So, I just finished attending the Texas Music Educators Convention this past week in San Antonio. I really enjoyed listening to Tim Lautzenheiser speak (twice!). For those of you who aren't band dorks (and I'm guessing all of you are not), T.L. is the guy who wrote the band book my students use. He is an amazing motivational/reminder speaker and advocate for music education in this country. Did you know that 90% of all music students who go to college graduate? 90%!!! This in contrast to several universities who have sports programs trying to scrape by with 50%! Anyways, I also got to hear Sir James Galway speak and play (world-reknowned flute player, Kayla was very jealous!). The exhibition halls were quite large. They also included one college I didn't expect to be there. That's right, folks, the U of GA was there to recruit high school seniors. I immediately stopped by their booth, just to tell someone that I'm from Watkinsville and have them know where I'm talking about. It was pretty thrilling for me. In the halls, you had people selling instruments, fundraisers, music books, books on music, prizes, food, etc. Basically anything you could need to run a successful band program. Other than the exhibition halls being huge (these are two warehouse type rooms at the San Antonio Convention Center) and getting to hear Dr. Tim speak twice instead of once, it was basically the same experience I had last year at GMEA (Georgia). I did get to hear a wonderful rendition of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" performed by the Texas Tech orchestra. We were also able to stay with Kayla's brother and sister-in-law, and Brenna got to see her cousin. It was a good trip for all.
On the spiritual front, I've been studying the book of Romans since I heard Mark Driscoll give his thoughts on Predestination and used Ch. 9 to support most of his claims. I realized that I hadn't ever spent too much time in that book of the Bible, so I'm checking it out and God's opening my eyes about a lot of things.
Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet week. Just trying to survive through the concert contest season with a co-worker who feels her entire career lives or dies on the performance. If you know me, I've already talked to you about this and I don't need to expound any more than that. That's all for now. I've got to go get Brenna, I've left the Veggies to babysit for me while I catch up on much-needed blogging. I'm such a bad parent, please don't call DFACS! Thanks!
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