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!