Winter break has begun and many hours of boredom will ensue...I like it.
I don't know why being bored or "unproductive" is highly disdained...or being busy is "good". Being busy is being busy,,,.being bored is being bored. I'm a teacher, student, athlete, and musician...Business is something that consumes me and getting away from it as much as I can is something I pursue with passion. Being bored and doing jack shit is AWESOME...why is busy so cool? To the point where it become competitive...what the hell?
I went to NY. It was cool. Felt good to actually be "living" there for a week. And I didnt take one single picture...which is cool. I let myself live there and absorb everything. My english teacher did comment on the fact that tourists just take too many pictures...they dont really seem to actually breath in and enjoy where they are at...they focus on their pictures.
Anyways, I didnt do the typical tourist thing...I stayed in a pretty ghetto uptown apartment but thats probably where I would want to stay anyway. I saw all kinds of people going up and down the city ont eh train, going far uptown to far downtown. It was cool...lots of food. And the trip also helped me gain more inspiration for what I consider to be my life's work in music...share my art which has been cultivated by where I am from...and it's not NY...where everythign seems to be "hapenning"...my art is from Houston...spring branch...the world will know.
Winter break training is going pretty well...there are some obvious poundage gains from allt he baked desserts I am eating...whatev...i tend to gain and lose weight very easily so im not too concerned. Our first indoor meet is Jan 12th in Arkansas and I am truly excited to finally be eligible to compete and not have to red shirt like i did last yr! I dont start discus until March when outdoor season starts so until then ill be focusing a pretty good deal on shot-put while occasionally going back to discus. In march, however, ill be focusing on discus and letting shot put die out even though i will still compete int eh event.
Trombone is going pretty well...especially after a well-needed break during my NY trip. Come to think of it, I haven't taken more than a week off in maybe the last 3 yrs. Lots of players will do a week off atleast once a year! I'm playing a recital int he spring so I will be preparing hardcore for that...to rock faces off...hellz yeah. My friend Weston of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra will come to UH to give amasterclass so that also something to look forward to. Orchestra for the semester seems to be pretty damned bland as far as trombone parts go and event he rep in genral just doesnt seem interesting. Oh well. Next year we will be doing Scheherezade and russian easter overutre among other things so ill look forward to that.
ite guys, gotta get up early for a gig.
Merriest of Christmas'
JL
