Hello!
It’s been a long two days, which kind of sucks, but I guess it’s better than the long three days it would have been had we not been out on Monday.
Yesterday (Tuesday), I went to my science class at 9:30 only to leave by about 9:45ish. Our professor had some sort of meeting to attend that would last most of the day, so our lab from 2-5 (not that we ever use the full three hours anyway) was also canceled. Hallelujah! I rode my bike over the music building and practiced on my horn for a good half-hour or so before heading to aural skills, where we did a lot of nothing, as per usual. I ate lunch and went to band, which seemed to take longer than normal because it was first rehearsal of the week was 90 minutes instead of the usual 50. Awful. I went back to the room after band and did some light catnapping (REALLY light napping…didn’t even count as a real nap). Horn studio at 5 was boring since I didn’t have to play, for which I guess I should be thankful. After I got back to the room, I decided that I was going to study for my music history exam, but it didn’t happen for several hours.
Today, I woke up 15 minutes before class at 8, but I made it to the music building on time. Intro to music teaching is a waste of a class so nothing worth mentioning happened, but, after staying up late studying, I made sure to get coffee from the SUB afterward. Theory and woodwind methods went by with nothing special happening aside from me getting good grades back on theory homework assignments (theory has been a BREEZE for me this semester!).
Then it was time for my music history exam. I did some decent studying last night, despite it being late, but it’s difficult to gauge exactly how I did on the exam. I felt really confident on some of my answers, but some of them I was less certain. I’m fairly positive that I at least passed, so I suppose that’s a plus. It’s just a matter of seeing what grade I end up with.
After finishing my exam, I had a full hour and a half before band at 1, so I just sat in the SUB, ate lunch, and played around on my iPad and listened to music while I waited. Band was pretty boring. The brass and woodwinds were split during class, and the brass had one of the graduate teaching assistants in charge. We worked on the same piece the full hour, but it was one of the better, more exciting pieces so I didn’t mind so much. Choir afterward was decently enjoyable. Our concert is on Friday, so class was spent running through and spot-checking bits of the program. I think the concert will be pretty good! Piano was after choir…I’m SICK of group piano class. I do fine and get As every semester, but it’s just a frustrating class that I can’t wait to be rid of. I talked with Mrs. Shotts at Poteet the other day about possibly returning to her for summer lessons (I took about 5 lessons from her a summer or two before I graduated), so we’ll see if that happens.
When I was done with all of my classes, I sat around the SUB and was eventually joined by Andrew. Normally, Wednesday is designated “Nap Day” since neither of us have evening commitments, but today was an exception because a guest speaker was speaking on campus at 5:30. Her name was Rachel Ramsey Cruze, and she’s the daughter of Dave Ramsey, the financial guy. Remember, I read his book The Total Money Makeover a month or so ago, and I learned a lot of great things about money management from it. I just happened to see a tweet from the official Texas Tech Twitter account announcing that she’d be speaking today, so I made sure to go, and Andrew joined me.
Her presentation was actually pretty short. She didn’t get started until about 5:40, and she was completely done by 6:20ish, but it was still really cool to be there to hear her talk. Everything she said I had already heard from Dave himself on the Financial Peace University videos or read in his book, but, like I said, it was just cool to be there. Despite being familiar with everything she mentioned, I still took notes, as did Andrew. If you haven’t looked into any of Dave Ramsey’s stuff, I HIGHLY recommend you do so! The Total Money Makeover is a good start, but I’m considering adding his first book, Financial Peace, to my reading list as well.
We ate at Chili’s for dinner before splitting paths; he had a meeting with his fraternity and I just went back to the room. I did my intro to music teaching assignments (including one that’s not due for two more weeks!) and then just lazed around until Andrew got back to the room, at which point we watched a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother. Now, it’s almost 1am and I’m about to shower and get in bed…I’m pretty exhausted, so it’s an early night for me (yes, this is early!). I don’t have class until 9:30 in the morning, so I’ll be getting a full 7+ hours of sleep.
Goodnight!
Chad