3 weeks and time to crawl back to the living

My kids feets!!... well my son and his wife, on a very fun pathway in san diego.

Wow Its been a bout 3 weeks since I have posted, but honest to god I have good reasons!

First and foremost I have been sick, and it seems to be lingering. the latest diagnosis could be Valley Fever, another stupid airborn illness that there really is no treatment (other then supportive care) for.  and the cough lingers, to the point that sometimes it keeps me from getting to sleep.  Then add pink eye to the mix, to the point that I could barely keep my eyes open some days. Thankfully that is slowly disappearing with the help of eye drop antibiotics.

Now being sick and pink eye are bad enough, but in the midst of it all we started band camp.  This is a gruelling 2.5 week camp for band kids that we try to make as fun as we can, but when its all washed out it ends up being just plain hard work.  I never figured out quite why school admins won't allow marching band to come in under the heading of sports...would be nice if it did, we would surely have a bigger budget.  So I work my team hard, with stretches, warm-ups, across-the-floors, pliometrics (all of which I do right along with them to show my committment as well as to keep myself in shape), and then top it all off with my demands that they learn the choreography for the first and 2nd songs of our show (we have a total of 4 to learn before our first competition in Oct), not to mention marching drills, learning commands, a new marching style called "Flanks" (of which I had to learn with them) well I am sure that my team as well as the 80 or so odd musicians are pretty exhausted.

Frustration was at an all time high ( which for me is not unusual routinely) with basically 16 brand new guard who have never marched as a colour guard.  I do have 6 returners from winterguard of last winter and spring, but they have never been through marching season as a guard member, they were previous band students who got it in their heads that guard might be "fun" imagine that, fun! I am sure they are wondering if they made the right decision.  No really they are a good core group and damn if they dont' work hard and take this seriously.  I do depend on them to help me with all the new girls and more times then not they come through. I am lucky to have stumbled upon them.

Ok so lets take inventory here, first the sicknesses that have and still keep me feeling under the weather when I needed to be in top form.  Then the band camp that went on for approx 10 hours each day for 2.5 weeks after coming off a summer of little activity.  Ok so yeah I am tired and at times glance at my computer with the most unintertersted intentions I could possibley muster.  Now lets add two more things.  2 more jobs I am doing.  one is 4 hours a day, the other is sort of a work when you want and can, flexible stuff.  These are both work-at-home positions so at least I dont have to get dressed and go somewhere I can basically stumble over to the computer with coffee in hand and start my day as is, as I look, which can be frightening.

I will not mention what I do, as it is not what you would consider mainstream america, but might be something that people would raise eyebrows at, but it affords a nice little supplemental income.

so there you go - the reasons I have not been posting.

School begins tomorrow, so I doubt if my posting will get anybetter, but when it does remind me to tell you about my brother-in-laws visit to us (he is also New Zealander of course lol, but lives in Hong Kong and is a pilot for a well known airline, so he flies in and out of Los Angles pretty regularly) He is a very nice guy, unlike the other brother.

take care lovely readers and I am sorry I am letting you down.