Committee and Wedding Planning

No, not my wedding. My good friend Mike from high school called me on Saturday to ask me to play piano at his wedding! It’ll be on 29 May 2010 — at Lambeau Field in Green Bay! That’ll likely be the biggest venue I’ll ever play in, haha. I have plenty of time to debate whether to wear my Vikings tie either to the rehearsal dinner (which is Packers themed) or to the wedding itself. He & Ashley basically gave me the freedom to pick out what songs I think would be good, and I’m already getting some ideas. With it still being a year away though, at least I have plenty of time to try to learn some more complicated pieces if I decide to do that to supplement the hymns I’ll pick out.
After talking to a couple faculty members in the last couple days, I now have my PhD committee formed! I still have to get all the signatures and all that jazz, but that’s just a formality. My committee will be Sue Ellen Haupt (Adviser/Chair), Dave Stauffer, Marcelo Chamecki, Derrick Lampkin (Outside member, Geography), and Joel Peltier (Special member). I think I have a good committee put together! Now I just have to find a time in late July or early August when they’re all free so that I can schedule my written and oral comprehensive exams. Let the fun begin?
I saw the new Star Trek movie last night with Ash, and it was incredible! I think it’s definitely the best of all the “Star Trek” movies, that’s for sure! There were plenty of cool explosions and fun plot developments. The young actors really pulled off the personalities of the “future” characters so well; that’s really what made the movie. It also had its funny moments, but it thankfully didn’t cater to 7-year-olds like Star Wars Episodes 1 and 2 did. Instead it was typical Star Trek wry humor, mixed in with some inside jokes/references. It was great! I think it’s a movie that someone without any previous Star Trek experience would still enjoy, but even a casual Star Trek fan would enjoy it more fully because of the inside references. It’s a movie I’m definitely willing to see again! There were several great quotes from the movie, but one of the most memorable was, “SSSPPPOOOOOOOOOCCCCCKKKKKK!!!”, which brought back memories of the “KKHHHAAAAAANNNNN!!!” moment from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. 🙂
Well, it’s time for me to finish getting ready and drive out to Valpo to hang out with Alex for a couple days!! His graduation is Sunday afternoon, and while I thought about going there for that, we figure we’d get to hang out with each other more if I came for a day or two before graduation. So I’ll be getting back to PA on Saturday night. I’m looking forward to seeing him again, and celebrating with him!