Musical Weekend

Ah yes, I jumped in again and on Friday night and reprised my role as "Madame Salzana - Fortune Teller" for this year's New Orleans Night at the high school. It is a band run evening where we serve gumbo and other Southern favorites, have music on the balcony, mimes, face-painters and a fortune teller ; ) How lucky I was to have such a great assistant in Madame Kaitlin who read people's "auras". We have fun!

After the festivities there is a wonderful performance in the Performing Arts Center by the percussion, jazz and concert bands. Although the boys have been in band together all of these years, I couldn't remember them sitting next to year other before so I took the opportunity to take a zillion pictures of them because (lump in throat) there are only a few times Brady will play on that stage again. This time of year the list of "lasts" that the seniors will do seems to be gaining every day. It is hard to take as I had heard and read about. They have to go and you have to be happy for them even though you get kinda sad for you.
Saturday I drove 90 minutes to the Percussion Finals in Dartmouth, Mass. Never having been to Dartmouth, I did wonder how you could drive 90 minutes in this little state and still not be at the end! But I was impressed, it was a very nice town. Seeing our kids enjoying what they do and seeing my son putting his hip-swaying jazzy spin on the xylophone was really great. Although the BPO (band parents organization) bleeds red & black (school colors) a lot with the hours required to support the parades, competitions, football games, etc. it has given my sons such a framework from which to build. They have made wonderful friends, felt like the band room is their "second home" and learned dedication, commitment and how to iron a shirt.

After a stop at Dunks and ok, yes, a package of Devil Dogs ~ I'm not proud ~ I headed back down the road to Reading. A little ominous, dark and cloudy, but Adele and Jason Aldean made the 90 minute ride home fly by.