weighing my options

weighing my options

I've been talking with my mom about when to have my ACL surgery. I think she would like me to take part-time classes for the next couple semesters so I can have the surgery done in the fall (and not have a full load of classes while I'm recovering). I guess that would be good because it would make next semester a little less stressful. It will already be stressful and busy with Chi-Hi marching band stuff, and I'll be applying for grad schools, and taking 16 or 17 credits (which, for a music major, is like eleventy billion classes). If I cut the class load in half, that would be a lot better. I would have to worry about insurance and student loans and stuff, but I might be able to sort that out.

Today I heard that the trial got pushed back because we're still waiting on the NTSB review. Instead of being in December, the trial will be in March or sometime after that. I guess that's okay, since I don't have to worry about the trial falling during finals week. I hope it doesn't get pushed back too far though - I think the DA said it could be delayed by up to two years. I wish we could just get the trial behind us, but if the DA wants more time in order to understand the case better, then it's probably better to wait.

Warning: boring music theory stuff
I've come up with some ideas for the mallet parts for the second piece in Chi-Hi's marching show. I've been listening to the original recording (thanks Erik) so I can get a better feel for the music. It's in a different key than the score our band is using, which is a pain in the ass, but expected. I spent a short time in the practice rooms before they closed today and scribbled my ideas on paper. I got home and was ready to write the parts, and realized that the bass note of the marimba part, when transposed, is too low (by two keys) for the range of Chi-Hi's marimba. I can take it up an octave, but I really wanted a full bass sound from the marimba. I can use a different chord voicing, but it won't sound as good. I'm kind of stumped at the moment and I'm not going to write any parts out until I can get back to the marimba and try some other things out. I could write out some parts for the other instruments, but I was kind of going to base them all on the marimba part, so I might end up changing the other parts too. Basically I'm going to wait until tomorrow before I put much work into it, because I have a feeling I'd just end up re-writing everything.