Girl Band

Spencer and I both play in a community band. We trade weeks going to rehearsals. We have another couple friend with kids that also trade weeks. The boys go one week and the girls go the next. Tonight was "Girl Band" night. The girls have adopted a tradition of going out for ice cream after band. We meet up with two other women in the band and talk about kids and parenting and pretty much anything else we can think of. It's nice. Tonight we ventured out beyond ice cream and went to a restaraunt to get jalapeno pretzels. (Big soft pretzels stuffed with pepper jack cheese - so yummy) But let me back up a little....

During band we played "Chorale and Shaker Dance". I love this song. When I was in Beginning Band in 6th grade we met before school for 20 min or so every other day. Woodwinds met one day and the brass/percussion met the next. We met for the first time together to practice for our Christmas concert. For months I had been practicing Jingle Bells along with the Flutes and Saxophones. And then for that first rehearsal - there were brass. And percussion. And harmony! I remember thinking that it was the most beautiful sound that I had ever heard. That was the first time that I fell in love with music. The second time was with Chorale and Shaker Dance. I was in 8th grade and had made the Mid-State Honor Band. Our conductor that year was Bill McMinn (who I student taught for years later). I remember everything he taught us about that piece. I remember thinking how sophisticated it sounded compared to the music I had been playing at my school and how big the music sounded to be played by a group of 80 musicians rather than the 30 or so I was used to. We were given a record of our Honor Band performance. I bet I wore that record out. I remember dancing around the den listening to that song over and over and over. I got to conduct and teach that song to my High School students at Greenbrier one year. Playing that song tonight brought back those memories.

Walking into the BBC (Bluegrass Brewing Company) for jalapeno pretzels made me remember yet another part of my life. For some reason the smell of beer and loud music makes me think of college. I can't belive that my family members will read that last statement but it's true. I was a music major and all of my starving music college friends played late nights at places that reeked of beer. And that's kind of how I fell in love with Spencer. He was cool. I wasn't. But I would go to these places to hear our friends play because I knew I would "run into" him there. Totally not a coincidence, but I don't think he ever caught on to me. So I would go to "The Boro" to hear Junkbox (yes, that was the name of a band) and see Spencer. It was one of those places where you had to shout to hear yourself. And I would come home with my clothes smelling of smoke and beer and my heart giddy over the cute trumpet guy.

So tonight made me think of these things. Falling in love with music. Falling in love with my husband.