The final class of the semester finished off this morning, and I'm free of responsibility, other than a minor playing gig for an orchestration class this afternoon. Overall, this semester had a lot of ups and downs, but seemed to go quite a bit faster than last semester. I definitely got more accomplished this year though, and it looks like the summer will be chock full of useful activities.

I'll definitely be leaving Tallahassee on Monday, rather than Wednesday, so it would behoove you to send your going away gifts by priority mail. After a week's visit in Blacksburg (and maybe a few recordings of some older works), I start working at FGM on May 1 and I'll be in or around the D.C. metropolitan area for the remainder of the summer. If you're around, feel free to send me an e-mail sometime. Other than computer work, I have a few other irons in the fire: working on my thesis composition, learning some more on orchestration, exercise, getting a new computer, and possibly breaking in a new trumpet. My summers tend to be much busier than my school years, simply because it's easier for me to compartmentalize my time. As I've mentioned before, I get more work done in two one-hour blocks than when I have an entire day free to waste.

In other news, my friend Nikki passed her recital hearing yesterday, and her recital is scheduled to be on May 3. Even though it means another weekend road trip after I've started working, I'm pretty excited about it, because she's an excellent soprano. She was one of two sopranos at Virginia Tech that sang on my fifth-year recital in 2001. Both of them will be graduating this semester.

I've gotten word that the CD from my fifth-year recital is finally ready to go, so I'll be able to get a copy when I'm in Blacksburg. The version I have was really just a sound dump, with no editing or level mixing between vocalists and ensembles, so I'm looking forward to it.