Back to School & the Circle is Now Complete

With the use of my puny brain, I've come to the conclusion and cling to the hope that the reason I am here at Fort Campbell is to finally complete my Masters Degree after the 8-year-long debacle that was University of Alaska Fairbanks.

I immediately applied to Austin Peay State University (Let's Go Peay! Seriously, the school motto) once I received orders to "this place" in the hopes that if I acted quickly enough I might be able to utilize a small sampling of the plethora of credits I earned at the aforementioned School of Debacle towards this degree as credits not enclosed in a degree have a short life-span and mine were beginning to drop like mosquitoes drawn to a blue-zapper-light thingy.
Thankfully it appears that I will likely be able to transfer 12 credits (out of the 53 I've already earned of which I only really needed 30) and I could possibly done in a year.

The other thing that was initially exciting was that they actually had a living, breathing tuba professor, which would be a first in my storied collegiate career as I have been stuck studying with trombone players who really had no clue about tuba (although I did learn from them, just not as much from someone who actually plays your instrument; I guess it's like learning to fix airplane engines from a mechanic who only knows how to fix car engines, some of the same principles apply but it's not really the same thing)

However, me not one to pass up an opportunity decided not to take the easiest route and figured that since I already did all the course work to get a tuba degree why duplicate all that work and credits and not get a voice(singing) degree instead. I mentioned this to the music chair and music graduate student coordinator (both voice professors) and they were somewhat hesitant since I hadn't really done any vocal studies since 1999. I pushed a little bit and they tentatively agreed that I could switch if I would audition for them and meet whatever "standard" they have. I had to sing 4 songs: 1 each in English, German, Italian, & French. English and German were easy to figure out but I hadn't done a whole lot of Italian and even less French. So, I threw a bunch of songs in a hat, spun around three times, and whatever.... well, actually I just went with the ones I remembered best and even had to use the printed music on the Italian and French songs because of my terrible memory (we all know how bad that is... what is, what was I talking about?) anyway I showed up at the audition on Thursday thinking I was only going to be auditioning for the two aforementioned people. However, more people kept coming in the room and it seemed half the faculty showed up. No pressure. So I proceeded with a Jedi Mind Trick (complete with hand motion "Let me be a voice major, you will"), clicked my heels together three times, and spewed forth sounds from my mouth. I led off with "Ol' Man River" and was stopped halfway through it. Great the cut me off on the one I know best. I then proceeded to sing the other 3 songs in their entirety, even the one that had a full da capo (if you don't know what that means, don't worry, it just means you repeat the whole first section of an aria) Then they sent me away from the room and thankfully the deliberation was short (Long deliberations are never good, like the ones I experienced at the School Which Shall Not Be Named.) Apparently, my Jedi Mind Trick worked, as it appears the professors of the school must be weak-minded, (I hope none of them ever read this) and I get to be a voice major. No more lugging that tuba back and forth to school, home, and work. I hope my collegiate career will end much as it began back in 1992, with a vocal audition. Maybe I'll be able to get this done and FINALLY finsh my masters degree once and for all, and then move back to Fort Huachuca and retire and get a job. If you know of anyone who's looking to hire 2nd-rate tuba players or singers in the greater Sierra Vista area please let me know.

Hooray for the Fort Campbell Commissary

All Hail the Fort Campbell Commissary!!!!

After years of suffering at Fort Huachuca & my year exile in Korea, I have finally found what I have been missing all this time: Caffeine Free "Regular" (Not Disgusting Diet) Dr. Pepper.

I may never move again! (Well, that's not really true. I'm ready to head back to Fort Huachuca tomorrow if they'd let me.)

I was a caffeine-a-holic until I quit cold turkey in 2004 (Man the headaches from withdrawal), but I only had caffeine free coca-cola to turn to. Maybe this is just a little reward for moving here to Crazy Army Land. This waking up at 5am every morning is starting to drag (Early Morning Seminary and PT. Yippee!)