One week until my release

I only have to survive one more week of work and then I get to go home for the holidays. HOORAH! I'm not a big fan of finals week. First, there's the stress of bad grades coming back. Second, there's not a whole hell of a lot to do around the office. If my students haven't figured out how to pass their classes by now, there's not much I can do to help them at this late date. Third, every department decides to have a Christmas party, so there's a lot of forced bonding. I'm certainly not complaining that cookies are readily available; however, I don't think that I should have to socialize with total strangers in order to get my sugar fix. Anyway, I am definitely looking forward to spending some quality time with the fam. Christmas is my favorite time of year. Happy Holidays to all of my loyal readers out there! Hope you enjoy your break. Take care and best wishes in 2007. :)

Expressing my inner band geek

I just got back from the annual free holiday concert performed by different ensembles from the School of Music at the University of Memphis. It always puts me in a festive mood, but this year I have one complaint. How can you put on an entire concert without a single clarinet? Normally the orchestra performs, but this year they got the shaft. I had to sit through several brass ensembles, but with the exception of a few saxophones, the woodwinds were banned from the proceedings altogether. That is a serious oversight. However, I did enjoy the concert as a whole and the performance of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" by the soloist was Whitney Houston-esque. Hope you are enjoying the holiday season so far. Happy ho-ho-ho to you!