Well, you may not hate me for this (Erin Wirtz will NEVER hate me, I also note), but sometimes I have a few things to talk about that are on my mind each day. You know, just random thoughts that run through my head at night when I'm trying to get to sleep and whatnot, or perhaps thoughts that are there with me when I wake up in the morning. Enjoy these thoughts if you agree, or burn down my house if you don't.

2003 Notes by Christopher
2002 Notes by Christopher
2001 Notes by Christopher

December 30, 2004

Not much to really report. I didn't get a whole lot accomplished yesterday. I managed to give Erika's car a really good cleaning, inside and out. I took some clothes to the dry cleaners. That was about it during the day. In the evening, I went to the Musicians Christmas Party, which was hosted by Orv Eidem. Al, Annika, and I went over there while the KIX Band was playing. Following their performance, the floor was opened for a jam session in which Al and I got the chance to play in. Matt Patnode joined us along with Craig Hillig, and we had a really great time jamming on some good jazz standards. Following that, I left and came here to work. Exciting?

The only interesting and out of the blue thing I got to do during work was call 911. A lady up in her room was breaking out in a cold sweat and was hurting. I called 911, and they came quickly. Her blood-sugar was apparently low, so they gave her a shot and left her here with her daughter. Case closed, no one had to be carted away. That was the third time in my hotel career that I had to call 911. One was a few years back at the Doublewood for a kid who got his arm caught in the elevator. That was interesting. They got his arm out by using butter from the kitchen. You don't hear that everyday, I guess.

Since I had the chance to jam out last night, I've become very excited to play tomorrow. I will start at Littlefield's, where I plan on playing a couple of sets of jazz trombone with Craig Hillig, Beb Lemming, and Chris Gould. Then, I'll make my way to Monte's and play bass with Tim Stine, Eddie Schwind, and Joel Thompson. It should be really fun. If you're in town (and 21 years old), come out and enjoy drinks and cheer.

I end this entry with a note about two nightmares I had while napping during the day. The first dream was about me eating dinner somewhere in Fargo. It was on the top floor of a high building. Fire alarms went off, and we all vacated the building. The next thing I knew, I was somewhere downtown in Fargo. A large crowd was standing together and watching as an explosion broke out in the Radisson Tower. Then, seconds later, the entire building collapsed. It scared the hell out of me, and made coming to work last night even more unattractive than normal. The second dream I had was of me sitting at home with some friends. We were having some drinks, and I got tired and went to my room and went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and walked into the kitchen. I tripped over something on the floor and fell down hard. A bunch of glass broke somewhere, and when I got up, my hand was sliced open, but I wasn't bleeding. I lifted the skin and saw the muscle. That also scared me almost to death. Anyhow, with those thoughts in mind, I take my leave...

December 29, 2004

Well, I made it back in one piece to Fargo, and it's alright to be back. It was really nice to finally get out of this town and get home to see the family and the dog. My sister was home from Washington, DC, which is always nice since this is about the only time I get to see her during the year.

Let's see, what has all happened now since I last wrote? Well, Thursday night, I had off from work, so I took some time to head out to the bar to get some beers and have a little fun. It turned out to be kind of fun, but I sort of fell into a funk along the way and felt real blue. Rick was there with me, along with Jenny and Nina. Nina took off to see some other friends, and Rick and I sort of just depressed each other for quite a while. Jenny gave me a ride home from the bar, and thankfully, she was the friend that was there for me that night.

Friday morning, Beseler came to my place around 7:30, and we took off for West Fargo to pick up Eddie so that we could all be on our way to Christmas visits to our homes. Eddie was supposed to be up and ready to roll when we got there, but unfortunatly (but not surprisingly), Eddie was still in bed when we got there. We finally got on the interstate around 8:45, a little later than we had been planning on. Nonetheless, we made the trip out there and dropped Eddie off at his place. Then, we made our way to Mandan and Beseler got off the train. I drove up to Minot from there, and met up with my family.

I wrapped all my gifts as soon as I got in the house, then took to visiting Johnny, our dog. He was happy to see me, and apparently got over me not coming home for Thanksgiving. You see, apparently he moped around the house at Thanksgiving because I wasn't there. He's a little moody like that. While I wrapped my gifts, I watched the Vikings blow it. Surprise. Anyhow, to get back on track, I caught up with my sister and mom and dad, then we went to church for Christmas Eve service. Now, I'm willing to admit that I've enjoyed some of the Christmas Eve services at my church in Minot over the years, but this years music was pretty much hands down the worst I had heard in years. The choir has fallen to a low level with a director who knows nothing about conducting and members who know nothing about pitch. They had a trumpet player who played about ten cents flat the whole time. There was a little poppy Christian group that played a calypso tune about Christmas, but used a electronic drum beat generated by a Clavinova. My ears hurt toward the end.

After church, we made things simple and just went to the truck stop and got some food. Liz picked up the tab on that one. I didn't expect to see so many people at the truck stop that night, but the place was packed, so I guess our idea to eat out wasn't so original after all. After that, we went home and opened gifts. I got all sorts of clothes, which is what I normally ask for. I also got a bottle of whiskey from my sister, along with a big gambling set up which included chips, cards, and felt for a table. My mom and dad also got me a new electric frying pan since mine is currently dying a slow death.

Christmas Day, two of my aunts and an uncle made a trip from Bottineau and we enjoyed dinner. It was kind of fun because we're all involved in politics in one way or another, and everyone at the table was pretty liberal for the most part. Lets just put it this way- I was the most conservative one there. Anyhow, we bashed President Bush while eating turkey and ham. Talk about complaining in style. We watched football and ate pie. We talked a lot. My cousin stopped by with her 3-year old daughter who behaves badly, but really is quite cute. After everyone left, we all sat around and relaxed. I watched my Broncos on TV and was impressed to see them play well for once. Maybe a Wild Card spot isn't so unrealistic afterall.

The day after Christmas, my aunt and uncle along with my cousin came up from Bismarck. Again, we ate a bunch of food and watched football. We watched Manning break the TD record, and watched his Colts win a close one. We also watched the Panthers game, which produced no surprises, either. The family took off during the game. As it got later, I finally got a hold of one person that was in town to get a beer with, Eric Solberg. We made a couple of stops and got some beers to end the night. Just a note to Minot: open up some of your good bars on Sundays. The bowling alley just didn't do it for me.

On Monday, I got up early despite closing the bar down and had coffee with dad before he went to work. After that, my sister and I went out and ordered some flowers for my mom for her anniversary, which is tomorrow, by the way. Good thing she doesn't read the site. Mom got home from work at about 1, so I took Liz and mom out to lunch downtown. We enjoyed a nice lunch and some good conversation before I finally headed out of town towards Mandan to get Beseler. The drive south was a little annoying, with fog and ice. But, I got to town alright and picked up Beseler. We made a stop at the assisted living home that his dad lives at and said hello to Beseler's dad. Erika and Joel were there, too. Then, we got on the road and headed east to Fargo. The trip was entertaining, with Beseler and I covering all sorts of topics on life and our surroundings. The main topics covered were: Emma, our lack of gigs, guys named Bryce, people we want to kill, our lack of girlfriends, Nina, Jenny, upcoming weddings, and not stopping to bathroom breaks on the road. Some of those topics were touched on more than once.

After getting back into town, a handful of made our way to the Great Northern. Brooks West was back in town and was playing on the east side of the GN. I introduced Beseler to their microbrew, the Red, which he liked and drank a lot of. Jenny, Nina, Rick, Tim, Rob, Steph, and Dan Gillispie were all there. It was an enjoyable evening, which was made even more special when Brooks performed my favorite tune of his, Sixth Avenue. The song is about the house that I used to live, as did he just before I moved in. Rick and I both sang along and took in the moment remembering our days in the house. It's a great song.

After the GN, we went to Beseler's and drank some more beer. Sara Egge got home from work while we were all there. I talked to her for quite a while as Beseler inched his way past Rob in a game of drunken Madden. We ordered pizza and generally had a nice evening. I made my way home around 3:00.

Tuesday, I got up and went to Littlefields and had some lunch. Though it was a little spendy, it was a pretty good lunch. I had an elk sandwich along with an elk soup (it was apparently the flavor of the day). I talked to the owner of the place and got some things in place for a gig, then went to Eddie's where I helped him out since one of his tires had a slow leak. We picked up some Taco Bell, then went and washed Erika's car. We made a stop at Barnes and Noble where I bought a new book. Then, I took Eddie back home and I returned home. I pretty much sat around reading my book for most of the night, except for the hour I took to go wash clothes at the local laundry place. I then got ready for work, and here I am now.

This is pretty closing out my year. I work tonight and tomorrow night, then I head into the new year with a gig at Monte's. 2004 has been an unsettling year, but not every year can be great, let alone perfect, so I'm alright with how it came and went. I just hope 2005 gives me some new signs of direction in my life, which I feel I've missed out on in the last few years. More to come tomorrow...

December 23, 2004

This is my fourth and final night of work this week, and thank God for that. I can't beleive that I used to work seven days straight back my early days of auditing. It's a huge struggle to survive this long now- four lousy nights. Anyhow, I'm nearly half way through the evening, and the end can't come soon enough.

Not much is really new from yesterday. I didn't do anything interesting after work, I came home and slept for a while. I only stayed asleep for about two hours, so I transfered myself to the couch and watched Good Will Hunting. It's a good movie. When I found that I still wasn't tired enough to sleep again, I watched Road Trip. About twenty minutes of that, and I was asleep. When I woke up again a few hours later, I got dressed and grabbed a little lunch at Betrosa's, which is always good. The special today was hot turkey, my favorite. I read the paper and watched as Donald Rumsfeld tried to tell the country in a live news conference that he's the right man to continue to run the Department of Defense. Some old guys were eating lunch and shouting out support to the TV. I wanted to go over there and give them a piece of my mind, but chose to not. After lunch, I went home and played some Madden. I read a magazine and read a little in a book I had already read. Then, I went back to sleep again. I woke up around eight, got up, watched Beautiful Girls for the nine-hundreth time, then ironed a shirt for work. Following a quick shower, I was in my freezing cold car and on my way to work, where I am currently at. I'm sure you were all captivated by this description of my day. As a matter of fact, you're probably a little bit dumber for having read it.

New couple alert: despite the fact that others probably know, Kate Naumann is dating Aaron Chapman. I talked to Aaron online tonight for a while, and he relayed the news to me. Just another couple to enter the log books on Hanson and Beseler Online, you heard it here, and it will be permanently logged here forever...or until we quit doing the site, which is probably never at this rate.

I have some Christmas shopping to do later today. Apparently, no one in my family wants anything except gift certificates from me this year, which would lead me to believe that they all hate everything I buy them normally. I was ready to ask for some stuff from my family when my mom informed me that they had bought all of my gifts months ago. That scared me. On a nice note, I got a gift card to Target from my workplace, showing that these guys sort of care about their employees.

And, speaking of employees at the Radisson, we should embalm yet another now former employee in the vaults. Our newest addition to the overnight crew is no more after a short five-days tenure with us. He called me last night after two nights of not showing up to work to inform me that he's in jail. This would mark the second time that I've gotten the overnight call from jail, which I'm not sure whether I should be impressed or scared of.

Well, that's about all I have for now. This is probably my last entry until I get home to Minot on Friday, so I'll try to get an update in on Friday night or Christmas evening. I'll be online on MSN Messenger as much as I can be, so look for me and say hi. Merry Christmas, all...

December 22, 2004

I'm on night three of four in a row here at work, and it's not going so badly overall. I guess not having school has helped, giving me the chance to sleep as late as I want on these days that I'm working. Work this week has been filled with surprises. Our newest security hire for the hotel lasted about half a week or so. On Monday night, he failed to show up despite calling me a half an hour after his shift started to let me know he was on his way. He called this morning to notify me that he was in jail. He asked me if he was fired, and I told him that I didn't know even though I'm more than sure that he is. Anyhow, it's given me more to do here at work during these long nights, making the time go by just a little bit faster. I'm looking forward to tonight when I can work one more night, then enjoy my Thursday, which looks to be a busy one. I need to go shopping for Christmas presents, first of all. This will be the earliest I've shopped for Christmas in some time. No kidding- I normally buy all of my stuff on the 24th. By shopping on the 23rd, I'll actually have my gifts all wrapped before we go to open them. Crazy. Anyhow, I have some plans to get together with Nina Shook on Thursday night, along with Eddie. It's been a while since we've all hung out, especially with Nina out in Montreal and whatnot. Anyhow, it'll be a great night. Friday morning early, Beseler, myself, and Eddie head home for the holiday.

I hope to have a little bit of time back home to update the site. I'm sure I'll be able to get some time in the late hours after everyone else goes to bed. That's what I normally do, anyhow. I've been a little lazy on getting things updated since my last big truck load a few days ago, but I promise to not make this a regular occurance.

I'm starting to miss some of the people who took off for vacation already, which is a little sickening, but normal for me. Working these hours has kept me from having the time to think about everything else I'd like to be doing right now. But, I do miss my normal crowd of friends that I would simply see at school. Chaus, Dano, and Keira called me from Bismarck a few nights ago. They were all out at the bar somewhere in the Bizzo. I had an overwhelming feeling of wanting to be there with three of my friends that I hardly ever get to see. Oh, well, perhaps they'll have more time this semester...

Not a whole lot else has been going on as of late. I'm just looking forward to getting home and hanging out with the family and dog for a little while. It's only a few days, but it'll be relaxing overall. I have a lot of family to see while I'm back, so that should be fun- catching up with everyone on all the latest family gossip, which there often is a lot of around December.

Well, hopefully you're all enjoying your vacation wherever you are as you read this. Drop me an e-mail, I miss a bunch of you, some of you more than others. But, I'm not going to say who's who. I'll have a little more heading into Christmas, so stay tuned...

December 20, 2004

I survived a long weekend, and now I must survive a long work week before I head home for the holidays. I'll be getting back to Minot on Friday afternoon, I guess, and I'm looking forward to hanging out and seeing the family. Christmas Eve will be just my mom and dad and sister. We'll do the normal routine. On Christmas Day, some of my relatives from my dad's side will make their way down to Minot from Bottineau. On Sunday, we'll drive to Bismarck more than likely and we'll see my aunt, uncle, and cousin down there. On Monday, I'll take off back for Fargo so that I can get back to work once again and relieve Rena from five long days of work. I'm taking the first attack, working right now, and then for the next three nights as well. I look forward to Thursday, when I'll hang out with Nina Shook who's back in town from Canada, then early Friday morning, I'll head out to Minot.

The weekend was quite a busy one. This was the weekend that I played the Carousel Dance Theatre and Jazz Arts Big Band Christmas Show. Now, I love playing those kinds of shows, but when you're doing a show full of Christmas music, it wears on you quickly. We played a show on Thursday and Friday night, then we played two of them on Saturday and one on Sunday. As much as I enjoy doing those shows, as I already mentioned, I wasn't sad to hand that music back in.

Anyhow, a few words about the show. First off, I give much credit to the Gaspers, who put that show together. The music arrangements were mostly good, and the work the Gaspers put into the choreography of the show was very impressive. The dancers did a marvelous job, and I got quite a kick out of much of what they did. Most of the dancers appear to still be in high school, and their focus and attention was most impressive. The most enjoyable numbers for me were March of the Toy Soldiers and My Favorite Things (Christmas Waltz). I thought those were the best segements of dancing combined with music. Kim Sava was featured on a handful of numbers during the show, and despite a few pitch issues here and there on some hard modulations, I really enjoyed her performing. She does indeed have one the finest show voices that I've heard here in Fargo, and as a young budding actress and singer, I think she has the potential to go a very, very long ways. I had the pleasure of working in the pit for NDSU's presentation of Fiddler on the Roof last year, where Kim played a major role, and did a very fine job there. I expect to see and hear much more down the road from this beautiful talented young lady.

The Jazz Arts Group played well and made every effort to not be tired of the charts. Tom Strait and John Pederson both bolted out incredible solos, while Harley Sommerfeld and John DiFiore both played some tasty licks on their solo sections. Overall, I thought the band played quite well during all shows. There were some great charts in the lineup, most notably to me, some of the Tom Kubis Christmas charts. His samba arrangement of Deck the Halls was full of drive and energy, while his play on Christmas carols and I've Got Rhythm was entertaining, yet very well charted out on his tune, I've Got Christmas.

An acapella group called Blue Jupiter also performed. While I must admit that their style of music is not one that I can call my favorite, they did a pretty fine job entertaining the crowd with their work.

As far as my social scene for the weekend, I went out on Friday night after my hell day, which included caroling with the brass quintet, playing graduation, and performing show #2 of the JAG Christmas Show. I met up with Dawn and Renae Mosbrucker at Monte's, where I bought a round of drinks for my friends. Dano also joined us there, as well as Eddie later on in the evening. It was really nice to see Dawn and Renae again. Catching up with them is always fun. Following that, I headed over to Reeb's to wish Sara Egge a happy birthday as she turned over into the world of being a true adult- the big two-one. I wish I could've celebrated it more, but I was so tired from the day, and had to head home and get to bed. I think I could've fallen asleep at the bar- I was the damned tired.

Saturday night, I was a little disapointed to see that no one wanted to go out, but that's how it works. I met up with Joel, Erika, and Robin at Monte's and proceeded to drink good beer. Rick Gion showed up a little later on (surprise, surprise), and we pretty much shut the place down. Rick and I went over to Kacie and Jenny's place for a little bit, where a drunk Rick managed to spill beer all over the kitchen. A lovely night, as always.

I guess there's not a whole lot else to talk about. Nina is back in town, and I look forward to spending a little quality time with her. She's such a sweetie, and though she does indeed have a new boyfriend, I think I'm still in love with her. I'm sure she takes great comfort in that. Probably not. More to come...

December 16, 2004

I figured I could get a quick mid-week entry in here since I have the time to do it, so here it is. The week is moving along fairly quickly here, and my next few days are looking to be super busy. The last couple of days of have been busy, also, but not anything like my tomorrow is looking.

On Monday, I took the day to relax and catch up a little bit. I ran a bunch of errands in the early afternoon before getting over to the school for a little bit of practice and such. That evening, I made a stop over at Beseler's to watch some of the Monday Night Football game between the Titans and the Chiefs. I was pulling for the Chiefs since Tony Gonzalez was playing, and was my only player left to score any points for my fantasy team. On the other end of it, Mike Vacha, my opponent for the week, had Mason playing for the Titans. It all worked out well for me, though, and I managed to hang on to my slim lead. It was pretty much all for not, though, because I was eliminated from the playoff picture along with Joel. The other four teams advanced. I'm not bitter. Well, a little bit. I hate losing.

I also took some time to hang with Sara Egge since the game was pretty much a bore for me. Sara was trying to finish a paper, but I kept on bothering her. I was bobbling between watching Family Guy, the football game, visiting with Aaron, and hitting on Sara (which is basically what I always do, anyhow, at least to all of the casual observers...) I finally decided to leave her alone, and headed over to the Great Northern to have a beer with Rick. The GM was there and tried to sweet talk me into liking her, which is going to be much more of a chore than she thinks. She comped out an order of cheesy french fries, which was a nice gesture. Rick and I drank some delicious microbrews before heading home after the game was over.

Tuesday featured me teaching a couple of lessons in the afternoon. One of my bass students gave me a really nice desk ornament of an upright bass player. It's one of the nicest gifts I've ever received from a student before, and was much appreciated. After that, I went to JAG rehearsal, which lasted about seven years, or at least it felt that way. In actuality, it lasted three hours, which was a really long time to be sitting on that stage. However, the show does look to be a good one, and I highly encourage anyone who's in town to come and see the band play. The dancers are doing well, and it's pretty well set up with Kathy & Eddie Gasper running the show.

After rehearsal, I was in need of a beer, so I headed over to Lauerman's where I met up with Rick again (surprise, surprise...) Pat Thiel and Tanya Matthies joined us there, and we enjoyed sandwiches and pickled eggs along with our two-for-one beers. Aaron Chapman, the new 21-year old, arrived around midnight and I bought him a beer also. It was a nice relaxing night in a relatively quiet Lauerman's Saloon.

Wednesday, I did lunch with Tim, then went to the school to practice and work on the site. I didn't manage to really get anything done on the site, though. I taught a couple of trombone lessons, then retreated to another JAG rehearsal. I went in on a pot to guess what time rehearsal would end. Somehow, I managed to win by guessing that we'd be done at 9:25 (we got done at 9:21 according to John's watch). The youngest member of the band outsmarted them all, who mostly had guessed we'd be there until at least 10. Suckers.

Today, we play our first Christmas show. I would imagine tonight will be one of the weaker crowds we pull in. However, the weekend shows will have a good draw, I would imagine. Tomorrow is my hell day, with caroling in the morning, graduation in the afternoon, and the JAG show in the evening. However, to end my Friday, I'll be joining Dawn Mosbrucker for a drink. She'll be in town for her brother's college graduation, which I'll be playing for, actually. After visiting with Dawn, it's on to Sara Egge's powerhour if we can find a place to do it at.

Anyways, that's about all I know for now. More to come in a few days, probably Saturday if I'm still alive...

December 13, 2004

The weekend has come to a close once again. Don't you hate that feeling for just an instant? I know that I do. Anyhow, Saturday was a fair day, I guess. I woke up late and was a bit tardy to my Jazz Arts Group rehearsal, which is never a good thing. I had alarms set for 11:30, but for some reason, I just didn't manage to wake up. I was just really tired from work. Anyhow, I woke up at 12:57, and was nine minutes late for my 1:00 rehearsal. The rehearsal overall went well, and I think this upcoming JAG show should be a pretty good one. There are some really nice charts in there, and of course, a few bad apples, but what show can be considered perfect, right? After rehearsal, I ventured home again where I grabbed another nap after a healthy game of Madden. I got a hold of Al Berg and we began to plan our evening on the town. We ended up over at Lauerman's where we enjoyed beer, darts, and pinball. In attendance at the bar included Chaus, Beseler, Jenny, Kacie, Rick, Rob, Al, myself, and Annika. The other eight people we invited were no-shows, much to our dismay, but that's how it works. We were at the bar for quite some time buying beers from Dana Kolberg, who worked that night. When closing time came around, I headed over to Beseler's to have another beer and some pizza with his hot roommates. I stuck around there for a while, then headed home at just a little bit before 3.

Sunday was a pretty busy day. I woke up for church at 9:30, but when I got on the street in my death-box of a car, I realized that it wasn't really a safe option to drive to West Fargo. I called and told them that, and they were all cool with it. I took the time to iron a shirt and get ready for the brass ensemble concert I needed to be at by 12:30. The show was the usual- the worlds longest concert ever. It featured the Concert Choir, University Chorus, Madrigal Singers, Brass Ensemble, and Women's Choir. It lasted a little over two hours, which is pretty much standard for that show. Most of it went pretty well. After the show, the brass players headed over to Dr. Neil Mueller's place where we ate some really good beef. Dr. Mueller is always a good host, and we had a nice relaxing evening over there. I got home around 8 and took a nap, then headed over to work- and that's where I am now.

This week is finals week, so I imagine everyone is stressing out lots and lots. In just a few days, it'll be over and we can all enjoy a little break back at home with our families. I know I'll enjoy that. Anyhow, not much else to speak of, so I'll sign off for now. More this week...

December 10, 2004

I can't believe that the year is almost over again. Though there were moments during the year that seemed to last forever, the overall year went by really quickly. Plenty has happened already, and I guess you could probably tell that if you've been browsing through this online journal all year. I'm amazed by how much stuff I've had the chance to write about over the past three and a half years, actually, and going through my web logs is sometimes kind of fun for me. Anyhow, I'll do another year in summary in the form of a top ten here in a couple of weeks, I look forward to taking one last run down the road of 2004 as we leap in 2005- halfway through the new decade, which I kind of feel like it just happened not too long ago.

The week overall was alright. I had a few days off during the week which is always nice, especially with all the concerts and such that go on as we head into the holiday season. The Monday night jazz concert was quite a show. The lab band went out there and played a very good opening set. That group has gotten ten times better since I first arrived out here in Fargo. Dr. Patnode is a real good director and has done a fine job transforming that group into what it is now. All it took was a few more motivated musician students, and now now we have a good lab band. Following their show, the jazz ensemble went out there and turned in quite a performance. The energy within the band was at some of the highest levels I think I've ever felt. Everyone was just cooking out there, and things really fell together. There were a few errors, but those are to be expected. Most notably, we heard some really smoking solos from the young sax players, mainly Brian Wittkop and Jessy Klimpel. Brian really pulls some good stuff out for the shows, and as Rena Kuch told me, she could close her eyes and see a young Brecker out there blowing. I couldn't agree more. Jessy has a meaty sound that I think has grown very much over the last year, and will continue to grow with time as his solo chops mature even more. Eddie Schwind turned in a good performance on his final show with the jazz band. Scott Fisher showed us that he was ready to emerge as the next lead trumpet player in a line of traditionally strong lead players at NDSU (Dan Johnson, Cameron Haaland, Tom Raney, and further back). Al Berg's work on the keys is at it's best right now, and I don't doubt that he will be able to top that just as easilly at our next show, which is jazz festival. All in all, it was quite a performance for us, and a good way to go out this semester. There will be changes once January rolls around, as we lose Dan from the trumpet section and Eddie from the saxes. Both are strong leaders that pushed their respective sections. I look forward to seeing that the new leaders can do.

The Wind Ensemble performed on Tuesday night, and did very well despite a somewhat dismal crowd compared to the surprising turnout for the jazz show. The selections were good and everyone played well as an ensemble, which is always great to see in the fall as a barometer for how concert band will look in the spring. Dr. Mueller shined on the Kennen, which I grew to enjoy more and more as we worked the piece throughout the second half of the semeseter. It's contemporary sound was hard to understand at first, but made much more sense by the time we performed it.

I enjoyed some quality bar time this week with Rick Gion, Tim, and Ruth. Monday night, we got Eddie and Jen out there as well. Tuesday night, it was Tim and Ruth with me and Rick. Wednesday night, I went to the Great Northern with Tim and Ruth, and met up with Ryan Sather. Rick joined us later that evening. Good drinks and good conversation were enjoyed. I work tonight, then have Saturday off, when Al Berg and I will try to get a bunch of people out to celebrate the end of the semester.

Tonight, it's over to the BSA to do a little pep band. Dano and I will direct the first half of the doubleheader. I imagine I'll stay for the second game and play a little bit. After that, it's back here to work. I can hardly wait for that. And, no, I'm not being sarcastic. Well, maybe just a little bit.

That's about it for now, I'm growing tired here at work as I type, but I still have a little over three hours to survive, so I better put some more effort into staying awake. More soon...

December 6, 2004

The weekend has come and gone once again as if there had been none, which is a usual sequence of events for me most of the time, anyhow. Things were busy as most weekends are winding down into the end of the semester. I had no lack of things to do, that's for sure.

Saturday began with me getting home from work and going to sleep for a little bit before getting up and cleaning the hell out of my apartment. I took some time out to clean the bathroom up nicely for once instead of my usual once-over. I have to clean it once in a while since Tim never does. It's really the only place in the house that I would actually like him to clean since it's the only part of the house (aside from his room) that he really uses at all. Anyhow, I cleaned the living room and the kitchen as well, and did some laundry- pretty much the normal Saturday chores that I usually like to do. Following all of that, I got dressed up nice and headed to the Holiday Inn with Beseler for the Symphony Ball. The NDSU Jazz Ensemble works at the annual event to raise money for the jazz groups tour.

Beseler and I were in charge of the valet parking. We found that evening that people are getting more and more rude as we add years to our seniority of working this event. The roped off area for the valet parking this year was the front parking lot of the hotel, and people were much less than happy about not being able to park in there. Every time someone would try to park in there, I would jump in front of their car. When they asked why they couldn't park there, I would tell them why. Then, they would assume that I worked for the hotel and ask to talk to a manager or demand as paying customers that they be able to park there. Of course, I would have to tell them no. I was sworn at more than once, which of course was no big deal since I've been immune to that sort of thing since my army days, but after a while, it did get kind of old. I hate unreasonable people.

In the middle of the event, Beseler and I took a break to go get some dinner with Tanya Matthies and Jenny Thompson. Both were working in a different area of the ball, but were able to bust out with us. The two ladies both looked quite good, I must say, and we made it a point to let them know a lot (see the picture on the main page of the site- they're hot, aren't they?) It sort of felt like Prom of old men, at least that's what it looked like to me. Two dirty old guys with two pretty women. Anyhow, we went and got some food over at Applebee's. Jenny and Tanya enjoyed cocktails, which damn near killed me because I really wanted a drink at that moment, but couldn't since I was parking $40,000 vehicles. We enjoyed our time, nonetheless, and headed back after a little over an hour. Dr. Mack gets credit for taking some of the photos back at the hotel, including the one on the front page of the site.

Symphony Ball always takes up a lot of time, so Beseler and I didn't get out of there until a little after 1:30. We picked up Jess Stevens and headed to my place where we had chosen to enjoy some drinks to end the evening. Pat Thiel also joined us there. Needless to say, one drink turned into many more than two, and by about 3:30, we were pretty well lubed up to put it nicely. Beseler and Jess walked home, while I easily fell asleep as soon as they departed. The night was really fun, though, and we enjoyed quite a few laughs, good conversation, and well-deserved drinks.

Yesterday morning, I got up at 9:00 and headed to church where Jesse, Chris, and I played pretty well. I always have a pretty good time playing over at that church, and it's just sort of fun to come in there and read whatever they chose for the service. The best part was our offertory, where we played a fast jazz waltz version of What Child is This? Following church, I headed over to Beseler's to pick him up so he could come over and get his car. After that, I made some lunch, watched a little football, then went to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up, I went over to the school and played another Madrigal Dinner's show, which went well overall considering our augmented lineup once again.

Jen and Eddie were in attendance at the show, so we went over to the Great Northern after it was over and they had a beer (I had a Coke). We visited a little bit before I headed over here to work, which is where I now sit.

It wasn't such a hot football day for me. While the Vikings lost and that made me happy (sorry Beseler), my Broncos also blew it and lost a pivotal game against the Chargers. So, I guess we shoot for a Wild Card now. Sad. My fantasy team wasn't looking nearly as good as I was hoping- mostly because my quarterback decided to get injured in the first half (Marc Bulger). Not good. Apparently, I'm only down by 5 points right now, though, so it wasn't such an awful day considering I had no points from my quarterback for the most part. Official scores go up later on, I look forward to seeing if I managed to win (which would surprise me, but make me happy) or if I lost (which would not shock me at all).

Tonight, it's the Jazz Ensemble concert- everyone should come out and see it. It should be a good show, and this is the last time you'll see some people on stage for a while, or possibly for good. Eddie Schwind and Dan Johnson play their final shows, while Luke Schraw will be taking a break from the ensemble. Eddie has some solos and Dano has a co-feature, so come and check it out- it should be a good high energy show.

Well, that's about it for me. I need to get back to work. More to come this week...

December 4, 2004

I'm at work again- another day, another dollar (before taxes are taken out, of course). Friday (yesterday) seemed sort of like a wasted day to me. Not sure why, but I guess I can't really say it was that great of a day. I got home from work around 7:20 or so, and played a little Madden while eating a light breakfast. I've been trying my best to no longer make those stops at Taco John's or Hardees in the morning after work, but rather come home and eat a banana or some cereal or something. Anyhow, I finally got to bed around 8:00. I woke up later on in the morning not feeling incredibly well. I made it to school and jazz band, and survived a fairly good rehearsal. That pretty much marked the end of the day for me. However, I was still tired and my body just didn't feel right for some reason. I began thinking I was pregnant until two seconds later when I realized that I was a male.

Beseler and I went and grabbed some lunch from Burger Time, which was actually pretty good, but not exactly what my stomache was really asking for. Nonetheless, I ate it. Sara Egge came in to let me know that she could not play Madrigals on Sunday, which was sort of a flop to me. I wasn't mad that she couldn't do it, but rather, I'm one of those musicians who doesn't like sudden surprises days before a gig, and that's what this was. Anyhow, it appears that one Pat Thiel will come in and play trombone, with me on the bass trombone. It'll probably go just fine, and I shouldn't worry, but you know me- always worrying.

I went home after eating and played some more Madden, which seems to be becoming more and more frequent for me once again as the NFL football season continues on. Tim came home and we sat around for a while until I fell asleep in my chair, while he chose to nap on the couch. I woke up an hour later and retreated to my own bed, where I managed to sleep until 9:00. I got up, and (you guessed it) played some more Madden, then showered and showed up here to the every-so-lovely place I call work- the Radisson Hotel- Fargo. It's been a quiet night for the most part. I've had two complaints from the 6th floor for noise. But, that's about it. It's now damned near 3:40am, and I'm bored out of my fat head. But, that's how my workplace is. Just ask Rena, she knows, too.

I look forward to later today when I get to the Holiday Inn and do the Symphony Ball. It's the one single fund raiser the jazz band does during the year, and we make quite a lot of money, actually. Beseler and I will once again head up the group parking cars. It's always fun since some of the more rich folk end up at the ball, and they have nice cars that I can only dream of driving. Maybe I'll bring my car out there and have someone try to park it. Of course, they would probably not know how to drive with my bad brakes, and they would crash into something, which would be no big deal to me or my car, but a big deal to whatever (or whoever) they crashed into. Liability sucks.

Anyhow, not much else going on. I work again tomorrow night, then I get Monday off for the jazz band concert. I return to work at 7am on Tuesday, and then we do the wind ensemble show on Tuesday night. I also have a lovely JAG rehearsal following that, but I have the night off, which means perhaps Tuesday will be a Lauerman's night. Why wouldn't it be, after all? Anyways, more to come, probably on Sunday or Monday morning.

December 3, 2004

It's been a few days since my last update, and to be completely honest, I don't really have any excuses for that. I had three nights off from work, but I just didn't find the time to update. Anyhow, things are alright. Monday night featured our annual performance with the jazz ensemble at the mall. Every year, we go out there and set up our entire big band and play. Our jazz band is pretty loud, so even when we play softly, you still hear the 19-piece group pretty well. Anyhow, we went in there and played actually really well. The show this year was a little earlier than we usually play at West Acres, but nonetheless, it was still fun to play for the crowd that we had. Following that show, Al, Russ, Eddie, his fiance Jen, and I made our ways down to the bar at the mall and enjoyed some good sandwiches, beer, and conversation. Following all of that, I hitched a ride home, then went downtown to Lauerman's to meet Tim, Ruth, and Rick. It was really cool there because it was a really slow night downtown, and there was literally no one else in that bar. So, we had our own bar, and that was neat. Probably the first and possibly the last time that sort of thing ever happens again.

Tuesday, it was just a regular day for the most part. During the evening, I had a rehearsal with the Jazz Arts Group that went for what felt like 11 years. It was really long and there seemed to be a lot of time wasted with confusion about the music and such. I felt really bad for Dr. Mack because he hadn't seen any of the music either before we started rehearsal. Anyhow, after a long two hours, we learned about five songs and recorded them for the dancers who needed music to work with. The show featuring this music is going to be a really good one, I have no doubts about, of course. We'll be doing a big Christmas show with the Gasper's and their dancers, and it should be a neat production. Anyhow, after hanging there, I met up with Eddie and Rick at Lauerman's II over off of 25th. We ate some fried food, had a few beers, and played the ever addictive Megatouch games. Tim met up with us over there as well after a little bit. Following that, Tim and I picked up Ruth and we went back to the real Lauerman's downtown. Rick was there, too. It seems like on all my nights off, I end up with some of my best friends at Lauerman's- and I don't think we could ask for a better option, really.

Wednesday was a fairly long day, as well. All of the brass quintets met up that evening for a rehearsal for the Madrigal Dinners, which are going on now (more on that later in this entry...) Following the rehearsals, I went home and decided to make it a night in for once. I relaxed with the Playstation and a few beers before getting some company from Robin. While we were hanging out, I got the phone call from Tim giving us the good news that Ruth had accepted his proposal in marriage, which was no surprise to me, but great news still. Robin and I hung out for a while before she headed home, then I ran to the liquor store just in time to grab a six-pack of Honey Weiss. I took it to Beseler's where we hung out and shared some tales from the day. Sara Egge was also there, but declined our many invitations to enjoy a cold one with us. Instead, she opted to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, hot homemade apple sauce, and a packet of Capri Sun. She thought twice about drinking that when I compared the pouch to a breast implant. Tell me you wouldn't think twice, too.

Yesterday, I played brass for the Madrigal Dinner's. I've missed out on the show since a few years back when JoAnn Miller was still running it. Dr. Micheal Weber took over last year and presented a new way of producing the show. I've got to tell you- they did a pretty fine job overall. Though I'm not sure if the singers are what they used to be (we used to have an insanely good set of Madrigals back in the day, not to take away from our current group- they're good, too...) but the production was very good. My outstanding performer award will go hands down to Elliott Schwab, who played the part of the jester. It just seems like Elliott was probably born for that job, and should retain it until he's too old walk anymore. Anyhow, if you've been thinking about going to the show, stop thinking and get your tickets, it was a really, really fine show.

Well, that's about all I have to report for the meantime. I work tonight, and I have Symphony Ball on Saturday. Sunday, I work again, then Monday, we do the big Jazz Band Christmas Concert. Busy times, but then again, when do things really change? More to come soon...

November 29, 2004

Sunday was a busy day, and sort of a murky one, too. Murky if you consider football an intregal part of your Sunday. Not sure what was going on in the world of pro football today, but nothing really went well for me in that arena. My Denver Broncos somehow managed to lose to the ill-fated Oakland Raiders on a blocked field goal. The game was in Denver, and there was snow on the field. Why didn't the Broncos win? Ugh. Then, all my fantasy football players took the day off, too. What a miserable day for a football fan much like me.

It was a long day, too. I worked until about 7:15, then came home and took a nap before cleaning up and heading to Living Hope Baptist in West Fargo. I played a service with my favorite pick-up Christian band featuring Chris Gould on Hammond, Jesse Braunagel on guitar, and an older dude that I don't know his name on drums. I always enjoy that gig playing keyboards. We sort of just stroll in there and read the tunes down for the most part, trying to put a jazz and funk influence on some of the contemporary Christian music they enjoy hearing. It's really fun, and the congregation seems to enjoy it. The church is pretty laid back, and none of us in the band ever dresses up because we're not expected to do so. Jeans and a polo shirt always work well there.

After church, I stopped over at Wal Mart to pick up a tie. I can't believe how many people were waiting to get in there at noon when I got there. It's definately the holiday season, one can most certainly tell. Anyhow, I got in and out of there as quickly as possible, then headed home and made some lunch. I then put on my Class A uniform and headed to Moorhead to play a brass quintet performance for a fund raiser with the 188th Army Band Brass Quintet. It was a really good group overall, with Tim Knabe and Jesse on trumpets, along with everyone's favorite DJ Steve Frasse on horn and Nathan Johnson on tuba. We played a half an hour at the top of the show, then went on a little joy ride over to Jesse's house where we visited with some of his family on the break. Then, back to the Moorhead to play the end of the show at around 4:45. Following the gig, I landed back at home playing a game of Madden (which I seem to be playing a lot of now- you can always tell it's winter). I lamented to Beseler via phone about how awful my fantasy team was doing. Of course, this was before the Denver game had even started.

I slept for about four hours, then came to work, walking in just in time to see Jason Elam's field goal get blocked. My boss was here, and he started cheering. I bit my tounge in order to not get fired. (I think he's a big Raiders fan, the damn loser...)

So, now here I am at work again. It's a quiet night, much slower than last night. I sometimes welcome a busy night, though, it makes the time go a little faster. My motivation to come to work has gone down considerably (although I never really did have much motivation to come to work at 11:00pm in the first place) and though I know I need the money, I really do hate these hours. The job would be just fine if it wasn't for the hours. Anyone looking to hire a trombone player who can cook and clean and give back rubs? I know someone who's looking for work. He interested in female employers if possible.

The jazz band is playing at the mall tonight, so if you're bored of if you want to do some shopping, come out to West Acres. I think we're playing in the usual spot- over in the JC Penney Court if I'm not mistaken. You can expect to hear lots of loud jazz reverberating around the mall. But, it's a good sound- come check it out if you're bored or if you have money to blow. Hell, buy Beseler and I a gift, we like gifts. Have a lovely day, more to come shortly...

November 28, 2004

It's been an interesting night of work. I was left with no security this lovely evening- a Saturday evening, nonetheless. I don't get the pleasure of working a lot of Saturday nights since my schedule gets kind of busy on the weekends, but this time around, I got the pleasure of working. Though the audit work was the same mundane activity it always has been, there are always the added perks to working the weekend graveyard shifts- noise complaints, drunk people, and annoying phone calls. I love this place.

The rest of the weekend has been quiet enough, though. Friday night, I made an attempt to get a bunch of people together. I called about ten people to hit the bar and have a nice time with nothing to do Saturday morning. I left several messages and got the obligatory "we'll call you later" reply from a few. What I ended up with was arriving at Lauerman's to meet Matt Tompkins. Though I was pretty bummed with the "turnout", Matt and I sat and caught up at the abnormally busy bar for a Thanksgiving weekend.

Rick Gion showed up after a little while (which is no surprise at all), and we all enjoyed conversation about politics, the old house, high school reunions, and photography. One beer turned into two and then three and four. Rick was sadly left out of the fun because he was on call for work, but he kept up in the conversation department. Pretty soon, Matt and I were heading over to the HoDo for some wine. The place, however, was packed and there was no place to sit. So, we retreated over to Monte's and polished off a bottle of wine there. We both got pretty silly by the end of the night, and I ended up getting a ride home, leaving my death trap of a car downtown. Matt had to call his wife. From later reports, apparently Matt passed out on the ride home. I'd call that a succesful night of consumption.

Rick came back over to my place and we met up with Tim and Ruth. Ruth had worked the dirty "E" that evening, and Tim was just home from Sidestreet. A few of us enjoyed one final beer before calling it a night. It was nice because I didn't have to get up early at all in the morning, and I took advantage of that fact.

Saturday, Ruth took me to my car, which sadly, no one had stolen. I headed home from there, cleaned up, and then Tim and I went to Ruth's parents place for a belated Thanksgiving dinner. Ruth's brother was home from the Cities, along with his fiance. What intrigued me most about her was that she looked a lot like Dana Kolberg, but with Amber Hopf's hair style. It jolted me all afternoon. Anyhow, we watched a bad movie, then ate a wonderful meal prepared by the ladies. Following that, we played a couple of board games, ate some pie, and then I came home. I took a nap after a little Madden, and then came to work, which is (of course) where I am now.

Today will be a long day. After work, I plan on going home and cooking a nice breakfast, then I need to get to church and play a little piano. Following that, I change costumes and do a Guard gig with the brass quintet in Moorhead. Then, I can come home, take another nap, then come back here to work again. As the song title goes, "the road goes on forever, and the party never ends".

Hopefully everyone had a nice long weekend at home and wherever you may have gone for the holiday. I certainly hope everyone has a safe travel back to town, especially Jessy and Ryan, who are riding the mighty Amtrak. I don't know about you guys, but I actually like taking the train. I intend on doing that at Christmas, actually, since my car could blow up at any minute. You think I'm kidding. I'm not.

Anyhow, enough of my rambling, more to come in less than 24 hours...

November 26, 2004

First off, hopefully you all had a good Thanksgiving...

I had a little fun the last couple of days. It felt like the first day off I had enjoyed in a long time, and now that I look back on my calendar, I guess it sort of is. Wednesday night, I enjoyed en evening with Joel and Russ, having a few beers and loosening up for once. We were later joined by Keira and Dana. It was nice to just kick back and enjoy the night. I hadn't seen Keira in quite some time, and I hadn't really hung out with Russ or Joel in a while. We nearly closed the bar down.

Yesterday morning, I slept in, which just felt wrong to me, but I was loving it nonetheless. I finally got out of bed when Beseler called me to make sure I was up watching the Colts game. I sat around and continued to be lazy while watching the game. I enjoyed a pizza as my Thanksgiving lunch, and rejoiced in the Colts serious ass-whipping of the Detroit Lions. I almost felt bad for them as Peyton Manning threw touchdown after touchdown. Anyhow, after that game, Beseler came by and we went over to Erika's where I enjoyed dinner with Aaron, Erika, and some of her family. For the record, Erika did most of the cooking, and it was delicious. Following dinner, I made some phone calls, first to home where my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin were visiting my folks, and then a call to my sister out in DC. Everyone seemed to be doing well overall, and the conversation was really nice, although it made me miss not being at home for the holiday. Following that, I watched the Cowboys win, much to my discontent. Beseler and I played some cards, and then I came home so I could get a nap in before work, where I, of course, am right now.

I have tonight off from work, then I go back in for Saturday and Sunday night, which is a drag, but gotta pay those bills. I have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off, so I'll try to get some stuff done and perhaps have some time to hang out with other people who were out of town for the weekend.

I was delighted to hear that Emma Aavang liked the Huntley, Illinois page that I wrote up. For those of you who don't know about it, I wrote a little mini-report about Huntley, which is a little town outside of Chicago. Our friend and fellow Gold Star Band member friend Emma is from there, and dared us to look the town up, written on our guest book page. So, I had some time earlier this week, and I did just that. Anyhow, I'm glad you liked it, Emma. Aaron told me that your boyfriend suddenly wanted us to write about Wadena, Minnesota, his hometown. My reply to that is simple- Chris Neu is not a P.Y.T. (P.Y.T. is a Micheal Jackson song- stands for Pretty Young Thing, for those of you who aren't up on your early 80's music...) Besides, we all know about Wadena, anyhow. What always amazed me about Wadena is that there was a Chinese buffet there. Wadena isn't a very big town. And, they have a Chinese buffet. Ok, I'm getting way off track here...

Checking on the web polls on the site, I see that many of you think Beseler and I are too old to march again. We might need walkers and canes to get around, and that could impair the band a little bit. We'll need more water breaks so that we can take our prescribed medication throughout band camp. Well, you can't get rid of us that easily. You'll know more as the year goes along. Also, in my poll about what music you'd like on a student show, I was surprised to see that Styx and Stevie Wonder are leading the way. I was even more surprised to see that no one really wants a Prince show. Just seems like somethings wrong with that picture. But, then again, a bunch of people voted for George W. Bush, too...

With the 12-month mark coming up to signify my time away from 6th Avenue, I was happy to see that my old roommate Rick Gion still checks the site. He posted something on the guest book about the 6th Avenue section. Thanks for reading, man. I knew you would understand every word I wrote.

Well, I guess I should get out of here. Everyone keep an eye on the site, we're trying to get more stuff done and updated, and we're looking into the future on content, structure, and a new domain name. Keep your eyes open, we're trying to make it all better. Take it easy, all...

November 22, 2004

Here I am back from an eventful weekend that took me out to Rugby for all day Saturday. My brass quintet took our skills to to the road in a 3-hour journey to play a wedding a country church outside of Rugby for Jen and David Teigan. It was a great time for all of us.

Friday night featured my first time directing the pep band at a basketball game. Believe it or not, this was the first time in my five years in the program that I had ever even been at a basketball game. Anyhow, with a little help from Chris Neu and Beseler, I survived just fine through the game, in which the Bison women's team easily defeated DSU by fifty points or so. It was almost painful to watch the Bison destroy DSU, which is a NAIA take in the DAC-10. Anyhow, the game was actually pretty fun, and the flute players were my favorite part of the game. Much like the football games, the flutes always seem to have the most fun. I love flute players. A lot.

After the game, and handful of us went out to Buffalo Wild Wings for some chow and a couple of beers. I found out that BWW's gives a buy-one-get-one-free beer deal for military members, which I regret to say I didn't know about over the five years I've resided here. Anyhow, it was nice to hang out and whatnot, but the three beers I had were just enough to make me really tired, and I went home and went to bed in preparation for Saturday.

Saturday morning, my quintet took off for Rugby around 8:00 or so. Tanya, Amanda, and Justin jumped in one vehicle, while I took the task of making sure Sara didn't fall asleep. We got up to Rugby by about 11:30 and played a short rehearsal at the church. We then went into town and enjoyed a good lunch over at The Hub. It's nice to get to a small town once in a while and have that kind of cooking. It was really nice. Following lunch, we went to the Schiff home and was introduced to the Jenn Schiff's family and their dog, who was amazingly excited to see all the new company around. After a little time to change and get ready, we headed back to the church and did the wedding. It was a nice wedding with a good crowd of people who really appreciated the music. I got well over a dozen compliments about our performance, which was good to hear.

At the reception, much free beer and shots were enjoyed right away. Our group was feeling pretty good by the time we had dinner. The evening featured some dancing (I did not dance, for the record) and good conversation. We chose to leave around 11:00 because some drunk people were hitting on Sara, and we didn't feel like dealing with. A couple of us were pretty well in the bag by then, anyhow, so we retreated back to the Schiff home and enjoyed a couple of beers before calling it a night. We got back on the road at about 9:00 on Sunday morning and made it back to Fargo by a little after 12:00. We made really, really good time, just in case you don't know how far Rugby is from here.

The marching band concert went pretty well overall on Sunday afternoon. The band played better than they normally do on the marching band concert, although it was still super, super loud. I will admit now that I was sad to know that it would be the last time I would wear the drum major uniform for the year, or possibly ever depending on whether I can march next year or not. I think it's going to be the same situation as I went into for the 2004 season- drum major or nothing. I don't miss blowing my brains out on the field. I loved directing, and I think that's all I could see myself doing anymore.

Anyhow, here I am early Monday morning at work once again. The week is a short one for most with Thanksgiving coming up. I work tonight also, then on Thanksgiving. I have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday off this week. I play on taking full advantage of having Friday off. It'll be the first time in months that I've had a chance to just sleep in without anything to do all day. More to come, probably tonight...

November 19, 2004

Well, it's been about a week since we were able to write on the site due to a couple of technical errors that were pretty much my fault, so I guess I should say once more that I'm sorry for the problems which caused the site to be down for about six days. Beseler and I are slowly jumping back on the train here and we plan on having a lot of stuff updated here in the next three to four days. We're looking into some other plans for the site as well, which if you keep coming back, you'll find out about in the near future.

It's been the usual busy week for me with work and school, and the weekend doesn't slow down at all, either. Tonight, I direct the pep band at the basketball game. Tomorrow, I head out to Rugby for little Jen's wedding. It looks to be a pretty good time overall. My brass quintet is coming along to play at the ceremony, and I'm really excited about having them play. Tanya, Amanda, Sara, and Justin will accompany me to the huge "town" of Rugby, although the wedding ceremony is somewhere out of town about 16 miles. Anyhow, it should be good music, a good party, and a nice weekend with people that I enjoy being around...all except for Justin.

The final Marching Band concert will take place on Sunday, and I'm actually pretty excited about that, as well. It's kind of fun of get on stage and do all the silly stuff we do. I kind of wonder what kind of turnout we'll get for this show, though. This is the first time that I can remember where we're not doing the concert on the same weekend as Band Partents Weekend. But, I think a lot of folks will still show up, and I look forward to being in front of the band one last time this season. It's been an honor and a pleasure to work with the band and my fellow DM's, Emily Hunt and Chris Neu. I came into the season not knowing what to expect out of the position, but I now end the season feeling quite good about what we were able to do. And, of course, there's now a good chance that I will try to be back to march one more time. This dialogue is sort of comparable to the ending of Basie's "April in Paris", don't you think...

Thanksgiving is next week, and regretably, I will not be going home this time around. I've decided to broker a deal to work over this holiday and then go home for Christmas so that I can see my sister. I hardly ever get to see her, as a matter of fact, I normally only see her at that holiday. Anyhow, I will work over this Thanksgiving. I though about making my own turkey, too. Eat my turkey, watch the football games, take a nap, and go to work. I've been invited to about seventy-eight dinners, too, so I have no excuse to not eat and enjoy the holiday. Thanks to all of you who asked, I will be making my selections soon.

I'm directing the Pep Band tonight. Funny thing is that I've never played in the pep band before, and I really don't like basketball at all. I got cut from the 6th grade Langdon basketball squad back in 1988, and I've never been the same since. (Keep in mind that in 6th grade basketball, they normally don't cut anyone) Anyhow, I've always maintained that if Asians are not good at a sport, I can't like it. No kidding. Of course, now with Yao Ming out there, I have to give a little bit of attention to the sport. Now, if we could just a couple of Asian quarterbancks, my life would be complete.

Did anyone hear from Beseler that he won another Fantasy Football game, and is now tied with me in the standings at a wavering 3-7. But, I now have Drew Brees. Watch out world, I'm taking over. Sorry Beseler...

Well, more to come in a few, I have much to do and think about for the site...

November 8, 2004

Another busy weekend has passed. I sincerely wish that I could've enjoyed a nice free and open weekend with no football game to march, but that wasn't so. I played a gig at Innovis on Friday afternoon, then played a sub gig for Beseler with the NDSU Combo on Saturday morning. Immediately following that, I played a rehearsal with the Jazz Arts Group, then went home and listened to the Bison game on the radio (which I was delighted by the fact that we won). That evening, I played the Jazz Arts Group show, which was most certainly one of the finest shows I've had the privilage of playing. Ms. Cohn was one of the greatest clarinet players I've ever had the chance of playing with. Her bo-bop style on clarinet was amazing like nothing I've honestly ever heard before, and it was neat to be on stage backing her up. I highly suggest that everyone who didn't get to see her play go to her website and take a gander there, then consider purchasing her CD. I guarantee that you'll be amazed by her work.

There were two very fine recitals this past weekend, also, that I must write about. I've missed out on a handful of recitals while here due to work, but two great chances were missed if you didn't get to attend any of the student recitals this past weekend. Kirsten Solomonson and Emily Hunt performed Sunday afternoon. This was honsetly the first time I had ever seen a euphonium recital, and Emily did a fine job with her selections. One of my favorite composers for low brass is Galliard, and she performed one of those pieces. Kirsten played very well, and I noted the incredible progress that she has made over the years she has been here while taking up the leadership roles musically. She also performed what I believe is was on the shortest solos in the world. It was played well, though.

What I really want to rave about, though, is Jenny Thompson and her recital on Friday night. I've always enjoyed an array of classical and contemporary work on flute, mostly because my sister was a very talented flute player herself. Jenny did a marvelous job with a full recital, playing wonderful quality works that I enjoyed immensly. The selections were interesting, and many of them were the kinds of pieces that I could close my eyes while listening to and actually picture a place and events going on as described by the notes flying around me. She ended the recital with a dazzling duet with Michelle Beyer, and I tell you what, I was impressed with the overall performance. Jenny did a fine job, and this is the kind of musicianship that gets players places.

This past Thursday night was pretty fun,.too, with the brass chamber night happening. A fairly descent crowd turned out for the show, as NDSU showcased their brass chamber groups. My quintet came out and did a nice job despite some tired chops. We had a pretty demanding program with The Earle of Oxford which might defeat any trumpet player, Ewald Quintet 2, which was just hell for everyone, and then the Canadian Brass arrangenment of A Closer Walk, which featured an imprompteu cowbell solo by Dr. Neil Mueller from out in the crowd. The other groups played well, and the NDSU Faculty Quintet sounded marvelous performing a well-written and most challenging Vivaldi piece. I hope to get my paws on that version for my quintet this coming spring.

Anyhow, so begins another busy week. I have Guard this weekend, which will feature two painful days- one where we have to get shots, and one day when I have take a PT test. But, such is life. I'll try to get more updates this week. Beseler and I have some ideas for the site that you will see taking shape as early as tomorrow, perhaps. Stay tuned, and don't stray away too far...

November 4, 2004

It's been over a week since I last updated in this section, so I guess I should get on with it. Things have been interesting and high-paced here for the last week or so. This past weekend marked the end of the season for the Gold Star Marching Band, and I think we went out on a good note overall with the Billy Joel Show. The music and drill were student written and taught, and I think everyone involved from leadership down to the members of the band did well. Hopefully everyone felt good about the show and the year overall. We bid farewell to a number of seniors that I won't try to name right now. I look forward to our final two deals- the banquet and the marching band concert.

This past Friday also marked the end of something- Dr. Kyle Mack's bachelorhood. Dr. Mack was married on Friday evening to his new wife, Sam. It was really neat to be involved in the wedding and all. Dano and I served as ushers for the small event, along with our good friend Jesse Braunagel, who was in charge of the show for the most part. It was a long time coming for Dr. Mack to finally get married, and it looks like the wait was worth it for him. Sam seems like she's a really great person, and her daughter is cute as a button and always full of energy, which is nice to see in a kid these days. Congratulations to Dr. Mack on his marriage, and we wish him nothing but the best.

Things have been hectic and busy as usual with all of that stuff happening. Student recitals are coming up, and I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing Jenny Thompson, Emily Hunt, and Kirsten Solomonson perform this coming weekend. Their senior recitals look to be enjoyable. Also this week, there's the brass chamber night tonight, which will feature a lot of good ensembles. Hopefully there will be some people on hand to enjoy the music. Last, but not least, the Jazz Arts Big Band performs on Saturday, and it looks to be a really good show featuring a very fine saxophonist names Anet Cohen. The charts are high energy, and there have been a million advertisements on TV and on the radio as of late. I look forward to the weekend.

Things start to really get busy as we wind down this semester. Thanksgiving is coming up, and it looks like I'll be staying here this time around. I've struck a deal to probably work on Thanksgiving and get Christmas off. We'll see how it all works out. I'm looking forward to a little vacation one of these days, though. I guess I'll get that it late December. Until then, it's just work as usual. December is looking to be an insane month, but a very good money making month with plenty of Christmas gigs and New Years gigs to keep me working into overdrive.

Well, not much else to speak of, I'll try to have a little more tomorrow...

October 24, 2004

Not a whole lot going on tonight, I've been sitting here updating the site tonight since I've got nothing else to do. The "trio" is here in the lab with me- Madi, Hayley, and Megan. Rick Gion was here for a little bit, and conversation with him is always interesting, if not humerous and entertaining. It's been a slow day with just a trip to play at church, brunch with John, and a brass quintet rehearsal that seems to have gone well. That brass quintet, I dare to say, is probably the finest one I've played with at NDSU, and I most certainly consider it the best group I'm playing with this semseter. I just feel pleased when we come out of a rehearsal in there. The music is good and fun, and the players are pretty neat overall. I love em', and I'll gladly cook for them anytime.

The weekend was good and busy. The football game wasn't exactly what I was hoping it would be. The Bison did much better on the offensive side of the ball than Cal-Poly, and the Bison defense did it's job in stopping the run, the option, and most of the passing game. However, it was the Bison's few miscues and such that decided this game. It was yet another heartbreaking loss. It's insane that this team could lose in the fashion that it has all three times this year. I'm hoping very much for a big victory at the final home game versus Northwestern. I think we could pull that one off, and it would keep the home fans happy. Weber State shouldn't be so tough, and the way UC Davis has been playing the last few weeks (they lost to Southern Utah yesterday), I think we stand a good chance to beating up on them as well. We shall see.

This week will be interesting. I work three nights this week (Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday) and one daytime (Tuesday). We put the Billy Joel drill on the field this week, which features neat drill by Tanya, Boeser, and Erin, and features insane drill by Beseler and Chris Neu. It'll be a challenge, but I think it'll work out alright. The music is coming along, and all in all, I think I did an ok job putting this thing together. I think I voiced things a little thinner than I did with the Eagles show, but overall, I'm really happy that it all worked out. I learned a lot from last year.

Friday will feature the wedding of Dr. Mack. Many have waited for that day. I think it's absolutely fabulous that he's getting married, and he deserves it. He's a good guy, a great musician, and has a heart of gold from what I've seen. He'll make a good husband to Sam, and I think it's pretty neat that Dano and I get the chance to be a part of the wedding this coming Friday. It's a closed invitation wedding, so don't come out there if you're not invited. Just sit at home and have a glass of wine. Toast to them, it's a historic day is my opinion.

My fantasy team isn't looking so hot today, but neither is my opponent at this point. I have several players who play tomorrow night, too, so I'm hopeful they do well (the Broncos defense, along with Smith, Droughns, and Elam. Not sure how Beseler's team is doing, but he's in need of a win soon. I actually feel bad for him, although I am the second worst team in the league, so I don't have much to brag about, either.

Anyhow, more to come, perhaps I will write at work tonight. Actually, I know I will, I need to update my For What It's Worth, and I think I have some stuff to write about. That's Christopher Hanson for you- always thinking, damn it.

October 20, 2004

Another early morning, another entry into onto the site. Here we go...

The last couple of days have been kind of stressful, despite there not really being a lot going on. I played the Baroque student recital on Monday, which went very well for the brass quintet. They played really well, and I got a lot of compliments from a lot of people, students, and staff. On the recital, we were the very last act to play following quite a few other performances. After the show, I brought the quintet over to my house and cooked them dinner, which was actually quite fun. Eddie ended up coming by to eat as well, and it was entertaining as hell to watch him and Sara Egge fight about playing Super Mario World on Super Nintendo. We ended the evening by watching some of the Jass 2004 video, which is always funny no matter whether you know anything about Jass or not.

I had to work right after dinner, which sucked a lot. In the middle of the night, I got sick for some reason. The only thing I can think of is that I was really, really stressed out about some stuff on my mind, and I just got sick over it. My first reaction was that I had food poisoned myself, and then I began to fear that I had food poisoned everyone who had eaten at my place. Images of Tanya, Sara, and Amanda in a hospital came to mind. I couldn't really picture Justin sick because he already acts so strange and often stupid already that him having cconvulsions and such were pretty much daily happenings already.

This past evening, the Wind Ensemble played it's first concert of the year, and that went not too bad overall. I enjoyed the pieces that were programed quite a bit, and I think Dr. Olfert picked out one of his best programs to date. It was nice to be on stage playing with an ensemble of it's type once again.

And, of course, here I am at work again. This is my last overnight of the week, Rena takes over for tonight through Saturday night. I do have one more shift this week, a front desk and bell shift on Thursday morning from 7-3, but I think I can handle that one just fine. Even better, Thursday is pay day, although I already have it all spend on my cell phone bill, credit cards, and utilities. Working for a living, what can I say?

I don't think I mentioned it before when I found out on Saturday, but Ryan Fried and Robin Childs are now engaged. Add them to the list...a long growing list at that.

Beseler is back in town today after making a trek home to take care of some business in Mandan. Perhaps the site will get a good updating. Actually, I think he was updating from there in Mandan. I'm such a slacker. I will say that it has been nice to have a partner back on the site. It inspires me to do more work on the site. Beware of colaborative work coming up in the near future from us two old idiots.

Drill is practically completed for the whole Billy Joel show. Dr. Olfert got to run through the music on Monday with the band, and it's sounding presentable, so I take that as a good sign. He gave me a thumbs-up about the music, so that was nice, too. He didn't want to edit the charts or anything, so I'll take that as a huge improvement from my initial Eagles show, which got a tuning up five times over a two week period. Hopefully the band likes the songs if they can even identify the songs they're playing. I guess everyone knows Piano Man.

I have the next handful of nights off. Tonight and tomorrow are free nights for me. Friday, John is in town, and Saturday is a football day. Will there be a party that night? Hard to say, but hopefully the answer is yes.

Well, not much else to cover so far, perhaps more later today or tomorrow...

October 18, 2004

Back to work again after a long Homecoming run, and man, does it suck to be here again. Actually, this past night wasn't so bad. I do have to work the next two overnights, though, which does suck, but at least my week isn't so busy and all. A lot going on this week nonetheless, though. I have a Baroque Student Recital tonight with the brass quintet. This group is really good. I dare to say this is one close to the finest group I've had the pleasure of playing with during my time here in Fargo. Tanya is sounding better than ever, Justin is playing well despite not having the time to play as much anymore, Amanda is a great addition to the group and seems to be handling the brass quintet's "strange ways and moods" quite well, and Sara Egge is playing very well as usual. Tonight, after the performance, I'm going to cook them all dinner.

Tomorrow night, it's our first Wind Ensemble show of the year. We have a marvelous program lined up, and I hope we have a few people in the crowd. Though the band seems really young and inexperianced, I think they'll do just fine tomorrow. The group sounds good most of the time, with the huge exception of last Thursday, where no one could tune to save their lives. But, I think it was just a hiccup, and we'll be fine.

My good buddy John Fred will be back here in Fargo again on Friday for the big Cal-Poly game, so I'm pretty excited about that. He's out in Sioux Falls working these days, and he gets up here whenever he gets a chance, which is nice of him. I'm sure we'll get out on the town for a while this weekend, then the game and whatever else is going on that weekend.

This past weekend was interesting. I'm sure you can read up on my homecoming on other sections on the site. Saturday was interesting when it came to marching into the dome. Poor Emily Hunt turned her ankle pretty good and had to sit out the game for the most part. She did all the writting on the dry-erase board, I guess, so that was something. Beseler got called into the lights for pre-game, which seemed to make him happy. Dr. Olfert directed from the ladder in place of Emily during halftime. Everything worked out, and Emily got to watch from the end zone. Hopefully she'll be 100% for the upcoming game.

Not a whole lot else is new, I guess. Just working this week and doing my performances, that's about it. Things just aren't all that exciting these days, I guess. Drama here and there, work here and there, school here and there, gigs here and there. I'm a boring guy. Anyhow, more to come in a few...

October 15, 2004

Just sitting here at the school, the weekend from hell is upon me, and I am looking forward to a lot of it, but not looking forward to running everywhere with no time to rest. I did the Team Makers gigs this morning with the Hall of Fame Luncheon. This afternoons rehearsal was canceled for marching band, but it made no differnce to me, I still had too much other stuff to do. I as able to get a beer and a burger with Beseler at Reebs, but after that, it was running around again. In about 45 minutes, I'll be doing the Blue Key show with the marching band, which is more of a pain in the ass than anything, but it's good for the band and a lot of people are there. We're wearing uniforms much to my and many discontent, but what can you do? Dr. O. made the call after advisement, we do what we're told. After that show, I change costumes again and do the MU Live show with the country version of Patents.

Tomorrow, we have an 8:00am rehearsal since we lost our 4:00 rehearsal today, and then we go into the parade, then the pep rally, then the game. We better win or I'll kill someone. Then, I set up for the Get Lei'd Dance, then go to Coaches. Following that, we do the show, then I drink waaaaaaaay too much after because I'm so happy to be done with all of that. Then, on Sunday, I go to church and work again. Back to the old grindstone again, I guess.

Not much else going on. Just working too much and hanging out. I love marching band, but I'll be happy when I don't have a game every weekend in November. Work is a little annoying for both me and Rena, and believe me, Rena- I FEEL YOUR PAIN. That's the thing about working overnights- if you're tired, nothing is going to be happy or fun no matter how good it is, and when it get bad, well, you know the drill. Hang in there, and if you want to quit, GIVE THEM 3 WEEKS NOTICE! :)

Anyhow, I should go now, it takes me about 20 minutes to properly get into my drum major uniform, and about 5 to get out of it, so I need to get ready for the show. More on Sunday for sure...

October 12, 2004

Well, I've survived through most of two nights of work, class, rehearsal, and such. After I get done with this 8-hour shift, I will go to Discovery Middle School and perform with the Jazz Arts Group for it's Early Bird Workshop. It's basically a jazz clinic for bands in the area to come to and play for while receiving some advice and thoughts from the members of JAG. We do that from about 8:00 to 3:15 this afternoon. It's going to be a long day, indeed. After wrapping up that project, I head to school for a wind ensemble rehearsal, immediatley followed by some much deserved sleep from about 6:00 to 10:00, then it's back here to work again to finish out my last night shift for this week.

Yesterday was a tough day. In addition to being deprived of most sleep opportunities, when I did sleep for about an hour and a half, I missed part of jazz band. Eddie had his saxophone stolen from his locker, and that was bad news. Add on some emotional strains that I need not mention at this moment, and you can pretty much sum up a fairly trial-stricken day. But, today is a new day, and we can certainly hope it's better. I have tomorrow off from work, which is good, though I do have to work from 7:00am-3:00pm on Thursday, which might suck depending on whether we're busy or not. I'd like to just relax. Friday and Saturday will be two of my busiest days during this year.

I just ate a very good blueberry muffin. Just thought you might want to know.

Not a whole lot else to share. I'm sure by the end of the week, we'll have all sorts of new stuff to rattle down. However, this early in the week, it's hard to have any content. Stay tuned for more, it'll get better...I promise.

October 11, 2004

This is the face of a person who should've slept more this past weekend. Well, you can't see my face, but you can imagine what I probably look like right at this particular moment. Anyhow, it's another lovely morning here at work, and as usual, I'm updating the site on company time on a company computer. God bless America.

I have to admit that I got a kick out of the picture Beseler has posted on one of his sections that features a young Ryan, Mikey, and Beseler decked out in tuxes. They look so young, it's really funny to me. I wonder if I ever looked that young, because I don't I ever did, or if I did, I guess I just can't remember it.

Mom and dad were here on Friday and Saturday, and it was really nice to see them here in Fargo. I brought them over to my place, and it marked the first time they had ever gone to any of my places of residence since I moved out of their home in 1995. Mom was impressed with the cleanliness of the apartment, which made me feel like I learned something from all of those days I was grounded for various reasons, which included not having a clean room back in the day. Anyhow, mom and dad took me out to dinner at the Great Northern on Friday night and we caught up on all sorts of stuff from home and from my past couple of months here in Fargo. Saturday morning before I took off for SDSU, I took mom and dad out to breakfast here at the Radisson, and it was actually pretty good grub. I had never eaten in Passages before, and I recommend it to all to enjoy.

The trip down to Brookings was fun and not fun, depending on what part of the trip you ask me about. If you leave out the football game, I everything was fine. Chatting with a lot of the band members was nice and getting to know a few of them for short amounts of time was cool. Our pre-game show went pretty well, and the band sounded good from where I was, on a ladder, of course. Kirchoff and Boeser were subjected to a humerous 3-hour entertainment spree when Beseler and I opened up our respective bottles and consumed (Bicardi Razz for Beseler, Jamison Irish Whiskey for me). It was a peaceful non-party atmosphere, but a very small group get together was enjoyed. Also, apparently by one person's account, three of the four of us in the room snored loudly all night. I guess that wasn't a surprise to me, I knew what I was getting into.

Back home here in Fargo, I did't get much of a break on Sunday. Upon returning home, I had to begin putting work tapes together for the upcoming country gig on Friday. I'm getting more nervous about that gig as the seconds tick by. I haven't done a country gig in years, while some of these guys have never done one. I found my black cowboy boots today and I put them on yesterday evening. They're still just as confortable as they were when I wore them many-a-weekend in Texas. I also had a brass quintet rehearsal during the afternoon, which went pretty well despite four out of five of us being really, really tired from the weekend events. Dr. Mueller seemed to approve of our progress, and that was good newsto my ears.

Anyhow, not much else to say. I guess I'll just toss out words of encouragement for one band member- go for it. She's cute, she seems pretty cool, and I spotted you two hugging in the parking lot. That's right, I'm like the paparatzi, I've got eyes and ears everywhere...

More soon...

October 7, 2004

This is amazing, I'm updating the site in the middle of the day instead of the middle of the night. Don't worry, I'll be back at it tonight with a new For What It's Worth section. I'm feeling inspired. Anyhow, things are alright, I seem to have accomplished a lot in the last 24 hours. I managed to get my gigs set up, get books together, make some flyers, update the site, pay some bills, take care of some debts, and more. The only problem is that I'm losing some sleep over it, but that's fine, I have tomorrow to try to recover, I guess. My folks will be here tomorrow afternoon which is cool, and I'm going to try to get them to come out and see the marching band work a little bit if they get here early enough. I also want to show them my house and whatnot, since they've never actually seen anywhere that I lived on my own.

I guess not a lot else is really going on as of late. I seem to feel more creative and talkative at night, so I'll leave it for then. Everyone, keep coming back to the site. Beseler and I have begun a new trend of updating almost daily now, and some new things are up and coming, such as the People You Should Know section, where I will be interviewing my friends hopefully weekly. I have a list of prospectives for the next few months, so stay tuned, I think it's going to be really fun. More soon...

October 4, 2004

It is now becoming habit to do all my update work on the site in the middle of the night, so I apologize for anytime that I toss off some sort of odd statement or topic matter, as these nights sort of wear away at me. Just a disclaimer, I guess.

It was a pretty uneventful weekend, and it was nice to sort of have it all just open and free for the most part. Friday night was a fun one with the jazz band concert. Though I didn't play nearly as well as I would've liked to have done, the show did go off pretty well. Energy was high within the ensemble, and it sort of made up for any mistakes that we made. Dr, Patnode's selections for the show were of high quality, and everything went fine overall. Good job, jazz band, thanks for the good show. Oh, and thanks to everyone who came out to see the show. It's nice to have fellow students, friends, family, and such there to see you play.

I managed to get a show booked on Friday (finally) for a homecoming dance for the band and the choir. Though it wasn't exactly what I wanted, I did the show put together, and I certainly hope to see everyone out there for it. There will be a $3.50 cover to get in, and we'll provide lei's and such for the attendees. This is sort of a substitute for the old school Get Leid parties I hosted over the past three years, which were started by some of my old friends back in the day. At any rate, this will be a fun show to play. It's in the old section of Billiards on Broadway. We're on the floor that is deemed alcohol free, so no boozing will be allowed at the show. However, there may be a get-together following the show, so sort of stay tuned for news on that. We're working out the details right now.

Friday night was pleasent after the show as well. Al, Eddie, and I went and enjoyed a nice dinner over at the Great Northern after the jazz band show, and it was nice to just relax and have some good food. Annika joined us over there after spending some time over at the Plains Art Museum. Following our dinner, we set out to the Doublewood and enjoyed some drinks with Tanya.

Saturday was my final day (for now) of teaching at the guitar shop, where I had been teaching bass lessons for a handful of months. Though I didn't want to stop working there, looking at my October schedule, there was no way I could continue teaching on Saturdays. With one away game and three home games taking up the whole month of October, I had to leave it behind. On a good note, though, I was able to retain a couple of students, and I look forward to working with them privately at NDSU.

Saturday night, I met up with Rick Gion along with Chaus and Keira over at Lauerman's. Of course, the owner of the place, Jim Lauerman, passed away a week ago, and it was sort of sad to be over there. Jim seemed like a good guy back in the day when I was able to visit with him on a few occasions, and though he has passed, the establishment goes on. I've had lots of good times there with my friends, and I hope to continue doing so. Anyhow, Rob joined up with us over there a little later on, and following a few beers there, Rick headed home while rest of us headed up to John Rogstad's place. There, we enjoyed some beers with a handful of people I knew. I didn't know a lot of these people who were there,and some of them were odd and strange folks (which could probably translate into being stupid and really drunk). But, no disrespect to John, it was a good party. Dano went home for the weekend, and apparently was a little tiffed about the party deal. He installed a lock on his door, which I thought was kind of funny. Beseler showed up around 12:15 or so and hung out. I met one of his friends, I think her name was Bree (spelling?) and she was really, really pretty, but didn't respond too well to any of my compliments (I told her she was pretty, and she told me I was stupid. Fair trade.) Feeling a little defeated and such, I retreated back downstairs. Al Berg came to the rescue and we had a beer or two there, then headed back to my house along with Beseler. We had a little Taco Bell and a beer, than all my visitors departed and put myself to bed.

I went to church this morning, and to my surprise, I was the only musician there for the morning service. Jesse had a gig at the Union with the NDSU Jazz Combo, and Chris Gould had a late gig on Saturday night, and was apparently not feeling well. So, much to my surprise (or perhaps horror), I was left alone to play the service on piano. Pastor John was nice to me about it, and called me a "professional" during the service, which was nice of him. I survived and didn't play half bad overall, and my courage was raised a little on my instrument that I play the least. I returned home and made myself a nice lunch, then watched the rest of a movie that I found interesting, surreal, dramatic, but very, very good- a movie called Thirteen. It's apparently based on a true story about two 13-year old girls who have lives that spin insanely out of control. It was good writting and excellent acting, and I have to admit that I will have to add this movie to my favorites list.

The brass quintet rehearsed that afternoon, and Tanya looked like she was going to fall out of her chair. I guess she had a cold and took some medicine, and it wasn't sitting too well with her. Justin was his usual odd self, and Sara and Amanda were fine, also. The rehearsal went pretty well overall, and the Ewald piece we're doing is really, really good. It's long and demanding, but a great piece nonetheless.

After that, I sat around the house and ate and watching TV. I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas for no particular reason (I have it on DVD) and then took a long nap before coming here to work. The night of work has been uneventful and normal for me, and that's about it.

Chaus asked me earlier in the week if I wanted to be a groomsman in his wedding which was delightful to hear. They're getting married in 2006, I think, so I have plenty of time before it happens.

Well, that was my weekend. This week I work four nights (including this night). My folks come to town in a few days (Friday) and I'll get some time with them before heading out of town to SDSU for the big game on Saturday. I'm looking forward to seeing the team on the road, and I really look forward to playing outdoors with the marching band. Today, I get to run the marching band rehearsal, which is a little scary, but it should be fun. I intend on working up some of my Billy Joel stuff, along with rehearsing a little bit of the Latin show we perform in a few days and for the following two home games. I think as drum majors, Chris, Emily and I can get a lot done. The student show looks to be a little more student run than last year, and I really encourage that idea. Students are doing up the drill right now, and students are working the music. It should go down as quite an accomplishment for these cats to truly say that the show was run by the students. It should give Dr. Olfert a little bit of breathing room, as well. He deserves it, he been working much too hard for the past two months.

Anyhow, I've more than likely lulled you all to sleep by now (which is what I wish I was doing right now). More to come, probably tomorrow early morning when I'll be sitting at this computer in this chair at this workplace. Until then...

October 1, 2004

Another night at work, and I'm actually struggling to stay awake. It's been a while since I've had that fight going for me, you sort of get used to staying up all night at work after you've done it for four years or so. But, tonight I'm really, really tired. It's a mindset, I think. I know that I'm looking forward to the following two nights off with no football game or any real distractions this weekend with the exception of the jazz band concert tonight. Well, it'll be nice to have a few days off.

My parents are coming out next weekend which is pretty cool. They'll be here on Friday night and all day Saturday. Of course, I'll be out of town on Saturday for the big SDSU game, but I'll at least have some time with the folks on Friday night. They don't get down here too often, so it's going to be nice to see them again. I got them a nice room here at the old Radisson. It'll be their first stay in this hotel since I left the Doublewood Inn back in February.

I've gone about planning for my next fun gig, doing the NDSU Homecoming Dance/MU Live two weeks from today. I went in and signed the contrat yesterday and found out that we needed to play almost two thirds country for the show since the theme for the dance is "Hoedown" or something like that. It's been about five years since I've done an almost-full country show, and I think it's going to be interesting for the cats I have playing with me, too. I asked Tim today if Jon Rudolph had a Telecaster, and he told me yes, so that was encouraging. I plan on talking to Al about playing about half of the show on guitar also, and I hired a fiddle player (Nate) to make things just a little more country overall. Eddie will assume duties as a lead singer since saxophone doesn't really fit well on most country tunes. I'm sure Joel will just laugh from behind the drum set all night. All I can say is that it's going to be very, very interesting. I found my cowboy boots last night, and I'll dust them off just for this gig. That alone should be a reason to come out on October 15th.

I saw Dr. Olfert's new place yesterday- nice place in a nice neighborhood. I went out there with him to help him move a washing machine yesterday afternoon. It looks like he got a nice place, and once he gets organized and whatnot, it'll be a pretty nice pad for him. I need a place like that. I also need a great paying job. I'll have to settle for my apartment for now.

The presidential debates took place last night- debate number one of three. I was actually surprised both with how nice they were at times to each other, while at other times, they were really, really mean to each other. Under the debate rules, they didn't have much space to get at each other, but they made the most of what they could do. I thought Bush was getting a little too pointed and was repeating himself a lot during the debate, while I found that Kerry was quite pointed, but more often not completely knowledgable of actual numbers and facts. I would almost call this debate a draw, and I look forward to the town hall setup for the next debate where the cantidates can really get into things and argue things out with less rules attached.

Well, nothing else exciting to report, so I take my leave and I'll hopefully find some time to write this weekend. Later...

September 29, 2004

Wow, amazing, updates two days in a row. Many of my most loyal viewers aren't used to seeing that, are they? Anyhow, it's another long and boring night here at the Radisson Hotel, and I just want to get out of here. I have about 2 1/2 hours left of work, then I can get home and get a little nap and then get to school. Thankfully, I have tonight off, and I plan on spending it either at home with a beer or at a bar with a beer. Either way, beer will be involved. I sort of wanted to go down to Lauerman's tonight to, in a way, pay tribute to it's owner, Jim, who just passed away this week. But, there's a live band in there tonight, and I think I would rather enjoy my time at the bar in quiet solitude. So, we'll postpone that plan until later on this week. There are plenty of bars I can go to in this town, afterall.

Not a whole lot is new since yesterday. It looks to be a wonderful day today, with temps in the lower 70's, just where I like them. Perhaps I can enjoy some time outside tonight if the bee's aren't flying around. I've become increasingly sensative to those little bastards since I got stung by a wasp on Friday. Thankfully, the swelling is finally going down and perhaps the sting mark will be gone soon. I hate bees. A lot.

Just a warning: todays for What It's Worth is not a product of anything that has happened anytime in the near past, just for those of you who always get worked up when you read that stuff. Don't worry about me, I'm fine, and I thought about writting about the topic some time ago, but with the anger that was sort of fueling it back then, I decided not to do so then. However, with a level head and an objective mindset, I figured it would be easier and less emotional to write about it now. Oh, and don't ask who it's about. It's a rule about the For What It's Worth section, after all.

Anyhow, that's about all I have for now. I really need to start having a more adventurous life so that I can write intersting stuff that doesn't lull you all to sleep. I'll work on it. Any ideas? Fire away...

September 28, 2004

Here I am back at work, and it's been an awful night of work. Normally, Monday nights are nice and quiet with low-stress. I like those kinds of nights. However, tonight was not one of those normal Mondays. I got yelled at by three different customers about things that I had no control over in the first place, and then every time I wanted to go out and vent (i.e. smoking, which I'm in the process of quitting thanks to Tim Stine), someone would come down and have some goofy thing they needed done. I mean, how many people come to a hotel front desk at 3:00 in the morning to send fiftenn page faxes to two seperate numbers...in Japan?

Things are alright otherwise, I guess. With Rena pretty much trained in here at the hotel, my life is going to be a little less hectic. I took another step to slowing down just a little bit by giving my notice at Marguerites. I hated like hell to do that, but when you don't have the time, you just have to. Teaching bass lessons is a lot of fun, and I have a couple of really impressive students who I'd like to keep working with. I'll give them a call this week. Hopefully they will follow suit and stick with me.

NDSU Campus Attractions nabbed me and a band to play their Friday night MU Live Show at the Union during homecoming. The only hard part about it was the fact that we have to play half country and half rock. It'll take me back to my old days of performing onstage with Eric Lynn. The only difference is that it won't be Eric and his thick ass in my way. Eddie and I will pretty much run that show with vocals and whatnot, and I look really forward to playing down in the basement once again. As for the Saturday show, we're still working on that one. I have calls in at the Doublewood Inn, and hopefully we can iron something out for that Saturday night. Keep posted, I want to have a show for the music cats to come out and enjoy. Both the choir and marching band earn it when homecoming comes around.

Big first jazz band concert coming up this Friday, and I'd love to see lots of people at it. Dr. Patnode takes the jazz band for a ride on this show, and he picked the right music for it. It's a challenging program full of real energetic music. I'm pretty pumped up to play, so hopefully we get a nice crowd to the show.

Well, I really should try to see if I can get some work done. I really don't have much to do at this hour, but I should look productive. I live by the motto: I pretend to work, they pretend to pay me. More soon...

September 22, 2004

It's been about three weeks now since I last dropped an entry into the old online journal, and much has come and gone since. We're managed to survive two more football games with the marching band, and that's been fine. Things are finally starting to really gel, and things are moving along smoothly. I'm astounded by the sound that the band is putting out this year. Perhaps it's just because I'm in front of the band now instead of playing within it, but they do sound really good, and I'm fairly sure it's best it's been since I got here. The cats in the band seem to keep a good face on during the game and most of the time, seem to be having fun. I send a huge shout out to the flute section, though, as they seem to always be having fun in the stands. It's refreshing to see, and makes me really want to be at the games. Of course, I love football, and that helps.

There was some bad news along the way, though, to add. One of Tim's best high school buddies and one of my friends through Tim went through a near-death experiance when he suffered a massive kidney failure. He was taken to the hospital and things didn't look good at all for him. Most of his internal organs were affected by the failure, and for a while, we didn't know if he was going to make it through the night. However, he's bouncing back little by little as the days tick on by, and hopefully everything will continue in that direction.

John Rogstad hosted a marching band party this past Saturday night, and I tell you what, it was a great time for all, including myself. It was just nice to be back at one of our old-fashioned social events. After hosting them for so long, it was great to be involved, but not in charge for once. Lots of marching band members came out for the fun, as well as some of our old veterans who have moved on in the years. Kudos to John for making the party happen.

Patents Pending played a show at the NDSU Downtown Campus Opening last week. It was actually a really amazingly long day for me. I played in the morning at the Plains Art Museum, then went to set up for the rock show at 2:00. I then changed into my DM uniform for a 4:30 performance with the marching band to conclude the actual dedication ceremony, then changed again and played the rock show. It was the first time in a few years that we had played all together with horns. Though the original horn players for Patents had either a) declined to play, b) moved to another state, or c) quit playing altogether, we still managed to get a really great talented set together in Eddie Schwind, Tanya Matthies, Steve Wallevand, and Josh Argal. Tim played guitar, Al played keys, and Joel drummed the show. We had a nice time playing outdoors on a big stage, and a good time was had by all. A handful of music people came out to see us play, which is always really comforting for me. The highlight was Megan Dickey and Emma Aavang getting out there and dancing, which is another thing I love- people dancing while we play. It helps that they're both pretty young things, too, but the dancing was a plus. Keep your ears pealed, ladies- a dance is in the planning for homecoming, and I want to see both of you along with the rest of the band there. Stay tuned for more on that...

Other than all of that, I'm still working way too damned much and I generally overfill my plate on a regular basis. I'm faced with having to quit my job teaching bass since we have nothing but afternoon games during most of October, and I normally teach on Saturday afternoons. I hate like hell to stop doing it, but I have no choice, and I have no time to reschedule those lessons. Two of those students are really good talented young ladies that I'd like to work with more. They learn quickly and will be great bass players down the road. Hopefully I can get them to take lessons from me privately. We'll see.

You may have noticed that Aaron Beseler has joined forces with me to work on the site. It should give me more incentive to work more on the site myself. The domain name will remain the same for at least another three months, then I can get a new one registered. Keep your eyes open for the new domain name. We'll let you know what it is when it comes around.

Well, that's all for now, I'm at work, and I should get back to doing something work-related. After all, I just finished copying my whole Billy Joel GSMB show using the company copier and paper. I love this place. It'll be even more fun when I'm training in Rena tonight. Mikey, beware...

More soon...

August 31, 2004

It's been a while since I took the time to write on the site, but things have been incredibly busy as usual around here. Where in the world do I start? Well, this past weekend might be a nice place to begin.

The first Division I game was played at the Fargodome on Saturday night, and it was a great one- not only for the football team, but for the Gold Star Marching Band as well. The team looked great and surprised some people with a 52-0 blowout of Valpraisio, which actually surprised me as well. I called it that we would win by 14, and I also guessed that the Crusaders might even score a few times on us, but what really happened is that we not only dominated on offense, our defense looked splendid out there, too. We even injured three players on the opposing team. It was an incredible game, and me being a big Bison football fan, I was happy to see what we did to make our presence known in Division I football right from the get-go. As far as the band went, they did a fine job with pre-game, and did well on their first halftime show. Things in the stands were good, and we've even gotten some good feedback from some of the fans according to bisonville.com.

This was my first game as a drum major, and it was really pretty neat to be in that position. Suiting up for the first time ever in the uniform was a cool feeling of honor to be in front of the band, and being on the field in front of 18,000 fans was pretty overwhelming as well. I really enjoyed the moment, and I look forward to the rest of the season.

Saturday night post-game was interesting, I guess. If you think I'm searching for a way to describe it, I guess you're right. The big obstacle for the band this year is finding a place to host post-game social activities, and Saturday did not turn out how I was hoping it would. If I were to look at the positives, I would definately say that the turnout was much better than I had expected, and it was good to see so many new faces at the party. However, I was incredibly disdained when it came to the site. Though a good site it was, there was a lot of bad feelings between me and the host about how things went. Though we made it through the night without incident, which I never thought there would be anyhow, we will most certainly not be returning there again, which leaves us in limbo about where we will go next. In his words, he said that he didn't think there was anywhere we could host a party like that. I have an answer to that- there is a place, but there's an obstacle, and there's nothing I can do about it. Anyhow, I'm not getting into any specifics about the Saturday night disagreements or the disappointment I feel about not being able to host the party at what I'll simply call the "ultimate sight". Where I truly feel the most disappointment is in the fact that the parties have always been a great opportunity for band members and friends to get together and have a good time. The amount of friends I have made through these parties is uncountable, and I know many have met other good friends for life through these social functions. I find myself sadenned that no one will step up and continue this tradition which I have attempted to foster over the years. I made it my mission to provide this valuable aspect of the band over the past three years, and the passing of my house was the end of an era. Who will take over the next chapter in the stories of this fine tradition, I just don't know.

The first week of school was uneventful for the most part, but it was indeed good to see everyone back in town again. It's almost like we didn't have a vacation, and seeing the familiar faces in the lounge was incredibly welcomed in my life. Lots of people are back again, and the good and the bad have had varying degrees of passing and staying overall. But, that's how it all works out, and we deal with it each day. The "drama" of the music department will probably never go away, but I guess I wouldn't really want it to- it keeps things interesting, I guess.

Nina Shook took off for Montreal once again last week, and we'll miss her as we did last year. She heads back for a couple of months before probably being home to visit sometime in the fall or perhaps not until Christmas, but I look forward to her coming back. It was good to have her around all summer.

Marching Band camp was the usual affair it has always been, but different for me in the idea that I was a drum major and not a member of the trombone section. As time went by, I sort of missed being with the ranks playing, but being a drum major is something I wanted to do at least once. And so, that's what I'm doing now, and enjoying it. The camp went smoothly overall, and I have to admit that this may be one of the best bunches of rookies we've had in a long, long time. The band marched fairly well overall, but what really struck me was their sound. The band just plays well. They have a great dark sound that I enjoy being in front of whether it's on the field or in the band room. Dr. Olfert has to be pretty happy with what he has this time around, and I really do look forward to seeing what they can do with the rest of the music. I get more excited thinking about putting my show in front of them. I think it's going to go really well. Knock on wood that Beseler gets to do some drill for it.

Work has been kind of annoying. We went all summer with only the two of us auditors. We hired about three of them over the summer, and all of them either quit after one night or didn't show up at all. We thought we had struck gold by hiring Eddie to work here, but he came in this afternoon and quit before he even started, optioning to be a Chineese food delivery guy instead, much to my dismay. Basically, we now go back to square one where we have to re-advertise for the job again. That should take a week to get in the paper, a week to get new people interviewed and hired, and a week and a half to train them in. So, basically, I'm going to be working five nights a week for the next month. I just can't figure out why we can't keep people here. The job is damn near cake, what's the problem? The hours suck, but you just have to get used to them. I've been doing it for four years, and I'm a huge wuss. What does that say about everyone else?

Other than all of that, not a whole lot else has happened. I dealt with a little bit more Jass fall-out, but no problems with that for the most part, those things are working themselves out alright from what I can see or hear. There have been no major announcements (i.e. weddings) or breakups as of late, and everyone seems to be doing ok overall, so I guess I can't really complain about anything else except for the mentioned things above. Hope everyone is doing alright and stuff, and I'll get more on the site soon...

August 16, 2004

It has now been officially one week since Jass. On Saturday night, we sat down and watched some of the footage from the festival captured on tape by Nina and Erika. Interesting stuff. Some funny stuff. Some revealing stuff. Some stuff that I'm not sure I want to see again. Some stuff that I'll keep rewinding back to. You know how it works. On Sunday, I watched the concert footage, and I was impressed by the performance, even on tape. Sometimes recordings like that aren't very complimentary to how players perform, but much of it sounded very good, and I felt a neat sense of pride similar to last Sunday's live show.

The gig at the Great Northern went pretty well overall. We battled the room we were playing in quite bit, but overall, we had a good time. Management liked us, as did some of the people in the room who talked to us, and I'm very hopeful to get back in there again sometime in the near future. Until then, perhaps the group will come up with a bunch more tunes to do. I'm excited about the future of this group, and if we can get it so we play twice a month or so, I'd be really pleased by it.

Not much else to speak of. This week marks the start of marching band, which will come into play on Wednesday. I'm starting to get excited about it, and I think it'll be a good time as always. My show is coming together. I'm way behind, I know, but it's near completion, and I hope to have it to Beseler by Wednesday for him to start inputing. We should have charts up by next week, and we'll be back on schedule. The show isn't set to go into play until October, so we have time to get it all put together. I feel bad that it's not done yet, but it's been a super-busy summer, and we'll have it all ready soon. Hopefully Beseler and Dr. Olfert are reading this.

Happy birthday to Joel, a few days late.

I've been doing some thinking about Jass, and many want to bring this thing to Fargo. I'm starting to put that into play, and I may try to put together a fall festival to see how people react to it. We would try to put our groups together the same as a week ago, and perhaps even do the same program to cut down on rehearsal time. I have plans to at least look at the school calendar and check on some sites for a show, more than likely either South or North High Schools. My idea right now is to rehearse on Saturday only and do a show on Sunday. Looking at the personnel, I think it's entirely possible, and I think a lot of people would be very interested in giving it a shot. There are a lot of possibilities here in Fargo, so I'll start looking into it this week. Stay tuned for more on that.

Anyhow, not much else to speak of, just the usual in my life. I have a few days off now and I look forward to just relaxing a little bit and perhaps enjoying some time with smaller groups of friends. Tim and Ruth are out of town all week, so I have a quiet apartment to myself, and though I like having them around, the peace and quiet will be good. Call me, I need people to hang out with. More in a few...

August 11, 2004

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's been over a month since I updated the site. That's not a good thing, and I'm not proud of it, but it's been an incredibly busy summer, and it shows no signs of getting any easier as usual. Life has been hectic all the way up to this point with work, gigs, Guard, and Jass. With Jass out of the way, though, I do have more time to write on the site when I get chances to do so at work. So, here's a quick update.

I just got back from Jass a little over 24 hours ago, and I will say that the festival was really fun and sort of crazy overall. Each year, we have a different set of circumstances and situations, and it makes for an unpredictable jazz session. This year was no different, of course. The members kept things pretty "real", I guess for a lack of a better way of me telling it.

All of the groups were really good, and I enjoyed being a part of the big band and the combo. Vocal jazz did a very fine job with their charts, having rehearsed a handful of times in Fargo before ever setting foot into Central Campus. The combo did just what they always set out to do- get locked up in a room for a few days and come out with quality modern charts. The big band and James Prindiville worked hard to put together a half Prindiville show and a half Hanson show, and I was satisfied with that just fine. The Saturday dance was incredibly fun, as most of the members did indeed stay there and dance all night. The highlight was probably watching Matt Prindiville and Dan Johnson hit the floor. Both were "happy" and dancing all night. The Sunday show went well despite the rain which forced us inside for a second straight year. The after-festival party was pretty crazy and out of control, and I guess I'd have to pretty much leave that as I said it.

I dedicated most of July to getting the festival ready. I felt like I did tons more work this year than ever before, but in the end, it all seemed to work out really well. I had good help from Robin and Erika, and they made things roll out smoothly during the actual festival. Mom and dad cooked up a meal for us, as did the Solberg family, and all of our supporters financailly kicked it up and made sure we would make it through the festival without missing anything we needed. I worked quite a bit throughout the month, and played a handful of gigs. This summer has turned much less into a vacation and more of a time to make some money and spend it all on bills. Funny how that works out.

Yesterday, it was freezing-ass cold. I don't think we made it past 55 degrees. I almost thought it was going to snow. Well, maybe I wasn't going to that extreme, but it really was cold. I went for a bike ride and almost died. I'm not ready for fall yet, and that's how it feels right now.

Marching band camp starts in a few short days and I'm getting a little nrevous about it. I'm looking forward to being a drum major overall, and I think it's going to be a very good opportunity for me to have some real fun on the football field.

Eddie and Jennifer got engaged a few weeks ago just hours before she pulled out of town for a military school in Virginia. We're doing what we can to keep Eddie from going crazy, and he seems to be holding up just fine, thankfully. Check back with us in a month, though. It's crazy that we have all these people getting married, now. Just this year, we've seen Annika, Dana, Al, Eddie, and Jennifer all go off the markets. Al and Eddie getting married before me? Then, of course, Erika is now dating Joel, and Tim and Ruth are doing very well. My tears are falling at quite a rapid pace. As Jeff Williams would likely say, "I'm sooooooo sad..."

My car pretty much died in July. Didn't see that coming, did you? Al wants to see me his Towncar. I'm afraid to drive that thing. Big old classy car with Chris in it? I can't even imagine that...

Well, I think I've done my best to bring you all up to date so far. I've done a lot, but nothing really notable aside from Jass. Hope you're all doing well, and I promise to update more...hopefully...

July 7, 2004

Well, I've survived another rush of work and other activities, and now I'm into a few days off from everything. So, here I am updating my site at a normal hour of the day- it's almost noon. I'm not used to working on the site during regular business hours, one might say.

The past weekend we kind of fun. I went out to Park Rapids with the band Friktion and did a show with them. They're lead singer was not present with them, so I took up the duties that night doing a handful of songs and playing some trombone. Though the place wasn't exactly jumping or anything like that, we made the best out of everything we could. We drank quite a lot and had a pretty good time overall. Tyler made some new friends out there, and they bought him many shots. The barmaids were attractive, and I wish I could've stayed out there for another night. I can't remember what our servers name was, but I thought I was in love. Perhaps that was the alcohol? Nah, she was pretty. I can't even remember her name. Help me out, Joel or Tyler?

I had to come back to Fargo on Satuday because of work, which kind of sucked. The boys stayed and did a show that night in Park Rapids to an equally small crowd, but this evening, Tyler made a few more "friends", and from what I hear, he had a nice night. Heh, heh...

Jass work is coming along well. I've got most everything booked now. Rehearsal spaces, concert spots, hotels, banquet arrangements, and more...this thing is getting harder and harder to put together each year. But, on the good side of things, I think I have everyone locked in to playing and performing, now. I was sweating it up to yesterday, but I think the final arrangements were set into motion, and all is well in Jass Land.

Otherwise, not a whole lot else going on. Not sure what I'm going to do with all of this time off. I don't work again until Sunday. I guess I teach some bass lessons this Saturday, but that's about it. Next week, I work three nights, and then I play with the boys again at the Holiday Inn. I really enjoy doing that stuff, though I don't really know how good I really am at this stuff anym