Marking Time

Marking time in marching band language means you stand in one place and march. And march and march and march and march. And you go...nowhere. It's a band thing.

Slight aside -- although I'm a singer first, a pianist second, a violist third and a whole bunch of other random instruments fourth-and-beyond, I also marched in marching band my senior year of high school. I had the time, and I thought it sounded like fun. I spent the fall in the Flag Corps, twirling flags and freezing my butt off in a stupid black skirt that was highly inappropriate for Michigan Autumns, whose weather was often very pleasant ... if you were a penguin. After marching band, I decided to join the band and played trombone. 2nd chair.

Today is a teaching day, and what am I doing? Marking time. Senza marching. Because the students have Thursday and Friday off for fall break (unheard of in the Big Ten, btw), this week is known as "flip week" or "warp week" meaning they go to class on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but they follow a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday schedule.

If you understood that last set of directions, you are now smarter than 75% of my students. They may call it "flip week" but I call it "nobody knows where they are supposed to be when week" and I end up sitting around waiting for someone to show up. Like now.

I'd go off and do something productive like take a walk or get some lunch, but the weather today is only fit for ducks, and the trail to 7-11 involves grass, dirt, mud and railroad tracks. This does NOT jibe with new cute black pumps, so that is out of the question until that time when I get so bored or hungry that I go out anyway. But not yet.

So I'm marking time. I should practice something but the music I was looking at is sitting at home all warm and safe and dry on my kitchen table. Doh. I should file music, but the idea of drudgery during prime goof-off time is not appealing. So, I have chosen to bore the Internets at large with my marching band story while I wait for students to beat. It's just so sad.

On the up side? No teaching on Thursday! This is a very, very, very good thing.

I'm off to find something to do. I'll report back later.