Saturday, April 30, 2005

ISSMA State Qualifiers, Excedrin & Really Great Husbands

For those of you that are (or were) not high school music nerds, ISSMA stands for Indiana State School Music Association...I think. All I know is that they decide who is good and who is not good in high school band and choir in Indiana. Now that we have that out of the way...

My husband's high school wind ensemble competed at Pike High School at ISSMA state concert band qualifiers on Friday night. Ummm...yeah, he is a HS band director...NOT still IN high school - just wanted to clarify that for the readers! He teaches at a relatively small high school and has since 1998. When he started there, he had one concert band with about 20 students. It was bad...worse than bad. He NOW has one concert band, one wind ensemble, a beginning jazz band, and, his pride and joy, the advanced jazz band, appropriately called "10 o'Clock Jazz Band" - his band program numbers about 120 students. Yeah, he rocks.

Anyway, back to state qualifiers. The whole night, I hung out in their homeroom and made Remedies flash cards and read my outline - except for during their performance, of course. And guess what??? His wind ensemble got a GOLD! YAY! This is the epitome of good music education and good conducting and great kids and phenomenal instruction. I can't express how excited and proud I am of my husband and his students - considering his small band played along side bands from Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, and other big ass high schools.

To show my extreme excitement over this accomplishment, I proceeded to be smacked upside the head with the worst migraine I have had in about 2 years. I spent the entire ride home from Indy huddled in a ball on the passenger's side with my head in my hands and my jacket over my eyes to block out the light, bawling like Paula Abdul after Constantine left American Idol. Periodically, I would move my hands from my head to my ears to block out the sound of the windshield wipers. Yeah, it was rough. Really rough. I somehow drove myself home from the high school and swore that I had somehow contracted viral meningitis. I mean, it was bad. Luckily, I made it to my bed, gulped down two Tylenol PM's, put a cold washcloth over my eyes and fell asleep. This morning, I was gently awakened by my Gold-winning hubby who gave me 2 blessed Excedrin Migraine caplets, a big glass of water and a freshly-cold washcloth...and then...I fell back asleep. He periodically checked on me and changed my washcloth.

I love him.

So...I have spent the whole day laying on the couch watching the Gilmore Girls marathon on the ABC Family Channel with said amazingly wonderful, thoughtful, talented, brilliant husband, trying to rest my apparently pissed off brain. And I have done no studying today. And am feeling incredibly guilty about it. But come on...at some point, when the brain says "No more information," it means NO MORE INFORMATION! I will resume the stuffing of information into my tired brain tomorrow. But now, it is time for me to watch Law & Order: SVU until the Tylenol PM kick in.

Y'all have a good night. I know I will.

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