And what planet did you drive in from this morning?

Well, it's not hard to pick my car out of the crowd this morning... it's the only one in town with four inches of frozen snow on top of it. See, in Aurora, we got four inches of snow yesterday morning, which started to melt in the afternoon, but having not finished, froze in the night (all over my car). Greeley, on the other hand, apparently did not get snow, so my popsicle-mobile looked rather conspicuous arriving on campus this morning. :-) Love that Colorado weather! (Did I mention it was in the 70s on Saturday??)

ARK

Eric and I watched the movie "Evan Almighty" tonight. I expected it to be kind of silly, but I enjoyed a behind-the-scenes thing I saw about how they worked with all the animals, so when Eric brought it home, I decided to watch it with him. It was soooooooooooooooo much better than I expected. (Much better than "Bruce Almighty") It's a real feel-good movie, and amazingly, it honors the biblical story. I highly recommend it.

Is it that obvious? ;-)

Johari Window, take 2

I posted this on my blog ages ago, so some of you have done this already, but there are folks who read my blog now that didn't then, so here it is again...

Please visit my Johari Window and tell the computer what traits you think best describe me. Then see if other people who know me agreed with you. This gets more interesting the more people contribute to it.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=DenverSop

Meet my bug!

It is a little-known fact that Eric and I have enjoyed the company of a pet praying mantis this summer, whom we hatched in our front yard. We have taken pictures of her over the months, and today I finally made her a webpage to show the world her progress. And would you know, I think the boy mantises saw it because just an hour after that I went outside and found she had a boyfriend! My guess is mating season started today because we look for her every day and this was the first time I'd seen the fella.

Anyhow, visit her website... http://members.aol.com/ellieseligmann/Ichy/Ichy.html - and check back now and then for new pictures. (With any luck, I'll catch them "doing it!")

Perplexed...

Friday afternoon, I was chatting with one of my music education professors in the library. The conversation turned to the subject of comprehensive musicianship and how teachers choose to utilize the limited amount of class time they have with students....that is, on what aspects of music do we focus and for how long? I started talking about an improvisation/composition exercise I used to do with some of my younger piano students called the "Two-Minute Invention." (I say improv/composition as they have the option of planning the invention in advance or making it up on the spot.)

It's difficult to describe the conversation that ensued. The professor kept asking me questions about the activity that could conceivably be interpretted as wanting to better understand my idea, but they really seemed more leading than inquisitive - like he was trying to get me to stumble over a flaw in my thinking. I sensed that he disapproved of the philosophy behind it. On one hand, it is invigorating to be challenged and forced to reevaluate my philosophy, and I benefitted from that aspect of it. On the other hand, I didn't like feeling that I had been judged. I left feeling extremely unsettled about the whole interaction. And then on the other hand (yes, I have three hands...), I didn't like that I cared one way or the other what he thought of the activity or of me as a teacher. After all, the whole conversation began as one about the wide range of philosophical perspectives master teachers take on nearly every facet of educational practice. To have a philosophy is to be at odds with the inevitably-extant opposing philosophy.

Graduation is less than two and a half months away. I am really going to miss grad school. The experience has been so revitalizing for me, but it is unfortunately very expensive and inhibits my participation in many other important areas of my life.

Silly smiles

A neat development in my Handel research... Last week, I came across two sources that contradicted each other on a matter pertinent to my research. One of those sources is arguably the foremost Handel authority in recent history. On Friday, I worked up the nerve to email this author by sending an email to the Handel Society and asking them to forward it to him. They replied the next day that they had forwarded my email, but that the author is quite elderly and may not respond to my inquiry. Today - just three days later - I received a response from this esteemed researcher with a most satisfactory answer to my question. I'm tickled pink. It's stuff like this that makes being a geek really fun. :-)

In other news, Eric took me to hear Renee Fleming in concert with the CSO on Saturday night. The first half was frustrating because we couldn't hear Ms. Fleming. We were seated behind the orchestra (theater in the round), and she was facing away from us. We scouted out a pair of empty seats across the room and moved during intermission. The 2nd half was so much more enjoyable because we could not only HEAR the soloist, we could even understand what she was singing! She gets away with a lot of unusual interpretation because she has a dynamite voice and knows how to use it. She was tremendous. She did four encores, including a sing-a-long of "I Could Have Danced All Night." Hehehe... I can say I have sung with Renee Fleming! ;-)

I was so glad to be there with Eric. He is not a big fan of classical music. He used to buy me season tickets to the opera when we could better afford it (read -- before I started grad school), and I used to insist that he go with me once a season. The rest of the time, he insisted I find someone else to take the 2nd seat, but I always looked forward to the night when he would go with me. For one thing, it's the only time he ever wears a suit and tie -- he looks especially handsome when he's dressed up. :-)