October Update

October is the craziest month.  Always has been.  A senior in the mix makes it more so.  Here is a quick update since the last post.

1) We had our last Panther Marching Band Review on October 11th.  This is always the best event on the marching band schedule.  The stadium is filled with band fans, the crowd is quiet and attentive when the bands are playing, and no one stands up in front of your video camera.  Our band always sounds their best, and this night did not disappoint.  I will say the music selection could be better.  How much (2nd tier) classic rock could these kids really want to play?  Journey?  Billy Joel?  Blood, Sweat, and Tears.  And then, Nirvana?  That one was a train wreck folks.  No way that is marching music.  Kurt Cobain is rolling in his grave.

2) First Choice College has a top notch music program and their orchestra went on tour in the middle of the month.  Their one stop around these parts was on a Sunday afternoon about 45 minutes away, so we were able to get free tickets to their performance.  We also went to a lunch and information session for perspective students.  Definitely could have skipped that, the other students & parents were mostly legacies, and we heard nothing we didn't hear during the summer visit.  You have to show interest though, and this is how you do it.  The concert, however, was wonderful.  I found a new piece for my iPod (Danzon No. 2 by Marquez) and I think the senior enjoyed it.  Most of their performers are not music majors (or music and something else) so this is, we hope, a very reachable school.

3) The last regular football game and marching show ever was two weekends ago.  Very emotional.  We finally were able to stay to hear what we call "The Tree".  At the end of each football game, the band marches back to the band room side of the school.  As they approach, there is total silence except for the drum captain tapping the beat.  They form a circle around a tree and then play a very moving rendition of Amazing Grace.  No one tells you about this; you learn about it as a freshman parent when you are sitting in the parking lot waiting to pick your kid up.  We had not stayed for it yet this year, and I was worried rain and cold were going to make us miss it again.  It all worked out though.  And now this is done.

4) The oldest came home for a quick fall break.  We learned more about the harrowing trip to meet the band at the amusement park (one of those things as a parent you are glad that you didn't know while it was happening).

5) Applications are going slowly and the 4 AP classes plus double band practices plus Early Bird Gym are taking their toll.  I am trying to ignore the parents already posting acceptances on Facebook.

6)  The football team won conference, so the first playoff game was at home Friday night.  This meant a pep band so he had one more night of fun.  Pep band at football games has never been something I felt I needed to see, so parents enjoyed an evening at home.

7) Had to say no to the trumpet campout Saturday night.  Between the schoolwork and the application work, and an interview with Reach College today, something had to give.  He was angry at first, but perhaps his close friends couldn't go either, because in the end, he opted to stay home completely, even though we said he go for the evening and not sleep out.  Has worked on AP History all weekend.

8) Interview at Reach College did not go as well as he would have liked.  He said it was awkward, the questions were "strange" and it was not like the other interview he had this summer with a different school.  Being as we are a family of introverts and not always comfortably on our verbal feet, we are taking the position that even awkward interviews are a learning experience and to let it roll off and move on.  Not really sure what the purpose of the interview is anyway.  Perhaps he shouldn't do them unless they are absolutely required.

Class of 84 Flashback: Homecoming Week

This past week was Homecoming so I thought I'd supplement my very few current pictures with pictures from back in my day.  A little compare-contrast of Homecoming traditions past and present, Texas vs. Not Texas.

 Exhibit #1: Homecoming Mums.  Very Texas. These are relatively understated.  Round these parts?  Never heard of them!

Exhibit #2: Pep Rallies.  Every Friday, for 10 weeks during football season, we had a shortened class schedule so we could all go to a pep rally at the end of the day.  Because when it comes down to learning vs. football, everyone knows the primary purpose of the Texas high school is football.   I think where we live now, there might be a pep rally.  One.  Maybe.  I'm really not sure.

Exhibit #3: Theme Weeks and Class Competitions.  We had elaborate Homecoming themes, and every class sponsored an event to raise money for their prom.  (My class was always awesome).  My junior year the theme was music and our class got punk rock.  We held a dance. Each class also decorated their halls.  This is my junior year hall.  Our senior year hall was really fantastic, but I don't have a picture of that.

This is what passed for "punk" in suburban Dallas in 1982.

Exhibit 4: Parades.  Here my kid's school has my old school beat.  On Wednesday on Homecoming Week, they stop 5 p.m. rush hour traffic on a major U.S. highway which is already enough of a mess to hold a parade.  Made sense when this was a little farm town.  Not so much anymore with 30,000 people and roads that can't take the traffic as it is.  After 7 years of deliberately missing it, I decided to go for this last year.  It was . . .  cute.

They changed them around and I was on the wrong side of the street to get a good shot of the youngest.

I had to take a picture of the Mu Alpha Theta float since I rode on that one in the one parade my school had.

My school started a parade my senior year.  Here is my view from the Mu Alpha Theta / National Honor Society float.  Hey, those people were the cool kids.

I had to add this picture because BOTH my boys have been the AP Stats Correlation King.  My oldest was supposed to ride in this parade as Correlation King, but the band director at the time would not let him out of marching with the band.  The youngest was Correlation King in the spring, so no parade but he wore the crown in school all day.

It turned out to be too cold for good pictures at the football game, and my children are refuseniks when it comes to the dance.  As usual, the Band Boosters did the coat check at the dance, which is always entertaining, but I sat that one out this year.  Hope you enjoyed my Class of 84 flashback!

College Report Saturday

Part of the purpose for writing this blog was to document the college process.  Since I started the blog with the process already in progress, I haven't found an entry point to write about it yet.  So let's just jump in.

You would think, having done this before, that this time it would be a piece of cake.  We definitely learned things from the first time around, but it is still an overwhelming process.  Even with all the experience & knowledge that the husband, who teaches at a specialized high school where ALL the kids go to college, most of them selective colleges, and myself from teaching at the community college and involved in a statewide transfer panel, bring to the game, we still find it confusing and overwhelming at times.

One lesson learned from the first child - VISIT the college!  Every school he visited, he got into.  Every school he applied to with no contact, wait-listed. All otherwise equal schools.  (Except the safety school where if you met the criteria, you were in).  With electronic applications, kids can apply to way too many schools, so colleges need some way to sort the otherwise qualified applicants to determine who is likely to enroll.  Visiting shows interest, not just playing a numbers game.

 So the past two summers we have visited a total of 13 schools. From the start, the youngest was pretty sure about two things.  He liked small.  He hates heat.  (So that dashed my dream of sending him to the school in my native state of Texas, the one I should have gone to, but chickened out of).

 Turns out 13 may have been too many, as ALL of us were burned out on visits by the end.  We ended up missing a couple that were promising but none of us had it in us to go out again.  The youngest certainly, wasn't having it.

From the visits, he has narrowed it to 8 schools.  All of them are in our region of the country.  One in our home state, and 5 other states represented.  All liberal arts colleges, with the smallest about 1200 students and the largest about 3200.  All Division 3; three with exceptionally good music programs.  (The 3rd thing he is sure about, he wants to continue playing).

 Part of my paranoia of privacy means that I will NOT be mentioning their names until the big reveal when he makes his final selection, but have included some random pictures of some to keep it interesting.

Empty Nest Preview Weekend: Fun & Worry

This past weekend, we got a taste of life with the empty nest.  The youngest went with the Marching Band to Very Large Amusement Park two states over.  They left after school Friday and returned before 5 (a.m.) Sunday morning.  Now, this is not the first time we have had this preview.  Oldest & youngest took this same trip when they were senior/freshman.  The youngest has also had two Spring Break Band Trips during the past two years, which did not coincide with the oldest's Spring Break.  But since this is the last band trip, and since we actually had stuff planned, instead of just working, this was a particularly nice weekend.

Friday afternoon was lovely weather to help with bus loading.  The smell of diesel buses always takes me back to my church choir tour days in high school.  Perhaps I will write about that formative experience sometime as they were the number one motivation for me to push my kids hard into music.  That evening the husband & I, along with my mom, went to a very nice restaurant with gift cards that had been sitting in a drawer for over a year.  Foodies and vegetarians may shudder, but to me, nothing says fancy dinner better than prime rib, a potato, and onion bread!  Paired with a Blood Orange Cosmo beforehand and Coconut Banana Cream Pie!  Yum.

Saturday morning I skipped yoga class and we took a long walk at a large nature preserve.  This was how we spent many weekends pre- and early marriage, before kids.  Later we went to a beer tasting event in our town, within walking distance of our house.  Ever had a Saison?  Or a smoked porter with vanilla bean?  Yes, please.  And finally relaxing in front of the fire pit.  Early to bed, because like I said, up at 4 to go pick up the retuning musician.

Nice as it was, the weekend also provided some of the anxiety from a distance that one experiences when the (grown) children are away.  I was not worried about the one on the band trip; we are old hands at that.  However, I heard from one of the kids going on the trip that my oldest, who goes to college about an hour and a half from the Very Large Amusement Park, was planning on taking a road trip, as he still has close ties to certain kids in the band.  He doesn't have a car at college, so we weren't sure if or how he would get there.  I decided that he is 20 years old, and it would be best to just let it happen if it was going to happen (just hoping he wouldn't make any of the kids miss call time or something).  It turns out that he took Amtrak to the town the park is near, then WALKED to the park.  Then back.  Now it was only a five mile walk, but after the fact I Google mapped it.  I'm glad I didn't know.  I am very sensitive to location privacy and my kids' privacy with this blog, so I won't say where this park is, but lets just say, very hazardous roadways!  Far worse than I would have imagined, and I am thankful no one ran him over or tried to pick him up.  Or that the cops didn't haul him in.  I have gently explained to him that it is possible to call a cab!

I find with the college student that anxiety is out of sight, out of mind.  I don't worry about him when he is away, unless I know (and I usually don't) that something is happening.  I guess I have to brace myself for two next year!