I'm with the band.

Last year I got daltonboy and Lola and daltonman to participate in community theater. Daltonboy was a big star. Lola had fun. Daltonman and I played minor parts, but had a good time, too. Daltonman enjoyed wearing makeup, even though he is a boy. I'm not too concerned.

This year's project was to get daltonboy and daltonman involved in our community band. It's new, started just last summer, and is directed by the most awesome band directors ever, who got our high school marching band to take second place out of all bands west of the Mississippi this year. DB was skeptical. After all, the fact that he got a full ride scholarship out of his trombone in high school doesn't change the other fact that he hasn't played the thing in twenty years. Daltonman was concerned that the band rehearsals would cut into his video game time.

Busboy was not invited. He spent his one-semester band career sitting in the second row holding my flute to his mouth, not moving his fingers or actually blowing air into the instrument. Lola is too young.

I was the only one who was enthusiastic. This is generally the case, so I'm used to it. But they need to be dragged from the house once in a while. It's good for them. I was not concerned that I wouldn't be up to it. After all, I took eight years of private lessons, and so what if I hadn't actually been in a band for thirty years? How good can they be, right? I mean, it's a small town in north Utah County.

Daltonboy went last week. Daltonman and I had meetings that we couldn't get out of. DB came home with a sore mouth and feeling a little overwhelmed. I took this to be his usual way of not getting too excited about things, and also making too little of his talent. I said nothing and went last night, certain that daltonboy would be set straight after I actually saw some music.

I made my way to the 2nd Flute section, not wishing to seem too cocky. They could ask me to join the firsts after they heard me play. Only then I sat down and actually saw the music. There were a lot of black things on those pages, and I mean a LOT of black things. More than one usually sees when one is dusting off the instrument to accompany the ward choir once a year.

Then we started to play. The director, whom I love (and whom I also just nominated for a Teacher of the Year award), stopped us. "I like to go FAST," he said, and started over. Funny, I thought we were going fast. I thought we were going really fast. Someone is no longer my favorite teacher, no matter how hot he is, and how nice he is to my kids.

I realized that there's a reason our band room is full of trophies. These guys are demanding. And now they want all these other people to actually work. Hmm.

The bad news was that in my memory, my fingers were a lot more dextrous 30 years ago. The good news was that most of the time I knew exactly where we were. The other good news was that a lot of the time I was able to play at least one note per measure. The other good news was that the other 2nd flutes seemed to be in the same boat I was in, despite the fact that I had never seen the music, and they'd been practicing. The best news was that even though all six of the 2nd flutes played only part of the notes, and the saxophone behind me tended to squeak occassionally, the band sounded pretty dang awesome. I mean, really awesome. I don't know who was playing well, because it wasn't me, but it was so fun to be sitting in the middle of a group that was making sound like that. I guess there are several professional musicians among us that balance out the people who haven't played in 20+ years.

They did ask me to join the 1st section, but they didn't seem to have much hope that I'd say yes. I didn't. Daltonman had a fun time, and didn't even complain about having to leave the video games off for an evening.

Daltonboy had a meeting last night that meant he couldn't attend the rehearsal. He met us at the door with a "yeah, I told you so" look on his face. I pretended that it was all a piece of cake.

Mark your calendars for our Christmas concert on December 18. I'll be the one in the second row, doing a Busboy imitation.