No. I am not in High School. After spending 5 days with 73 teenagers it can feel like it though. You may remember a few weeks ago I went to band camp. I promised stories. My life has been kind of hectic since then, so my blog has been on the back burner. I know. Shame on me. Here is a week at band camp:
We actually met the Thursday and Friday at the school before we left for camp on Sunday. I work with the drumline. That's my job. I work outside. In the blazing sun. I'm totally prepared for that. Somehow those two days I spent with the pit. Three girls that had never played mallet instruments before and one of them that cannot read music. That's not what I signed up for, but whatever the band director wanted is what I was there to do.
Thursday I went to the parent meeting to be the notary. No wonder kids act the way they do. Have you checked out parents lately. Read directions people.
I was told to be at camp by noon. I was there along with two other instructors and the band director. We did nothing for two hours. We finally got together and talked about the drill the kids would learn. Looked better than what they did last year. At least it was all written. The kids started arriving at 3:00. What would have helped would have been some parent volunteers to direct the kids. Instead, I did it. No big deal. We only had four cabins. Not too hard to figure out where these kids were supposed to go.
We ate camp food all week. Well, they had a cafeteria, so camp cafeteria food. Not that bad really, but not what everyone wants to eat. One of my freshman drummers decided the food was crap and had her mom bring her food for two days. The seniors caught wind of this and jumped all over her case. She is one of those kids that has an attitude for no reason. She said she didn't care what anyone said and she wasn't eating the camp food.
We sent a kid to the ER for stitches. He had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad and took off running. He should have looked out for those instrument cases. He fell and busted his head on the edge of the bell case. Three of us instructors became nurses. Like I know what I'm doing. I do two year old scrapes, not teenage gashes. Gross.
The kids had a dance one night. I tried to freak out my nephew by dancing with him. He just kept dancing with me. He told me the next morning he thought it was cool. No, we do not live in Alabama and no, I don't go that way. I would have been all freaked out if my uncle had tried to dance with me. Weirdo.
The bass drums decided they didn't want to try most of the week. I spent a lot of time talking to them one on one and trying to convince them to try harder. I got a lot of blah attitudes from them which leads to a crappy line. I'm a perfectionist and I don't put up with that crap. I don't know what happened Wednesday night, but Thursday they were there. Good attitudes and working their butts off. I wish someone would tell me what happened.
The gods were nice and cooled the weather off for that week. Instead of feeling like we were standing on the sun it only felt like we were in the desert. We did get to swim every day. The pool had this cool water slide. The second day the kids started going down in trains. I watched the band director come down backwards. It was crazy. Wednesday I finally went up and came down in a train. It was great. There were five of us. Sometimes I wonder why I act so old.
The kids learned 36 of 52 pages of drill. For those who don't know--that's incredible. They can play 3 of the 4 songs they need to know. They performed for the parents before they left to go home and it didn't fall apart. I couldn't have been more proud.
The best part for me came at the end. I love working with the kids. I love marching band. I love drumline. I do all of this because I love it. I worked last year as a volunteer. I went this year as a volunteer. Following the performance I was given an envelope. Inside was a check for $400. I actually got paid this year. WOW!!! I could not have been more surprised.
We actually met the Thursday and Friday at the school before we left for camp on Sunday. I work with the drumline. That's my job. I work outside. In the blazing sun. I'm totally prepared for that. Somehow those two days I spent with the pit. Three girls that had never played mallet instruments before and one of them that cannot read music. That's not what I signed up for, but whatever the band director wanted is what I was there to do.
Thursday I went to the parent meeting to be the notary. No wonder kids act the way they do. Have you checked out parents lately. Read directions people.
I was told to be at camp by noon. I was there along with two other instructors and the band director. We did nothing for two hours. We finally got together and talked about the drill the kids would learn. Looked better than what they did last year. At least it was all written. The kids started arriving at 3:00. What would have helped would have been some parent volunteers to direct the kids. Instead, I did it. No big deal. We only had four cabins. Not too hard to figure out where these kids were supposed to go.
We ate camp food all week. Well, they had a cafeteria, so camp cafeteria food. Not that bad really, but not what everyone wants to eat. One of my freshman drummers decided the food was crap and had her mom bring her food for two days. The seniors caught wind of this and jumped all over her case. She is one of those kids that has an attitude for no reason. She said she didn't care what anyone said and she wasn't eating the camp food.
We sent a kid to the ER for stitches. He had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad and took off running. He should have looked out for those instrument cases. He fell and busted his head on the edge of the bell case. Three of us instructors became nurses. Like I know what I'm doing. I do two year old scrapes, not teenage gashes. Gross.
The kids had a dance one night. I tried to freak out my nephew by dancing with him. He just kept dancing with me. He told me the next morning he thought it was cool. No, we do not live in Alabama and no, I don't go that way. I would have been all freaked out if my uncle had tried to dance with me. Weirdo.
The bass drums decided they didn't want to try most of the week. I spent a lot of time talking to them one on one and trying to convince them to try harder. I got a lot of blah attitudes from them which leads to a crappy line. I'm a perfectionist and I don't put up with that crap. I don't know what happened Wednesday night, but Thursday they were there. Good attitudes and working their butts off. I wish someone would tell me what happened.
The gods were nice and cooled the weather off for that week. Instead of feeling like we were standing on the sun it only felt like we were in the desert. We did get to swim every day. The pool had this cool water slide. The second day the kids started going down in trains. I watched the band director come down backwards. It was crazy. Wednesday I finally went up and came down in a train. It was great. There were five of us. Sometimes I wonder why I act so old.
The kids learned 36 of 52 pages of drill. For those who don't know--that's incredible. They can play 3 of the 4 songs they need to know. They performed for the parents before they left to go home and it didn't fall apart. I couldn't have been more proud.
The best part for me came at the end. I love working with the kids. I love marching band. I love drumline. I do all of this because I love it. I worked last year as a volunteer. I went this year as a volunteer. Following the performance I was given an envelope. Inside was a check for $400. I actually got paid this year. WOW!!! I could not have been more surprised.