When I moved into my new place the property manager gave me a mailbox key that;
a) doesn’t look like a mailbox key, and
b) certainly isn’t MY mailbox key
So I need a mailbox key. Note I’ve been living there since mid-September without receiving any mail – both a blessing and a curse. My motivation for getting into the mailbox right now is that I’m expecting my speeding ticket from Tehama County as well as the registration paperwork for my little hoopty. So I’ve contacted the property manager, who despite my protestations, INSISTS that the key I have IS the mailbox key. Sigh. Screw it. So I go to the post office and find out that I can obtain a replacement key for a mere $30. Geez, is it diamond-dusted, sapphire-studded, what? So I left the post office without the key and have mentally wrestled with this dilemma for the last few days. If my mailbox was broken into, the post office would replace it for free. So this bounces around my mind for a few days. After all, I have screwdrivers and hammers! Again sigh! I am not gangster enough to do this. So I’ve elected to pay the damn $30 and get my key BUT, I’m attaching the receipt to my next rent check and taking the deduction. They can sue me.
For the last week and a half my very good bud and fellow MBoB Stubert and I have being consulting at a local high school trying to add some punch to an otherwise struggling guard program. It’s exasperating! There is such a gap between the kids who get it and the kids who just don’t care if they get it that it’s been tremendously difficult to really make a difference. We gave them a new beginning and a new ending, a small part in the middle that’s new and Stu gave them some cool “clockwork” for the ID line. We ran it a few times last night for the last time and it looked pretty good from a design stand point. Now it’s all on the students and their commitment level. They have the opportunity to up their score. I hope this last performance is their best of the season.
Added to last night’s festivities … I met one of the guard member’s moms. I hate meeting moms, aunts, dads, grandmas, second cousins, friends of your grandfather’s chiropractor, etc. It’s universally NEVER a good experience when one of them simply walks up to you in the middle of a rehearsal with their hands on their hips – which is what happened last night. Long story short – mom was hot because I refused to put her daughter (who had just shown up for the first time) into the routine in the last 45 minutes of our FINAL rehearsal. Imagine that. What right-thinking guard instructor WOULDN’T wanna’ put in a kid who skipped 2.5 of 3 rehearsals? In the end, I had talked mom (and the aunt) down from their high horse by pointing out that it wasn’t possible to teach a routine to someone who isn’t there to learn it and drove home the point that I am not putting her daughter in … period. She started in on a litany about the “horrible” band director and I told her that wasn’t part of my gig and she needed to take it up with him. Today and all the days after this, the band director can do what he wants but I did tell mom that if she pressured the band director into including her daughter, that her daughter would NOT be up to the challenge and WOULD ruin the performance for everyone who HAD come to rehearsal and learned the routine the way they were supposed to. She understood that and agreed … but I’ll bet that doesn’t change a thing. Some people just don’t get it.
After rehearsal last night Stubert and I went to the Kaiser Hospital in South Sac to visit fellow MBoB Andy, who is recuperating from meningitis caused because he took a “vacation” from his regular meds. Sheesh. As soon as he’s well we’re all kicking his ass. Anyhoo, Andy is covered in red spots (a reaction to his current meds) and running a temp but seems otherwise to be doing well. We watched the final episode of “Dancing with the Stars” together and chatted for awhile finally leaving around 10:00. I thought I knew how to get home but got lost as soon as I left the Kaiser parking lot and turned the wrong way ending up on the other side of the freeway. I am not the one to be judging anyone else’s spatial relationships because sometimes I can’t find my own ass without both hands and a blood hound. Geez!
Tonight is the last rehearsal of the marching season. Finally. My 5 little Woodchucks have done a very good job this season and have improved exponentially. I’m very proud of them. I won’t be at their last performance because I’ll be judging in Stockton, but I have no worries. They’re well prepared and well rehearsed and as long as they hold it together mentally they should have a very good last show. I truly don’t care about the number, but I admit I would like them to rank really well. Speaking as a judge in that circuit, I think their ability and design deserve it.
With at least three weeks off from teaching and the Thanksgiving holiday on the horizon I’m looking forward to some sleepy winter evenings at home. Teaching four nights a week really sucks and I’m glad that’s over!
.
2 comments:
I moved next door to where I lived previously...from 2 bedroom to 3. My mailbox has changed but it was still in the same group of mailboxes. I took my lease and old mailbox keys (they gave me 3 but over the 2 years I lost one) to the post office and they told me that I had to pay $10 for the 3rd key that I lost. $10??? WTF is that? I can go to the OSH and get one made for $1! Since I needed to get into the new mailbox I had to turn in the old keys. F'ing post office.
I was thinking it had been awhile since reading the blog and look what I have missed!!! A car and the final parade rehearsal recap hehehehe Girl, congrats on HooHa cuz I know that means everything as far as freedom, convenience etc. May he/she live long and prosper - or something that works with that geeky quote.
I went to that school in Cottonwood. Ummmm when you are having to teach the distinct details of what it means to be at right shoulder, ya know you are in for a long ride. When you have to convince the captain that to be at order is different for parade than winter guard (she thinks that all poles always begin at a horizontal position in the winter), ya know that you had better be detail oriented. But....when you see vast improvement when just given a bit of encouragement and direction, ya know that it is worth slaughtering your precious reputation with some to make a difference in some lives and a program. If a few things work out, like telling the captain she is NOT going to pick the music, edit the music, write the choreography and teach it.........then I will put some my heart into helping this great little bunch of kids. They deserve some help and no one is here. Time to reach out even if others wonder if this is what I create and find it lacking. Back me up, k? Even if you are shocked at the basics - we are going to find a way to make it work and have fun with some basics.
It is fun to overflow the band geekiness somewhere and you make a great someone!
PS going to make a PowerPoint from wedding photos and then distribute with the thank you notes and a little newsletter entitled something like "Here has been our life since getting married and how thankful to have the man alive!!"
Miss you - I am determined to Chop together
Post a Comment