The Official Beginning of My Lilly Grant Project

This is the official first day of summer break from my teaching job at New Prairie High School. It is particularly special this year because I shall soon begin to implement my Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship proposal. I have high hopes for an excellent experience. For those who managed to navigate to this space expect this blog to be updated frequently.

It is a particularly beautiful morning, windows are open and providing a cool clean breeze. Birds are serenading me and I am enjoying the solitude. Moments like these are to be savored. One of my former students, Matt, a National Guardsman who recently returned home from a 390+ days tour in Iraq commented about how fresh and clean everything smells here. This is much in contrast to Iraq which according to Matt is permeated with a very unpleasant odor that is a mix of sulfur, excrement and human decomposition. Not a pleasant thought for this civilian. I digress so......

In the months since being awarded my grant, I have been steadily making arrangements, booking flights, lodging, rental cars and contacting my mentor, Richard Gilewitz and his mentor David Walbert to arrange lesson times. I feel like a travel agent and have been learning about how to go about trying to find the best deals and therefore stretch my dollars as far as possible. It is a mere 18 days and I will be boarding a flight bound for Miami to join in the activities of the Miami International Guitar Festival. I will be away from John for a total of nine days and if I think about that, the separation anxiety already begins. We have not been separated for more than four days at a time since we married 15 years ago. I think I may actually use all of my monthly minutes on the cellphone for the first time.

For the next couple of weeks I will be scrambling to get myself organized. I certainly cannot forget anything on a trip like this, gotta pack all the travel essentials and every piece of guitar stuff I may need. It scares me to pack up my C25 and hand it over to folks who may not respect the fact that it is a beloved instrument and it is the key to making everything work. Have you seen "United Breaks Guitars" on Youtube.com? I don't want to be composing my own version of that ditty.

I will also be using this time to continue honing my guitar skills. I have some new pieces to work on, suggested by Richard and in preparation for my lesson time with Walbert. I want to play as well as possible for Richard, David Walbert and most importantly for myself. Afterall, it is an intrinsic drive for improvement that set the wheels in motion for this whole adventure.

This is my first attempt at creating a blog so I'll apologize now if I mess something up. While traveling I'll be using my netbook with its teeny tiny keyboard, so I'll use that as an excuse if there are any "typos" in future ramblings.