A year older....on my way to becoming wiser

I turned 31 this past Tuesday.  Where has the time gone?  It seems like my twenties were gone in a blink of an eye.  I feel like I've wasted so much time.  Not sure if you can tell, but I'm one of those people that gets depressed about their birthday.  I'm not sure when that happened, but it's definitely been going on for the past two years.  Anyway, I spent all day Tuesday on the verge of tears.  I'm so pathetic.  Josh definitely helped my mood and attitude a bit when he surprised me in Nac with the boys.  I wasn't going to get to see them otherwise because I had rehearsal for University band, so it was a pretty great surprise...and I cried anyway. 

Speaking of university band, I am really having a super time with the group.  I am learning new music that I probably would never do with a 1C middle school and the band is responding pretty well in general.  It's almost like directing middle schoolers with more mature sounds, and dirty minds...not sure if that is better or worse yet.  I'm really excited to put this music together as part of my recital, and I think the group is going to sound great when it is all said and done.

I am going to a conducting workshop on March 2 in which I will conduct Blue Shades and be critiqued by Anthony Maiello.  This is his bio.  I'm super excited to get to work with a conductor of this caliber, and I want to be as prepared as possible, so I purchased his book, Conducting Nuances, at TMEA.  I know the whole point of a workshop is to get comments for improvement, but who doesn't want to be told they are amazing, so I'm hoping for a little of both.  Since I am studying Blue Shades right now, and Wind Symphony is performing it on their April concert, I also get to play with Wind Symphony (there is an AWESOME bass clarinet solo) and I will get to rehearse it with Wind Symphony any time Dr.Campo is out.  Such a cool opportunity, and a great piece of rep to add to my list for post graduate school.

Aaden and Noah impress me on a daily basis.  They are going through this phase where they want to do everything themselves.  I love it, except that it adds half an hour to our daily routines.  Noah is very persistent and does not give up very easily.  It takes forever for him to ask for help and if you try to help him without him asking he hides.  Aaden gives up very easily and asks for help within a couple of minutes.  I think this is so opposite of their personalities.  Aaden is usually the headstrong one, and Noah is usually more dependent.  I guess it doesn't go for everything they do, but if you had proposed this scenario to me two weeks ago I would have predicted the opposite happening.  We are getting family pictures done tomorrow.  We set the time for early in the morning in hopes that the boys would be in good moods, so say a little prayer for us.  We are hoping for lots of sweet smiles and creative shots.

Tonight Josh and I and two of our best friends are going out to dinner and doing a session at Painting With a Twist for my birthday celebration.  I have been looking forward to this for two weeks now.  It will be my third time, but the first visit for everyone else.  I can't wait to see what they think and see how the paintings turn out.  I am going to make sure my phone is fully charged so I can take progress pictures.  This is such a fun experience, and I think everyone should do it once. 

Until Next time.