Welcome to Glenn's Blog!

Here I will periodically post random thoughts and stories about what's going on in my life and the world around me. As if anyone cared. But seriously, you've found your way here, so hopefully you will enjoy at least some of what I have to say, even if you aren't entirely interested in it. At the least, it should be a good way to waste time.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Going Home in Two Days

So it's a quasi-furlough Friday here at Sac State. I'm in obviously, and so is Teresa our budget officer, but the rest of the staff is out enjoying a four day weekend - Monday is an all campus furlough closure day. But I'm going to one up them - on Sunday I leave Sac for home. Disneyland, that is. I'm taking off furloughs on Monday and Tuesday and using up some of my accrued overtime from last semester (I still have 50 hours on the books!) for Wednesday and Thursday.

I think this will be the longest trip I've ever taken to Disneyland, a total of four nights. Though as we're leaving on Valentine's Day, and that day happens to be a blockout date for our Annual Pass, we won't be hitting the park until Monday morning. And then on Tuesday we have some other business to attend to...
But it's going to be a nice escape in any event, and I'm sure I'll eat plenty of double chocolate chip brownies. So much for weight loss.

Today is my last day here for a week, and so I have to spend a lot of time getting everything in order for every event that's going to happen while I'm gone. Not a big chore, but enough to keep me busy for now. Off to work!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Super Bowl Sunday

So yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday, and unlike many years, I actually knew who was playing in this one. Not that I cared much. But I was hoping the New Orleans would win, simply as they were the perceived underdog and it was their first trip to the Super Bowl.

And they won all right, despite having a fairly weak defense.

We actually went over to Brian Aguilar's apartment and hung out with some old friends, drank some beer and had tons of munchies. Oh, and prime rib. It was a delightful afternoon, and the game was a good one to watch too. I think it was the first NFL game I had watched in a couple of years.

Our music department actually had their Open House Brunch yesterday - and boy if I had a nickel for every time someone remarked, "It's on Super Bowl Sunday??". As if we were insane for even thinking to schedule something on such a sacred day. But I didn't pick the date, and in the end I didn't even end up going. I could have put some hours of work in for overtime. Well, when I say 'overtime' I really mean Compensated Time Off - no one gets paid for overtime. But I have enough hours already in my account that I need to take off.

So we did the 'American' think and watched the Super Bowl while ingesting lots of not too terribly healthy food. And a good time was had by all.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

January. Done.

Woah - it's February already?? It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating New Year, and now the month of January is done and gone.

We're now in the second week of school here at Sac State, and so far it's been relatively quiet. The normal hustle and bustle of students needing to be reminded of their locker combinations and scrambling to finish their recital paperwork and/or change their date to a late time. But other than that - it's been slow. This is perhaps an omen of things to come, as the CSU is making a concerted effort to reduce student population and in the process make a lot of (mostly part-time) faculty obsolete. This is the final semester of Vocal Jazz here, for instance, after garnering national attention with a half dozen Downbeat awards and growing to be one of the best vocal jazz programs in the nation. Next semester: gone. Just one of many examples of cutbacks as the system struggles to stay afloat.

Meanwhile I just piddle along doing my job and little else. There isn't much incentive to go the extra mile anymore, after all.

Outside of school, I did have the unusual occurrence of having to turn down a good paying gig because of another good paying gig I already have lined up. It appears that I will be playing in a production of The Wedding Singer in late April/early May. Yes, the Adam Sandler movie has been made into a musical. This particular production is a high school one, but surprisingly still pays well, and is being directed by an old college friend of mine whom I haven't seen much of in the last few years.

So that's a brief perspective of what's on the horizon. I could write more on other topics, but I figured it's better saved for a future blog. Hopefully I'll find time to post more faithfully in the future...before another month or more just flies by!