FALL 2008

I attend Boise State University, where I study Criminal Justice and participate in Blue Thunder and the Lab Band (Jazz Big Band). This is my second year, but only my second semester with the Criminal Justice program.
I started out as a Music Education major, because I was offered a full ride scholarship just to play and I confused my love of playing and writing music with the love of teaching (two totally different aspects of musicianship). Midway through the semester, I was playing at a home football game when I received a phone call and a message telling me that my grandfather had passed away. I left to Kentucky, where I played TAPS and my arrangement of Brahms at his funeral. Our family erupted in a disgusting dispute over the estate. I came back to Boise realizing that I didn't want conduct music for the rest of my life and I lost my motivation. In short, my first semester of college could not have been more of a disaster.
Moving into the second semester, I spent a month at my home in snowy Illinois thinking of different careers. I needed something that I could be passionate about for the rest of my life. And so I chose Criminal Justice. My second semester could not have gone better. I pulled A's in my classes and enjoyed every one of them. I won two national rifle matches and was awarded various other titles and records on the firing range...I picked up a job with a civilian/military contracted company involved in the training of military marksmen. I work under a gentleman many years my elder and I've learned more than is imaginable from him in this short time.
I spent the summer in San Jose, CA with my girlfriend and her family. I coached sports camps (mostly lacrosse) and eventually took a trip to Disneyland, California Adventure, and Magic Mountain... it was everything I had dreamed about and more. At the beginning of August, I flew in to Illinois for two weeks with my family. An incredible storm hit during dinner on the first Monday of the month. I spent the next few days cutting fallen trees and dragging them back to the house to burn. We lost about 12 trees that I can remember. The rest of the week was spent target shooting and sighting in a new scope for my coyote rifle. I built a target carriage and spent the rest of my time between my cousin Andy's place and having fun with my family.

That brings me to the beginning of this semester. I am currently enrolled in a math class, philosophy, Blue Thunder, Spanish, Police Law, and Jazz Band... totaling at 22 credit hours worth per week. But, since two of my classes are music ensembles, I am only pulling 16 credits out of the semester. I'm a section leader in the Blue Thunder this year and have been keeping busy with my playing. Other than classes, I spend my time with my friends, my roommates, and my girlfriend.
I've spent a lot of my time sitting outside on a bench smoking my pipe with Mark, reading, watching movies (most recently Appaloosa and Quarantine), Jamming, going shooting, and grilling out. I try to fill my spare time with relaxing activities during the more hectic fall semester. We have already established a routine in my apartment. We go shooting in the mountains every Sunday afternoon until the sun goes down. Then we pull out the Hickory Smoker and grill steaks. (there's a video at the top of the page)... On Tuesdays and Fridays we go sell our plasma for extra cash (no time for a steady job in the fall). On most nights, Mark, Courtney, and I play each other in Halo. None of us are really any good, so we enjoy playing with each other exclusively, because no one person ruins it for the rest.
I know that this post was long and boring, but without it, my college story would start in Chapter 2.That's the basic update... now everything's up to speed!