On Saturday OCMEA (our music ed organization) had our spring workshop. Jan Swanson, a BW alumnus and music teacher in the Medina City Schools, brought 60 of her choir students for an all-day masterclass. In the morning Dr.Marshall, our general music professor, taught folk dances. After that we took the kids on a campus tour. It was fun to see BW through their eyes; a couple of them thought they’d want to come to BW because we have an indoor pool In the afternoon, Mrs. Swanson discussed her choir techniques, reperatoire selection process, etc. At the end the kids gave a mini concert and we sang with them on the last piece. It was a nice day. It was also the last major thing I’ll do with OCMEA. I’ve been on the executive board for the last two years, but Sunday night I officially turned my post over. I’ve done a lot of interesting things with OCMEA, but the thing I’m most proud of is the website I made last year. If you’re thinking of being a music ed major, or if you’re an alumni, check it out: www.bwocmea.com

Needless to say, I had a bunch of fun at April Reign. During the day there was just so much to do, events to see. People were out nonstop, whereas the campus would normally be slow moving during a weekend day. One part I liked especially was the A New Found Glory concert. I may have mentioned before I’m not even so big a fan of them, but they were a good act live and I was jumping and moshing around during the show. It was pretty high energy stuff, and I definitely regret being skeptical at all about it. However, as nice as April Reign was, I’ve had a TERRIBLE week so far. Since it’s the last week of school before finals, everything has been crammed into these last few days. It’s been paper after paper after paper after project and test, blah blah. I stayed up all night last night and did a lot of work, but I basically overdosed on caffeine… I’ve been sick all day and wanting to hurl. I have gotten maybe a half hour of sleep up to this point, but no work done since my classes- I’m basically a zombie but I can’t even sleep and rest at all. Tonight is going to be harder for sure, since I have two papers due tomorrow, and God knows how I’m going to stay up… you better believe I’m not touching caffeine. And for the record, 6 Double Shot Espressos and 2 big energy drinks in one night….. don’t ever try it. Yuck.

After reading Kelly’s blog, I have to respectfully disagree about April Reign. I think the key point that qualifies my perspective over his would be the fact that I DID attend ALL of the events and wow - what a weekend! From the athletic events Friday evening and all day Saturday, to the free food and New Found Glory concert, the entire weekend was AMAZING!

What made everything just a little bit sweeter was the fact that my fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, did very well in the competitions. We placed 1st in Chariot, 2nd in Obstacle, 3rd in Boat, and 1st in Tug. All of those trophies added up to make SigEp the 1st Place Overall Champions of April Reign. With a longstanding tradition of doing well, it was great to be a part of our fraternity’s competitive history. I am also a fan of New Found Glory, and found the concert to be incredible! Everyone in attendance seemed to have a great time.

As a senior, this was my last April Reign. It’s good to go out with a bang! For all of the younger students who maybe had their first April Reign this year, whether they thought it was good, bad, or otherwise, what I recommend is attending the events. Even if they aren’t exactly what you would like or what you anticipated, a solid majority of campus participates and attends the events - so why not hang out with friends and/or make new ones? Just a little advice from someone with 3 April Reigns under his belt - and I say only 3 because my freshman year it was cancelled due to snow! So, if nothing else, be happy the festivities happen at all

I’m going to start this off my letting y’all know i’m listening to The Boss and “Thunder Road” & “Born in the USA.” Just a pitch for Mr. New Jersey, i guess. So this week has been crazy. My partner and I had to readjust our experiment in microbio and redo some lab work. I’ll tell you right now, anyone who has to take microbiology as a course here gets my sympathy. That class just eats your time like kids on halloween when they pour out their candy on the table “just to see what they got.” everyone knows what that means. Secondly, before going into lab this afternoon, i was on the CAB (commuter team) for april reign. i was on the boat team and we did phenomenally (didn’t sink). we might have sunk, if we hadn’t quit the race half way (three percent into the race, is more accurate) through and paddle to shore to save ourselves cold water when our boat began to lose air. And lastly, the indians have been in town for two games now (two wins over the yanks nonetheless (therefore forget my “don’t ever watch cleveland sports” blog from a few weeks ago, i was lying)) and my back/shoulder/knees are already feeling it. not complaining, its the best job i’ve ever had, and i recommend it to anyone who can endure a meager amount of physical uncomfortableness (i realize this isnt a word, so too bad). Well, that’s all i got for you. I’m getting mario kart wii in three hours and eighteen minutes (yeah, i’m a loser, no need to tell me) so you might not hear from me for awhile. til next time, stay amazing y’all.

So an update on life… This weekend in April Reign and Tonight is the New found Glory concert and tonight I’m… working lol. Need to make that money :). Well update on this summer. I will be a summer Resident Assistant in the only hall open this summer so that should be a good time. I will also be working in residence life and having a small internship type Job doing some administrative type work and working with the housing coordinator … so I might get some hands on experience placing the incoming first-year students in their rooms :). Also I’m getting close to booking my flight to Mexico for a 10 day trip. A friend of mine will be there at a local university outside Mexico City for summer study abroad so hopefully I can meet up with him and my other friend going with me is a Spanish major so it should be an amazing experience :). I haven’t taken Spanish since high school so I will need to brush up on the basics lol…..

On another note the semester is coming to a close and the summer break is almost here… I cant wait

Today I attended a lunch performance of B-W’s own improv group called “Faces for Radio”. The group is composed of students who are interested in improv - they’re not necessarily theatre majors, nor are there restrictions on the age of the students. It’s just a high energy group of performers who put on a show much like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”. The performance was short since many of the students in attendance (as well as performing) have class up until lunch or right after lunch. However, from what they did, it was evident that they are all really talented. Their quick-wit and ability to think on their feet makes them a great group to see. They also seem to really enjoy their time on stage with one another, so I bet their practices together are a ton of fun for them. It is really neat to see that we have a group like this on campus, which serves the performing arts audience, but in a different and more participatory level than some of the other theatre or entertainment productions on campus. Along with performing at B-W, “Faces for Radio” has done a few shows at local Cleveland comedy clubs. They definitely showcase one another’s talent, and certainly promote B-W well

As the weekend gets closer and closer, I seem to be getting a little more excited daily. April Reign is this weekend, and on Saturday night I am going to the Tribe-Yankees game. I am a part of the GDI (independent) Tug Team for April Reign and we practice tonight. The Tug-of-War competition for April Reign is scheduled for 10 am on Saturday down at Wallace Lake in the Metroparks and it will be guaranteed to be a great time. I’m sure I will be the tug team’s weakest link, but apparently we are adopting a new strategy to put our great athletic ability to use to defeat the other teams. We’ll see about this! Friday night’s events are chariot and obstacle course and they can sometimes be the funniest events to watch because anything can happen. The boat race is on Saturday and goes on back and forth with the tug competition. I am SO glad I am not on the boat team because I am not a huge fan of water, or boats for that matter. For that competition you are basically given a blow up boat with four people to paddle alllllll the way across Wallace Lake. Thats not really my forte, haha. Hopefully next week blogs will be full of good April Reign stories!

Everyone’s been “buzzing” at Baldwin-Wallace (excuse the joke) about April Reign for the past few weeks, and for all the hype I’m not exactly sure what it’s about to be. I know there are activities and that A New Found Glory concert (which I still need to get tickets for), but I don’t know what to expect this weekend. I’ve talked to some older students at BW, and they say April Reign is pretty much the best time at BW they’d had most of the year. I definitely hope it’s as good as people say and I’m looking forward to the weekend. I don’t even like A New Found Glory, but a. It’s a free concert and b. It’s high energy music that will be fun to see live and jump around to. Other than April Reign coming up, I’d like to congratulate everyone who sang in this little concert I saw Tuesday. I already forgot what the concert was called, of course, but I know a bunch of vocalists and music theater majors were in it. My roommate sang a Boyz II Men song in a quintet, and it was really good. Plus I heard some other MTs sing that I hadn’t heard before, and they were great as well of course. One friend who went to my high school was supposed to sing that day, but she got sick and couldn’t, and that was sad, but the show was still good. Still, I hope the weekend goes well. The only problem I see is the monster final LAS paper that’s due next Wednesday. I know I’m going to have to work on that for at least a few hours a day from here on out. I just remembered that paper as I was typing this, and now I’m upset about… I have a few more assignments to do as well, since the end of the year is creeping up, so let’s see if I can balance all my homework and funtime this upcoming weekend.

Today I went to the International Coffee Hour’s special event “Celebrate Africa”. It was held in our Student Activities Center during community hour. There was free natively African food, music, information, presentations, performances, and lots of other exciting things.

I got to see an African drum and dance performance performed by a friend of mine. I also got to listen to a panel of B-W students representing 8 counties from Africa! It was very interesting to have African culture brought to me to experience and immerse myself in (as much as possible). There were even a number of students and faculty members who wore traditional African dress to showcase their heritage. The event overall was well attended by all kinds of B-W students and faculty/staff, and I was happy to have been able to attend and learn more about another culture and place.

This coming weekend, B-W will hold April Reign. It is a really fun weekend where teams are put together of either Greek organizations or independents, and there are different events (similar to Olympics) and there are a ton of activities and even a New Found Glory concert to conclude the weekend. I am really really really hoping and crossing my fingers that the weather holds out because it seems to be the April Reign curse. Granted, last year I wasn’t around for April Reign because I was in Australia, but my freshman and sophomore years the weather has been miserable. Apparently (from an outside source) it is supposed to be rainy, but hopefully its scattered and done by 5 on Friday and doesn’t start back up again on Saturday til after noon sometime = ). Oh how I wish..