i had a chat with ruth (head of music masters program) today... we came up with 3 options for me to finish my program. at the moment i have 4 courses (or will once these 2 are completely finished and i manage to get my ghana course credited) and need 3 more and then the final oral exam thing.

option 1 - stay on course with the summers - two in the summer of 2013 and one in the summer of 2014
option 2 - take two in the summer of 2013 and one in the fall of 2013 or the winter of 2014
option 3 - take one in the fall of 2012 or winter of 2013 and two in the summer of 2013

i'm leaning toward option 3... i could be done by next summer which would be awesome... but in order to do that i need to figure out something to do an independent course on (and find someone to oversee it) and it would mean being in school all year as i'm pretty sure i also need to take a cstc course for work in the fall or winter... maybe that would be better tho - stay in the schooling mode...

any ideas / suggestions / wisdoms --- feel free to pass them along.

so i have finished up my stratford adventures for the season - this makes me a little sad...
last night kirsten, amber and i saw pirates of penzance...
amber and i sat next to a grossly sick woman in the upper seats of the balcony in the avon... we were in the middle so the angle was good - but the closeness of the seats meant that we had huge divots in our legs when we needed a break of having them pushed on an angle into the aisle or the small space between the seats in front of us. but that is not the musical.
pirates was great. it is gilbert and sullivan and fits in their style - i enjoyed the costumes and the versatility of their stage - but story wise it probably isn't my favourite g&s (i think i prefer hms pinafore but that could be sentimental), and production wise it wasn't really near the top for shows this season - however i've enjoyed all the shows i've seen - so that's not a bad thing either.
today i joined christina, lisa, and mrs. n. in the balcony of the avon (but in row b instead of row k) to see charlie brown. i actually enjoyed this one more than i thought i would. the spectacle of it was a lot of fun (even debating trying to figure out how to do this one with school... it would be a blast...) i enjoyed how their backdrop was just a giant tv that changed with where they were.... the simplicity of the set and the limited cast (although i would have to see about making some of those boy roles - girl roles) makes me think it could be a possibility... and there is no drinking, or swearing, or mention of sex (as all the characters are meant to be around age 5)...
after the show we wandered around down town and got ice cream and were talking when lo and behold charlie brown and snoopy and random other person walked be --- fairly certain they were unrecognized by most (other than us and all we did was pull out our books to look up their real names)... heading off to wanderlust perhaps?
i then found a bench along the river to read my "chaos in the classroom" book (research for a paper). stratford has this new thing where they have decorated pianos placed in random locations around town with the invitation to play - so while i sat on my bench, some guy serenaded me on the piano attached to the bus stop across from the tom patterson... all in all a pleasant afternoon...
now i'm off to write a philosophy of jazz - should be good times :)