Large group

On Wednesday my two large ensembles are participating in a large group festival. Since we got back to school in January, we've been preparing for it, harder and harder every week, til it's the day after tomorrow.

I apologize for not taking you on the journey of preparation. I was utilizing coping skills to cope with the following (list alert):
1. 6th grade drum players having to be taught the same thing every day for two months
2. classroom management in the middle-high class
3. not being told a dang thing by other band directors, thereby scrambling when Tom, my mentor, casually mentioned something that resulted in six long-distance phone calls, three online payments, a fax to New York, thirty-five dollars of unnecessarily spent money and a return shipment
4. sports taking kids away from rehearsals
5. my brightest second-trumpet player moving away
6. left-handed trombone players
7. sick personal children
8. my Christmas illness worsening, turning into something else, and then, after a week of hopeful, snot-free existence, recurring
9. high school basketball
10. long drives to Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, and Greeley

The coping skills I utilized included, but were not limited to, knitting, novels, wine, and housework.

I've also lost track of the number of times I've waked up in the middle of the night panicked over various things.

If I stop to think about it, which I don't consider a good idea, I will realize that I'm organizing a trip involving sixty kids, six teachers, two buses, sixty instruments, meal money, adjudication forms, original scores and parts, with publisher permission to photocopy the out-of-print ones, subs, sub plans, lunch absences, emergency child care, and I don't know what all else.

Keep you posted!