Alternate Time/Date Reality

Do you like the title of this blog? (A little of my inner geekdom shining through). 

Band Directors, and well, teachers for that matter, tend to lose track of dates and time in the summer months. You see, our schedule changes and gets outta whack. It kinda lines up with the universe though - with the sun staying up longer, so do we. We go to bed later...we get up later...we don't need to pay attention to what day of the week it is anymore... Like, take right now for instance. It's 4:00 AM and I'm sitting here writing a blog. That would never happen during the school year. I do have to confess that the only reason I'm up this early right now though is because of allergies. I woke up at 3 sneezing and choking, took some Benedryl, ate a piece of bread with peanut butter (not because I'm hungry but because I needed something in my stomach to help the medicine get into my system), and here I am on my computer blogging. 

At any rate, all I'm saying is that teachers enter this weird alternate time/date reality during the summer. We are not sure what day or time it is (unless we look at our watch, our phones, or a clock). It also seems that time speeds up near the end of July. For Texas band directors, TBA (the Texas Bandmasters Association) marks the end of our summers. We busily start getting ready for the school year and welcome kids back for summer band. It doesn't help that the sun starts lessening its time in the sky and Back to School Sales start earlier and earlier each year. It throws our time/date reality even more off sync. We start to get anxious like we will not get everything done in time...from cleaning and reorganizing our office (we take a private oath to be more organized this year) to redecorating our bulletin boards and room, to hiring private lesson teachers, to getting music copied and band binders ready, to assigning band lockers and school-owned instruments ahead of time (to make that easier when we see the kids again), to getting Charms and SmartMusic accounts set up for the kids (so all they have to do is update their information at band registration), to completing our band handbooks and getting them copied, to writing lesson plans, to studying scores, to dusting off those instruments that we play everyday during the school year... Do you see how the list can get longer and longer and the days seem to get shorter and shorter? We tell ourselves that the more we can get "done" in the few weeks before school starts, the better year we will have - we'll be more organized, less stressed, and ready to devote our time and energy to all of the other things needed of band directors. It's during these few weeks before we see the kids that we can have time to think, to plan, to breathe. 

So, this year is no different than any other, albeit for the fact that I'm almost done organizing the library (this has been a six-year long project during the summers). I can finally fully take stock of what is in my library and better be able to program pieces throughout the year. This is monumental. I am pushing hard to get it all done so that I can pre-pick solos and ensembles for the kids to work on. My goal is to have a few solos picked out for each instrument. I want to make a copy of each of them and assemble them into a binder for the kids to look at and pick which solo they want to do. I can then run how ever many copies are needed. Narrowing it down for the kids will make it so much easier - on them, on the accompanist I hire, and on me. I also want to require the kids to play an ensemble at contest this year. I want to give it to them very early (like near the start of school) so they can have plenty of time to work on it prior to the contest. We can read through a few in sectionals early on and then collectively choose the best ones - ones that are in their range, but are challenging enough to keep them interested until the contest in February. I also want to pick out most of the pieces I plan to work on with the kids this year - for each concert (Fall, Winter, Spring, UIL, etc.). That way, I can be better prepared with engaging lessons. Living in an organized world frees you up to be able to create.

So with this alternate time/date reality comes a little anxiety and confusion and the inevitable countdown to the start of school. A switchover has to take place - from being in an almost timeless state to "getting on the clock" again. That switchover his happening right now. This year was a little bumpy. I actually got a week off. I was stressing out thinking that band registration was tomorrow, when in fact it is next Thursday. I was thinking band camp started next week when it starts on August 12th. I started to get real panicky. I was freaking out a little because there was no air conditioning in the band hall thinking I had requested it to start this past Monday (thinking that was when my contract days actually started). Well, nope. I requested air to be on at the right times, I just wasn't "all there" yet. It didn't really occur to me until yesterday that I was as week off and I just need to take a chill pill. We'll just say that this is my chill pill (better go to the store and get some).

No guilt either - it says "Low Fat" right there on the package. Lol.

Man, it takes a special person to deal with my neurosis - thank you, husband. And thank you to our building secretary and principals. I need to tell myself to enjoy the last few days of summer; I need to more gracefully switch my schedule over; and I need to relax. I'm glad I have something to help me do that - Rangers game tonight.