It would have been magic except for a few minor glitches. Namely, the game was an hour away, it rained, there was mud everywhere (even the ponchos), there were band ponchos, the football team lost, and oh yeah, we broke the marimba. Now if you don't know what a marimba is or what one looks like, I have provided an image out to the side here. You can see how the largest resonators to the far left stick out almost longer than the wheels, well let's just say that when you take this monstrosity of a percussion instrument down two loading ramps (think like the ones they use to put a car onto a transfer truck), those resonators just might hit that ramp, and then everything on the blasted instrument falls apart. Now, I'm not saying that happened to our marimba because if you were to look at our marimba, you would see that it is in perfect working order and plays like a dream. However, if you had seen me holding pieces of something that looked like a marimba during the halftime show instead of being on the field watching my kids perform and then joining our one special student to make sure he didn't get too excited in his playing (more on that later), you might have other thoughts, but you weren't there, were you? This might bring another scenario to the minds of some of my kin that occurred way back when I was in high school that also involved a pitched percussion instrument, but we'll leave the past buried, and just say that neither of these instances are my fault.
Now, to my special student. I really feel a little sorry for this kid, but he doesn't make it easy to feel that way for him. He's a kid that has some physical and mental issues, but at the same time he functions at a relatively high level, to the point that oftentimes, he knows how he is acting and how it affects others. That being said, this student may have to find alternate transportation to the football game, because I fear for his safety from his fellow bandmates if they have to endure another marathon trip with him in their presence. He's just got one of those personalities that people don't put up with over long stretches of time. He didn't bother me tonight in this regard. What got me almost yelling at him was when he came up to me in the middle of a song and asked me about what note he should play in the middle of the song we were doing at the moment. And this wasn't like I had rest and we could talk about it right then, no, he comes up to me as I'm playing the melody of the song and asks. When the song ended and I was able to hear his question about his note, it was one that he couldn't even play in his wildest dreams and he KNEW it! I was upset with the boy. Anyway, that was my magical night "under the lights" here in Texas to kick off year number two. It's 2AM (I must be lonely-Matchbox 20), and I'm about to eat some dinner, and then get in bed. Thank the Lord for the long weekend! Next week is a two-hour bus drive, I can hardly wait!
2 comments:
omg! i think i probably would have lost it with that kid! i do remember that unfortunate incident with the xylophone (lol).
Just remember, I hire out for cheap! ;) You could always put him next to the tuba player and tell the tubaist to be a little more clumsy than usual. :D
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