marching blindly

At some point during my lazy weekend I watched part of the movie Drumline. I first saw this movie when The Hater and I were on our honeymoon... on one of those days where you're just out in the ocean floating around. It was as corny as I rememberd it.

Anyway, I was a band nerd. Not only was I a band nerd, I was voted 'band nerd with the most band spirit' my senior year of high school. I sang in the chorus. I played piano in jazz band. I did time in the pit to march quints. I played all of the percussion instruments during concert season, and when I got bored I taught myself to play the trumpet. I even marched in the university band of blue...

I'm a band nerd, and I'm okay with that. When college music stopped being fun I found the debate team, which neither helped nor hindered my social status. They were equally uncool to a cool world, making it an easy transition... but my heart was in music.

Last fall I was driving somewhere and passed a band practicing on an asphault parking lot. It was a hot day and I was glad for the red light that allowed me to watch them longer. Someone was yelling over the loudspeaker, and they looked miserable. If you've never been there, you really can't appreciate how miserable they were.

And for a moment I wished that I was out there with them. I thought about making a U-turn to just drive up and watch them, enjoy their misery, relive the magic of tennis shoes sticking to the parking lot. The light turned green and I drove on. It had been fun, but it wasn't fun enough to go back and do it again.

Even though the movie was awful on many levles, a part of me really enjoied watching it, reliving it. But don't get me wrong, if you have some band nerd genes (and even if you don't), it might be hard for you to suspend reality and accept the poor acting and atrocious stick heights. Don't let my inner Sousa get started on a critique...

PS: The Hater and I met on the debate team; he's equally uncool. He would argue that he's "debate cool", and if he brings this up with you, it's okay to smile and nod. Sometimes we save those we love from the complete truth.