Thursday, April 16, 2009

school, school, school, school

The end is finally in sight! I've been enjoying checking off the completion of the various activities almost as much as I've enjoyed the activities themselves. Being able to actually finish something with no loose ends attached is very satisfying because it's not something I experience that often in my real life.

The homestretch started this week with the Jazz History midterm. I totally trashed my hand writing for an hour and fifteen minutes straight, but it recovered, and I think I did well on the test.

On Tuesday one of the combos I play in performed and there were several intensely exciting moments (you may read through the lines here). It was definitely an adrenaline producing performance that I thoroughly enjoyed. And the audience seemed to enjoy it as well.

Yesterday the combo that I play in and also coach had its concert. It was an interesting and varied program and everybody played really well. We did Rhythm-a-ning by Thelonious Monk, Conference of the Birds by Dave Holland, Cedar's Blues by Cedar Walton, Nefertiti by Wayne Shorter, a two tune medley consisting of Jerome Kern's Nobody Else But Me (from the 1946 revival of Show Boat) and Bill Evans' Peri's Scope, and finally a funky version of the standard, All or Nothing at All, which we did in 7/4 time and was modeled after a Jonathan Kreisburg recording. At the end Rusty Hassan(!) came up and told me he enjoyed hearing Conference of the Birds. It doesn't get performed very often I guess. So that was pretty cool.

Next up is my oral exam where three faculty members examine my oral cavities, I mean they'll quiz me on what I've learned. That's this coming Tuesday and the big term paper is due on Wednesday.

On Thursday I head down to South Carolina for my college reunion. Both of my senior year roommates are coming and some other friends from the music department so that will be a blast. My current school experiences are very very different from what they were back when I was getting my B.Mus. in Piano Performance. At the time, I actually liked being cooped up in a practice room working on Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, etc. for hours at a stretch, but I like what I'm doing now even more. The day after I get back from SC we'll be playing in UDC's Calvin Jones Big Band Festival. After that I finally get a little breather. Yaay!

Here are a couple of photos I took today. I won't be seeing much of the great outdoors this weekend, unfortunately. Instead I'll be giving myself carpel tunnel syndrome writing a term paper. So have some fun for me, okay? Breathe some of that fresh air, inhale some of that pollen, get some exercise, and enjoy the fabulous sunny weather that's supposed to happen!







10 comments:

Washington Cube said...

Lovely skies. I remember being stuck writing for school while others played. Sometimes I miss it. Sometimes I wonder how I survived it, especially that one (crazed) eight year span. Burn out city.

Barbara said...

At least you have a good excuse for not working on the house. I guess that all ends when you are officially finished!

Cyndy said...

Cube - Eight years is a long time to be in school! I don't know whether I could even handle two years in a row of this. I ended up with a road gig for a few years after I started working on this degree, so I was really happy to be given the opportunity to finish it up in one year now that I'm back in town for a while. I'm also glad I got to split it up a bit.

Barbara - House? What house? School has been an excellent diversion, especially this semester. We had to stop for a while and make some money in order to continue. We'll get back to it soon enough though. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the lack of exhaustion very much.

Reya Mellicker said...

The air is fresh today and will be tomorrow as well, or so they say!

Good luck with your paper, Cyndy.

Cyndy said...

Thanks Reya. I'm going to be extra appreciative of fresh air and natural light when I finally finish this thing.

Kate Coveny Hood said...

I remember how hard it was to study when the weather was nice... Working in an office is similar - but the flourescent lights and climate control set on iceberg sort of make you forget.

Cyndy said...

Oh how I hate fluorescent lights! That would be even worse than this dimly-lit cinderblock cell (that's what it feels like anyway) that I'm sitting in right now. At least my "cell" has a computer so I can escape to internet land now and then.

Kristin said...

What an exciting time for you. Congratulations on the accomplishments and the end in sight!

Twinkie said...

You picked GREAT pictures to post. WOW! Beautiful!

Cyndy said...

Thanks Twinkie!