Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit quite like eating a bag of red and green peanut M&Ms at 2:30 in the morning after playing basketball in the cold weather with a couple of close friends, and then just standing outside talking and occasionally catching glimpses of multiple falling stars. That was my night. I also had lunch with my grandparents and Linh earlier in the morning. Hearing grandma’s stories of growing up in New York always puts me in a cheery mood. Speaking of New York….

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to keep up with my classes and finish the semester on a good note. Whether my grades reflect this or not, I certainly had a great semester. With finals finally over, it’s time for fun! I will be leaving on Thursday for New York again. Yes, I’ll be staying with my composer friend and my pal, Vincent. We hooked up in late October for a fantastic orchestration seminar with Steven Scott Smalley and his family was gracious enough to take me in. And would you believe it, they invited me back! Since we were in the seminar for 90% of the time I was in town in October, we decided it would be fun to get together and really just enjoy Manhattan (I will find any reason to leave Arizona for a trip there). So, for the next few days, I will be hittin’ the town and just kickin’ back at Vinny’s place in Long Island. We’re set to see Avenue Q on Saturday night (I’m wicked excited) and hopefully (weather permitting), I’d love to see Central Park (snow?) and the Rockefellar Center Christmas tree. Maybe even Conan will be out and about…

It’ll be a fantastic few days in New York but the fun won’t stop there. On Tuesday, both Vinny and I are flying to Chicago for the annual Midwest Clinic. Both of us have recently had our first pieces for concert band published and we both have them on a concert at Midwest! How awesome is that? The Vandercook College of Music will be performing Shadow Rituals and the Lakota West High School Symphonic Winds will be performing Vincent’s piece, Skysplitter! It’s going to be a blast. Gomez says he loves going with first-timers because the experience for band geeks is like going to Disneyland for the first time. I’m very excited to meet a lot of people including a meet and greet with Frank Ticheli. If all works out, I’m planning on going to see a “Second City” show on Friday night, too. My close friend Ryan has dreams of one day making it to the mainstage so I’m anxious to see what his dreams are all about. I might have to miss a dinner with Vinny and his mentor Mark Camphouse that night but maybe I’ll meet somebody new who would like to go with me.

I’ll come back home Saturday night, the 23rd, just in time for Christmas–hopefully with a few stories to tell. You can bet that Christmas Eve I’ll have one helluva blog to post!