I was driving home from work when that unsettled, restless feeling that had been plauging me for days finally culminated and I realized that I had to go play my cello to calm down.  So instead of driving back to my apartment, I headed into Baird.

 I got in a healthy practice/jam session and then as I went to leave found a group of kids I knew chilling in the hallway.  I sat down to join them and over the course of the next hour and a half I chilled with, at various times, Chris, Vicki, Sung, Andy, Becca and Angela.  It reminded me of the old days when I’d go over to Baird and 10:30 at night on a weeknight to find Chris and Evan and Marie and Hillary chilling out upstairs, doing theory homework or whatever we used to do back then.  Eventually it was just me and Sung in the hall and we had a really nice conversation about life as a cellist here at this fine establishment and some of the pros and cons of the department.  It really helped calm me down a lot.  It was very… the good old days.

These are the Days
You’ll remember….

It finally happened.

If you type in “Confessions From a Life on Holiday” at Google or Yahoo, I am the first thing that comes up.  Or should I say, this blog is the first thing that comes up.

So yay!  Search more, read more, comment more!  Thanks guys!

Nobody ever told me that a pre-requisite of living in Buffalo was to be a rabid Buffalo Sabres fan.  In the admissions office we have these little brochures called “True/False” brochures where we dispel myths about our university.  One says “Buffalo culture consists of chicken wings and football.”

False. Buffalo culture consists of chicken wings and hockey.

Growing up in Rochester, we had the Rochester Americans (known as the Amerks), and everyone loved the Amerks and going to their hockey games was fun and then in the summer you went to see the Red Wings (minor-league baseball) and that was that. The Amerks always did very well, they usually won the Calder Cup, but it is NOTHING like here. In Buffalo, everyone gets decked out on game days, and the entire universe stops while the Sabres play. People become crazy. It is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  I’ve just never really gotten into it.

However, last night Aimee got center ice 16-rows-back seats and it was her birthday so I watched the game to look for her and we won and I gotta admit I cheered when the clock hit zero. Maybe there’s hope for me yet.

While I am only a casual political follower, you’d have to live under a rock to not realize that the presidental elections are looming, and everyone’s getting all up in arms about it already.  This is my unsolicited 2 cents about the candidates, or at least the ones I know who they are:

Democrats:

Barack Obama- Oprah likes him, but I can’t say I’m sold on him. Not really feeling it.

Hillary Clinton- She’s a woman, and that’s probably my main draw to her. I’m impressed with her climb to the top, regardless of what it has to do with her husband. She’s my favorite democrat.

Republicans:
Rudy Giuliani- I don’t care if his marriages keep failing, he led a city under attack through a time of crisis, and in this day and age that’s about as close to a war hero as we’re gonna get (and everyone knows war heroes make the best presidents.) He’s also a Republican who is (gasp!) pro-choice and pro-gay. Paradox of paradoxes! I like him.

Fred Dalton Thompson- The Law and Order fangirl in me is squealing right now. (For those of you who don’t know, he plays DA Arthur Branch on the mothership.) That’s about all he’s got going for him in my book though. From what I hear, his views are a bit right of what I normally go for.

Ed McCain- I remember I liked him last time around, but for the life of me can’t remember why.

And there you have it.