You know it's gonna be a fun week when...

...the power goes off campus-wide on the first morning of finals.

I arrived at the Morrisson Center around 9:20 to meet up with my accompanist. I noticed that the computer lab was dark and thought "that's odd", and as I walked in further I smelled something funny. Then I went to get my violin out of my locker and found the instrument locker room pitch black, and I was like, "Oh dear". So glad that I had my bike light in my backpack. "Always be prepared" means I'm usually carrying more than enough junk to keep me outfitted for the first year after a major disaster, but it has its advantages at times. After I got out my violin and music, I chatted with the department secretary who told me that she had heard about a professor giving a test orally, and maybe "he sang the musical examples"? I headed up stairs to warm up and find my accompanist in her usual practice room. Instead, I found the conducting class crowded in the hallway, using the electricity from the room to power a boombox CD player so that they could do their final exam. I sought out another practice space and was about to get warmed up when the power died in there, too. Groans of exasperation came from other rooms where students were getting ready for their performance juries (kind of like finals for private lessons). I finally found my accompanist and we rehearsed to the "mood lighting" from the small amount of sunshine that made it into her husband's office. After a good little rehearsal - my jury isn't 'til Wednesday and I think it is gonna go well. :) - I left the office and found a bassist reharsing in the hall with his accompanist. They had pushed a piano out from a window-less classroom to utilize the emergency hall lights that were still on. Probably the best scene of all was of the aforementioned conducting class. Now without power from the practice rooms, they had migrated out-of-doors. When I rode past the group on my way to work, Mary was conducting her final to band music blaring from someone's car with the rest of the class and the prof seated on the sidewalk watching her. Hey, that works!

I love it when people are forced to improvise. While it can bring out the worst in some people, it brings put the best in most and makes for this fun, quirky atmosphere. I love the smiles passed between folks who usually walk past one another without so much as an acknowledgment, and the laughs, the sense of comraderie. Makes for a good ending to a good semester, don't you think?