So today is a scheduled cheat day. By "Scheduled," I mean that I decided I'm going to do a few things I have not done this week and be ok with it. :-) I'm not going to overdo anything. Just going to have a few things I want to have and try to limit it and not restart bad habits. Here's the deal
Breakfast: So all week, I've been making my own breakfast sandwiches and they are delicious! BUT I do miss my regular buttered bagel. So today, I went to the bagel shop and grab myself a plain toasted bagel with extra butter. And yes, I accompanied it with a Red Bull. It was my first and only Red Bull in a week. Interestingly enough, I actually like them a lot more when I don't drink them every day! I guess, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. :-) That being said, as much as I enjoyed the bagel and bull, it did not reopen my bad habit of doing that every day. I'm totally committed go getting back to home made breakfast tomorrow, so don't worry. I'm not off the wagon. This was planned.
Lunch: For lunch, I am out of leftovers at home and anyway, like I said - it's Fun Food Friday. So I planned myself to go to Dante's and get some pizza. Now here's the thing - I brought my water and I only had 1 slice of plain pizza. So not only did I only spend $2.50, but I only had 1 slice! Usually I get a ziti slice and a BBQ chicken slice with a diet sprite or root beer. So this is a big upgrade. AND it did the trick. All I really needed was 1 slice. I just ate a little more slowly (mostly because the slice was REALLY hot) but by the time I was done, I was satisfied.
Snack: Had a frozen whole fruit pop. Have I mentioned these are awesome? Also grabbed a handful of salted peanuts.
Dinner: I had my pizza a little after 1pm and had to be back at school by 4, so dinner did not really happen as normal, so I'm gonna skip this for now.
Actual Dinner: Well, nothing happened in between, so we will skip ahead to actual dinner. I got home from the football game a little before 10pm and while I was not starving, I was definitely hungry. I grabbed one of those single serving Kraft Mac & Cheese containers that we usually feed the kids and made that. It was small enough to not be a problem that I ate so late but big enough to make me feel content.
Snack: For a snack after my mac & cheese, I had a blue raspberry italian ice.
And with that, Fun Food Friday is complete. That was all I ate. A bagel, a slice of pizza, a child size serving of mac & cheese, some peanuts, an ice pop and an italian ice. Crazy enough, while I feel like I barely ate anything, I was content all day, even through the 9 hour break and skipping dinner. Goes to show you - if I'm busy, I can get through the day without going crazy with food.
**Side Story: First public performance since March!**
So tonight was our first home football game of the school year. It was really a crazy night. So much was different - considering all of the policies, plans and procedures that I have put together in the past 15 years had to be changed. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Uniform, meeting place, ticket distribution, meeting plan, where we sit, bringing music stands for stands music since we only played our stands music as a group 1 time and that was in August, no use of the band room, adding timpani to the pit, no drum major . . . . . the list goes on and on. The last 2 - those were self created in a way, but the rest - obviously covid protocol related.
The stands were pretty empty - I mean, I 'm sure we had the number of people we were allowed to have. Everyone was pretty well behaved. Masks, social distancing, etc . . . . . . everything that needs to be under control so that the kids can continue their season, hopefully. But you could hear a pin drop in that place. You could hear the players on the field. The coaches on the press box were easy to hear. And everyone in the stadium knew what song we were gonna play in the stands as soon as I told the kids. Hell - the kids on the football field probably knew what song we were gonna play.
With all that was different - it was absolutely amazing to be back performing in public. I mean, I was not even the performer. Figure that one. . . . . . . . my students got to perform in public again before I do! I'm jealous, but not really, because as a teacher, their performance is my performance. Creating that opportunity for them is in many ways as awesome as having the opportunity for yourself.
The show was imperfect. The first song tore at one point for about 10 seconds worse than maybe any song in 15 years on the field. (they got back on though.) The sound was decent, but not necessarily balanced. It was a decent 1st show of the year. But to think of how they got there - with only half a band camp, no daily 9th period, and only seeing each other once a week on Saturdays - we basically had 6 rehearsals and half of band camp. Other than that, we've been finding ways to practice together, on Zoom, for the past 5 weeks. I have come up with ways to get them reviewing their materials, but they were muted, so I have no real idea of what the product is until I see them on Saturdays.
With everything being what it is and how crazy this year has been, everything the kids, staff, families, have been through since we were pulled out of school in March, that "Decent" 1st show felt like I was leading the New York Philharmonic combined with the Blue Devils.
There were things about the night that we had to change that I actually really like and will consider instituting as my new normal once this is all over. Some really cool things we have stumbled upon by necessity that are worth becoming new protocols even when they are not required. The bottom line is that we took what we were given, did the best we could, and it felt GREAT. I hope the kids felt the same way.
I'm now off to my Saturday 12-4pm rehearsal with marching band. My one shot at a normal rehearsal each week. We have 3 more of them and I'll enjoy them all.
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