Chuck's articles!

Look out world - here comes Maestro Chuck!

Chuck was featured in the entertainment insert of the Columbus Republic newspaper on Friday. He graced the cover and his article took up the entire page 4.

How about that model pose? If you click on the images, you can get a larger version if you'd like to read the article.





I was so happy with how this came out. Isn't it a great article?

And then, they put him back in the paper on Sunday! He just had a little mention in the "around town" section.

I'm so proud! I didn't know I was married to a celebrity! :)

Friday Lunch

Last Friday, the Jacobs School of Music had a little staff recognition luncheon. We have over 100 staff members! The Dean spoke and also mentioned that the Second Annual JSoM Staff Halloween Contest is ON!! I feel like I have left my mark at IU and started a nice tradition.

Everyone was a little bit grouchy because seating was assigned. Usually everyone sits with their friends or just their own office colleagues. We had to do "team-building" exercises so that the event would qualify to be sanctioned by the University, which apparently meant that any prizes/gifts given out would be tax-free. What a relief.

I didn't get a prize, but everyone got a nice Jacobs polo shirt. The best part about my table was that I met another Buckeye! There is a girl named Katherine who just started working in the Admissions Office - she just got her masters at Ohio State!

And today, Chuck had lunch with Leonard Slatkin, who is in residency here at IU for a few weeks. I believe starting next year, he'll be full-time faculty. Apparently he was impressed with the idea of Chuck's Pirate Concert in the mall with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra (which was a big success, by the way). Yaarrrrggghhh! I hope to have pictures of Captain Chuck doing the Pirate Dance soon to post here.

Go Bucks!

Run for the End Zone!

This year I am the Jacobs School of Music team captain for the Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone 5K race!

This is a very fun event that raises money for a good cause. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Jill Behrman Emerging Leader Scholarship and Jill’s House, a residence for patients undergoing outpatient cancer treatment at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute facility in Bloomington.

If you want to join the team (you don't have to be part of the JSoM to join us) let me know! The race is Saturday, October 13th.

GO COLTS! 41-10

Last night was the NFL season opening game between the Colts and the Saints, and my friend Gaye and I were THERE!!!


The city of Indianapolis had a free outdoor concert featuring Kelly Clarkson and Faith Hill in the circle. We didn't really get to see them up close and personal, but we heard them sing!


That's Kelly Clarkson somewhere in there.


And that's Faith Hill across the street.



Doesn't Peyton look scary in that picture? Those were hung up in several places around downtown. I have to admit that while it was pretty crowded and hectic and crazy, it still wasn't as crowded and hectic and crazy as Buckeye football.


The RCA Dome holds 57,000, a little more than half as many people as the Horseshoe. It was LOUD in there! The Colts don't have any special cheers or anything that is specific to their team (i.e. OH! IO!) so I didn't have to learn any words/moves before the game. :) However, they cheer COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY than what you would be used to. When the team is playing defense, they cheer like crazy, and when the offense plays, they try to stay as quiet as possible. I guess it's because it's so loud in there that the opposing team players can't hear each other when they are calling the plays.

This is the Colts during warm-ups. You can see that we had pretty good seats - close enough to see everything! Gaye's aunt had given her the tickets. We also got a bunch of cool free Colts stuff! We got a towel to fling around, and a keychain, and a cold-drink huggie-thing. And we got a nice program that had pictures of all the players and their info.

Three Buckeyes are rookies for the Colts this year: Anthony Gonzalez, Roy Hall, and Quinn Pitcock. Gonzalez was a first-round draft pick. I was excited to see that there were a lot of #11 Gonzalez jerseys in the crowd! There happened to be about 5 sitting next to each other two rows in front of us.

I noticed that several of these guys wearing the Gonzalez jerseys had shaved heads, like Anthony Gonzalez. And then I noticed that one of them looked JUST LIKE him!!! It had to have been his brother. No question. So that was pretty cool!

So of course I was trying to eavesdrop when a lady in the row in front of us started asking them questions, but with the crowd noise I didn't hear anything. But one of the guys pointed to the big ring he was wearing and she was asking him about it. It looked like one of those ginormous bowl championship rings - and it had what looked like a Block O on it! However, the O was on a blue background. So from what I can tell from googling, this was not a Buckeye championship ring. Plus, the guy did not look beefy enough to be a football player. So I am very curious what that ring was!


And did I mention John Mellencamp played a pre-game show in the stadium? He's up there somewhere. We actually saw him. Gonzalez's possible brother was sitting to the left of the guy with the towel on his shoulder, but he's not in this picture.

It was a great game and the Colts won, 41-10!

Go Colts!

RIP Mrs. Clouse

Mrs. Clouse died this week. She was the lady whose 100th birthday the Jacobs School of Music celebrated back in the spring. Today students, faculty and staff lined the side of Jordan Avenue in front of the JSoM buildings to pay their respects as her funeral procession drove by.

Are you ready for some football?

My friend Gaye and I are going to the Indianapolis Colts' season opening game tonight!! Watch for us on TV!!

And poor #5-ranked M*ch!g@n lost to Appalachian State. I've been crying all week for them. Really.

He's home now!

I'm so glad Chuck is home now.
(Within a matter of a half an hour of being home, he had fixed my computer, so I am back "online!")
Lenny was really glad to see him too - we were surprised he reacted so much! He wouldn't stop "kissing" Chuck when he came in through the door, and he was jumping up and down. Maybe he smelled the Mozart chocolate balls in Chuck's bag....

Actually, Chuck's luggage didn't arrive until Thursday night at 11:30 p.m., so I didn't get to see all of his fun souvenirs until then. I am going to miss reading his travel blog, but I think we'll try and have it printed somehow.

Besides the computer, I also managed to do something to the coolant-stuff in my car, and the battery of the Roomba, and the automatic shower-cleaner thing, so it's nice to have my fix-it husband back for that too. :) I did manage to keep Shrimpie alive and healthy, and even growing. He molted while Chuck was gone!

It's Labor Day, but my boss asked me to come in and work today. I'm a little tired, but that's fine - I bank an extra day and a half off for coming in today, which I am going to use in October. I'm flying out to Connecticut to see my sister and go dress shopping for the wedding! Yesterday, we went over to our friend Amanda's for a little BBQ with her fiance Aaron, who was visiting from Minneapolis. It seems like he really likes his new job up there with Target. Their wedding is exactly two weeks before Annie's next summer - it will be a busy June!

It's nice to be relaxing now that the audition pressure is over - I'll let you know when I hear results. And I am really enjoying my new job! My first few big projects are over - I created a website and had to prepare a bunch of material for the big teacher/studio/registration meeting. Now I'm working on collecting and organizing the materials for our 5 professors who are up for tenure and/or promotion.

The next big thing coming up is Chuck's Bloomington Symphony concert - the Symphony ARRRGGGGHHHestra children's concert, featuring "pirate" music. I'm working on finding him an eye patch to wear, and maybe a hook to conduct with.