A day in the life.

Monday 7:00 a.m. I remember that the music books I want to use with a class today on one end of town, are in my classroom clear over on the other end of town. I could wing it. It's Monday, and I could pick the books up later in the day to use on Tuesday, but I had told myself and the kids last Tuesday that we would have these books today. Didn't EVEN think of it at close of school on Friday.

My "office", when not the trunk or front seat of my car, is at Sierra Madre Middle School, in the room where my 6-8 grade, 30 piece orchestra rehearses the last period of the day Tuesday through Friday. So I usually try to remember to pick up things I will need for the other schools when I'm there. But this time I forgot. So flying out of the house, I head to Sierra Madre and get there just before the families dropping off kids clog the street in front. I park the car, walk down the path to my room, and as I am walking I hear the unmistakable sound of cars colliding. I say, "hmmm, that wasn't a good sound" and keep walking. As I return up the path to my car after picking up the books, several kids pass me saying "Mrs. McLean, you'd better see your car..." I walk faster and discover that my car has been rear ended by a mom coming around the corner. She is still there, and in fact a third car is now in front of mine, and the impact has caused my car to rear end the third one. There are people standing around with pencils and insurance cards and I quickly assess that no one is hurt, I have rear damage, no front damage, the car in front seems miraculously unscathed, and the mom who turned that corner maybe just a little too fast is apologetic and ready to make good. But now I'm late.

So before leaving the scene I phone ahead to my first school, 10 miles across the city of Pasadena away, and tell them I will be late. I miss the first class, and pick up the next two classes at that school, and then head to the next school where I will use the books I so fatefully picked up.  In between, in the parking lot of school #2, I phone my insurance agent and start the tedious process of getting the car fixed.

Back on schedule, I meet the violin class for whom I fetched the books. While waiting in line to have his violin tuned, one student drops his violin, cracking the face and the lower bout. Eeeeeek! So frazzled am I by this point, I skip over the lesson I meant to do this day, and go to the next day's lesson, and then am puzzled by the kids' not being able to do it. Later when I reflect, I realize what I've done.

Finished at school #2 I head to school #3 where I will have two classes. This is back in Sierra Madre at the elementary school. During the first class, Band, several students from Beginning Band come in to turn in instrument rental contracts, as I had told them on Thursday they could do. So every couple minutes the rehearsal is interrupted by a child excited to take his instrument home. But somehow we make music anyway. After that is the Orchestra, and even though it meets after school on this day, a good 2/3 of the kids make it, and play their hearts out. They sound really great though we have only had a couple rehearsals this year, and finally I am back in my groove, remembering what's best about this job: kids making music together. It doesn't get any better than that.