It is with some relief that I find my to-do list getting smaller. Two presentations and a paper are done and finished! Unfortunately though, I haven’t gotten any less busy than before since I now have to do all the things that I didn’t do before because I was doing other things. (Did you follow that?) In fact, I feel busier than ever.

I haven’t had as much time for fun this as I managed to find last week, but tonight, I took an hour out of my evening to go to Jazz Night, a jazz concert performed by all of our jazz ensembles on campus. One of my suite mates was performing tonight, so a couple of my other suite mates and I went to go support her and have a nice time. We even dressed up because we were feeling fancy : )

Tonight’s performances did not disappoint! Every song had me foot-tapping and grinning and subtly moving to the beat in my front row seat. All of the performers were absolutely phenomenal, and the second ensemble blew me away! (And if they had played any louder, they probably would have literally blown me away.) I was really impressed with the choices of songs and several of the soloists, including my first year seminar peer mentor Jon, who gave an incredible vocal performance of “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).”

McDaniel’s music department puts on tons of concerts each semester featuring students and outside performers. If you come to McDaniel, I highly recommend going to at least a couple of these concerts each semester. (There’s no excuse for you not to–you’ll get a flyer in your mailbox letting you know when all the concerts are, so you’ll never be able to say that you didn’t know about them.) The concerts are a great chance to unwind and listen to some fantastic music as you experience culture on the Hill!