Scholarly frustrations, a raqueteer in the making and a dash of trombone

This is my fifth year at OU. The BIG five. Cinco.

Frankly I'm ready to be done. Finished. Completed. Graduated.

This semester I have classes like TV News and Reporting for Public Affairs.

Let me sum things up with these two:

TV News = a royal beating (as an aside I think news on television in general is right craptacular).

Reporting for Public Affairs — one of my assignments was to cover a Norman City Council meeting. When was the last time you went to a city council meeting? Exactly.

But I don't mean to complain too much. I have just three hours of journalism credits to bag before I get my $25,000 piece of paper with OU letterhead on it. And to this reality I couldn't be more excited.

But still, sometimes I wonder why I didn't major in something like history.

You read some books, pop out some papers. DONE. I think that would be more desireable than hearing about Joe Normanite's easment encroachment violations at a Tuesday night council meeting.

"Now Mr. Normanite, we can't just have everybody encroaching on these city easements however they darn well please. We have rules...rules and regulations. The mayor and I feel very strongly about this..."

*s-n-o-r-e*

Does anybody ever read city council meeting stories? I mean really.

I think I'll make it a point in my adult life to not read them. Ever. I see city council on the front page? BAM. I'm jumping to anything else. Sports on page eight, the cross-stitching fair on page 10 or even Obits on 15.

Responsible citizenry?

No more...

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On Monday of this week I missed the last academic advising appointment of my college career. I was late because of a TV News assignment.

I have six hours left to graduate next semester. Getting advised is a joke.

I muttered not nice words as I penciled in a new appointment time. And I thought even worse ones.

But really I'm ok. Journalism will always be what it is. About people. And people are active. To capture their lives you have to be active too. You have to be there, stride for stride.

I think I've got six credit hours of strides left in me. Or maybe I'll just drop out and read some history books.

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In other news, I chalked up my first raquetball wins EVER this morning.

15-7
15-11
15-7

I'm pretty much an animal on the court now, thanks to Mr. Serven's mini-clinic last week.

Thanks, Coach.

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I'm happy to report my music life is once again on the board. It's good to be back in the t-bone saddle. My first trombone choir concert of the semester was tonight.

Good times.

I've recruited a trombone quartet to play this Sunday in church. I'm pleased to be doing this again. We're going to play Achieved is the Glorious Work. It's a quartet standard from the quill of our old friend Mr. Haydn.

As some background, the piece was first performed as part of a larger work called The Creation, on April 29, 1798. It is considered Haydn's "greatest and most ambitious work."

And hopefully we can do the piece justice.