Hensel is over homework is here.

Well, Hensel was worth every bit of time and money that it took to go. It's weird. Being back at Pepperdine last night felt like I'd been gone for two weeks, even though I'd only left the campus 60 hours earlier. Even though I feel like I haven't been here in two weeks, I definitely felt that the visit was as short as it was. It felt so weird to go all the way to Texas and then leave just a day and a half later.
Unfortunately, as is usually the case, my world is the only one that pauses on Easter for Hensel. Professors, papers, tests, and rehearsals build up when I leave them alone, if for just one weekend.

Hensel is coming!

Tomorrow I leave for Hensel, which is one of my favorite weekends out of the entire year! Hooray! I'm so blessed that I had a job over the summer so I can go this year.

Songfest

Okay, so this is the week of "Songfest" here at Pepperdine. (To all the ACU people, that is our equivalent of Sing-Song.)
I'm having alot of fun with it. My group, "Front of House," is run by some of the music/theater majors, and made up of mostly those people. Our show is really fun, and we've had great audiences all three nights. We have two more shows before we're done. The theme this year is "Patent Pending" and so each group is supposed to make up a story about something being invented. In our group's skit, it's a cheesy story about this theater company that has the problem of late audience members falling and getting hurt because they try to find their seat after the lights have gone down for the show. The solution: the ushers invent flashlights. Like a said, cheesy story, but the music is fun and the group does a good job. The audience has favored us unanimously so far (we're music and theater majors, common!) I play this old man, and during the first song I come down the aisle of the theater pretending to be looking for my seat, and right at a specific moment in the music, I just wipe out and fall down the stairs. I lay there the entire time, shouting out a few comic relief lines at two different parts of the dialogue. It's alot of fun.
Tomorrow the choir is performing at the CMEA conference in Pasadena. We have to be on the bus at 7:45 in the morning. That's pretty early, so I will be signing off now.
Happy St. Patty's Day!

According to Jim

Well, Marla and I went to the live taping of "According to Jim" tonight, and it was really fun. We were sitting on the front row of the audience, directly in front of the part of the set that is in the back yard. We could see most of the living room, and we had a great view for the living room of the Beltzman house (I don't think they've ever shown that living room before.) They did a few scenes in the garage and in a funeral parlor, all of which were there in the studio, but not in view of the audience, so we watched as they taped on monitors.
It was a very funny episode, with a great ending. It should air sometime around the first of April. I think somebody who knows mine and Marla's laughs would be able to pick us out in a few spots, because we both kind of tried to laugh extra hard in a few places that aren't "big laugh" moments.
Tomorrow we're going to Bakersfield to see the Carls and visit with them. That will be a good thing to do since we pretty much have the whole day.
I wish I could put up a picture of us and Jim Belushi (whom I conversed* with this evening) but we were strictly not allowed to take cameras. And on top of that, I don't know how to put up pictures.
*By saying that we "conversed" what I mean, is that after one of the scenes he walked off the set, and when he was about 10 feet away and nothing was really going on I said, "Yeah, Jim" and he looked my way, kind of grinned, and we had eye contact. That was the extent of our conversation.

Spring Break

It's been awhile since my last blog. The opera opened and closed last weekend, which is good, I was tired of all the music.
I went home for spring break, and it was a great trip. The day I got home I saw the United Players play "Education of Angels" which my dad was in. It was a really fun show to watch.
Monday I went to Brook for 1/2 the day and saw everybody in choir and orchestra, and then I drove to Abilene. I was in Abilene Monday night and all of Tuesday. I hung out with Jacob and his new girlfriend, Natalie. I also met up with my friends Melanie, Melissa, and Butter from Camp Bandina. It was really alot of fun to see all of them at ACU.
Wednesday I left Abilene really early in the morning and drove to Denton. Nothing is official yet, but the music department at UNT looks more appealing than it ever has before, and I am currently asking people for recommendation letters and preparing an audition for next fall.
While at UNT, I ran into my friend Dani, the harpist I went to high school with (she played at Marla's wedding.) I also got to sit in on rehearsals for the chamber and symphony orchestras, which were both very good groups.
That night I hung out with my friend Chuck, also a CB grad, and stayed the night as his house.
Thursday I went to UNT briefly, but before being there very long, I headed back home, stopping at Anna Griffith's house, my dad's cousin. We had lunch together and visited before I drove home, getting home around 8.
Friday I went to Brook and rehearsed all the choirs. Mr. Marcum couldn't be there that day, so it was a great oppurtunity for me to get a taste for teaching. I can't say I've been "bitten by the bug" or that I just took to it like a fish in the water, but I did enjoy it very much.
Anyways, I'm back at school now. After spring break, I think lectures just feel longer than they used to.