Welcome to Minnesota winter...

Yesterday's Heartland Symphony Orchestra concert - postponed.
Today's HSO concert - postponed.
Today's Long Prairie Chamber Orchestra/Choir performance of Messiah - even if it isn't postponed or cancelled, I'm not going to try to drive that far with snow falling sideways.

It's a good thing my first year of teaching wasn't like this one - I wouldn't be teaching any more.

The stress of this past week or so is way more than I need to deal with...fortunately, one of the major causes of the stress is no longer part of the group. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Now if I can just come up with a way to get the seventh and eighth grade monsters to practice their (@#$&! instruments...

Being at school until nearly 1 a.m. the night before a concert is a little ridiculous, too. First kid that complains about something tomorrow morning is likely to have their ears scorched.

I refuse to get sick! Not this week...it just ain't happening!

Barbershop contest went well - we finished 13th out of 17 choruses, but considering it was the first time we had ever made it to district contest, that's not a bad spot to start. (It looks even better if you ignore two categories, and just look at our singing score...that would have put us 7th!)

The high school concert went very well - and is the first time I've ever run out of programs. According to the choir director, the stacks I had sitting on music stands at the back of St. Henry's were gone by ten to 7...and there was still a steady stream of people coming in until nearly concert time at 7:30. It was a little difficult for set-up, but...considering it was a one-shot deal being out of the auditorium... We'll take it.

Next concert is tomorrow night - I probably should be a bit more concerned about it than I am, but at this point, they're either ready or they aren't, and there isn't much I can do about it either way. On the bright side, the fifth graders have only had their instruments for 6 weeks, so anything they play that is recognizable will most likely go over well.

Sanity check on aisle 3, please! The Long Prairie Orchestra doesn't have a bass player...and apparently, they couldn't find one to come in as a ringer. So, in a fit of (temporary??) insanity, I volunteered to jump from viola to bass - after last night's rehearsal. This means I have today and tomorrow to practice before the dress rehearsal with the soloists. Spent a couple of hours this afternoon going through spots...won't have a chance to look at it tomorrow because of the concert. This could be highly amusing...or hideously embarrassing. Ah, well...it's in Long Prairie, so the chances of running into anyone I know at the concert is pretty slim.

Current countdowns (only including those under 10...so the Trivia Countdown isn't included) :

Barbershop contest: 2 days
HS concert: 5 days (3 school days), 2 rehearsals
5th orch/6th band concert: 8 days (6 school days), 1 rehearsal for the orch, 2 for band
Long Prairie orchestra concert: 10 days, 2 rehearsals

I need something else going on! And if anyone tries to add anything to my schedule, I'm likely to bite them!

Thank goodness this will be a short week. The two days off on Thursday & Friday (for the state teachers' convention) will be a very welcome break, especially after the hectic pace of this last week.

Monday - p/t conferences
Tuesday - barbershop rehearsal (got home around 1)
Wednesday - crashed
Thursday - Heartland Symphony Orchestra rehearsal...then got a phone call around midnight.
Friday - trying to recover from screwed-up sleep schedule
Saturday - HSO dress rehearsal / performance
today - HSO performance

I'm going to have Schubert's "Unfinished" running through my head for a few days now - especially those two nasty little sections with all the accidentals on the 16th notes.

Busy is definitely going to be the word of the year at school, too. Between the high school group (or groups, depending on how you look at it - symphony, string orchestra, band - although it meets as one big group), the 6th-8th orchestra, 7th-8th band, 6th band, and 5th orchestra (31 kids! ), I'll be staying busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.

Can I take a nap now, please? Three days should about do it...

Am also definitely looking forward to the possibility of getting to Beergle on Friday.

Well...now that we have two weeks of school in the books, I'm finally just about prepared to start. At this rate, this is going to be one long year!

20th class reunion was actually a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be...definitely a nice surprise. Someone suggested that "we should have a blog for our class"...I chuckled and said that I already have a blog - and wasn't about to tell them where to find it. Heather said that sounded like a challenge...but apparently she hasn't found it yet. Keep looking...but I'm still betting you won't find it!

Was a little bummed that only one of the four people I most wanted to see was there...just P. No T, K, or L...but at least I have contact info for L, so I might just have to kidnap her for our own little class reunion next time I get to the Chicago area.

Working on the farm for a month was definitely a nice change of pace...but I'm happy to be done with that. There's still about a month before school starts, but my "to do" list to get ready for the year is huge, since I'll have six groups (5th, 6th, and 7th-8th orch, 6th and 7th-8th band, plus HS full symphony). Definitely need to work on getting my band chops back...got my flute out yesterday for a bit. Haven't done anything with clarinet or any brass yet, though. But I have a month to get ready, right?

Hmm...three months since my last post here...lots of updates to cover, so I'll just do a quick rundown of the biggest things...

The orchestra survived the budget cuts unscathed - although the band didn't. In a nutshell, this means we'll have three people to do the job of four for next year. So...instead of having 4 orchestras (5th-6th grade, 7th, 8th, and HS) and 2 music appreciation classes, I'll have 4 orchestras (5th, 6th, 7th-8th, and HS symphony instead of strings alone), 2 bands (6th & 7th-8th), and 5th grade general music. Whee. So much for what little sanity I had left. :-p

The 8 days from hell (5 performances) went fairly well, actually. Barbershop chorus didn't win the division, but scored well enough that we will be going on to the district competition anyway. Only ~2 points per song per judge between us and the top spot in our division, so we're within range. Junior high concert went quite smoothly - gotta love the 40-minutes-from-first-notes-to-everyone-gone performances! HS concert had a couple of interesting moments, but nothing we couldn't fake our way through.

HS Graduation ceremony was earlier this afternoon. The mini-concert before that went extremely well, all things considered. I wasn't expecting people to actually be paying any attention, since it was in the gym, and we had no shell to help focus our sound...but there was a very nice response.

I really, really, really don't care for unexpected little surprises that creep up out of nowhere, especially when it's something that can't be dealt with in a neat way. Options are to ignore it, and drive myself nuts, or confront it and (most likely) piss off at least 3 people. Needless to say, I don't like either option.

One of my kids made a very deep observation this afternoon, after grad... She asked if I missed the seniors yet - and when I said not yet, she warned me that it's gonna hit soon. The two that are "my kids" (i.e. not just orchies) are definitely going to be missed...and when that reality sets in, I'm probably going to be a lost little puppy for a few days.

FYAO weather arrived today. -12 when I woke up, with wind chills dropping down to the -45 range.

And the clutch in my truck picks today, of all days, to give up the ghost. Was a b*tch to walk to school - even with the wind coming from behind me. Coming back after school was worse, since the wind was in my face. Also meant that I missed barbershop chorus rehearsal tonight...worst possible one to miss, since we had a coach coming in to work on performance-polishing details. Grr.

Don't mind me. I'll be sitting over here in the corner with a bottle of scotch.

How can it be called FYAO when it's above freezing most of the day? Hmph. It's supposed to be cold for that weekend. Oh, well. It was still fun. :)

Playing hooky from school last Thursday was a nice change, as well. We (my barbershop quartet) delivered ~40 singing valentines...made a few gals cry, had lots of them highly embarrassed, and generally had a good time zipping around town from one place to the next. Even had one on-air delivery to the co-host of a morning talk show on the local radio station.

Have had absolutely nothing to do on any Sunday afternoons while sitting in the H&R kiosk at Wally World...until today. I didn't get any reading or crossword puzzles done, because three people (well, 5, since two were couples) came in to get their taxes filed. Made for a nice surprise - and kept me from getting too bored.