The Close of the Semester 1 Is Within Reach

This school year has been very busy indeed. Everyday brings challenges in and outside the classroom. I have adapted to having less time to maintain a sustained guitar practice schedule. I now find myself using spare moments in between my daily duties at work and at home to grab a guitar and polish my tunes, attempt to learn some new ones and develop better technique. Lunch time at work is usually a matter of quickly eating some yogurt or a sandwich and then playing guitar. At home I have guitars within arm's length whenever I am working at the computer or winding down in front of the television. I admit to having a bit of an obsession with crime dramas.... the CSI type. I often have a guitar in hand as I "sort of" watch these shows. Sometimes I drop the volume level so low that the show keeps me company rather than engaged. I have been working on a few new tunes, three to be exact, Walbert's arrangement of Across the Universe, Richard's Daughter of Pete's Feet, and the newest being Al Petteway's arrangement of She Moved Through the Faire. Each piece has its own challenges. I started working with Across the Universe last week and it is farther along than the other two pieces. I'm progressing fairly well at getting the puzzle pieces memorized and lined up. Being the Christmas season I have been working at a few holiday tunes but somehow I find it more difficult to devote lots of time to them. Although "tis the season" I set my priorities to focus upon tunes that aren't so tied to the holidays. I may have mentioned that my practice time is limited these days.

A rarity has occurred this evening, Sunday Dec. 12th.(actually now Monday the 13th). We are in the midst of a nasty winter storm which is accompanied by really icy roads. In fact, this afternoon I barely avoided being hit by a driver who was unable to stop at an intersection. ABS, quick reactions and sheer luck saved the day. With conditions expected to worsen over night, school has been canceled for tomorrow. I am looking forward to having some additional "real" practice time during the day. Perhaps I will make time to go over how I have been applying my grant experiences to the classroom and NP UNplugged club this autumn.