Back to Bach

I know I’ve been complaining about how busy I’ve been this semester, so you would think I would have been reluctant to add anything else to my already bursting schedule. After all, I’ve been working on doing less things, not more. And yet, I still added an honest-to-goodness college class that I’m taking as a student, the first one I’ve done in years. Why in the world would I have done that? Well, a few reasons.

First of all, Denisa’s taking the class with me. We’ve been wanting to find something to do for dates other than “go to movie” or “go to dinner.” Where we live, the options aren’t exactly abundant, so when this class came along, it felt like a good excuse to get us to actually go out, and I think that’s important in and of itself.

Second, the class doesn’t last that long. It’s just 5 sessions, once a week. That’s a pretty low bar of commitment, and since (again) it was something to do with Denisa, it made sense.

Third, it’s about Bach, and it’s taught by the illustrious Steve Pane, who can really make a class on music shine. He’s great at teaching hard-to-understand concepts in a way that’s easy to grasp, and his lectures are a lot of fun to listen to. So I knew it would be a good class going into it. No need to worry about being bored or anything like that.

Fourth? We could take it for free. It’s a perk that comes with working at a university that we’ve rarely taken advantage of. Why not finally put it to work?

That’s four good reasons to do it, and the only reason I could come up with to not was that I’m busy, But since I knew if we didn’t take it, then the odds of us going on dates were slim to none this semester, it made the decision that much easier.

We’ve now gone to two of the five classes, and we’ve enjoyed them both. We’re learning about the Goldberg Variations (which, it turns out, aren’t written by a guy named Goldberg, as I assumed all these years . . .). It essentially means that my Tuesdays start at 7am and don’t finish until 8pm, so it’s saying something that I’ve been having a good time in spite of that. We’re also being challenged to try our hand at music composition. That’s been much more challenging than I even guessed it would be, but it’s a good kind of challenging.

Honestly, when you’ve got so many other things going on, it can be a nice change of pace to do something completely different now and then. Something you don’t have to do, but which you’ve chosen to do in spite of that. I’m still extra super duper busy, but I’m glad we’re taking the class in spite of that. Definitely a net gain for my sanity this semester.

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