I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but every Friday afternoon, I go out with some music grad-student friends for drinks and table games at the grad-student bar on campus. We call it foosball Fridays because, well, foosball and pool are our main activities.

I am not good at either of these games, likely due to my lack of patience. I use what we refer to as the chaos-theory - where I move and spin the little men as fast and violently as I can. I also tend to shriek, laugh, scream and swear a fair bit while playing. Pretty standard Michael stuff.

I can feel that I'm so close to finishing my bassoon piece; I can tell that it will be a struggle to maintain focus this weekend and finish it, but I need to. Though my bassoonist hasn't rushed me at all, and I'll still have it to her before her deadline, I'm already behind the deadline I had set for myself. My original goal was to have the whole piece finished by Oct. 30th. Instead, I've been working on it movement-by-movement; half was finished and sent before the deadline, so now only one of four movements remains.

I look forward to the end of the weekend because I will have finished this piece and I won't have any upcoming deadlines of any kind. I will be able to start fresh on a choral piece, get back to the song cycle, and get working on next term's piano music to learn for contemporary ensemble.

I've booked my travel, so I will officially be in Winnipeg from Dec 15(16)th through January 1'st(2nd). I'll have lots to work on over the break and I'll be very happy to spend lots of time with Petra.