Catching Up And Shoutouts

Update: I have been up to my earlobes with work the last two weeks, thus, the infrequent posts.  I had four concerts in two weekends, and I wrote three new works in the span of two weeks. I love writing music, but I love writing music when I have time to live with my musical materials. I like being immersed in a piece to understand where it is going. The best part about having time to work on creative projects is that they almost invariably have a sense of organicism that dictate where the music is going. When you have to write music fast, you sometimes force it to take a direction that it might not otherwise want to go naturally. However, what I've learned through the years, is to allow yourself to submit, and—like triathlon—know that all the training you have put it, will a result in a decent product in the end. Ah, the zen of composition. Whenever I struggled to meet at deadline early in my career, I use to call up my very first composition teacher for advice. He always gave me this pragmatic matter-of-fact response, "Hey, just put a double-bar line on it for goodness sakes and call it done. Do you think you're going to win the Pulitzer with this one or something?" I have no delusions of winning the Pulitzer anytime soon, but Dr. Bevelander did have a great point. Like Obi-Wan's advice to Luke, I had to trust my feelings and let go.

Good News: There is end in sight! Everything that I am doing is exciting. I always remember that whenever it seems like it might start to get overwhelming, that the chaos is only temporary. Well, okay, maybe it is a bit more than temporary in our case. With wifey dancing professionally again, the tag-team parenting is in full effect.

I have been taking the running easy, well if you consider a six and a half mile trail run traversing up and down several hundred feet last Sunday taking it easy. Seriously, this was some run. Mike T. and I went out early Sunday morning and had a great workout (once we could finally find the park). I am not good with directions. I was more sore after my 6.5 mile trail run than after Ironman. I think it is time to start doing a little training again. I have been pretty consistent about getting to the pool and swimming,  but the end of the week found me SICK! I came down with a nasty post-nasal drip and I have not been able to run, or swim for the last four days. Yuck!  Hopefully, I can get some rest over the weekend and get back out there.

SHOUT-OUTS: I need to give some huge shout-outs to some friends and family running some pretty hardcore races this weekend. Good luck to my cousin Danny, who ran the Musselman HIM with me this summer. He will be racing IMFL this weekend along with fellow bloggers Mary Eggers, and Trakkers team member Jacquie Gordon. Good luck to all of you. Go fast!  And of course, I would be remiss if I did not give a giant shout out to my dear friend, fellow musician, and blogger buddy Kelly C. over at trimommylife who will be running a trail 50k tomorrow! Holy smokes! I also get the rather unique distinction of feeding Kelly her pre-race meal this evening at my house. She and her friend are spending the night at our place because we are much closer to the race sight than she would be had she driven from home. The Menu?  Penne Vodka and brocolli rappi, what else? Go fast guys!

More soon. Hopefully, I will have some photos of Kelly getting absolutely muddy out there during her 50k.

Train Smart!