A...Crowded beginning....

Well you can tell we are in full swing when the blog isn't updated until Thursday!!  But I AM here!  

Last week was not fantastic because of our end result it was fantastic because the true character of our band was revealed when we were tested...MANY times this last weekend.  Let's get it started:

LAST FRIDAY:

Well we took our band photos for the season on Friday.  I was the wise guy who thought it was a smart idea to take photos right before a football game!!  Within the craziness of getting uniforms and instruments out our students were organized in an almost scary manner!  Shuffling into the gym we were able to snap the photo and get started with individual shots.  

Game time!  Well....sort of.  We made it through pregame and then the skies opened up - we headed indoors to keep instruments and uniforms dry, and tried to wait out the rain.  We got a solid rehearsal in, however we were unable to perform.  Pretty disappointing.  What wasn't disappointing was sticking around to celebrate with our football team the thrashing they put on DeKalb! 

We got out of there and knew we had a job to do on Saturday

Saturday - game day!  well...our game day! 

We had a fantastic rehearsal and I had never been so excited to perform on a first weekend.  You see, the first weekend is the most terrifying to me because this is the "do they like it" show.  You've spent all year designing a show, putting in thematic elements, teaching it to your students and then you run the risk of someone saying "what the heck were you thinking?!" - I'm not even this nervous at regional! 

All seemed well when we were in the band room discussing what this activity really means to us.  we loaded the buses and were on our way.  The staff van was about 5 miles ahead of the buses when we "got the call" and turned around.  Something was going off on one of the buses - our incredible transportation staff knew something was serious and needed to get off the road.

We had to make decisions in a matter of minutes - and I mean big ones...

- Do we need another bus?
- How long will it take?
- Can we even make it in time?

Well, it turns out some decisions were made quickly.  We did some math, and figured out that with parents we could fit onto one but (if we go three to a seat) and have 2 spots to spare!  Without hesitation or complaint, our kids loaded all the bookbags onto the semi and with just ipods in hand sat three to a seat for about an hour, from there we heard the replacement bus was catching up.  So we made some adjustments to our schedule and had dinner in the parking lot of a rest area at around 4:00 and waited around for the bus.  by the time we got loaded up we were clearly going to miss our performance time.  And here is the part of the story that makes me REALLY love what I do:

A simple phone call to the contest director and he was gathering other AAA directors and telling them what was going on.  Without hesitation two directors that perform after us stepped up and said they would push their schedule and have their bands go earlier than anticipated so we could still compete!  Wow....in the face of competition (fierce competition) directors still understand that the real reason we go out every Saturday is to give our students and opportunity to feel what it is like under the lights and perform something that they have been working on for so long.  Luckily, with a lot of help, we got that chance.  And the kids shined! 

Remember what I said about being terrified about the judges liking our show or not?  Well...they love it!  They are in love with our ideas and now we leave it to the kids to perform and make this year a memory that will last a life time! 

You know it is interesting.  I was stopped by a teacher this morning telling me her HS days when a bus broke down.  It was a fan bus on its way back from a football game and she remembered having to pack onto a football bus....with the team...after the game remember...so....with the sweaty team...  I asked her: "well did they at least win" and she said "you know I don't really remember".

Ladies and Gentlemen, we wont remember our score from this past weekend.  In fact we may not even remember where we were going.  What we will remember is the tenacity of our band and what we were able to do in spite of all the hurdles.  We will remember the friendships and the lessons learned through this year.  We won't remember the finish line...we'll remember the journey.

The next stop on this journey...DeKalb invitational!  If you saw us last weekend...get ready to see a completely different band!! 

- Mr. Munoz