Turned a Corner

Well, my mid April blahs done been shook! At least, I'm on the upswing side of it, I think. Unpleasant news of a personal nature really bogs me down for protracted periods of time. One of the bad things about spending a lot of time ruminating is not being able to control what you dwell on! I finally surfaced to realize that most assignments are behind me and the end of school fast approaching. Zoom!

As part of the effort, I'm catching up on my correspondence. Letter to Germany, emails to old friends who've written recently, that sort of thing. I'm also finalizing a schedule for what I need to accomplish this summer, next fall, etc. Is Geman Language and Culture a summer or a fall thing?

*** *** ***

Everybody who's taken any motivational psychology knows about the stick and the carrot. The university sent me a nice letter in the mail about the carrot for staying next year. It's a nice carrot, really. But the letter makes no specific mention of the specific weight and length of the stick. Just a vague comment along the lines of "You may be asked to be hit with a stick later." Also, it makes no specific mention of the NUMBER of sticks I may be hit with. This confuses and frightens Dr. Andy.

The strange vagueness of the form letter gives me great hesitation about just mindlessly signing and returning it. I seem to recall from literature that when someone wants to take advantage of you, they make you sign for the carrot up front, fail to mention a stick (but also don't mention NOT having a stick), then show up after you've become a rock star with two mansions and take your soul.

Perhaps in addition to teaching a course on personal finance for musicians, I should include a sub-lecture on Contract Reading for Musicians and Other Dummies.