Summer Begins!!!

Summer means the END of this semester, which has definitely been one of the most incredible grouping of months in my life. Between life-changing birth events/family, five concerto performances this semester alone, orchestra, travel, work, and general academic overtime, it has been an insane time. But finally I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and should emerge on Sunday.

I only have three agenda (well, five) items for the summer. A) spend time with my family, which I am really excited about, B) work Ney's camp in Orlando with best friends Jeff and Kirk, C) play the Daugherty again in Winter Park, D) run the FSU Summer Camp master classes for two weeks, and E) learn how to use all of my new gear!!!

Oh, and F) submit my tenure binders.

Family is doing great, and I could not have survived this semester at all had it not been for them, as well as so many close friends (JS, KK, MM, NM, JAH, SH, etc.), and Halle wouldn't have survived her near-death experiences without them either. But on to the new gear...

We have two new marimbas coming from Holland, which are the first two of their kind to hit the United States--very exciting. And our administration funded yet another technology proposal for my area which includes a Furman power conditioner, Alesis MasterLink mastering deck and hard-drive recorder (and CD mastering device), a Motu 8pre firewire interface, and a nice rack to make my office look like a recording studio. Add these to the Rokit monitors (and I might be getting the Genelecs from RDA), the EarthWorks Omnis and AKG mics, Mackie controller and such--and we are getting really dangerous. Love it.

Also we have eight graduate students for fall, and an incredible new class of undergraduates--definitely should be the best year at FSU yet, and that's saying something on the heels of Carnegie Hall, winning the PASIC competition, and the placement rate this year.

So lots going on. And with some time I can get back to what I do best--sending Zings! to the Democrat that never get published. Stay tuned. And Bridgeman, is there no internet in France???

P.S. Movie watch--Dark Knight, X-Files, etc. make John a happy boy.