one year later

one year later

Thanks for all the visits to this blog (and the messages, and the phone calls, and the flowers). Today's post isn't going to be about me - I'd rather share some memories.

I didn't have enough time to get to know Branden very well, but here are a couple memories that will stick with me:

I ran into him at the bars sometime during the summer of 2004, and we talked about the upcoming marching band season. He was SO excited to work with the kids.

Last season, I started getting to know Branden a little more. We had a lot of inside jokes last year, and one of them was to call Branden "lower-case C" because when he was a student teacher, he always followed Collicott (a.k.a. "C") everywhere. We decided that when Branden graduated and had a band department of his own, he would become "A". Branden thought that was pretty funny.

As far as G goes, I have so many memories of good times with him, this post will only scratch the surface. G was that teacher in my life (and in the lives of a lot of his students) who really inspired me. It sounds trite saying that, but it's true, and I can't think of another way to say it. I'm better with music than I am with words. Anyway, he was a lot of things to me - a teacher, a mentor, an inspiration, and a friend. Here are some random memories:

We had a lot of fun times in AP music theory class. We used to watch movies every now and then, and we would all bring snacks. I don't think we were supposed to eat in class, but as long as we brought G some pretzels and frosting, he was happy. Another AP class memory: when the day came to have yearbook photos taken of our class, a few students were missing. G drew pictures of their faces and we held them up in the picture. It was hilarious - I can't believe that photo ended up in the yearbook.

G loved to surprise his students. In jazz band Raji's senior year, he bugged G every day to let us play the tune "Some Skunk Funk". G always yelled at Raji and said we weren't going to play it. G showed me that he'd pulled the chart from the music library so we could play it, but he didn't tell Raji. I remember Raji was upset until the day he sat down at the set and "Some Skunk Funk" was on his stand waiting for him.

My senior year, I started suggesting to G that the school get a new marimba (the instrument I was playing in marching band that year). Ours was at least 20 years old and was showing significant wear. It didn't even sound like a marimba anymore. G told me the music department wouldn't be able to afford a marimba that year - they'd have to wait until after I graduated. Then one day I walked into the band room, and there was a brand new marimba (I think my brother had something to do with that - he worked a short stint at the marimba factory). Obviously it wasn't my marimba, it was the school's, but in any case G made me feel special that day.

There are a lot of really funny memories of G, but I can't think of a specific one to talk about right now. Feel free to leave a comment with memories of your own! I'm burned out - it's time to go to do something fun.