Better Late Than Never

For some reason I just haven't been in a writing mood this week even though I wanted to share about Sean's concert on Tuesday. So I'm finally getting around to it all this time later.

Tuesday was the Spring Concert at Sean's school. It consisted of 4th grade violins, 5th grade orchestra (read lots of violins, 3 cellos and 3 violas LOL) and 5th grade band. Sadly, John wasn't able to go as he had to work so Sean and I took the bus over and then got a ride home with his best friend. I thought there were going to be issues with getting there but it worked out okay. First thing, Sean didn't want to tuck his shirt in. He complained that it made his stomach look fat. It was touch and go for a few minutes but finally I looked him square in the face and told him that he is a VERY good-looking young man and he better not let anybody tell him differently. I also told him that his jeans look nicer when he has his shirt tucked in and so he finally did it without giving me any grief. Next issue was that we had to leave the house an hour earlier than the time he needed to be at school because I couldn't take a chance on taking the later bus because if it was late he would be late as well since there was only a 5-minute cushion. Gotta love Tucson public transit. *grin* I apologized to him as we were walking to the bus stop. I explained to him that I do the best I can and that I didn't want him to get in trouble because we were at the mercy of the buses. I almost cried at his answer because it was so un-Seanlike: "It's okay because I'm with you, Mom. It doesn't matter if we're early because we'll get to spend more time together." Talk about a great Mom-moment.

The concert itself was fine. It opened with one of the 5th grade GATE girls playing two songs on her viola. The first one was Danny Boy which is one of my favorite songs and she did well with it. Then the 4th-graders were up. They sang their songs about fractions that they wrote in OMA. They didn't actually write the music, just wrote words to the tunes of other songs. One class did a Justin Bieber song and I can't remember who the other class's song was by. It wasn't music that I'm familiar with as Sean doesn't listen to the stuff that's popular with the kids. Then they played their songs. It was basically the same concert that Sean was in last year as they do the same songs year after year since those are the songs that the man who endowed OMA wrote for the program.

Then the 5th grade orchestra was up. I called John on the phone and held it up so he could hear it as best he could. I was in the front row so it couldn't have been any better but it still wasn't that good. He did hear it though. I actually couldn't see Sean as he was in the third row but I finally did find his foot. I can't tell you all of what they played and I wouldn't have been able to even if I had written this on Tuesday night. The teacher didn't announce any of the songs. I do know that the first one was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the second one was Jingle Bells. I remember the first one because he did announce that one and he called it Twinkle Little Star. The second one was a joke because it's been so hot and he said he needed it to help him cool off a bit. After that there were a lot of duets and trios by the GATE kids in between the songs they all played as a group. I have to admit it got a little tiresome watching all the GATE kids playing and not a single "normal" kid chosen to play anything except the group songs.

The band was last and that was just as bad, if not worse, with regard to the GATE solos and duets. Their teacher announced their songs two at a time and also each time the GATE kids played one of them announced as well. At one point during the band performance Sean turned to me and said, "Aren't they out of GATE kids yet?" Nope, there was one more left. LOL Sean's best friend is the only percussionist in the band and he is quite the showman up there. I was telling John about it and we figure his father must have taught him or else he just learned by growing up around it. I was getting a kick out of him. He would raise his arms like in a victory sign after a song finished and sometimes between songs he would hold his arms up and twirl his sticks. Totally at home onstage and a total ham. The teacher introduced him and said how percussionists sometimes get overlooked a bit by the teachers because they have to spend so much more time with the other instruments on fingering and such and so the percussionists wind up having to pick their stuff up on their own but that Lawrence never seemed to be bothered by that. It was nice that he got introduced but we're kind of thinking that it happened because Teacher knows who Lawrence's dad is. LOL

That's about it for the concert. They had one more day of class just to make sure that all the instruments that belonged to the school were accounted for and that's it for the rest of the year.

In other news: Those of you who are following the saga of the nosebleeds, they're getting better but haven't stopped completely. He's on Claritin several times a week as the nosebleeds are worse when his allergies are acting up. He can't take it everyday as his body is sensitive to medicines of any sort and it is too much for him. He did have one the other day on the way to school. I offered to go in with him to the nurse but he didn't want me to. He said he'd just go to the bathroom and if it wouldn't stop in a few minutes he'd go to the nurse. He wound up at the nurse for about five minutes but made it back before the class had gone in so he was glad about that.

Those of you who are following the saga of the boy's temper. That is getting better as well. We've stopped him from drinking anything with caffeine in it and he seems to be doing a lot better. No fights in the mornings before school and very few in the evenings. It's helped me as well because I know for a fact that my pulse rate has dropped 20 points now that I'm not constantly waiting for the other shoe to fall, as it were.

Those of you who are following the saga of John's work. That is NOT getting better. They still don't have their own vehicle and half the time have to wait to get one which gets them started late. Then yesterday, just to add insult to injury, another hit was added to their patrol. A well. Nobody from the office has been out to this well and the directions to get to it were lousy. John was out where they said it was and it's in a gated tech park that belongs to the university and there was no guard in the shack so he couldn't even get in. So much for the hits on the well last night. If they get it figured out to where they can get in it will cause them to have to have overtime every night because the schedule is too tight as it is and they're run-and-gun without the well on top of it. I know you may think overtime is a good thing because of the money but it's not. It's not a good thing to be driving 13 or 14 hours overnight. 12 is bad enough. There are changes going on though. Their supervisor left several weeks ago and soon they will be starting a patrol division that will be managed out of Phoenix. Also supposedly they will be getting a new vehicle and possibly even a third driver so they can break it up a little better. Not holding our breath on any of it though.

That's about all that's going on in our corner of the world. Hope everyone had a good week and will have a great weekend.