Magnolias

The picture above is me standing in front of a stand of magnolia trees. This is one of the lovely things about living in Champaign. We are far enough south to have magnolia trees all over the place blossoming at this time of year, filling the air (when it's still enough - not a gale force wind) with their lovely perfume. And so today on this Palm Sunday, Kaia and I took a trip to West Side Park, two blocks from our new apartment (we move in August), to enjoy the nice weather while the cats stayed home and held down the fort:

It's been a nice quiet day and it's given me a chance to reflect on everything that's happened in the past couple of weeks. First, we have a new apartment. After deciding that stately Ashton Woods (so named for it's four trees) is not the place that we want to live for the next 4-5 years, we began looking for a new home in earnest a couple of weeks ago. We found a house, or rather the upstairs of a house, minutes from campus in Champaign. It has hardwood floors, 1200 square feet (including a room that is 10x24), a yard, a "porch that would make the Clampetts jealous!" and is very conveniently close to everything. We will be moving in mid-August so that means we'll be homeless for a couple of weeks. Maybe we'll just rent a truck, pack everything up, and take our worldly possessions on a road trip.

In other news I got a job. Earlier this year I saw a posting on the Conductors Guild website for a youth orchestra music director position in Crystal Lake, Illinois. I applied for it, got an interview, and got an audition. Yesterday they called to offer me the position and I accepted! And here's the interesting part: they want me to start immediately... like this year... like next week. So it looks like I'll be diving in with both feet as the school year draws to a close. It's a great organization and I had tons of fun working with the group at the audition so I'm very excited to be on board. Plus, as an added bonus, they want me to go along with the group on their tour of Italy in June! I guess I will need to start working on my Italian.

As we sat at the West Side Park today with the blue sky above us, surrounded by magnolias, Kaia and her magazines, me and my scores, a cup of warm coffee for each of us, I truly felt grateful for all of the good things in this life. I know that this new job will present challenges for me, especially as I try to balance it with school, but I feel so fortunate to be given this great opportunity.