I�ve been working for five and a half hours straight and now I�m about to go home. And it�s not yet 11. I really like this early morning thing. Maybe I should get up at 4:45 every day. Or not.

Today�s class was not so stellar. I felt scattered and boring. A bad combination. Hopefully next time will be better. I wish I could take the bad days less personally. I have finally figured out that the second day of the week is never as good as the first day in part because I don�t have time to rehearse. Notes on paper are one thing. But it�s different to say things out loud � some things sound better in my head; some things look more organized on paper. And since I hardly ever look at my notes in class anyway, not rehearsing sometimes means I leave out important stuff.

I�m trying to be Zen about it. It was what it was. Things will improve. I can�t be on every single day. Still, I wish I felt more even-keeled. I suppose that comes with practice.

AJ has no school tomorrow or Monday � apparently Columbus Day is now a 4-day holiday. Who knew? It will make finding work time a challenge. I keep trying to get ahead and I keep finding myself scrambling. Still, it is better this time. It feels like my job, not my life. This is definitely a healthy change.

I got an email from N�s mother yesterday. She�s planning a party for N�s birthday, which got lost in the shuffle as his father was declining. AJ is very excited to buy N and present. �What do you think he would like best?� I don�t know. Nothing is going to seem like quite enough for a boy spending his first birthday without his father. And yet this is also undoubtedly a good distraction for them all. I�m really looking forward to seeing all of them.

How not to right a textbook

In lieu of a student mailbag entry today, I offer instead a sentence from the class textbook which a student brought to me in confusion.

The essential difference between the modern major and minor modes comes in the different arrangement of half steps and whole steps in their scales. The medieval modes provide four other arrangements. In this respect, then, medieval plainchant is actually richer and more subtle than music in the major/minor system.

Crap like this is why I hate using textbooks. It sounds concrete � my student thought so. But really, it�s one guy�s completely unexplained opinion. There is no particular reason why modes are �richer and more subtle� than keys. It�s a sneaky example of exoticism disguised as fact. Textbook authors, you need to remember that your readers tend to take what you say as gospel. You need to take care to be responsible with what you say.

End of textbook rant.

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