There probably won’t be any blog entries for a few days, as I’m heading to Chicago tomorrow morning, and I’ve decided not to take a computer. (I’ll still have sporadic e-mail access, thanks to the Treo, but it doesn’t work 100% of the time.)

So, I’ll be MIA, but I’ll be back on Saturday, hopefully with exciting tales to share…

I don’t know if you’ve seen this blog (one of my favorites), but wow, I know how this person feels. I, too, have found other, less depressing things to have on in the background than CNN, and that new savior is QVC. As the above blogger put it, “Nothing bad ever happens on home shopping.”

AEJ and I have been watching a lot of QVC (and other home shopping channels) over the past few weeks, and it’s like a warm balm. “Look at the awful jewelry!” “Look — it’s my favorite host! He’s so funny.” “Can you believe that they have a 4 megapixel camera for that cheap?!”

But we’d never cross the line and actually order anything, as that would be, well, silly, and probably a slippery slope. I’d been tempted before, but we remained strong.

Tonight, though, we couldn’t resist. AEJ placed an order for a wonderful umbrella that the wind couldn’t turn inside-out!!! Seriously. In one of those typically-QVC moments, they opened the umbrella and held it up to one of those big wind machines that they use on movie sets. 30 mph winds, and the umbrella totally held up!

So, AEJ went online and placed the order. For, like, 3 of them. (We weren’t alone. QVC started selling them at midnight — it was “Today’s Special Value!” — and by 12:15, they’d sold 14,000. By the time AEJ’s order went through around 12:30, one of the colors was wait-listed. What will I do?!)

What next? Will we actually start buying the jewelry? I don’t know. If we do, I won’t admit it here.

I’m heading to Chicago for the annual Midwest Clinic on Wednesday. Should be a blast. I went last year, and it was fun, but I didn’t have any music to show, as “Redline Tango” for winds didn’t exist yet. This time, though, I’ll be going with a dozen perusal scores and two dozen CDs. Wish me luck, and if you’re going, please look for me and say hi!

And happy QVC shopping!

Okay, so I pretty much never win anything. I won the New York Youth Symphony’s First Music competition in 1999, and that was a thrill, because it meant a commission and a world premiere in Carnegie Hall.

But that was just about it. And it wasn’t for lack of trying.

I entered the ASCAP young composer competition every year from the time I was about 16 years old. Year after year, I lost. And it’s not like they only give one, two, or three prizes. Every year, there are, like, 20 or more winners. And every year, I wasn’t one of them. Each year I’d think, “maybe this is The Piece.”

But it wasn’t, as I’d learn when that rejection letter would show up with the typical “there were so many strong entries this year, and the judges were impressed by everybody but you.”

You can only enter the ASCAP competition through the age of 29, and finally, at the age of 29, the panel took pity on my string of losses and gave me an award for the orchestra version of “Redline Tango.” I lost almost 15 years in a row, though. I was the Susan Lucci of young composers.

The point of all of this history is that I just found out that I won the 2004 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize. This is pretty thrilling, and I’m psyched. It’s the biggest prize I’ve ever won, and in addition to the award, there’s a performance by the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble and a professionaly-produced recording.

So, it’s a good day. Plus, in a few hours, I’m getting a haircut! Quite a fine day, indeed.