Also, I can kill you with my brain...

...now that I've officially completed my second edumakation.  Yes, that's right kids; I am now "bemused."  That is, my degree title is Bachelor of Music. I'm reveling in the fact that I don't have to go to class anymore, and it still really hasn't sunk in.  Not all is well, though.  Even though my GPA (since coming back to school) is over 3.96, I haven't received my rightful Summa Cum Laude because all of my previous engineering courses (from younger stupider days) are being combined with the current grades.  That was almost 30 years ago; can't we just forget about it?  Not being one to just roll over and 'take it', I'm contacting the powers-that-be (if I can figure out who they are) to see if they'll, ya know, "forget" about all those classes listed as "electives" on my transcript.

A few highlights from the last week of school:  when I went to get my French oral exam evaluation sheet from the teacher, she told me she had never given anyone the grade she awarded me: a perfect 100%.  It didn't hurt, of course, that I acted out the script I'd written, and happened to crack up both her and my oral exam partner.  It also doesn't hurt that I can actually pronounce French words pretty well. Does that sound self-congratulatory? Well, it should.

Aaand I had the privilege of singing in a presentation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor.  What a fantastic masterpiece -- perhaps the greatest choral work ever.

Also, as I waited with my fellow grads before the commencement ceremony, my counterpoint professor told me that I'd written "a fine fugue" which was the final project.  It's HARD to get compliments out of faculty members, so I was quite pleased.  Turns out I have a knack for that composition stuff.  Who knew?

So, school=done.  And that's the equation for happiness.  Or relief.

Backing things up a little bit, I played for the Best Wedding Ever in May.  Although I was quite nervous about it, the bride was one of my best and dearest friends ever, and I was thrilled to be a part of her and her sweet husband's Nuptial Mass.  The two of them glowed so much that we could feel the reflection of the Almighty Father's love in them.  In fact, one had to almost look away from them or risk being seriously choked up.  What a beautiful couple.  They're also both musicians, and the music selections made the event feel like a royal wedding.  Only better.

Now's the time for the greater question: why did God ask me to get this degree? He still hasn't revealed this, and I'm more than a little frustrated by my current situation.  I have however learned some important things.  The first behavior I've noted that it's demanded by this non-Catholic church is that everyone must bow at the altar. And everyone DOES, even the teenagers.  So why does the Catholic church not demand that parishioners genuflect in front of the tabernacle, let alone bow to the altar?  Based on previous conversations with too many people, it seems that our clergy is afraid of "offending" people and "driving them away" with all the "pious crap."  Geez.  For crying out loud, give the people something beautiful and transcendent and they will respond positively (for the most part, anyway.  You'll always have the freaks.)  I am quite sure that God has a place for me providing music for the Catholic church.  I just wish it would happen sometime soon in, ya know, my time. :)