Heading for the Airport on a Misty Morning, Gonna Catch a Flight to Baltimore...

And though I will have at least an hour to kill there before catching my connector to Orlando, it is doubtful I will have a whiskey sour, let alone just one more. For in Orlando, I shall meet up with my family for a Thanksgiving week at Disney World.

I'm a little uneasy about it, and I'm not sure why. The youngest in my family is almost 16 years old-- does there come a point where the family unit becomes too old, collectively, to pile into the flying Dumbos?

Maybe it's not an age thing at all. I liked Disney stuff a lot back in my elementary/early middle-school days, a period of time about which I am prone to embarrassment. I've outgrown other things common to that era, such as CHiPs (the TV show), a couple minor speech impediments, and knee socks. Does Disney subconsciously pull up repressed angst about my childhood?

Or maybe it's Oberlin's fault. All that anti-big-business, anti-consumerism stuff.

Frankly, I have no effing clue what it is. But I'm determined to have fun anyway, which shouldn't be that hard in an entire county devoted almost exclusively to the pursuit of it.

And you can count on a full post-game wrapup next week sometime, when I return. And maybe-- just maybe-- some pictures. Until then, my friends, over and out. And Happy Thanksgiving!

[And by the way, thanks for the comments. When I get into the rhythm of this blogging thing, I'll start returning the favor.]

Grad School, Snow Envy, and Free Comments for All

Well, I’ve done it. I have sent in my grad school applications. After some time in the business world, you see, my suspicions that I do not want a career in the business world have been confirmed. I’m hoping to polish my compositional skills by getting an MM in composition, and then see what I can do as far as selling out goes. I’m kidding of course! Well sort of… I’d rather not do the academia thing at this point, so I’m looking into stuff like film and tv music. I think that would be pretty sweet, and the variety of music required would suit my diverse background. So we’ll see. Grad school first. Hopefully I’ll get in. Hopefully they’ll give me money.

In other news, it snowed yesterday. Jill called me while I was at kinkos (mailing my grad school applications!) to say it was snowing in Chicago. Had I been able to see out the window at that point, I probably would have seen that it was, in fact, snowing in Buffalo as well. Pretty hard, too. Big wet flakes. It eventually stuck to houses and cars. But in the Southtowns… the SOUTHTOWNS! Well, they had some snow down there, boy. The Southtowns refers to those communities south of the city of Buffalo, which typically get more lake effect snow than those of us in the city or northward. For instance, when we got a dusting, they got 14 inches. It all depends on which way the winds blow across Lake Erie. A bunch of people didn’t make it into work until well into the afternoon. I have my first case of snow envy. I have a feeling, though, that the snow envy I experience here will not be nearly as acute as that which I felt in Oberlin for all those cold, unprecipitous winters.

And finally, as of now you need not be a registered blogger to leave comments on my blog. At Jeni’s behest, I have changed my discriminatory ways. Just doing my part to help end the institutional bigotry against the blog-disposessing among us. See, Oberlin taught me well. And by the way, Jennifer, I resent the subtle implication imbedded in your email that I am an internet slut simply because I have a blog. I am an internet slut, but for far more reasons than that, and frankly I resent your implication.

News From Oberlin

Reasons I'm glad I don't live on North Pleasant anymore. Or in North, for that matter... Here.

My grand debut! Herein, I explain some things.

Perhaps the biggest factor in my reluctance to start my own blog is my perfectionism, particularly where the written word is concerned. I’m afraid that I’ll never like my writing enough to publish it. Or that I will take so long trying to craft these entries that, when faced with the time-consuming prospect of writing and editing a few paragraphs, I’ll just watch TV instead. I’m the same way about my music, but in music I have deadlines to force me to publish, whereas with a blog it’s all on me, baby.

I don’t expect my overly self-conscious musical practices to be much of a barrier in this particular medium. But the text problem is very real. For instance, the sentences you have just read have taken me ten minutes to write. And though it flows better than my original work, dang, that’s 10 minutes of re-writing. For a damn blog. And it’s not THAT different.

But it does flow better.

So I’ve decided to (this is another re-written paragraph, by the way) edit my writing less. I tell you this not because, as my blog-reader, you particularly care, but rather because by stating it up front, like a thesis, I will be more likely to hold myself to it. (I just wrote and deleted the same sentence three separate times. Clearly I have a problem.)

Anyway! The other, and most important, reason for the blog is to stay in touch with friends who I no longer see. I tend to read my high school and Oberlin friends’ blogs with stunning regularity, and as such I feel that I know how they are doing and thus do not necessarily need to speak with them. I’m not much of a phone person, either, and this too contributes to my failure to keep in touch, though phone conversations only do so much anyway. What I miss about my friends is that which cannot be effectively replicated through infrequent, lengthy conversations: inside jokes, sarcastic running commentary, falsetto singing, drunken salsa dancing, conversation at The Feve, and the frequent ridiculousness of shared experiences. Describing the events of one’s life in a blog can’t really do this either, but it comes closer to group dialogue than telephoning, because everyone can read the same thing and leave comments, which, by the way, I hope you, the reader, do with some frequency. But not if your name is Jill.

Ha, ha! Just kidding, Jill!


!!!

Happy reading, ya’ll. Over and out.