Mardi Gras on the island began yesterday. Today there were two parades along the seawall a block away from my apartment. The 1st parade began at 1p. The theme this year is "Mardi Gras! Galveston: Red, White, and Blue." The 2nd parade was at 7p. My friends Belinda and Debbie joined me for the 2nd parade. Both parades were a lot of fun.
Here are pictures from the 1st parade.
Waiting for the parade to begin.
Now that is a tank.
Now catch the beads.
Wonder Twin powers, Activate!
Land Ho!
Dude!
Ms Liberty.
My bead collection after the two parades.
Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines
One of my favorites this week.
The most dominant television talk-show host in history died with emphysema today.
Here is an article about him:
Here is a link about him.
That title says it all. Though the 1st week of this semester was easier than last semester since this time my stuff is not on a truck somewhere between California and here. Let us flashback to that time period.
My 1st day as a Professor
The 1st Week as a College Professor
A Trip to the Past
This semester I hired two part time music teachers. They are both going to teach private piano lessons so I will not have to teach so many like I did last semester. I will actually have some free time that I can use to build up the program. My classes this semester are Music Appreciation and History of Rock and Roll (the same classes I taught last semester) and two new classes which are Fundamentals of Music and Class Voice. I am also conducting the choir and our 1st rehearsal is on Monday.
My Music Appreciation class has 25 students. That is more that last semester and I had to bring in a couple of desks from other classrooms so I could have enough for all the students. It should be a fun class since I like teaching to a big crowd.
Last Monday I went to The Original Mexican Restaurant with my friend Ron. It was real Mexican food. I had been there before but this time I had a blue margarita with my enchiladas and I had the Tres Leches Cake for dessert. It was so good and it completed my incredible dining experience. It was one of those few times when you go out to eat and everything tasted so good and worked well with each other to create a pleasurable dinner. Tres Leches literally means three milk cake. It is made with cream, condensed and evaporated milks. It was so good.
Today I went to an Art Walk in downtown Galveston with my friend Beth who is an art professor at the college. There was one exhibit that used mixed media. It was very interesting to see a showing of mixed media. Most of the time you see paintings or if the work used mixed media it is usually on a canvas or wood. This one used material such as dolls and branches to create a 3D work of art. It was nice seeing the art though a visual artist eyes.
Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines
One of my favorites this week.
This week I have been busy doing preparations for my classes which begin next week. This includes buying music, creating syllabi and of course free food. Today was the ribbon cutting of the renovated college library. Following that was vegetables (I had black olives and these little pickles), cookies and 3 different cakes (I had a piece from 2 of them). Yum.
Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines
One of my favorites this week.
I just found this really cool web site. You not only get to see pictures of Harry Partch's instruments but you can also play them online. Check it out.
Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines
One of my favorites this week.
On the 5th I went to the college to check email, voice mail, make sure the books for my classes were in the bookstore and to make sure my office was still there.
The 6th was the General Assembly. The assembly starts at 8a and ends at 4:30p. This is a big meeting with the faculty, staff and administration. It includes reports, a state of the college address by the college president and a couple of outside presentations. Some of the faculty and I acted out some scenes during the assembly. They were work related situations in which we showed the wrong and then the correct way to deal with a situation. For example, one of my scenes was talking to my supervisor about respect saying that I give my dogs more respect than she gives me and the scene ended with each of us at each others throats. The audience got a big laugh out of it and it was a really fun to do. This assembly also included free breakfast and free lunch. The quest for free food has begun in the new year.
Today was a not so exciting meeting that went from 9a to about 3p. One good thing about the meeting was the free pizza. I went back to my office to work on Syllabi for my classes. It should be a fun semester.
Here are current pictures of my office.
You know it can not be a flight back home without having delays. The plane out of Long Beach came in late so we left late. The airline said that all connecting flights were fine. So I fly into Phoenix and as I walk off the plane I was told that the flight to Houston left already. So I was put on a plane that had only one seat left that departed 2 hours later. So I ate a pizza at the California Pizza Kitchen in the airport. The flight came in an hour late to keep with tradition and came into Houston at 11:45p. I left Long Beach almost 12 hours earlier. It was a very long day.
Kimberly drove me back to my Dad's apartment in Long Beach where I had been staying during by trip back home. I had a goodbye dinner with AD, JK, DD and Mom at Claim Jumper. Then Mom took me to say goodbye to Nana and Bonnie since I will be flying back tomorrow to my new home in Galveston.
Got up late again and went to some more workshops that included another Casino Rueda workshop (it was still fun) and a Night Club workshop.
Went to more dance workshops which included the Casino Rueda. This is a Latin dance in which dancers are in a circle and change partners during the dance. But unlike a dance mixer which is simple with maybe 4 moves, the Casino Rueda includes many moves. It was a fun class. I hung out in the Jacuzzi before going to the Night Club workshop which was also very good. I then went to an equally good West Coast Swing Workshop. The evening included open dancing and way to many dance competitions. I did dance past midnight again.