Friday, December 18, 2009

Winter Break!

Hey ya'll, it's been a while since I posted in here last. Been super busy with school--percussion concert, Cynthia Yeh masterclass, Tom Freer masterclass, etc etc. All of which went really well! All and all it was a great semester for me. Music for Pieces of Wood, which I mentioned in my last post, went really well--and helped my arms out a lot. My marimba-related problems are getting a lot better too, even though they're still somewhat present. My physical therapist seemed to find the part of my arm that was causing the problems, so I've only seen improvement since.

My grad school plans have changed a lot since the last update as well. I had a long talk with Bob about what my options were, and he pretty much left me with two options: I audition for Yale this year and get in, or I don't get in and try again next year. He seemed to think taking a semester off might actually be a bad idea, and going to a different grad school first would just leave me exhausted. He told me he thought I was ready, and he didn't think I would be playing that much more at Yale than I am here now. Him saying that definitely gave me a lot more hope, so I'm feeling pretty optimistic now. All I have to do is get this freakin' recital ready first!

I'm back home in Connecticut now, on my new laptop. Just flew in this evening, actually. This computer is super awesome--it's a Toshiba running Windows Vista. However, it came with a free mail-in upgrade to Windows 7! I am super excited about that. I recently got a job working at RadioShack (to fill in the slow winter season on Spirit Cruises right now), and found this there on clearance. This computer is a huge improvement from my last one, and I'm excited about all the music I'll (hopefully) be able to create with it. I need to get my Dwelling of Duels entry ready for Magfest!

Not much to say here, really. Or rather, too much to say in one blog post. Mainly just wanted to indicate to you all (and myself) that I'm still alive!