What Is That Boy Playing With Now?

So the morning started off fairly mild, no nonsense. But then again, I did have fresh popped kettle corn, and that tends to make the world fade softly into the background.

But as the day progresses and we get to the parade portion of the band competitions, I find that there are some seriously special adults, and then once again it hits me…these people have procreated and they are here with their children. OMG! I’m not sure I have all the words available to describe how special these folks were, so I’ve documented their behaviors in a special photo journalistic blog entry for your viewing pleasure.

Standing on the sidelines, there was a group of women who decided they would just start congregating in front of me and the other folks who were already there. Mind you, this is a very small parade that is only set up for this band performance, so there is plenty of additional space for spectators along the route. There was actually an opening space just a few steps away from me. However, these folks decided they wanted to stand in front of me…and next to me…and one of them on my Nikon camera bag. I had kettle corn, so I was able to lightly tap her leg and tell her to please remove her foot from my bag (without telling her what I would potentially do with my foot if she didn’t move with a sense of urgency). So here are a few photos of the group of unidentified ladies who wanted to stand directly in front of me and my camera. I think the many clicks of my camera eventually prompted them to move, but at that point I had reached the limit to which kettle corn was capable of soothing my annoyance, and proceeded to remove myself from the area and walk the 10 feet down the parade path to the open area.

Then these two wonderful women decided to take standing in front of people to a whole other level. So they actually stood in the street and in the path of several parade participants. Way to go ladies! No such luck on either of them getting a baton to the face, or being ran over by a tuba player, but if they keep at it, perhaps a larger parade will do them the honor.

Then my band nerd son tells me that one of the members of the drumline, has decided not to attend this important competition because it was his 15^th birthday and he didn’t want to be there. He nor his family made prior arrangements, so it threw off the entire section and Dorian ended up playing the triangle. Yup, that’s what I said. I had gotten up at 4:30am to watch him play a frigging triangle. When I saw it, I fell out laughing and rushed to grab my camera and switch lenses to get a close up. LOL Him being so flexible, and capable of playing several instruments, means he’s usually the one that gets swapped out for another instrument. But the black mother in me wanted to yell “uh huh, I know you ain’t got my baby marchin’ down this street lookin’ crazy playin’ no damn triangle! Ain’t nobody else had no damn triangle!” But the kettle corn in me said “that is some funny shit right there! Get a picture of that so you have more blackmail material.” LOL He marched dutifully holding that damn little thing up and hit it on cue. So I was more proud of his flexibility and faithfulness, because I know any other teenager would have come completely undone by having to play something else (if they were capable of the change).

So his ability to adapt with change was more evident and outshone my need to see him play the same instrument that I’ve seen him play at the last 30 million competitions this month.

December 9^th is the last parade and I look forward to the end of competition season, and restful weekends, and not having to be around all the other parents, because I now realize, I’m not all that social, meh.

Continue to love and f;ght,

Andrea Y. Jones