Perks of the newspaper biz

There are several, but the one I was reminded of today is that you sometimes get to cover really cool things, and you even get paid for it.

A phone call from my editor woke me up this morning (that can signal the start of a potentially rotten day), telling me that we got a press release last night (another bad sign -- if an event is a good thing, it's usually advertised well in advance, during office hours). But this time was different.

The North Carolina Symphony was coming to play for the county's 4th and 5th grade students in the local high school gymnasium. The organizers got the event thrown together last-minutish, and I got there last-minutish. But I caught the whole performance, and aside from a 20th century piece of cacophany (I guess it was technically 21st century, but I can't tell the difference from the racket), the whole thing was delightful, capped off by the last movement of Tchaikovsky's third symphony. The kids were remarkably well-behaved; just about as good as many more "adult" audiences I've sat in.

I certainly didn't expect to get to listen to a professional state symphony orchestra today. And there's nothing quite like listening to Tchaikovsky live.

I'll have to remember this while I'm sitting through the next school board meeting.