Houston, we have a problem...

So my recent overnight trip with my orchestra and my 2nd choir came off something like the Apollo 13 mission. Now , before I let any perceptions of that statement sink in too much, let me remind you that the Apollo 13 mission ended well. Not ony that, it was kind of a testament to American determination, ingenuity and courage.

I'm surprised I didn't get an ulcer out of all of this. All the way up to the point where the bus actually left the school, I had to deal with crisis after crisis (starting from... oh November or so).

First of all, understand that the purpose of the trip was to provide a fun opportunity for the classes who never get to do anything special (like go perform at Disneyland). So this year, I decided to take my 2nd choir and combine my tiny band/orchestra classes into a single "chamber orchestra" to this festival (which included a full day at Sea World.) It sounded like a good idea to everyone at the time. When I first announced the trip back in November, almost 60 kids told me they were eager to go. When the time came to commit financially, almost half of that dropped out.

You know, when a history teacher takes a field trip... he or she has no problem taking half the class. When a performing group travels, they have to have the right numbers to maintain the integrity of the musical product. Long story short, it was tricky, but I made it work.

Then the day before D-Day, I was told that I had to provide hotel room for our bus driver... fortunately, we had a financial cushion to deal with it, but it put us dangerously close to our maximun budget, since we were also renting a cargo van and providing breakfast on Saturday. (I basically brought about $1000 of my own money in cash to deal with anything else, knowing full well that had there been a need to use it, there was no way I could get reimbursed. Fortunately, the only time that money came out was to pay for lunch for my adult helpers... my "thank you" to them.

For some odd reason, no substitute was arranged for my absence, despite the fact that I had turned in all of my paperwork early. Then, after scrambling to get last-minute in-house subs less than an hour before I had to leave... I realized that I had left my cel phone at home. I would have just gone without it, exept that I had already given out my number as the main contact for any emergencies. No other choice... I had to drive back home to get it. The rush of that not only delayed our departure, but it also caused me to forget to bring a box that had some of the orchestra music in it. We didn't discover that until we got to the performance site. I basically had to ask the host director if he had a copy of the piece, and he he had to call a neighbor school and borrow it from them. It was embarassing.

Once we got through friday, the rest of the trip went fairly smoothly, and I was able to relax a little. I have to be thankful for is the fact that the kids were well behaved (except for a brief ice-throwing session in the halls of the hotel on the first day, they were angels). We did the old tape-the-doors trick, and the only "infraction" occured because one kid was impatient to wait for a shower at 5:45 a.m. and went to the room next door to use theirs.

Except for the delay on the first day (which was my fault) we stuck to the itinerary like glue. The kids managed to meet at the right places at the right times, and no one got picked up by security in the hotel, at the festival sites or at Sea World. One kid went home early because he was sick, but that was it. (Everyone had a grand time, especially at Sea World. By that time, I was crashing from my stress-high, so I basically spent a lot of time parked under a tree on a grassy hill, taking a nap. I think I'll go back with my wife next month and see what I missed.)

And the festival results: Both of our groups received "silver" ratings (placing them in the majority of the other schools.) I could feel them starting to get a little down at the awards ceremony when some of the schools were getting multiple sweepstakes awards for various reasons... and we basically got the same plaque that everyone else got for simply being there. I watched as some schools got to stand up and cheer as they got their 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes 4th trophy. I fought off thoughts of "If I were a better director, that might be us as well." (Friends, no need to recue me form that. It's difficult not to let those things in your head in times like that.) Lord knows, our kids deserve it.

Still, I can't tell you how proud I am of the groups that went. The orchestra was assmbled from two classes who rehearsed the music seperately, with only two combined rehearsals. It's difficult to shape a good product with that. We did as well in performance as we were going to do... no director can ask for more than that.

And the choir... the choir showed more courage than they ever had. They proved that they can get up and put themselves on the line, the same way my advanced choir can, and let themselves be judged. I had the option to go for "comments only" and spare them from any ego-bruising results. But they wanted to compete, so I asked the judges to change our status from comments to ratings and rankings. I don't think that the choir regrets it in the least.

My own reward came when, during the awards ceremony, the hosts called the directors down to the stage individually, gave them a handshake and handed over the folders with the judges comments. As each director was called, the corresponding schools erupted with cheers. Let me tell you that there couldn't have been less than twenty schools there, and I would guess that we had the fewest numbers by far (one school brough six groups... something like four busses to haul them around). And when my name was called, our little band of thirty five made more noise than the rest of the room combined. Or at least that's the way it seemed to me.

You want to know what keeps me at a school with crummy pay and a principal who as long since fallen to the Dark Side? It's times like this.

Houston, Apollo 13 has touched down. We're all right... I repeat.... We're all right.