreate it today. I have NO idea what the inspiration tastes like but I can certainly see what veg and such are included in the soup. I did forget the carrots and onions, though. 😦

So here’s what I included in the soup:

Broth with veg (this makes more broth than one serving) –
1 box low sodium chicken broth
2 or 3 Carrots
Yellow Onion
Broccoli
Napa cabbage
Zucchini
Mushrooms
4 potstickers or 6 wontons, still frozen
1 can (drained & rinsed) of stir fry veggies
Salt & Pepper to taste

In a separate pot:
1 package ramen noodles (do not use flavor packet)
6-10 frozen shrimp or fish or chicken, cut to bite sized pieces
water

Heat the broth to a simmer. Chop veg to desired size and add to broth in order listed above. Add other ingredients and allow the veg to cook down.

In a separate pot, boil water and cook noodles to package instructions. If using chicken, add at the same time as noodles. If using shrimp or fish, add in the last minute of cooking. Strain noodles and protein, add to large soup bowl. Cover with broth, dumplings and veg. Enjoy!

Year One is Done!

I just got back from a week in Austin, seeing lots of friends and practically everyone has asked me how going back to school has been. Let me say right here and right now that it has been fantastic!! Not only have I spent the past year working with great people but I’ve learned so much already, both musically and personally.

When I started searching for a program to enter and someone to study with, the number one, most important thing I was looking for was a teacher who could recognize my strengths and push me to strengthen my weaknesses without pushing me so hard I’d crack. It’s been a long time since I was a student and I felt like I had quite a few shortcomings to overcome. Believe it or not, there were also quite a few self-confidence issues I had to overcome as well. In one year alone, I’ve successfully started major work on all of the above. Not only do I have a great a fantastic band staff to guide me with my podium skills, the other professors at SHSU are also wonderfully balanced between being able to push me in my weaknesses and recognizing my strengths. I couldn’t ask for more at this stage!

When I first said I wanted to get my masters, a friend asked me, “What for?”. She wasn’t being snide or cheeky. She wanted to know what were my goals and what would be the end goal of getting an advanced degree. At that point, I knew that I had more to learn and I was hungry for something but I’d never thought beyond that. I honestly didn’t know much about what getting my Masters would entail. After some thought, I decided I wanted to be a collegiate wind band conductor. After a year of graduate school, I think not only do I want to be a collegiate conductor but also I’d like to work at a university that has a strong music education program. I think that would be the ultimate way to give back to something that has given me so much through my life.

So, I have one more year until I’m done with my Masters degree. If the academic calendar lines up like it did this year, I’ll have it before my 40th birthday (one week of, but who’s counting) and then I’ll start work on my Doctorates in the Fall of 2013. I have about 8-10 schools I’ll be applying to this fall. Keep sending the good vibes – I can’t do any of this without the wonderful support of my friends and family!