Oh, oh that's my cue!

Yesterday, I finally received the official letter from Boise State University affirming that the Music Department will give me $2,000 in scholarship money. While this will only be a small amount compared to $12,000 in tuition and fees for an out-of-state student (ouch!), it's better than what that very-cool-but-rather-expensive-school in Wisconsin offered me - nada. So the other day, I sent them the little "I will not be attending U. Wisc-Madison" card. I was truly honored to have been admitted to that program in the first place, and the audition out there was definitely worth the money and effort for the experience alone. So, Boise...
Any time I tell anyone here in Boston that I'm going to Idaho they look at me like I grew another head all of a sudden, and they say something about potatoes. Never fails, because potatoes are all we New Englanders know about Idaho. And the funny look is because we are raised in a snobby intellectual atmosphere that says, educationally, there is nothing worth visiting between here and California. This isn't terribly encouraging to me, as you may imagine! Still, I think it's where God wants me... though I'm not sure how I'll like it, and after six years of not liking my schools (except for the four awesome months at UM), I really, really want to like my school. So I am pretty ambivalent and not a little scared about the move. On the other hand, my violin teacher here has visited Boise and she thinks I'll like it, and both she and my parents believe that I'll flourish outside out of the stress of this city. And then this morning, reading an e-mail from my advisor at Boise State, the Graduate Program Coordinator, I started to get an inkling of excitement, reading how "there are several incoming graduate violinists" - woohoo! peers! - and there may yet be money for me as a Marching Band Assistant ("No marching required") and seeing the dates for the predictive exams in Music Theory and History and seeing how supportive and friendly both my advisor and future violin teacher have been already and noting the audition date for the orchestra and... It's happening. I'm going to a real music school. I'm going to get a Masters of Music. Wow. Thanks God.

Calling All Word Nerds

Since finishing classes and my recital, I've found myself loving books again. I've been devouring a wide range of non-fiction, and I am presently on the hunt for a good summer novel. My reading list thus far: Fast Food Nation (fyi: just added to my profile as a fave; yes, it's that good); Adoption Nation; Blue Like Jazz (I think this makes three times?) and just today at the library I found a new brand new book called Do You Speak American?. I knew I'd picked a winner when I opened up the first page to a "map of the principal dialect areas of the United States and Canada, as identified in the new Atlas of North American English..." cool! sweet! uber... something...
Speaking of being a nerd, it seems to me that it should be "principle dialect areas", not "principal", according to my elementary school Spelling class - "the principal is my pal", so, generally, a principal is a person. I just looked the homonyms up in the dictionary and I still can't decide which should be used in the case of the "dialect areas". What do you think?
Happy reading!

a rambling of happiness

daaa-ta-ta-ta-taa-daaaaaa-daaaaa....
if i were real cool and smart and if had a cell phone, i could do an audio blog. if i had a digital camera, i could snaz up this post with a picture or two. sorry folks. just words again! so the translation of that opening? ahhh, it is the processional march for commencement. you know, the processional march. see, i graduated today. i'm done with my BA, i'm done at UMass Boston. wow.
daaa-ta-ta-ta-taa.....
it was a gorgeous day, sunny with a nice breeze coming of the blue, blue ocean. still, by the third hour, i concluded it was not the best day to find oneself sitting under the open sky in a black cap and gown! from a combination of little sleep, baking in the heat, playing a gig at a reception and the a mini cookout party at "the girls' house" in Hyde Park, i'm exhausted. still, i wanted to get this out, that i'm a graduate. pardon the archaic Bostonian, but i'm psyched. i yelled and whooped at the end when the president conferred the degrees upon my class. and during the long, long reading of names - one after another after another - i cheered for the few of the 2700 other graduates whom i actually know. i was able to run into a few others and get pictures and i even got a surprise congratulations from the accompanist at my recital right before i walked. (i guess he was on the organ with the daaa-ta-ta-ta - oh, sorry.) all in all, it was surreal: to hear my name read, knowing that my face was simultaneously broadcast on the jumbotrons on either side of the stage, then to walk up to the platform, get that empty diploma case, shake a hand - did i shake the chancellor's hand, too? - walk down the stairs, "hold up your diploma and smile", and then ...it's done. phew.
well, i hope to have some pics up on this blog soon. until then, here is the link to the UMass Boston site and one pic of the president and chancellor and that lady who gave the longest speech. oh, that's not what she's famous for?
daaa-ta-ta-ta-taa-daaaaaa-daaaaa....