| Items and people I'm thankful for this year (not necessarily in this order): The smooth transition between directors in the Greendale Concert Band. All the musicians I perform and play jam sessions with (all of whom are quite agreeable). The friends I've connected with here and on Facebook. The ability to keep my ear to the ground and try to keep things in perspective whenever relationships get testy. A segment of introspection I'm putting myself through of my own choosing-still a way to go yet. |
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| Saw a high school classmate sing last night--she didn't disappoint! The set up was 2 people, (vocalist and keyboards) and the songs--a couple of slow Billy Joel numbers, Gershwin's "Summertime" --and later on several of this classmate's current friends got to sing at least one number--one or 2 of them really "hammed it up." After she finished performing, we shared a hug and she said she was glad I came. Back in the day, this classmate played flute and was in color guard--was with me in band all 4 summers we competed in field drill competition. Summer after Junior year is the one I remember best--both of our student drum majors were real good motivators. The band spent a week competing in Iowa that summer-finishing 3rd out of 10 bands, and then going to Whitewater-WI and finishing just one place out of the natonal finals. |
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| NCAA D3 Volleyball Tournament starts today. Don't know yet how much I'll follow the action. Sat in on an informal ethnic music jam session last night. (just playing harmony most of the time.) Just decided to throw myself a change-up, I guess. |
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| Had a much better turnout at Greendale Concert Band rehearsal yesterday. The director is a bit more consistently cool, calm and collected. We've done most of the music before. There are only a couple of spots that I work on, just to keep from losing the edge on them. Lakeland beat my volleyball team in 3 in the playoffs--Lakeland also made the final--had to play on the road, and --incredibly, came back from 2 games down to overtake Dominican to get an NCAA bid--now they have to play Hope-MI on Hope's home floor --talk about a tough opening round draw! After 17 years, my rectangular conversation stopper (in polite circles, it's called a TV-set) has given up the ghost. Since I wasn't using it that much anyway (Saturday night Mexican league soccer matches I can still keep track of on the net) at this moment I doubt I'll get another one. |
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| Low turnout for Greendale Concert Band rehearsal yesterday. Other than that things went smoothly with our new director. Been getting even more introspective than usual of late. . . |
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