Science, Music, and Being Exceptional

When Todd heard about the Salk Science and Music Series, he couldn’t help but get tickets to it.  Todd loves science.  Todd loves jazz music and is an accomplished pianist.  What could be better than the two together?  We also got tickets for Dejah & Roby as a Christmas gift, because we usually like to give “experience” gifts rather than “thing” gifts.  So on Sunday 2/23, we met up at the Salk Institute to see a jazz concert by pianist Geoffrey Keezer and vibraphonist Joe Locke, along with a lecture by professor Tom Albright on perception, neuroscience, and creativity. 

Due to the low lighting and where our seats were, it was challenging to get good photos.  Keezer and Locke played 4 songs, some of which were original compositions. 

Then there was a 15 minute intermission, followed by the lecture by professor Albright.

The lecture talked about cell communication inside the brain, and how it interacts to stimulate creativity. It was really interesting.  My takeaway was that some of the most creative ideas come when you are doing something very mundane, like doing the dishes, taking a walk, or showering.  This is because your brain doesn’t have to work to do those things, and therefore is free to think up ideas.

After the lecture, they played three more songs.  The whole thing was amazing and awesome.  Salk is brilliant to come up with a Science & Music series.  We would definitely go to another one again!

This week both Todd and I had our annual performance appraisal discussions with our managers at work.  It even happened on the same day for us, even though we work for different companies.  I received an “Exceptional” performance rating, which is equivalent to getting 5 stars.  (The rating system is 5-tiered, with 3 being the average.)  It has been quite a few years since I’ve received an overall “Exceptional” rating, so I was really pumped! (I usually get “4 stars”.)  Not only that, but I was promoted to the next level.  The only bummer is the company is running a really tight budget right now (I knew this, because I put together the budget), so I don’t get any promotion money right now.  I’ll probably get the promotion pay increase in the fall.  Todd also got really good performance rating at his new job.  Lots of great feedback and he was pumped as well.  So we decided on a whim, to go out to dinner to celebrate after work on Wednesday.  We found a well-rated new Italian restaurant called Rosina’s. 

We shared a beet & goat cheese salad to start.

Todd had salmon with capers.

I had pasta alla vodka.  It was so good!

We were excited to find a new Italian restaurant that we like.  But even more so, we were excited about our good performance reviews and we both felt appreciated by our managers.  We feel quite blessed to be in jobs that we enjoy and work for good managers!