The Band Director – Page 12 – Benford's Musings

Spring Cleaning

Today, I’m cleaning my office at work. It’s been quite a disaster area for a while now but luckily, because I created the disaster, I actually know where most things are. Today is mostly about throwing out really old stuff and filing away the stuff from this past year that needs to be archived. I think I’m going to have to pull everything out of my office in a week or so as well as they are cleaning the floors in the office. That will be the bit task…that I can hopefully put off until next week. I’ll need a box or four before I can commence that one. Anywho, I’ve gotta get back while there is still momentum. 😀

Wrapping up the school year

Our annual Band Banquet was last night and it was a lot of fun. For the 5th year in a row, we’ve had our banquet at the Marriott Austin North and it’s a beautiful occasion. We all get dressed up and have a sit down dinner. We give out tons of awards and always shed a tear or buckets. This year, our Boosters were able to give the first Katie Ewing Memorial Scholarship. Katie’s parents had a slide show of her life in pictures and we showed that before we gave out the award and that brought the house to tears. We certainly could have used the Kleenex Couch at that moment. Anywho, at the end of the night, we all danced to our hearts content and took lots of pictures. Lots of fun!

On Monday, we have our Spring Concert. It’s odd to have our last concert after banquet but that’s how the calendar fell so what can ya do? It should be a fairly good, but not too long, concert.

I’m kinda glad to be wrapping things up because this has been an exhausting year. Of course, with my teaching a band camp the first week of June, there won’t be too much down time but at least our year will be complete and we’ll be able to move to the next exciting chapter of our lives.

This summer, I plan on trying to fix up my yard some and builld stuff in the spare time I will try to make for myself. I don’t know if I’ll get any travel in and that bums me out a bit but getting my house fixed up should be really satisfying. Hopefully, since I won’t get to travel much, people will come visit me instead (you know who I’m talking to). There’s also a possibility that I’ll be helping out a friend with her job this summer and making some extra money. That always is a nice bonus to not being able to travel. 😀

The Big Trip, pt. 4

We finished our last day in Chicago by hitting the Magnificent Mile and having dinner at the famous Gino’s Pizza. We had quite a bit of time to wander the Magnificent Mile; some people chose to go see a movie (not sure why since you can do that at home) but Kristina & I decided to walk off all the food we’d eaten by walking the Mile and checking out places we don’t have access to at home.

As with any big city, there sure are LOTS of taxi’s!

We (the adults) started out by eating at Jake Melnick’s.

I had a garbage salad…it was YUMMY!!

Matt enjoyed the time away from the kids with a drink!

It was only a root beer, though. 😦

Fred is so goofy, but a die-hard Longhorn fan! Gotta love him…

After lunch, most everyone headed to the movie but Kristina & I headed to walk the Mile. Lots of designer shops; some we have back home, some we don’t.

The Water Tower.

There were several malls on the Magnificent Mile as well. Inside the Water Tower Center, there was a very cool fountain going up the first set of escalators. Each of those spigots shot up dallops of water in various patterns. It was really neat to watch!

Another sight of a large city is window washers on the high rises. Not a job I’d jump at doing!

Also, look at the cement truck way in the back of the picture. It’s pig pink!

Here’s every woman’s dream store – The Hershey’s Store!!

I love these vintage signs.

This building used to be FAO Schwartz but once they went out of business, someone made it into a mall.

An Apple Store!

When we first got off the bus, we saw the back of the Lawry’s Steakhouse and thought we might want to eat there. It can’t be that expensive…their seasoning is only 85 cents at HEB. Later, we walked by the enterance and I think I’m glad we didn’t eat there. Seems kinda swanky!

I love the architecture in downtown Chicago.

I call this “Old and New”

Metal Horse

How many of my house can I buy for the cost of one of these condos?

From inside the Apple Store. Look at the Apples in the reflection of the ceiling window.

Birdie!!!

Jammin’ on the street.

So, that was my time on the Magnificent Mile. I actually have enough pics for one more update…but it’s from Indianapolis. I’ll post that one, eventually. 🙂

Just a general update.

Maybe I’ll never get around to finish blogging about my trip over Spring Break. We’re getting pretty far removed from it all now….

Well, this week, to be supportive to my friends and for curiosity’s sake, I joined SparkPeople.com. It’s a website that helps you log and monitor your food as well as exercise on a daily basis. I’m not on a diet, really but I lost 13 pounds (in 4 days) when I got really sick at the end of March and while I’m perfectly okay with how I looked before being sick, I figure I might as well work at keeping it off. Also, I bought a glider and have been using it since January so keeping track of all my exercise might help me be more regular about keeping up the habit. The other good habit this website is helping me keep is drinking plenty of water. There’s a nifty little icon to help you log your water intake (by 8 oz glasses) and on Monday, I drank 12 glasses of water. That’s around 3 liters of water!!! Man, did I stay close to the potty that evening. 😉 Since I got sick, being able to drink anything has been like a blessing so I’ve been drinking lots of water anyways. Now, I know how much. 😀

So, this getting sick thing. I know most of my loyal readers (and not so loyal readers) knew about my getting sick but in case you didn’t hear, I had a thyroid gland infection at the end of March. I was out from Friday afternoon through Wednesday and from Saturday-Tuesday, my thyroid got so swollen, drinking a small sip of water became a earth moving experience. It was really bad…BUT, now I’m all better. YAY me.

The school year’s wrapping up and I can’t wait until summer. I have a job being the Jazz Conductor at the Texas State Univeristy Middle School Band Camp the first week of June and Tiger Band Welcome Week the second week. I’d like to travel somewhere this summer but we’ll see if I can work that into my budget. My big thing for this summer will be building furniture and fixing up my backyard. Growing up, my dad and I used to do a lot of wood working projects together and I found that I love using power tools. I’ve got a couple of easy to moderate projects planned and as soon as I get going on them, I’m sure I’ll share with everyone the results.

Ooh, I’m gonna get the iPhone. I found out today that it should release on June 1 but I’m going to wait until July, I think. I made a friend at the Cingular Store in Round Rock a year ago when I bought my Razr and she said she’s going to see what she can do to help me get a good deal. I love being a school district employee…some people still do give discounts to us.

I’m still considering doing video blogs periodically so (John) if you don’t like them, I’m sorry but they won’t happen every blog. First priority is to get my office to a state that I can work in it regularly. It’s become a bit of a storage room for stuff that I don’t need immediately but will need periodically. I need storage in there!

Oh yeah, speaking of John Mackey, the Wind Ensemble is playing his Strange Humors for Spring Concert on May 14. The kids just love the piece and that’s all they want to practice! I wish he’d let me conduct it…one day!

Okay, I think that’s it from this front for now. Hope all is well with you all. Love you, mean it!
~C

The Big Trip, pt. 3

On Day 2, we got up and headed to the Sears Tower. Sears, Roebuck & Co. haven’t occupied the tower for many years but it’s still a magnificent place to go; especially when visibility isn’t that bad. Funny story, though – when you go visit the observatory at Sears Tower, you have to go to the basement to get to the elevators that take you to the top. As the kids were streaming into the lobby to go down to the basement, I told them all that’s where they were going and it was just a tour of the basement. Some of them actually believed me and were very confused! So, with that being said, I give you –

It’s a very tall building!

The Sear’s Tower Doorman

Waiting for the history movie in the basement:

Can you tell we’d gotten a good night’s sleep?
Happy band directors = happy band kids and a good trip!

Going up!

We’re here!

Chicago from up high:

Can you see the Shedd Aquarium?

Checking out the sights:

Friends at any height:

Trumpet players:

The Chaperones are “high”. (yeah, corny joke, I know)