Best Birthday Ever...

Since I made a big deal about sharing stuff about my life and then started a blog that I thought would be brimming with posts throughout the summer I have so far averaged one post per month.  If I don't get this done in 43 minutes that average is going to drop significantly.  Not to worry, though, now that summer has ended and the stress of writing and re-writing marching band field show drill is over, we're gonna see if we can't blog just a little bit more.  But until then, let's move on, shall we?

I'm sure everyone's dying to know why it was the best birthday ever.  Well, once upon a time, my classroom looked like this:

As a band director, those tiers have been the bane of my existence.  We don't perform on risers, why rehearse on them?  It's a valid gripe, I promise.  And hauling large percussion instruments up and down the steps every day was making things fall apart. I kid you not, I watched with my own eyes as a xylophone fell apart like a jenga tower.

Plus, the carpet is the original carpet from when the school was built.  Bust out a petri dish and test some of the goodness that's been growing on that. That'll be a hoot and a half.

One week into the summer, the room looked like this:

Pretty scary, right?  But the tiers are gone!  Can I get a hallelujah?

....Thank you.

After the summer was mostly gone and following a great week of ten hour field show rehearsals (with no rain on Thursday, which had been a most unwelcome marching band tradition), I was able to celebrate my 30th birthday.  What did I do to celebrate?  Mostly I just wanted to sit and do nothing, so we ate some food and watched some movies, and my fantastic wife made me breakfast and gave me presents.  But lo and behold, what do I discover when I return to school the following Monday for more (but shorter) rehearsals?  Not quite Heaven on Earth, because I like to think that in Heaven we won't need to actually lock up our instruments to keep them safe from the riff-raff, or argue with colleagues about where I'm supposed to store the most expensive equipment in the building, but nevertheless, look what they did for my birthday:

Isn't that a thing of beauty?  I still don't know exactly how I feel about the checkerboard pattern for the lockers (real doors vs. cage doors), but that's a gripe I'll not share with the administration.  And with that style of carpet you won't be able to see the mess the trombones leave behind after they empty their spit valves.  At least not for a little while.

The two band directors before me begged and pleaded for this change, and as much as I'd like to think that I was the one who was convincing enough to finally make it happen after thirty-some-odd years, I owe this to the generous and assertive administration and custodial staff.  Our instruments can be secure and we can have the space to really rehearse the way that all Viewmont band members have deserved for decades.

All alumni are welcome to stop by and see the room any time, provided they let you in past the front desk.

It's 11:40, so I'm going to get this post in by the end of August.  Hooray for me.