CRAZY LIFE

Yesterday was the craziest day yet. I drove to work thinking, yay! Friday! I'll be done at 2:40, come home and be napping by 3pm. Then I can go buy a router so I can watch Netflix all evening.

Nope.

I get to work at around 6am, as usual. After hurriedly posting test scores in my room so kids can see their progress (required by my district), I suddenly remembered I had committed myself and five of my students to a paid gig that evening.

Oh. Fuck.

Reasons for Panicking:
1) I had mentioned the event to students when I gave the okay to my arts administrator a couple weeks ago, but had not been reminding them, so they all forgot and half of them had other plans or work shifts that they couldn't get around.

2) I should have submitted paperwork to get a bus a week ago.

3) Our keyboard just broke so I have no keyboard to play on.

4) My principal and vice principals were going to the event and expected to see me there with students, representing our school.

5) Fridays are casual day, so I'm wearing jeans.

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT.

My day was a blur. I balanced teaching with running around like a maniac trying to gather up students, equipment, transportation, and my marbles.

LUCKILY, the arts administrator (who was contacted about the gig and was facilitating everything for me) had already ordered a bus. I could not have pulled this off without him! Our bus was scheduled to leave at 3:15pm: 35 minutes after school ended.

When that last bell rang and all the other teachers and students ran screaming to their joyous afternoon of freedom, I felt like this.

I have some die-hard students who will do anything for me and anything for the chance to play in the community, and I had some of the required instruments. It was like a puzzle in my mind.

Saxophonist + Saxophone = Good
Drum set - Drum set player = Bad
Bass - Bass player = Bad
Piano player - Piano = Bad

Overall Assessment of the Situation = Bad


I thought about changing my name and moving to a different state. I even started planning my getaway during lunch.

My clothing was fine. Though I was wearing jeans, they were dark and slim-cut so they worked. I had on a gray tweed vest over a purple button-up shirt and olive green converse. My outfit was classy and cute, if a little edgy. It would work.

With my horde of drummers, it wasn't too difficult to find a replacement set player. If there is something I love about Paseo High School, it's the fact that like every single one of my kids can play set. I don't know how they do it.

The broken keyboard issue was a bit harder to figure out, which is why you found my crazy ass in the piano room disassembling an electric upright piano with a power drill so it would fit in the bus about five minutes before we were scheduled to leave. I think I scared my students a bit. I was quite demented.

I couldn't do anything about the bass. I resolved to just bring a bass and an amp and hope for the best. Worst comes to worst, I'll play the goddamned thing, even though I have only the faintest idea of how to play bass and could never keep up with my students.

After hurriedly cramming a drum set, an electric piano, a bass, a saxophone, a xylophone, two amps, and four children on a bus, we left about a half hour late.

We arrived at the hotel with an hour before our scheduled start. As I was unclassily power-drilling the piano back together in a classy hotel ballroom, the kids started complaining that they were hungry. Crap. I have to feed them, too? Again, luckily, the event we were playing at was a dinner, so they would provide us with free food after we performed. However, high school boys need to eat every 45 minutes, so the four of them descended on a local cafe and loaded up on Doritos. I pounded down a 20-oz iced coffee in about two minutes because I hadn't eaten much that day and my body was starting to say FFFF UUUUUUUUU.

We got everything set up. A bass player magically appeared right before the performance. I love my children and their constant use of cell phones and social media. We had a full combo! Piano, drum set, bass, alto saxophone, xylophone (our vibraphone is broken). 

The kids worked their magic. This group plays by ear. They communicate very well and the end result is very good. I helped facilitate this by explaining how the chord progressions they were inventing worked, what scale patterns to use, and how to add chord extensions to make their music more interesting.

The crowd loved it. My principal and vice principals glowed with pride when the MC announced our group and said something about how there are still good things happening within our school district despite all the political difficulties. what up, brownie points!

We performed again during dinner. I had three different people approach me regarding booking the Paseo jazz combo for more gigs. At about 8:30pm, we packed up our equipment (me disassembling the piano once again) and drove back to school. By the time we had everything put away, it was about 10pm. After driving a kid home so he wouldn't have to walk twenty blocks by himself in the middle of the night in the hood, I finally went home. I worked sixteen hours straight. No breaks. I was lifting, loading, standing, running around, and just being generally out of my mind the whole time. I should have just gone to bed and passed out.

Instead, I slammed down a glass of orange juice and two glasses of water, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and went clubbing with some teacher friends.