Hi. Remember Me?

The pants I am wearing are too short. This is the problem with pants: when you buy them they are a certain length, and then they mysteriously and gradually become shorter, until one day you are sitting on your cubicle, noticing that your pants are much too short, and wondering how exactly they got that way. They were a perfectly acceptable size in, say, September, when I last made an entry in my trusty blog. I would prefer other means of marking the passage of time than the gradual shortening of my pants, but I suppose this is better than other gradual processes, such as slowly declining health or something of the sort.

Regardless, here it is now, late March. In the interest of brevity, I will provide a short recap of the past six months or so:

September: Summer ended, fall began, etc.

October: An unseasonably early (even for Buffalo) snowstorm brought down power lines and every third tree branch. The power was out for weeks in some places, but only days on our block. And without electricity to run the forced-air heater, the house rapidly chilled to a temperature somewhere in the forties. The upside: we could chill beer in the living room. The downside: Very little to do, aside from marveling at the cold beer made so by the living room. Also in October, I applied to graduate schools in hopes of pursuing an MA or MM and state certification in Music Ed. In the end, I sent applications only to Eastman and Columbia Teachers College.

November: Thanksgiving. I’m a sucker for holidays that involve any sort of gluttony and/or travel. Also, I took the GREs and did surprisingly well! Who knew I had brains in addition to my stunning beauty?

December: That whole gluttony/travel thing again. Also, I purchased my own Christmas tree for the first time ever. It was all very picturesque: tromping about a snow-covered field, saw-in-hand, etc. I still, by the way, have pine needles embedded in my carpet. And for Christmas I got... a new car! My grandparents desired a car less European in steering and ride than their VW Passat wagon (which, incidentally, I had always secretly coveted), and purchased a new Toyota. And so I became the proud guardian of a handsome VW wagon, red w/black interior. It makes me happy, and carries my keyboard and amp with ease.

January: Is it weird that I don’t remember anything from the month of January?

February: Or February?

March: Being the most recent and also interesting of the last few months, March deserves elaboration. First of all, I now know that have been accepted into both Eastman School o’Music and Columbia Teachers College. My impression is that Eastman has a better Music Ed program, but is located in Rochester, whereas TC has a much smaller music department, but is in New York City. The latter made TC very appealing until I found out how much housing – even a small room in a school-subsidized shared apartment – would cost. Also, I’ve had a nagging feeling from the beginning that Eastman has a better program for me, a notion no doubt encouraged by a former teacher of mine telling me this repeatedly. And as much as I pine for a home in someplace other than Western New York, going to Eastman just seems like the right thing to do.

And so it is that I have signed a lease on an apartment in Rochester, starting in August. It is actually an interesting, if difficult to describe, unit: upon entry, the visitor walks up a flight of stairs, and after turning 180 degrees at the top, comes to a short hallway off of which is the bedroom. Then, up another flight of stairs (this one turning 90 degrees halfway up) to the kitchen and living room, featuring gabled ceilings (being the top floor of the house). Also, peculiarly, it has two bathrooms: one attached to the bedroom, and one off the living room. My mother has pointed out that this will mean I have two bathrooms to clean, which is true. But each will get dirty half as quickly, so I figure it all evens out. Also, it has a skylight! I’ve always wanted one of those. And it’s in a great location, close to the school. Considering that Rochester housing was a cause of great concern for me for a couple weeks (cold-calling every landlord within a mile radius of the school yielded precious few leads), it is a tremendous relief to have an apartment, especially one with architectural character. (One wonders, though, whether I will find it so endearing when I have to carry ten pieces of sectional sofa up two flights of stairs contained entirely within my apartment).

And yesterday, I gave my four-week notice at work. Now we’re all caught up.

My plan for the next few months is as follows: I will move out of my current apartment in late April, and store my belongings in some storage space in Rochester. I will then proceed to my parents’ house in the Philadelphia suburbs, take a class (educational psychology) at a community college, and, I suspect, paint every room of the house in exchange for room and board. As much as painting seems to be not that fun, I will welcome the change from my current office-dwelling lifestyle, as it does not involve authoring boring documents. And while part of the goal of living at home for a few months is to conserve funds, I do anticipate making some trips to New York. So, my New York friends, let us be in touch as the summer approaches.

I anticipate that my next blog update will come sooner than six months from now, especially given the free time that I will have during the summer months, but one can never be sure, I guess. So for now, anyway, over and out.