Nothing special happened in music history, but I’ve got a test on Monday that I need to study a bit for. I’ll get on that sometime this weekend; I’m not too stressed about it. I had my voice lesson today during my lunch break, and we worked on two songs: “Silent Noon” by Ralph Vaughan Williams and “Sunset Boulevard” from the Broadway musical of the same name. One piece is extremely beautiful, while the other is just lots of fun…I love them both and can’t wait to perform them, hopefully as soon as in a few weeks.

Band and choir went as expected, and both felt delightfully brief. Since I had no obligations after choir let out, Andrew and I grabbed food from the SUB (back to salad for me!) and waited at a table for Andrew’s Chi Ro friend Chelsea to join us. I sat back and played on my iPad while eating so that they could talk without my interruption. I know Chelsea, but we’re not much more than acquaintances. No biggie. They chatted for quite a while before we parted ways, the two of us walking back to Sneed together. We watched a couple of episodes of Jackie Chan Adventures on Netflix (such a great show!) before Andrew went out to eat with two other friends from Chi Ro. I stayed behind and read Total Money Makeover for a bit before I decided that it was time for a nap. It was actually a short nap this time, with me only sleeping from about 6:40 to 7:40 or so; we had a choir concert tonight (kinda).

The concert tonight was not Matador Singers-exclusive; in fact, this concert showcased almost all aspects of the School of Music, with a flute ensemble, a jazz ensemble, a world music ensemble, a viola ensemble, and us singing with the top band. It really was a pretty cool concert…each act flowed right into the next, meaning that the next group started performing almost immediately after the group before them played their final notes. The effect was very cool.

Anyway, we were done with that before 9 I think, at which point Andrew and I walked down the street to the parking garage so that I could grab my car and park it behind Sneed for the weekend. He changed clothes and went to hang out with friends, while Conner came over so that the two of us could continue our Back to the Future-watching; we watched Part II tonight. Watching BTTF with Conner is the best because he can quote the films almost as well as I can! Well, let’s be fair…I think he quoted the second one better than I did, but the second one is not my favorite of the 3. When the film had ended, Conner left, and I decided to pull up the Bible app on my iPad and read something random.

I ended up choosing Colossians 3 to begin with, but I liked it so much that I went back to Chapter 1 and read all four chapters in Colossians. LOTS of good stuff; after finishing reading, I wrote for a long time again in my journal, some of which I plan to post on Facebook in a note. I don’t want to post it to show people that I’ve been reading the Bible or anything like that, but rather because I want to share what I learned from the passage in the hope that others can learn from it as well, perhaps even taking away more than I did. So check that out!

Andrew showed back up not long after Conner left, and he read his book for a bit before he passed out; I’m about to do the same. There is a basketball game that I will be attending with Court Jesters tomorrow afternoon, and the final performance of You Can’t Take It With You is tomorrow night as well; I wish I could have performed tonight, but I dedicated myself to choir before I dedicated myself to this play, so that’s just the way things worked out. Hopefully some of my friends will be able to make it out to see the performance tomorrow. I know that my voice teacher is planning on attending, and hopefully at least Andrew will come as well. The other section leader, Rachel, mentioned coming with one of the other horn players in the section, but she also told me that she had lots of homework to do…I told her that my feelings wouldn’t be hurt if she wasn’t able to come.

It’s bedtime…goodnight!

Chad

P.S. – The Academy Awards are almost here!

I didn’t wake up early enough to eat my fruit for breakfast this morning, but it’s okay. We had a regular lecture in science class today instead of our usual Thursday discussion, but I prefer lecture to discussion anyway. In one of the slides of the Powerpoint presentation was a picture from Singin’ in the Rain. My professor asked the class to identify the musical, so I did. He then said that it’s usually the women who answer that question…rude! Ha, no big deal though. I’ve never actually seen Singin’ in the Rain; I just thought that the picture was fairly obvious.

Don't you think so?

Anyway, we finished a little early, so I made it to the music building with plenty of time to grab a smoothie before having to go to class to do my first aural skills sightsinging midterm. I did well, but my professor (who is an AWFUL teacher) interrupted me halfway through my practice time to correct a mistake. Listen: I’ve been sightsinging for eight years now, and I know what I’m doing. Generally, I will fix any mistakes I make after going back and reviewing it. This was my PRACTICE time, not my performance. He should have waited until after I was finished, told me what I missed, and THEN given me another chance. I might specify that to him for our second midterm, politely, of course.

I decided to forego a salad for a spicy chicken sandwich this time around…I wanted something different today. I ate my sandwich and practiced the song I’m working on in voice lessons right now for a little bit before heading to band class, which was long; gotta love Tuesday/Thursday extended band rehearsals. Afterward, I took my horn to an upstairs practice room and practiced for about half an hour before my lesson. Unfortunately, I practiced a bit too hard and had worn-out chops for my lesson. However, my lesson teacher wasn’t feeling too good and I had a lesson with the guest horn player earlier this week, so we agreed on a short lesson today so that he could get home and so that I didn’t mess up my chops even further today. Win-win!

I went back to Sneed and grabbed a pan pizza for a snack…as you can tell, I slacked on my diet today, and it gets worse, but I’ll be back on track tomorrow! I chilled out for a while and finished the chapter of Total Money Makeover before walking back to the music building for voice recital at 5. I didn’t sing this week after having successfully sung the song from Shrek last week, and this week’s recital was pretty short. The most impressive singer today was the last person, a tenor. He sang something in French that had a lot of energy, and he was fantastic! Made me wish a bit that I was tenor as well.

I came back to the room and decided that I nap would be good for me, so I slept from about 5:30 to 7:40 or so, waking up in time to walk down Broadway to First Baptist Church, where a worship service called Paradigm is held every Thursday for college students. I had been twice before, both last semester, and Rachel (the other section leader) was the one who first invited me. She couldn’t make it tonight because of a test, but I still decided to go. I was sitting by myself before, but a friend who was on the horn line in Goin’ Band last year saw me and called me over, so I sat with her. The service was awesome! We sang some powerful worship songs, and the guest speaker was really good as well; I later described him to Andrew as a sort of evangelical Gabriel Iglesias (yes, the “fluffy” comedian). He talked first about holding our brothers and sisters in Christ accountable for their sins, and he also talked about sexual immorality and how waiting for a spouse is important. Most of the message was spent talking about how we as a church of believers should act and go through our lives. It was a wonderful message.

Andrew and I met up after I had finished and the two of us walked through the chilly winds to Chipotle, but it had just closed by the time we arrived. We decided that Chili’s was the next best thing…told you it got worse! We had chips and queso, and then I had my Cajun shrimp pasta again…it’s just too good! I don’t eat out all that often anymore, though, so I won’t beat myself up too hard about it. When we got back to the room, Andrew got busy with something, and I pulled out the journal that I’ve started keeping. I wrote for more than an hour, mostly about stuff from Paradigm tonight; getting your thoughts organized on paper is a wonderful thing.

Anyway, I’ve done my homework, I’ve written in my journal, and now I’ve posted on my blog; it’s been a full night. Time for bed! Goodnight.

Chad

The rest of my classes went as expected, and my day as a whole was really long. After piano class was over at 4, I went back to the room and got my voice lesson music and took a short power nap in my desk chair before heading back up to the music building for our first voice studio class of the semester. Supposedly, there were six people who were supposed to sing, but the only ones who DID were this other guy and myself…the only guys in the studio. I sang the Italian song that I learned last semester since I’m not familiar enough with any of the ones I’ve been working on this semester so far.

From voice studio, I drove to CATS Playhouse to walk through the show with my replacement for Friday (recall that I have a choir concert on Friday). He’ll do fine, and the way he was playing the character gave me a couple of small new ideas to add to the character for my final performance on Saturday. I’m super excited! Saturday’s performance is the only one that my friends (aside from John) may be able to come to, so hopefully I’ll finally see some familiar faces after the show.

I came back to the room after we had walked through everything, eating a pizza Lunchable for dinner. Andrew and I are about to watch the Swedish adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; I’ve seen it, but Andrew hasn’t. I’m hoping he likes it!

Speaking of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the American version comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray on March 20, the same day as The Muppets. Now, I’ve been really good with my spending habits this semester, but I’ll admit to you now: I will be purchasing both of those movies on the day they are released. I enjoyed both far too much to wait for the next major holiday to own them.

On a related spending note, I pre-ordered MercyMe’s newest CD, The Hurt & the Healer, the other night, and I paid the little bit extra to get a t-shirt, downloadable single, and MercyMe watch along with the CD. Aside from that and from my planned purchases of Dragon Tattoo and Muppets, I promise to be good with my spending habits!

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. I’ll probably watch the movie from bed so I can go to sleep whenever I feel like it. I get to sleep in just a little bit tomorrow, in comparison to the past two days, I mean.

Goodnight!

Chad

I’ll start with a brief visit to yesterday. Nothing extravagant happened in my classes, BUT my theory professor stopped me in the hallway at one point during the day and mentioned how good I am at music theory…made me feel good! Of course, I don’t know how much of my theory prowess is attributed to skill and how much is attributed to guessing, but still. It was a good feeling. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. After classes were over, I napped for a bit but woke up with plenty of time to get homework done and spend an hour or two on the computer. Andrew and I also watched Tangled last night, so it was a pretty good night…until we tried to go to bed. I don’t know if it was because of my nap or if I was uncomfortable or WHAT, but I just couldn’t for the life of me fall asleep last night. I was awake past 4:30am.

The horn studio had a guest horn player visit yesterday and today who gave each of us in the studio 30-minute lessons. Mine was scheduled for this morning at 9 before my first class at 9:30, which meant that I had to be awake at 7:30 in order to get to the music building, warmup/practice, and be early for my lesson, resulting in me only getting 3 hours of sleep total. From then on, I was going nonstop, no matter how much I wanted to slow down.

My lesson with the visiting professor went well, despite the fact that I had to sightread some the piece I had chosen to play for him. I had only worked on the first of the two pages, and my lesson teacher told me that we probably wouldn’t get past half of the first page in this lesson with the guest, but we ended up going all the way through. I sightread pretty well, though, and he was impressed with my playing. It’s funny; the horn professor at Tech introduced me to the guest as both a horn player AND singer, so the guest related everything he was telling me to singing. That makes me unique, I suppose. In any case, it was a nice lesson. I really enjoyed it.

The rest was all just ongoing, unwanted class. I had a science lecture from 9:30-10:50, an aural skills sightsinging test (which I aced) from 11-11:50, a half-hour lunch break, band from 12:30-1:50, and science lab from 2-3:30, which means that we got out early. This left me about an hour and a half of free time before I had to go to horn studio (where the guest was doing a recital for us) at 5, followed immediately by a basketball game with Court Jesters. I then made my overdue errand to Walmart for my Cuties and apples, meaning I didn’t get back to the room and officially settle down until just after 10 or so. Yeesh.

Anyway, that’s my day in a nutshell. Now, I have an announcement.

Today was “Fat” Tuesday. I’m not entirely sure why it’s called that (it’s nothing that a quick Wikipedia search couldn’t remedy), but it’s not of my concern anyway. The reason I point it out is because on “Fat” Tuesday I am officially 20 lbs. lighter than I was at this point a month ago. How awesome is that?! This is the lightest I’ve been in quite a while, though I couldn’t give a specific date. Ideally, I’d like to lose AT LEAST another 20 lbs…that’s my goal, and, heck, if I can lose just a bit more than that, that would be fantastic.

Welp, that’s all. It’s just past midnight and tomorrow is my “official” long day, but I won’t have the opportunity to nap tomorrow like I normally do on Wednesdays. So it’s bedtime for me.

Goodnight!

Chad

P.S. – The Academy Awards are on Sunday! I’m so excited!

Chad

From the haircut I went back to the room and showered before heading back out to the theater, where we the show was sold out for the second Saturday in a row! Good stuff. Most of the cast went out to eat at Applebee’s after the performance; I had the cajun shrimp pasta, which, as always, was really good. We all left at about 12:30 or so, at which point I went back to the room and continued playing Arkham City for a few hours. I was in bed a bit earlier last night, though: 3 (I think…)! In any case, I went to bed early enough so that I didn’t have to fight too hard with myself to get up for church. This was the first time that I had made it to Sunday school here in Lubbock since the start of the semester. Not that we did anything productive in Sunday school to begin with, but still. At the church, I resisted the urge to shove donuts down my throat, settling for the blueberry yogurt, chocolate milk, and Coke Zero that I had bought myself on campus before driving to church. Service was good today, too, and I identified with it; the pastor was talking about having discipline, about setting goals and being firm in our beliefs and paying attention to details in our lives that could lead us into giving it to temptation. The reason I related is because he used the example of him cutting back on his sodas; in case you don’t remember, I was completely soda-free for an entire year, so I knew exactly what he was going through when he talked about the constant pangs you have that you have to ignore.

I left the church at about 12:15 or so, and Lexi and I went to Chicken Express. We needed something fast because I had my first Goin’ Band leadership meeting at 1. We didn’t really get to stay and eat, but it was nice to have the few minutes that we had to catch up; we hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks. I made it to the music building just in time for the leadership meeting, which only lasted about an hour. It was basically just an introduction into what we’re going to be focusing on as a group in these leadership meetings that will be taking place throughout the semester. When it had finished, I called Granna, who had called me while I was in the meeting. Her and Poppa are on a cruise ship with a couple of friends for the next week, so please pray for safe travels!

I went straight back to the room, where I took all of our trash to the trash room before Conner showed up. You see, the two of us have been planning on watching Back to the Future together for at least a year now, and we finally got around to doing it! We didn’t have time to watch all three in the trilogy, but we made it through the first one with me providing anecdotes the whole way through. I’m telling you: watching BTTF with me is quite an experience. You’ll learn lots of stuff concerning behind-the-scenes information and the like. It’s awesome!

When Conner had left to eat dinner with his family, I whipped out Arkham City again, eventually finishing the story mode! Wow…it was SO good! Even better than the first one, and I didn’t think that was possible! I highly recommend both games to everyone.

That’s pretty much it. Andrew got back from his Raider Awakening retreat a few hours ago and crashed on his bed…he’s been there ever since, not waking even for a minute or two. We’ll see if he sleeps through the night or not, though I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if he did. As for me, I just did my music history reading quiz, which was the only homework I had this weekend. Huzzah! Now, I’m about to get ready for bed and maybe read a chapter of Total Money Makeover before going to sleep; back to a world withOUT Batman tomorrow…that’s no fun!

Anyway, goodnight everyone!

Chad

See you then, and goodnight!

Chad

Theory went as usual (and I don’t have homework due on Monday!), and in music history we had our second listening quiz, which I thought I did really well on; we’re supposed to get our grades sometime on Monday, so it’ll be good to see how I did. Since today was a Friday, I didn’t have my usual lunch break because of voice lessons. We worked on two pieces the whole time, with an emphasis on the first one. I proposed that we focus on one piece at a time so that I could perform each of them at the voice recital as I learn them, and she agreed, so that’ll be fun! Speaking of performing, I got a few more compliments today…such an awesome feeling!

In band, we got music for our next concert…which is in two and a half weeks. It’ll be interesting to see how well this concert turns out since we have so little time before we have to perform it. In choir, we listened to a couple of pieces that we haven’t sung through yet: one of them is very pretty, while the other is really fun, albeit difficult. It’s still an option for our concert, but Prof. Dent wants us to spend a lot of individual time on it outside of class if we really want to do it.

After choir, I grabbed my clarinet and pulled out my computer so that I could do my playing assignments that are due on Monday. It only took me a little more than half an hour to do them all, so that wasn’t too bad. When I had finished, I almost bought another spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A in the SUB, but I resisted (and, also, CFA was closed…)! Instead, I made it back to Sneed, grabbed a mini-pizza from Sam’s Place; it’s been a few weeks since I last had pizza, and this was just a small personal pizza. ALSO, it was the first thing I had had to eat all day, so I wasn’t too concerned with calorie count at this point. I called Poppa and Granna and talked to them on the phone for a while, which was great because I hadn’t talked to them since the last time I had seen them back before the start of the semester. The two of them leave for Galveston tomorrow where they will depart on a cruise ship for a week. Please send prayers their way to keep them safe as they travel!

I just hung around the room for a couple of hours, reading the intro and the first little section of Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover book before I left the room at 6 to go to the theater. My back bike tire has another hole in it somehow (I haven’t looked into it too much because of the dreary weather we’ve been having), so I made sure to leave early enough to allow sufficient walking time between Sneed and my car.

The show went relatively well tonight, though you could tell that it had been a week since we last performed, and the audience wasn’t the biggest either. I’m not worried, though; I expect tomorrow to improve on both aspects. I chose not to go out to eat afterward, but a few of us made plans to go out to eat after tomorrow night’s performance, so that’ll be fun. I came back to the room and found a Smart Choice lasagna meal in Sam’s Place, which wasn’t half bad. After eating, I proceeded to play Batman: Arkham City for several hours, not stopping until nearly 3. At first, I considered putting on a movie (I had chosen Princess Bride) and watching it while lying in bed, but then I decided to just go ahead and go to sleep and maybe watch the movie tomorrow.

I have absolutely zero obligations or plans tomorrow before about 6 in the evening when I have to go perform in the play, so it’ll be a great day to sleep in and relax. Andrew is gone on a church retreat kind of thing this weekend, so I’m all by my lonesome for the weekend. I made plans with Conner for Sunday, though: the two of us will be watching at least the first Back to the Future, maybe even all three if it works out. The two of us have been planning a BTTF marathon for more than a year now, but we just haven’t gotten around to it. So Sunday will be exciting!

Anyway, there you go. As I said at the start, this definitely ended up being longer than I had intended it being. Oh well. Goodnight!

Chad

We had our weekly discussion in science class today. I had to clarify a question or two about the reading at the start of class, but, otherwise, class went as it usually does. We had a dictation quiz in Aural Skills that was pretty easy, and we “learned” about the different modes in music…I’m going to have to do some textbook reading to make sure that I understand that concept because it was taught very poorly in the classroom.

I had my salad for lunch, so nothing interesting there, but band was actually kind of cool today. Today was the day of our first concert of the semester, and our director arranged for the composer of one of our pieces to visit Lubbock and give us his thoughts on the piece and to attend the concert. He actually had a lot of good things to say, which hasn’t always seemed to be the case with visiting composers. We spent the whole class working on the pieces that we would be playing in our concert, which kind of wore out my chops a bit, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.

After band, I gave in to a little bit of temptation and bought a single spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A before going to a practice room and looking at a couple of the songs that my voice teacher had picked for me to work on for this semester. There’s an English one, a German one, (I think) a French one, and then a Broadway tune or two as well. SPEAKING OF BROADWAY TUNES, I sang “When Words Fail” from Shrek the Musical in the voice area recital (VAR) today. I sang at VAR once last semester, but it was an Italian piece and lots of the voice area students and faculty weren’t in attendance because they were all out on some kind of trip or something like that. Today, though, pretty much EVERYONE was there, which was awesome. My performance went really well, and I got a lot of compliments after I had finished: a couple of girls who I have regularly had classes with approached me and introduced themselves (I knew who they were, but not the other way around), another told me that she didn’t know that I was a singer and that she was impressed, and then I got several other compliments from students and faculty alike. One of the professors is in charge of what is called Lubbock Moonlight Musicals over the summer, and he pulled me aside and asked me to audition. I told him I’d consider it, and I will (especially because they pay you to be in their shows), but I’d honestly prefer to be at home over the summer, not in Lubbock. To top everything off, my voice teacher approached me and mentioned to me how skinny I looked…success! All in all, singing tonight was an awesome experience, and I definitely intend to do it more often.

I had about two hours of free time before I had to be back up at the music building for the band concert, which went well. I can’t wait to hear the recordings!

When I came back to the room, I didn’t have to wait long for Andrew, and the two of us walked across the street to grab some Subway for dinner…it was the first time I had had it since our El Paso trip, so I don’t feel guilty for eating it. We came back to the room, where I again did my inverted way of doing things, that is to say, I played video games (more Arkham Asylum) before doing my homework, which again didn’t take too long.

Now, I’m wrapping things up. I have class at 9 tomorrow followed by an hour to study for a listening quiz in music history at 11, and then the rest of my classes should be pretty smooth sailing. Tomorrow evening, I return to CATS Playhouse for our next performance of You Can’t Take It With You…can’t wait to see what audiences this weekend’s performances bring!

Anyway, goodnight!

Chad

P.S. – Conner recorded my performance in VAR. He said he’d send the video to me, and, IF I like it, I’ll probably post it on my FB page. If I DO post it, I’ll be sure to let you all know!

The only thing that happened that was even remotely interesting or out of the ordinary in my morning classes was that a kid fell asleep in our woodwind methods lecture, and the professor had a whole conversation with the class about him while he sat and slept. We were all laughing, but he still didn’t wake until the end of class. I have some playing assignments due in that class next Monday, so I may start working on them tomorrow if I can manage. We’ll see.

I had my usual salad for lunch, and then the rest of the day was exhausting. It really kind of stinks that my ensemble classes are in the afternoon because that’s when I’m most tired, and I can’t chew gum during ensembles to keep myself alert like I can in my normal lecture-based classes. Nothing exciting happened in any of these classes today, though. After my piano class, I came back to the room, got ready for my nap, talked to Mom on the phone for a few minutes, and then slept for a few hours…another great nap! When I woke, I played Batman: Arkham Asylum on my PS3 for the first time. It’s pretty awesome! I played for a few hours before starting on my homework; I know, it should have been the other way around, but it wasn’t much. The only reason I’m up later than normal is because I napped a bit longer than I had originally planned.

In between playing my video game and doing my homework, I talked with my Memaw on Skype for the first time! She called and asked me how to get it set up (I didn’t really have to help much), and then we talked for just a few minutes before saying goodnight to each other. She pointed out that I look like I’ve lost weight, which means that I’m doing well for myself! She knew that I’ve been working on losing some weight and eating healthier, but it was nice to hear that I actually look like I’ve lost it.

Andrew and I didn’t work out today, though; after yesterday’s workout, we were both aching like crazy today. I’ve been feeling the burn in my thighs and in my triceps (I think…I’m no muscle expert), to the point that it hurts to move and to stand up…it’s that bad. Hopefully, I’ll be feeling better tomorrow so that I can do another workout after the band concert or something like that.

Tomorrow is another busy day, though it’s not as class-filled as the first three days of the week. I have three classes, an hour-long horn lesson, and then I’m singing “When Words Fail” from Shrek the Musical at the Voice Area Recital tomorrow. I sang the same song for my final grade at the sort of mini-recital that the grad student voice teachers put on last semester, but this will be the firs time for the vocal department as a whole to hear me sing this. I’m excited! A couple of hours later, I have my first band concert of the semester! Excited to get on with that and move on to some new music.

Well, I’ve stayed up late enough. It’s time to get some shut-eye. Goodnight!

Chad