March

I hate March.

My birthday is in March. It used to be exciting, but now I just get anxious. It's not that I hate getting older, because the older I get the better life gets. It's just that I can almost hear the ticking of a clock in the background. Anxiety.

The weather screws with your emotions in March. One day it's in the mid 60s, and the next you're struggling to get into the 40s. That's how we know Mother Nature is a woman. lol :)

St. Patty's Day. I've only ever partied once on that day, and that was fun...but to me it spells PARADES! I hate parades. I hate them because you're marching in the cold playing music you barely know because you only play it once a year. What really kills me about it now that I'm not marching is that it eats up rehearsal time. We're going over a month without a real camp! I know it's necessary, but I don't have to be happy about it. Not by a long shot.

March is also the time of year when things start chugging along with my band arranging business. It's tough, because band directors are very busy this time of year with state band, region band, seminars, etc, etc, etc...but right around now is when many of them start looking at their list of things to do for the next marching band season and start making some decisions. I start getting emails about what they believe will be their instrumentation, we start nailing down show concepts and storyboarding things out. It's fun, and I love it...it's just the waiting that kills ya'.

Yes, I understand that I've pretty much just complained, but hey...it's a blog. I'm supposed to be able to vent here! I'm not one to just complain, fold my arms, and go sulk in a corner though...so I have to find ways to keep myself upbeat and maybe change some of the things I can so that March won't be what it usually is...the longest and most depressing month of the year.

So, here's the plan.

#1. Enjoy my birthday like a child, and just be happy and thankful for having made it this far. Many don't get the chance, and I've been blessed. Besides, this is the year I'm getting married. It's the year my first drum corps field show will hit the competition field. It's the first year for a lot of things in my life...things that will make (and have already made) my life better and more full.

#2. I will battle the cold weather blues by following spring training baseball and planning my honeymoon in sunny Florida. I know that I won't be going to Florida until September, but I can plan and dream. :)

#3. I can't change the fact that we have to do a lot of parades and won't have ample rehearsal time this month to accomplish what I need us to accomplish. All I can do is make sure that the next rehearsal we have on the 29th is run efficiently and that the members understand their responsibility to show up prepared and hungry for more music from us. This will be our final indoor rehearsal of the year, and we have improved light years...not only from when we started in December, but in some ways from where this corps left off at Championships.

People who do drum corps should understand that it's the staff's job to teach it once, and clean it the next time. It's the members' job to learn it at camp, PRACTICE it at home, and rehearse it at the next camp. If even one person does not adhere to this simple drum corps rule, that means the staff is re-teaching instead of rehearsing and cleaning. It has an effect on everyone in the organization. For us to be where we NEED to be this year, we're going to need everyone on the same page.

I have a great staff full of professionals who show up every camp prepared with a game plan, and who WORK and treated it as a job...the most important job in the world for the few hours we're together. That's great, and it's hard to find an organization where the entire staff is like that. The members here are great as well. They all seem to want to work hard and get done what needs to get done. They have no problem with us pushing them beyond their comfort zone, which is great. I just truly hope they understand the expectations I've explained here (and many times to them) and that it isn't just a "honeymoon" period where we're all excited about the year and the show and the new staff...but then the laziness factor creeps back in and we're back to square one.

It's much easier to destroy than to build. It takes months to build a solid, a$$ kicking drum corps or band...or anything, really. It takes moments to destroy it.

I just want it to be April. I want to be outside teaching drill, learning the final notes for the show (which I've finished, by the way!!!), and seeing this whole project FINALLY coming together. Before I know it, it'll be late August and we're getting ready for finals. I'm getting ready to get married and go to sunny Florida. My nephew will be walking and trying to tell his uncle how cool he is. My band shows will all be finished and I'll be helping a couple of them to achieve their goals by teaching.

I guess the moral is that when I get down in the dumps, I need to keep the finish line in my sights, put my head down, and run like hell.