6:00 AM
My alarm goes off, the "marimba" ringtone on my phone. I roll out of bed, find my slippers in the dark, and make my way downstairs
6:03 AM
Put on water for coffee, grind beans, wash out french press
6:07 AM
Bowl of frosted shredded wheat
6:10 AM
I sit on the couch with my cereal and the french press on the end table and the Iliad in my lap, translating Book 13
6:16 AM
Coffee is ready. I plunge it, pour a cup, and get out my Vulgate Bible to read the last part of Jeremiah chapter 5
6:28 AM
Metamorphoses Book 2
6:41 AM
The gospel of John, chapter 19
6:51 AM
I do a quick scan through the BBC news on my phone
6:52 AM
James starts to cry upstairs. I go up and turn on his light. He's sitting in his crib rubbing his eyes and looking grumpy. I pick him up (with Steven and binky) and we pick out a button-up shirt for me to wear from my closet in his room. He attempts to tip over the humidifier when I set him down. We go into the bathroom and he watches me brush my teeth, apply deodorant, and put in my contacts, all with great interest. I change his diaper, then bring him into our bedroom. He sits on J, who is a sleep, then immediately rolls of the bed and wants to be held again.
7:13 AM
I go out the front door to vehement protestations by James, scrape off the windshield of the Neon, and connect my phone to the tape adapter. I listen to my practice sessions from the day before on the drive to LCS
7:51 AM
I chat briefly with the vice principal in the parking lot, who was sick the week before.
7:57 AM
I sift through my desk for a piece of blank paper, make a handwritten copy of the week's lesson schedule, xerox it in the copy room, and leave copies in the relevant mailboxes.
8:03 AM
Homeroom for the senior class.
8:26 AM
Back at my desk, I turn on my laptop so that it can start it's glacial powering-on routine. I "straighten" my desk and begin to read Dickens' Pickwick Papers
8:45 AM
19 minutes later, my school laptop has finished logging in. I check my school email and respond to a few messages that came in overnight
9:00 AM
Time to practice. I carry my horns down to the chapel, warm up, pull out two etude books, and record miniature performances of four different endurance-intensive etudes
9:45 AM
I pack up my instruments and walk back to my room
9:47 AM
I put on a cup of Keurig coffee and do a google search for "Briticisms." (More on that later)
9:57 AM
Three high school flute players and an oboist come to my room for a lesson. We work on some of the technical passages from Barber of Seville
10:45 AM
The school bells are going off at odd times. My band eventually trickles in, and I rehearse them on the 20 bars of Barber of Seville they were supposed to have practiced at home. They do surprisingly well. They read Stars and Stripes Forever for the second time, and it goes very badly. With dismissal bells still sounding at the wrong times, I send them out for lunch my keeping track of the time with my phone
11:36 AM
Lunch. I have two slices of leftover pizza and a raspberry yogurt cup while looking through more Briticisms. The idea is to collect enough to write a letter to J using only British slang as part of an ongoing "12 days of Valentine" project. (Counting only days when we'll actually see each other in the evening. Today, for example, doesn't count.) Earlier days have included a Greek alphabetic acrostic set of adjectival index cards, and a parenting playbook with actual football playcards organized in a three ring binder. At some point the office makes a very flustered announcement apologizing for the confusion about the bell schedule.
12:04 PM
I finish writing the letter. It is not particularly romantic, but it might be a little funny. And it also might vindicate me from the oft-recurring charge of Anglophilia. (Let the record show that I just finished a book of American literary criticism.) I walk down to the staff room to wash out my mug and heat up water for a cup of cocoa.
12:10 PM
One of my two high school clarinets tells me that her stand partner is going home sick and asks if they can come together to the make-up lesson on Wednesday. I give permission and get out my trumpets to practice some more in my room.
12:50 PM
J and I text a little bit, and then FaceTime so that I can say hello to James. He is excited to see me and plays peek-a-boo a couple of times, but then gets down from J's lap and tries to see if he can find me behind her iPad. He doesn't have any luck.
1:01 PM
My music theory student comes down for me to review his homework. (Intervals) We talk about triads of all sorts and I help him through the first couple exercises. Another senior percussion student comes down attempting to drop band in order to get another study hall. He is profoundly unsuccessful in this endeavor.
1:38 PM
My theory student leaves and I answer several new emails that have come in
1:45 PM
More Pickwick Papers.
2:11 PM
I write a letter of recommendation for a student and take care of several emails for my church account.
2:19 PM
I find a cleaner copy of Mendelssohn's Lord Hear My Prayer than the scrawled version I originally handed out to them and print it to distribute on Wednesday.
2:23 PM
I go out to the front entrance for bus duty. It is very very cold. The kids are too chilly to even think about throwing snowballs. They go straight to their buses.
2:40 PM
An emergency faculty meeting is convened about the clock crisis. Despite desperate fears, it appears the school will remain open. If all else fails, the staff may be asked to rely on individual time-keeping devices tomorrow. The mood is tense.
2:52 PM
I check my voicemail, and one of my HSM students has cancelled for the evening.
2:54 PM
I brew another cup of Keurig coffee and translate a few verses in Hebrew from Genesis.
3:06 PM
I submit my attendance for the day and begin to pack up my desk and my trumpets
3:18 PM
I leave the school lot, fill up at the gas station down the road, and listen to my practicing from earlier in the day while driving to HSM, where I park on the street
3:55 PM
I see several very stressed looking bassoon players who I've met at various gigs sitting on couches in the library. "RPO auditions?" I ask one of them. He nods. I wish him luck and head upstairs, where I meet a new student. His name is Steven, he is in the fourth grade, and he has a lisp. I do not tell him how I will remember his name, but I am pleased to meet him. His Mom wants him to start trumpet earlier than the rest of his class, because she wants to make sure he gets the trumpet when he picks instruments. (He has wanted to play the trumpet since he was five, and he likes to listen to the Canadian Brass.) I think Steven is a swell fellow.
4:30 PM
My second student comes in. We go searching in the library at the end of his lesson for a new duet book, but we can't find the one I'm looking for.
5:02 PM
A later student calls to confirm we are still on for a lesson. I practice more etudes.
5:35 PM
My little 5th grade Asian student comes in ten minutes early. She tells me that she practiced part A of the duet because A is for Anna. And B is for me. "Anna," I say "do you know what my name actually is?" She is quiet for a second, then says "No. You're in my phone as Mr. Trumpet." I do not tease her about this, because her mother is listed in my phone as "Anna's Mom."
6:05 PM
My last student is also early. He forgot his duet book, so I play (very badly) the accompaniment to "Theme from New World Symphony" and write out several bugle calls for him at the end of his lesson. He is also in 5th grade, and he came tonight with his shirt inside out. It was an Abercrombie shirt, and it had several lovely tags.
6:36 PM
I walk out to my car to drive to North Chili. On Monday evenings James spends a fifteen minute "handoff" period with our friend Joy while J goes to orchestra but before I can pick him up after my last lesson. She is very gracious about watching him, and he loves her pet songbird.
6:56 PM
I arrive at Joy's and as soon as James sees me he grins from ear to ear, yells "Dada!" and barrels into me. I give him a big hug, pick him up, and find out that I only missed J by two minutes or so--James just got his coat off. He is very eager to show me the bird, and we chat for a few minutes.
7:05 PM
James is bundled up and we are ready to drive home for the night. We flip through all three classical stations and nobody is playing anything but harpsichord music. I ask James what he thinks of this, and he laughs.
7:15 PM
We arrive home and James is deeply upset that I don't let him play outside. (It is dark out and he is not wearing anything on his feet except socks.) I suspect that he is overtired. We take his coat off and hang it up, and he wants to be held very badly. We heat up water for his bottle, and he fusses some more when I set him down to wash a bottle out.
7:18 PM
We change his diaper upstairs. He laughs a little bit and plays peek-a-boo, and when we walk out of the room he waves "good-bye" to the humidifier. When we go downstairs the bottle isn't quite ready, and he points and signs "please" repeatedly to play with the blender. Eventually he is mollified by listening to the recording of Grandma and Grandpa Davis reading "All the Ways I Love You."
7:26 PM
I take James, Steven, and the bottle upstairs. We snuggle in his rocking chair, and he covers his eyes with Steven while I give him the bottle. He drinks the whole thing nice and slowly, and then I lay him down in his crib for the night and turn on the humidifier.
7:37 PM
I straighten up stray toys in the living room and put away all of the books that James tore off the shelves over the course of the day. My Liddell and Scott Lexicon no longer has a cover.
7:45 PM
Dinner. I heat up some homemade beef stroganoff from the other night and have half of an orange with it.
7:51 PM
I wash some of the dishes that are left in the sink. There was a mountain when I left this morning. J must have spent at least an hour getting as many done as she apparently did.
8:01 PM
Upstairs for a shower, shave, and clean pajamas.
8:06 PM
I pour a glass of brandy and begin to write a narcissistic blog post...
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