8/9 Well I just got back from MERGE weekend not terribly long ago. A few hours. It was something of a success. It ended up more like a young adult retreat than a combined thing, really. Full-time participants were Dean, Brady, me, Sara, Matt, Ethan, Danielle, and Tamara. Early departures included Michelle, Daniel (Westphal), and Andrew (McCleary). Overall, a good time, although the ropes course lady was abrasive at best, and we were disappointed with the low incoming freshman turn out. As I said, we got home a few hours ago and I've been asleep on the couch ever since. Theoretically, Ethan and Danielle were going to call me to invite me to dinner and swimming... but it's almost 9:30, so I'm thinking that won't happen. I may take a quick shower and venture a coffeeshop visit. Although that's probably not in my best interest, truth be told. I've been avoiding the coffeeshop for the last two weeks. I have been successful, only going on Sunday nights for Bible Study. But it's hard. I've been going to the coffeeshop every time I turn around for the last two years, and it's harder than you might think to not go. But I know that the folks that are there are not really my kind of people, and I'm better off at home with my NEW CAT! Yes, I got a cat a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Missa Brevis Noir, or Missa, and she is tiny and sweet. She looks just like the late Ziggy, (100% black), but she has blue eyes. A sweetheart.
Other news. This is Saturday night. Wednesday I fly to North Carolina first thing in the morning. I'm in North Carolina for a week, where I will chill with my parents and Chuck, discuss the possibility of me being self-sufficient, or going to grad school, or being self-sufficient AND doing grad school. Basically, here's what I'm thinking right now: I think I want to get my Masters of Sacred Music. It will be challenging. Really, really challenging, and it will ask me to revisit some of my musical weaknesses that I was able to gloss over in undergrad (most specifically, music history... oof... and of course more piano). Incidentally, I passed my UNT piano proficiency in July... thank you, thank you. Anyway... the MSM is offered at SMU in Dallas, as a program run jointly by the Perkins School of Theology and the Meadows School of the Arts. So, I would take more voice lessons and pass another voice proficiency. I would take more piano and pass another proficiency. Take some more theory and history, as well as theology classes... old testament and new testament, classes over church music (obviously) and all that stuff. It's the degree Dave Collett has, and the degree Debbie Chapman (mother of Andrea) has. Like I said, really challenging... but I think I can do it. Theoretically, done full time, it takes three years. We shall see how long it takes. Now, obviously, this means that if I'm going to grad school, I'm probably not going to be working full time as a teacher, mainly because the hours are very much set in stone as a teacher, as far as that first 7 or 8 hours a day... and then of course there's a lot of extra hours going on after that. In the meantime... the Crabtree & Evelyn at North Park Center just lost its manager. As in, yesterday. So, theoretically, I might be able to score the position over there, work that 40 hours a week, which is a true 40 hour/week job plus benefits and some paid vacation, etc. Also, the North Park job is a mere stone's throw from SMU. And last but not least... whether or not it comes through in the immediate future... the fact still remains that my brother has a condo which is a stone's throw from all of the above as well. And should he need a new tenant, he might get a sister instead. If he agrees, of course. So, yes, that's what I'm thinking right now. It seems really odd to think that I won't be using my music ed degree to teach right away, but my thought is that if I do a semester of the MSM and decide that this is really not my bag at all, then I can still get in to apply for some nice teaching jobs for Fall 04 if I want. But in all honesty, I like C&E a lot, and would enjoy being a manager. And the MSM program sounds really really cool. So. Yeah. Lots of ideas floating around in my head. Lots of prayer-worthy material. I'll probably schedule a meeting with Gary sometimes in the near future, for the sake of talking over major life decisions with people I trust. Gary. Dean. My parents. Clint and I are not speaking right now. That's hard. I have three years invested in this friendship. Maybe more. I'll leave it at that. It's hard.
I think that covers most everything. I am going to go do something else now.
8/17 Writing on a Sunday evening from North Carolina, where Chuck and my parents and I have just returned from another (Friday was the first) day at the beach in Wilmington. I got relatively sunburned. My legs had not seen the light of day in over a year, so my thighs are freaking out right about now. We're about to take showers and take Chuck to the airport, at which point Mom and I are going to drive to West Virginia. We'll get there semi-late tonight and leave again on Tuesday. I fly back to Texas on Wednesday. I'm being paged right now though for showering purposes and whatnot. So, I sign off.
8/27 Writing on Wednesday evening, between school and work. Today was my third day at Andrews, my second day to take on some teaching responsibilities. All is well so far. The schedule is a bit taxing, considering I'm working 30 hours at The Tree on top of my Andrews schedule. Inventory this week. Tonight, actually. So, yeah, I'm working every night this week until close, and I have to be at Andrews at 7:15 each morning. So, my new bedtime is 10pm. Yep. After this week, I go back to something a little more normal, like 15 hours a week. So, that'll be nice. I'm sure there's other stuff going on... but I can't really think of what it is (due to the tiredness)... so I'll go ahead and sign off.
